Summer in Versailles
We can’t believe that Tosh-Love has already been gone for over three months. He has left such a big hole in our hearts—and such a quiet home. Gratitudes to everyone who sent condolences and your favorite Tosh stories, our one-in-a-million boy touched so many hearts.
Although Tikka has always been quiet as a mouse (practically mute), she’s been talking more in Tosh‘s absence. However, she still does not carry on conversations like Tosh did. So we are left trying to understand what she wants when she does talk.
Versailles Neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta
This summer we are grateful to have landed a fantastic housesitting gig in the Vallarta neighborhood of Versailles. (The view at the top of this post is from a friend’s condo, looking back up the valley behind Puerto Vallarta—it’s NOT Versailles, LOL)
All of the streets in this neighborhood are named after European cities or countries, like Francia, Viena, Roma, Niza, España, etc. This former traditional, Mexican residential neighborhood is now an up-and-coming hotspot for cafés, restaurants, shops, and way too many condominiums. Sadly, the three beautiful homes in the top row are slated to be torn down to make room for more condos. (Click smaller images to view larger.)
Jackfruit growing on a neighborhood tree (each fruit is about 2x the size of a football!) Arepas Venezuelan food (like a pita sandwich made of cornmeal, stuffed with chicken, black beans, fried plantains, and avocado… OMG, SOOO GOOD!!) And our Tuesday night dessert treat from Javier and his Carte Camote “car-tay-cam-oat-tay” (fire-roasted/smoked plantains and sweet potatoes sprinkled with cinnamon). His cart is fitted with a wood-fired steam whistle to announce his whereabouts in the neighborhood. Many nights we follow the sound of the steam whistle down the block until we happen upon him. The whistle sounds like an old train whistle—so cool!
If you remember back about 8.5 years ago when we rented an apartment in a Hacienda while Kirk recovered from his stroke… we are now just a block away from that once lovely garden oasis, which has since been torn down to make room for a 10-story Euro-style condo that takes up half a city block! NO BUENO!
Casa Mexicana & Toopy-do
This house we are caretaking is a lovely, traditional 30-year-old Mexican home, with gorgeous views out the back (overlooking an overgrown empty lot, hopefully, its days aren’t numbered!) The courtyard is complete with a tropical mural and dipping pool, a beautiful rooftop garden, a covered outdoor living area, and its own “black panther” cat, Toopy.
The owners head back to Canada in the summer, but their very shy rooftop kitty does not like to travel. We are so honored to be able to care for him in his rooftop garden this summer. We were here for two full weeks before Toopy even made an appearance. However, we knew he was here as evidenced by the empty food bowl and the contributions to the litter box.
Slowly, Toopy-do became more used to us, and now when we go upstairs to feed him or hang out, he comes running to see us, headbutts us, and loves being petted and brushed. His two front paws were injured when he was found as a tiny kitten so he walks a bit funny and does not venture down the stairs or onto other nearby rooftops. And he now lays on his back and lets us give him belly rubs—with a heart as big as Tosh had!
We had high hopes of Toopy and Tikka becoming friendly, as they are two peas in a pod—both are extremely shy and recently lost their brothers. And while we did manage to coax Tikka up the stairs once, Toopy did NOT extend a warm welcoming paw. We really thought it would be Toopy who ran and hid when he saw Tikka. But he took off like a shot—running straight at her—hissing with claws flying, “This is MY upstairs rooftop palace, and you are the downstairs cat!!” Tikka quickly turned tail and raced back down the stairs, never to venture up again.
Tikka is coming out of her shell a bit more as time passes, but still runs and hides in the closet anytime the doorbell rings or the pool cleaner or the housekeeper arrives. We’ve made her a nice bed in the closet, but we know she’ll be thrilled to be back aboard Due West soon.
The Versailles neighborhood is centrally located. We are within walking distance of bus stops, doctors’ offices, banks, two shopping malls, and grocery stores including Costco and La Comer. This gorgeous parota wood (or huanacaxtle “juana-cox-lee”) tree is one of our favorite trees around town—partly because it’s managed to survive and THRIVE in the middle of the paved Costco parking lot! It’s so energizing to stand under this beauty, looking up at the strong branches, covered with jungle vines.
Celebrating Life
In late June, we celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary (where have the years gone?!) at a delicious restaurant Veg-Italia, known for its gluten-free pizza (Heidi was in heaven!) We also celebrated Heidi passing her final exam to become a board-certified Naturopathic & Functional Wellness Coach. Four-plus years of hard study paid off as she passed her exam with a 92%.
Heidi is passionate about helping her clients uncover the root causes of their wellness concerns. Reviewing blood labs and symptoms (a.k.a. clues from the body), she guides them toward natural solutions through simple dietary and lifestyle changes. Many of us don’t realize the tremendous toll stress takes on our bodies—nor do we consider how we expect our bodies to thrive in a world of constant stress. Learning how to manage this is key to achieving true health and vitality. Visit Heidi’s website and book a free consultation if you’re ready to take charge of your wellness naturally.
She’s also been helping some of her Health Coach colleagues with their graphic design projects, and assisting with their group coaching programs. Heidi is forever grateful for her past life as a graphic/web designer for 30 years, which has come in so handy in myriad ways! To keep her creativity sharp, she enjoys occasional design projects, and recently created a logo and website for the nonprofit CRUSL in Jackson Hole, and a logo and campaign graphics for her brother Arne, who is running for mayor of Jackson, Wyoming.
Family Vacation
In late August, we took a trip to the States to visit family. We could not find anyone to stay at the house with Tikka and Toopy. So we were grateful for a Mexican friend of the owners who has taken care of Toopy in the past. She stopped by daily to feed, water, and clean litter boxes for the upstairs cat and the downstairs cat.
We’re so grateful to Kirk’s brother Galen and his wife Ann for the buddy passes to fly to Florida, (they are both retired from Northwest/Delta). Using Buddy Passes you always fly standby, and we were fairly certain we would get out of PV fine, but the return trip could be tricky. As it turned out we were upgraded to first class out of Vallarta, which was a wonderful bonus!
Sadly, Galen has ALS and is now in a motorized wheelchair full-time… but he’s still able to operate that and get around quite well—with a realistic/positive attitude about his situation. Galen and Kirk had such a great time catching up and hanging out. Ann recently bought a wheelchair-accessible van, so Galen can get out more.
We were lucky to be there for a beautiful full moon (complete with spirit orb!) Although the Florida climate is a lot like Puerto Vallarta, it felt much less humid and cooler to us when we were there.
Heidi loves Ann and the four of us always have so much fun together. One day we drove to Fort Myers Beach and met up with their old friends Bob & Sandy, who we’ve also known for years. We checked out Jimmy Buffett’s new Margaritaville… but were not very impressed. It seems like it was built on the cheap, very shoddy, and sparse, not much more than a Motel 6–except that it’s on the beach, and had a bunch of parrots. Most of the vegetation was plastic…Jimmy would be rolling over in his grave!
“He thinks about boat drinks and fun in the sun
Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rum
Plastic creations and crass exploitations aren’t good
He wants to go back to simple toys made out of wood.”
— From Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum, Jimmy Buffett
Two years after Hurricane Ian destroyed the cute old hotels and bungalows along Fort Myers Beach, there is still a lot of destruction and rebuilding going on.
Another day we took our great nephews Mav and Ky to see their dad (our nephew Mike) play and WIN his championship ice hockey game! The boys are a wild bunch of energy and a joy to be around. And Mike is a fantastic dad.
Ann was wonderful at keeping an eye on the flight loads and letting us know how things were looking for us to get home on standby…
Unfortunately, loads did not look good and we may have been stuck in Atlanta for a day or two. Not knowing anyone in Atlanta, and not wanting to be stuck there, we looked for other options. Luckily Delta has a hub in Salt Lake City, where we have more family, Heidi’s brother David, stepmom Willa, and cousins Nan & Erik and their boys. So we routed through SLC and stayed for a few days to see them all. Big thanks to David & Sharon for their hospitality, and for sharing their cute kitties Innana & Utu. Utu (a.k.a. “weasel!”) reminds us so much of Tosh!
The weather was perfect for a day at Red Butte Gardens, where we visited the memorial bench for Heidi’s dad Verne. We also took Willa for a quick outing from her memory care facility, to get her favorite chocolate malt and enjoy some ducks at a park. And we made a favorite stop at Oasis Café and Bookstore for brunch with cousin Nan.
Delta has a daily nonstop SLC to PVR, and thankfully not a lot of people were flying to Vallarta in the heat of the rainy season in August! So we got home just fine.
The wettest summer in 80 years!
And what a rainy season it has been… Reportedly this is the rainiest summer in 80 years in Puerto Vallarta! And it’s not uncommon to have a deluge of 2-3” a night, complete with cracks of lightning directly overhead and thunder reverberating off the nearby mountains so loud that it literally shakes the house!
Poor Tikka is not fond of any of that either—LOL! And she hid from the cat feeder Maria and never got petted or brushed for the 10 days we were away. When we returned, she stuck to us like glue, especially during thunderstorms.
One night we decided to walk to the beach, about a mile away. Hoping for a beautiful sunset, beach treasures, and baby Olive ridley sea turtles like we often experience (above)—but this night had different plans for us!
We packed a picnic dinner of tortillas with taco fixings. And we probably should’ve checked the weather beforehand. As we walked out the door of the house, we noticed the clouds were a bit black… but we had our umbrellas and figured we would continue our walk to the beach. Once at the beach, we found a big piece of driftwood tree that had just been vacated by a fisherman (he probably checked the weather—or looked UP!)
We sat down on the log and got all our taco fixings out…of course, the minute we had our tacos made the clouds became very black and the wind kicked up… two fronts converged over the top of us, and the light rain turned torrential, wind blowing our taco fixings down the beach and leaving us holding empty, WET tortillas—scrambling to throw everything back in the backpack and flee the rain!
Umbrellas up and running for cover to the nearby La Isla outdoor mall (along with 1,000 other people that had just fled the beach)… we thought we would wait a bit and walk home after the storm died down, they didn’t usually last too long.
By the time we thought about walking home in the rain, the streets had turned to rivers, which were literally impassible on foot. We tried to get an Uber but due to supply and demand during the downpour…Uber wanted three times the normal rate, plus we would’ve had to wait another half hour for a ride.
So we walked over to a nearby Taxi driver, who wanted four times the going rate— highway robbery!! (Taxis don’t have meters in PV. There is a set rate between zones—and we know what the price should be.)
Thankfully, the Grand Venetian condominiums were right next door, (where we condo sat for our friends, Judy & Paul, for five summers), and Kirk still knows all the security guards there by name. (It pays dividends to know the security staff anywhere you go!) They were so happy to see us, and when Kirk told them we needed a taxi, Julio and Adelfo called one for us right away, at only twice the normal rate… and by then we were all too happy to pay!
Watertank – Take 3
One reason we like to get off the boat in the summer and house-sit is because it frees up space for Kirk to work on boat projects. Especially stinky ones that require fiberglass work or painting— we do not want to be living aboard and breathing those fumes. Kirk heads to the boat each morning after yoga, catching the bus to the marina, and smiling to everyone along his path… while Heidi heads upstairs to feed Toopy and take a quick swing in the hammock.
This summer is “take three” on the water tank project… and we hope this is it! If you remember two summers ago, our 60-gallon, 5-foot-long fiberglass water tank only had one access port at one end of it. This made it nearly impossible to clean the entire tank inside. YUCK!! So Kirk installed two more access ports, one in the middle and one at the other end. Wahoo!! we now could easily reach every corner inside the tank and give it a thorough scrub.
Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that cutting those two access ports weakened the structural integrity of the already too-thin fiberglass tank. So when Kirk filled the tank, the top bowed and twisted, and water leaked out from the new plastic screw-top access ports he had just installed. So back to the drawing board he went.
Last summer he decided to re-glass the whole top of the tank to strengthen it. Then he installed metal thru-bolted access ports, (like the original access port this tank came with)—instead of the plastic screw-top access ports, which in hindsight were not strong enough for the water pressure.
That involved a lot of back-and-forth between the machine shop making the metal ports, and getting the bolts to fit the holes, plus layers of fiberglass work. In the end, the ports still had a few small leaks around the metal fittings, which were nearly flush to the tank. Kirk realized they needed a taller, stronger lip around them.
Fast-forward to this summer, and a little more building up of epoxy-resin work to create a better lip, and then re-fitting the metal access ports… and we fully expect that “third times a charm”, all systems go… He just added one more finishing layer of fiberglass to the top of the tank. And is now cutting new gaskets. Then we should be able to fill the tank again next week! Fingers crossed. Heidi is grateful that Kirk knows how to do all this stuff!!
The definition of Cruising: Working on boats in tropical locations!
Beach Yoga
Between boat projects and housesitting chores, Kirk continues to go to beach yoga religiously every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. With a view like this, you can see why!
Unfortunately, it is too hot and humid for Heidi even at 8 AM. So she does yoga indoors with Tikka and the A/C. And we both enjoy doing strength training/weightlifting together, 3 to 4 times a week. We love these FREE “Fit by Mik” fitness videos on YouTube. She has tons of videos to choose from, and we have seen definite improvements in our strength, toning, and flexibility since we started working out with these videos a few months ago.
On September 10, Captain Kirk celebrated the 40th anniversary of his 37th birthday! We had a small gathering of friends to help him eat carrot cake and play board games, which was super fun. If you’ve never played the card game of Monopoly, check it out. It’s the same principle but goes more quickly than the board game. (The cards you are dealt are either money which you can bank, a property which you can play, houses/hotels which you may lay down on your property once you have a full set, or the traditional “get out of jail free”, “bank error”, etc) Thanks Emily, Keziah, and Darren for helping us celebrate Captain Kirk!
We will move back aboard Due West by late October, prepping for our winter cruising plans. And we’ll probably be around the Vallarta area through December. Hurricane season does not officially end until November 30, but this has been a very strange weather year… So all bets are off.
Please let us know if you are headed to Puerto Vallarta/Banderas Bay area anytime this fall/winter… We would love to see you!