Castles Made of Sand

It's crazy to think that we're pretty deep into week 4 in Troncones.  We've fallen into a great routine which goes something like this:

7A - Wake up and have breakfast with the boys.

9A - Head out to surf

12N - Return for lunch

2P - Slater nap or afternoon adventure

4P - Pool or Skate Park

5P - Crack a beer

530P - Cook dinner

630P - Beach or skate park - depending on  what the afternoon adventure or 4P was

730P - Shut it down for the night and watch a DVD since we don't have a TV feed

This has been pretty standard issue until last week when tropical  storm Cosme decided to whip up some messy surf and weather for us.  it didn't really do anything more than throw us off our routine.  Down here though that can really put you in a different frame of mind.  After 5 consecutive days of no surf both Melissa and I were a little agitated.  It's pretty difficult to manage Jordan and Slater for an entire 12 hour day with limited resources even with both of us on deck.  There isn't a park or local friends we can just drop by to see or play with.  There aren't any mommy play groups or Scooter's Jungles to visit on a rainy day.  There just what we have here at the place for the boys and anything we might be able to come up with creatively.  Thankfully, things seem to be back to normal the last few days with some fun surf sessions in La Saladita.

Cosme Messing Up The Routine:

 

One of the cooler things we've been experiencing is the exposure to different wild life.  You kind of forget that this far south in Mexico is a rain forest and during rainy season there's a lot of wild life kicking around.  Large Iguanas are almost a daily sighting, bat watching in the evening as day turns to dusk, snakes, crabs, moths that are as large as your fist and bugs of all sorts buzz around.  There are also tarantulas and scorpions which I have yet to see, but pretty confident that will happen before the end of our stay here.  Jordan and I rescued a large moth and set him off flying from our deck only to witness him a second later being snatched out of the air by a large bird for breakfast.  Jordan was pretty blow away as was I.

Parrots at Dinner:

Wild life is not only in the brush down here.  I was driving back with Melissa from our morning surf session about a week and a half ago and we got stuck behind a van towing a cage that was moving rather slow.   As I got up closer, I said to her "Is that a Bengal Tiger in that cage?".  Sure enough, it was.  The van towing it had a loud speaker on it and was decorated in circus advertisement print.  They were driving the Bengal Tiger through the towns basically as an outdoor ad for the circus.  Many of you reading this might be from the ad industry and let me tell you no advertising I have ever seen on TV, Radio or online can top this.  Kids were running down the street to get a look, people were coming out of their houses and it was just generally causing quite a stir.  Safety issues aside, it was pretty crazy to stand a couple of feet from an animal that could eat me for lunch with my 5 year old and snap photos.  This is stuff you just can't make up and for sure will never see this in Santa Monica.

Circus Advertising at Your Doorstep:

 

We're looking forward to the 4th tomorrow although we'll miss our family and friends back at home.  We're grilling up with Russell and new friends in Troncones to celebrate our Independence Day after we get a surf in.  Cheers to you all and have a safe and sane 4th of July.