Adios, 2020

What can I say about 2020? Such an uneventful year. One of those years that NO ONE will remember where they were or what they were doing a few years out. I can’t remember a more UNREMARKABLE year where absolutely NOTHING newsworthy happened.

There’s always next year, I suppose…

This is a fun little spot for the kids near the mouth of the Sayulita “river.”

It appears that, once upon a time, this was the mouth of the river. The river now diverts to the west (when there’s water in it), leaving this little protected cove.

Not two years ago, you would have been guaranteed to pick up some nasty illness from swimming in the waters off of Sayulita, and we still get asked about this from time. Fortunately, they did a big upgrade to their sewage treatment plant and those days seem to be history. For now.

The problem with Sayulita is that the infrastructure can’t keep pace with the massive explosion of tourism over the past decade. Water shortages, power cuts, and sewage problems are all issues we constantly deal with here. Some seem to be getting better, others, not so much.

All the while, the government continues to encourage mass tourism in unsustainable numbers, increasing coach buses and transport options, permitting increasingly precarious construction projects, and incentivizing in every way they can the exploitation of the town’s resources.

But that’s a discussion for another year.

Instead, let’s talk about this…

I’m trying not to litter the blog with food pics these days, but this one made the cut. It’s an updated version of a local (indigenous Huichol) breakfast at Sayulita Cafe and it’s darn good.

Park time! For such a small town, Sayulita’s got a pretty decent park that boys spend more than their fair share of time at.

When they’re not at the beach or park, they can often be found in the back yard trying to destroy each other with the water squirters that Santa brought them. We’ll see how long these puppies last in the hands of these two.

Hanging out at the coffee shop with Noe.

Riley’s turn to hike with daddy. Doesn’t quite have the same gusto for walking as his brother does. But he’ll get there.

We’re headed to Malpaso, but I’ve decided to take the coastal route this time. I’m doing some work on the golf cart, so this hike will be 100% on foot from home, which means I’m planning to carry the chunk on my back for about 4.5 miles today. We’ll see if I can get him to walk any of the way.

For one reason or another, I felt compelled to try a different inland route I hadn’t explored yet. It was as if the voice of Buddha was calling us.

A short while later, Riley and I stumbled upon this.

In case you’re baffled like we were, it’s a Jungle Temple. At least that’s what it said on a painted rock. So, someone, at some point decided to create all this, presumably in secret, in the middle of the jungle, then vanish with no explanation. Only in Sayulita.

They left a little visitor log in a Ziplock bag, but honestly, I didn’t feel comfortable taking the beast on my back into the bowels of this place for fear that he’d inevitably knock over some sacred structure and curse the both of us for eternity.

On the beach, it was business as usual. No surprises there.

A beautiful happy hour sunset in late December. Can’t beat it!

Lucky boy.

As a reward for his good choices throughout the week, Noe got to have a special breakfast with mommy and daddy at Pancake Maker. He’d been asking about this place for weeks, and finally earned his big outing.

Everything was going great until the syrup came out. It was pretty much downhill from there. I won’t get into the details, but let’s just say it involved some licking of the communal syrup bottle at the table, which would have been bad enough on its own in pre-Covid times. It may be a while until we can return to Pancake Maker.

The taps at Sayulita’s own YamBak brewhouse. We’ve tried ’em all and there’s not one we don’t like.

Bundled up on a chilly New Years Eve on the beach. Feels a bit like we could be in Central Coast California instead of Mexico.

So, this is where we leave 2020, very much like it started for us – at the beach – with a few minor hiccups in between.

It’s hard to believe that only a year ago we were watching the sun set on 2019 in Kep, Cambodia. After the past year, it feels like a lifetime ago in some ways. Certainly, another life far, far away.