I have landed safely on the coastal paradise of Nayarit. This first week has been a crazy yet blissful whirlwind of transitioning, planning, strategizing and contemplation. I arrived into the Puerto Vallarta airport and traveled 45 minutes north to the Riviera Nayarit. My dad accompanied me down south, and once we reached the coast we began to settle into his busy business trip and the beginnings of my winter immersion into the life as a construction site manager for our family's future home and organic farm, and volunteer working with the holistic community organizations of the local towns of San Pancho and Lo de Marcos.
The weather, people, culture and lifestyle has consumed every once of my being and I am completely in love with the pure essence of this coastal Riviera. Both the local gringos and Mexicans exude an aura of passion and zest for life which is unparalleled by the usual mundane U.S. environment. The organizations I will be working for, EntreAmigos and Amigos de Lo de Marcos, stand as pivotal, unifying forces for their respective communities, and address the issues of their people and land in an holistic and optimistic approach. For more info. check out entreamigos.org.mx and amigosdelodemarcos.org. I haven't figured out exactly what community projects I will be involved with, so stayed tuned on that note!
During my dad's trip, we were able to connect with all of our neighbors to ensure the timeline of development and access to our property while we maneuvered our way through Mexican bureacratic red tape and uncertainties. The machete crew is fast at work clearing the land for bulldozing and analysis of the terrain for the optimum building pad, and layout of the entire property's hardscaping and future building sites. We also made a fabulous contact with some of the leaders of Amigos de Lo de Marcos who are aware of ideal farmland for lease, so the potential of expanding our family's organic farming business in the Pacific Northwest into Mexico with both crop, flower production and internship capabilities is within our grasps. This aspect of our future home and living situation is Mexico will aid in developing our property into a sustainable agriculture, alternative lifestyle eco-lodge, which is very appealing to the more adventurous travelers! My dad's trip was also comprised of meeting fabulous, inventive gringos who have relocated to the Riviera Nayarit and have built phenomenal houses and eco-lodges that are both rustic yet cutting edge in passive and off the grid design. Visit tailwindoutdoor.com to visualize some of these beautiful structures that have inspired our own design concept. I will be posting pictures very soon of these projects for you all to grasp the ingenuity, beauty and awe inspiring atmosphere of these spaces.
I had the privilege of witnessing the release of the baby turtles from the Turtle Rescue Center on the beach of San Pancho the other evening and will be partaking in collecting eggs and releasing more baby turtles (100+) this evening with the center's volunteers. I am hoping to become a volunteer myself for the month of January while still working with the other organizations and overseeing the designing and planning process, which will lead into the building and construction come late January.
I am currently living in the town of San Pancho at our friend's, the Frederichs', bar and home. I write this post while I hear the hustle and bustle of the streets outside, mainly composed of reggaetone blasting from neighbor's homes, vibrant advertisements from vendor's megaphones, and vibrating mufflers from family packed cars rolling down the dusty roads. I soak in the aroma of the polo field -yes, polo field in small Mexican fishing village!- from the rear of the complex, and enjoy the cool breeze relax my body after a long day in the sun and in the spanish speaking side of my brain as I have not mastered the natural bilingual lifestyle quite yet. Just give me a couple more weeks or so.
Here's to another busy, enlightening day and a new post to come as this project and my Mexican life further unfolds into a wild journey. Hasta pronto.
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