Huatulco 2014
Río de la iguana
Our next big adventure was later in the week, after a few more days just hanging in the pool and walking the beach, it was time for some excitement. We made arrangements to go River Rafting... one more thing off my bucket list.
While we waited for the bus to pick us up we watched a cluster of heron chasing fish around the lagoon and chatted to these 2 parrots at La Bocana Restaurant. I don't think they understood a word we said. Finally the bus pulls up, and we are off... 6 senior citizens from Eastern Canada, and a couple from Hawaii, all of them escapees from the Holland America cruise ship that was docked in Santa Cruz.
Our first stop is the Iguanario, a private conservation and restoration facility that is trying to rebuild the iguana populations in southern Mexico. Did you know there is 2 types of iguanas in this region, green iguanas, and black iguanas. Did you know they are all born green in colour and then change, did you know that some are vegetarians and some are carnivores, did you know that black iguanas don't like to swim but green ones do and can stay underwater for almost an hour... well we do now. Very few iguanas survive the hatching process in the wild, so they hatch them here, then release them in specific protected parklands once they are old enough.
Doing these types of tours with Seniors can be a bit much, we are inside a cage of iguanas, I am trapped in the corner, and the old man in front of me just starts farting (tirarse un pedo). Norine and this other old lady give him the stink-eye (cause that seemed appropriate) and he just keeps going. Finally I squeezed past and escape. Old people, they're worse than kids... hmmmppphhh!
After making a small donation for their cause, we load back into the pause for the short drive to the launching point on the Copalita River. We are given some basic instruction and then told we would be split up into one group of 6, and one group of 4. Funnily, as soon as the guide said that, the Hawaiian couple and us all naturally step backwards from the old folks, and they become the group of 6.
As we float past locals on the shore washing their clothes on the rocks, Norine tells me again she won't complain about doing laundry at home... it was just like Deja-Vu from when we saw the ladies washing clothes in Belize.
With very little rain in the last month, the river was fairly calm, and there was only 3 or 4 sections of "Rapids", and of those I would only consider one to be of a moderate nature. Maybe that's best given the people in the other boat. It was a very diverse river, part of it flowed through a bird sanctuary with a huge variety of birds wading and flying around us, and then you are right in the middle of rock quarry, with giant machines crushing rocks and collecting gravel for construction sites, and then you are back in a natural park area again.
A local race horse taking a break 
A local fisher catching craw-fish
Once we were well past the rapids, our guide told us we were free to fall overboard and float down the river, since it seemed to be about 40° Celsius out, all us young kids decided that was a good idea. Only one of the old fellers did the same. Bob and Allison were really interesting, they live on the island of Kaui in Hawaii, and they keep traveling to consider where they might want to move. As we expect, and as we experienced, they already live in probably the nicest place in the world.
The closer we get to the end of the river, which conveniently enough is Playa la Bocana (our home base), we see more and more vultures. I am not sure if that is a sign that the river is normally much harder on the River Rafters?
As we get to the mouth of the river we are back on the rocky hillsides of our beach, the guide is trying to point out the hidden faces in the rocks, all I can see is the ghosty like googley eyes, and then I see it, a face looking up to the sky... and then everywhere I looked I was seeing faces that nobody else saw... maybe i have been in the sun for too long?
Everyone piled out of the boats and enjoyed the Watermelon and Bananas (sandía y plátano) our guides had brought with us, and then we said goodbye to our new friends and exchanged emails. All that was left was to watch the cronies all load back into the bus heading back to their cruise ship, while we crossed the road and sat on the deck with a cold beverage.
Having eaten at the Santa Clara restaurant quite a few times already, we decided to try a special item on their menu "Pollo al Barro". I was curious what it was so I asked Mario about it, then started reading online about their restaurant, everyone raved about the Pollo al Barro. It's a recipe that comes from his grandmother, a whole chicken marinated with a secret recipe of spices, wrapped in a rice paper and tinfoil and then sealed inside of a hand-formed claypot (shaped like the chicken inside it). They then bake it in the over for over 3 hours.
We had to notify them the day before, so they could prepare it, and Mario and Arturo from the Santa Clara restaurant told us they would bring it over to our villa on Sunday night at 6:00. The closer we got to 6:00, the more excited I got, at exactly 6:00 Arturo rings our doorbell, and brings up nachos and mole dip as our starter. He wipes the table and helps us set up for the coming meal, then leaves. Both him and Mario come back, with a hand-made guacamole dip, beans, tortillas, and a brick coloured piece of chicken art.
Mario breaks away the pieces of clay and opens up the chicken shaped pot, serves out our first plate and they leave us to enjoy our dinner. "Just bring back the plates when you have a chance". The chicken (pollo) was so tender it just fell apart, and could be the best chicken I have ever had in my life, combined with the extras, it was the highlight meal of our trip, not to mention leftovers for the next night.
The night was made more special by a colourful sunset, and a couple new pets. A black iguana is living on the rocks beside our deck (can you spot him?), and this crazy praying mantis like bug decided to hang out with us while we were stargazing.
LA CRUCECITA
Since we were now into our final week, I decided to give the US money exchange another try. We could go into La Crucecita exchange for some Pesos, wander around the harbour of Santa Cruz, then do a little grocery shopping to get us through the week. Seemed like a perfect plan... or so we thought. Before we left Norine asked me if I remembered the US money, of course, she asked me if I remembered ID, of course... so off we went. We got our discount taxi, and headed to the currency exchange on the Elektra. In Canada, ID means drivers License, Credit Card... In Mexico, it means Passport. Once again we would not be exchanging US money for Pesos.
La Crucecita is a fairly busy little town, lots of colourful little restaurants, shops, unique hotels, and a bazillion taxis. We wandered through the garment district and watched them spinning thread and weaving blankets for a while before heading to the harbour of Santa Cruz.
We wandered through the boiling hot little tourist shops picking up a few souvenirs to take home. The highlighted purchase would be the little wooden carved hummingbird that we can hang on our infamous Christmas travel tree. We would stop every once in a while and pretend to look at stuff, so we could cool down in the fans that were located in some of the shops.
Having done as much shopping in virtually identical stores in the boiling heat of noon, it was time to find some much needed escape with a good Mexican lunch and a couple very cold frosted beverages. We found a nice little place with a great view of the harbour.
After lunch we wandered the harbour and beach a little, before heading to the Super Che Mercado and loading up on groceries.
Another nice day wrapped up with cold drinks on the deck watching the surfers. Oh look, there is the senora with the little dog, we can rest easy watching the stars, and heading up to catch a couple more episodes of Breaking Bad.
