Ch 9
The people on the Habitat build were amazing. They ranged in age from 20 to 69. Steve, our leader, is a retired cop from Austin! He is in a second career at Motorola. He did a great job, very organized but laid back. We had 2 college girls on Spring Break, one with full scholarship at Georgetown in DC and the other one from Indiana University on CT. Both were beautiful and did not know each other bur seemed to really bond. Only one other couple. Amazing women who came by themselves. One was an artist. One had her own design and construction company. 0ne worked at a medical non profit in DC. One young man is in a career change from finance to counseling. Two were brothers. For some it was first international build and others had been on 2 or 3. Several were getting over divorce or death of spouse. 3 were fluent in Spanish. About 5 were at F's level. We were only officially retired ones. We have really enjoyed the people we have met on the builds. Very eclectic but interesting people.
We spent last two nights in Puerto Villarta. The team ate their last meal together at a great restaurant on the beach. We were 20 feet from the water. Beautiful setting to watch sunset and enjoy our last night. We shared our reflections and presented a hammer we all signed to Steve. Wonderful evening.
Ch 10
Puerto Vallarta: Some of our group went whale watching today in Puerto Vallarta. It was awesome. Our guide gave us a 30 minute talk first. He is very educated about whales and it is his passion. He is part of a rescue organization and the whale's numbers have increased in the 17 years he has been in on the project. He counts them and keeps records. They track the whales yearly. They can tell the different whales by their fins. Each is different and he had a book of all the whales that have been seen here for years. And he takes pics of the fins he sees and records which whales he sees. We followed a mom and two babies. She was size of 4 story building. Babies are 3 tons at birth and gestate 11 months. Mom stores 3 tons of blubber during pregnancy to feed baby. When the baby, 3 years, jumps out of water it was like 2 or 3 railroad cars coming up. The guide had a microphone under water and we heard whale and dolphin sounds. He even turned the mike off at one point and we were so close we could still hear the sounds. At one point the guide got very upset because there were some boats following us that just kept pursuing the whales and wouldn't back off and got too close. There are strict rules about how long you can watch at a time and how close you can get. You could tell the mom was getting stressed. Made me mad too. Absolutely amazing creatures and experience!!!
Mismaloya: Went to Mismaloya where "Night of the Iguana" was filmed. Saw set and restaurant John Houston, film producer, had here for a while. All of it is falling down and is fenced off and guarded by government. Seems such a shame to let it go. Many tourists our age would enjoy it. One of team went with us to site. She had looked into buying some property adjacent to set site 30 years ago and wanted to see what it looked like now. Her site was in total disrepair too. It was fun seeing it and plan to see movie again when we get home.
Manzanillo: Drove along coast from Mismaloya to Manzanillo. Plan to spend several nights here to rest up and wash clothes. We are in a dog friendly motel so Cloud can run on the beach. Yea!
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