Skip to content
La Colina Project
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • Visit
    • Stay With Us
      • Room Rates
      • Volunteer
    • Directions to La Colina
  • Special Events
  • Shop
    • My account
    • Checkout
    • Cart
  • Activities
    • Birdwatching
    • 4×4 Vehicles
    • Surf
  • Donate

Find Older Posts

Recent Posts

  • Pig pits, mouse hunts & a banana injury. March 11, 2021
  • Killing Thyme with a possum. February 3, 2021
  • Santa, Spiders & Fluffy Balls November 26, 2020
  • Flats, Anty Pants & Mud September 19, 2020
  • Masks, Tasks and Burnt Chocolate. August 18, 2020

La Colina Gallery

The White House
Forest path
A beautiful lotus growing in our pool
A beautiful lotus growing in our pool
Beave in the stone cottage
IMG_0061
IMG_0059
IMG_0052
IMG_0045
IMG_0040
Window view
composting toilet access
IMG_0026
hilltop view
IMG_0022
IMG_0018
IMG_0017
IMG_0014
IMG_0072
IMG_0064
IMG_0062
IMG_0013
IMG_0012
stone cottage 1
IMG_0009
Currently more of a pond...
Currently more of a pond…
IMG_0007
white house and yellow door
Mexican Roadtrip 2017 - Route
IMG_2337
IMG_0001
La Colina Project

The Road to Paradise is Not Paved.

  • September 22, 2018
  • by Jayne

The road to paradise is not paved.

There are no crowds, no peddlers, nor shops.

This land is filled with babbling streams, butterflies, geckos and armadillos. And the birds – birds you have never seen before.

In every colour.

The night is dark, or so bright the full moon lights your every step. The sky is filled with stars, and the fireflies make you think the stars have fallen to earth.

Here you milk a local cow for your breakfast coffee, the chickens give you your omelettes, garnished with herbs from the garden.

You wake to the sound of birds singing, amongst the swaying palms and majestic old trees.

You can’t help but connect by disconnecting.

There is no need for your laptop, to stream entertainment, to post every moment.

Sit with me and a thousand butterflies in a clearing, lay on your back staring past the treetops and the soaring birds to the endless sky, create art.

A sculpture, a mural, a mosaic…

Meditate under a palm roof, practice your sun salutation overlooking endless jungle, swim in a pool that is away from it all.

Paradise does not have polished floors or air conditioned, dust free, clinical spaces.

Here you live with nature, her beauty, her sting, her inhabitants, her rage and her joy.

You are allowed to cry.

You are encouraged to laugh.

Here you feel.

The air, the heat, the humidity, the dirt, the insects, the love.

In paradise you feel at one with the earth, at one with others, at one with yourself.

If you have forgotten nature, if you are missing the feeling of growing things, if you need grounding, to be creative, to build things, to be part of community, if you are lost.

Come to paradise.

 

www.lacolinaproject.com  – Jungle Stays & More – near San Pancho, Nayarit, Mexico

 

Jayne and Beave standing in the Scorpion Temple, a building full of potential but not yet finished.
Jayne and Beave standing in the Scorpion Temple, a building full of potential but not yet finished.
Morning cow milking
Morning cow milking
Beautiful Wings
Beautiful Wings
Create Art!
Create Art!
Mural at La Colina
Mural at La Colina
Jungle Swimming Pool
Jungle Swimming Pool
Our outdoor jungle bar
Our outdoor jungle bar
Join us for dinner
Join us for dinner
A San Pancho Sunset captured by John Curley
A San Pancho Sunset captured by John Curley
Viewing platform at the cabañas
Viewing platform at the cabañas
Quiet and peaceful
Quiet and peaceful
Outdoor kitchen
Outdoor kitchen
We don't use precious water to flush - we use sawdust to create compost instead!
We don’t use precious water to flush – we use sawdust to create compost instead!
The road to La Colina #junglelife
The road to La Colina #junglelife
One of our glamping cabañas
One of our glamping cabañas
Even the kitchen sink can be art.
Even the kitchen sink can be art.
Glamping at it's finest. Sleep in nature, not away from her.
Glamping at it’s finest. Sleep in nature, not away from her.
Cosy and comfortable sleeping options for every budget.
Cosy and comfortable sleeping options for every budget.
Made palapa thatch
Made palapa thatch
We can't wait to meet you. Book Now!
We can’t wait to meet you. Book Now!
Jungle Journal

Vampires & Ice Cream

  • September 11, 2018
  • by Beave

We have our small freezer full of devil fruit (nanas) and I am under some persuasive stress (nagging) to do something with them as there is an urgent requirement for more ice cream space. Thankfully a suitably qualified friend in Montreal had the genius idea of prison wine and I’m up for it. Wine making is an art and requires precision and skill. Prison wine requires none of that and it’s success is reliant on a good bucket and lot of luck. I boil up the offending fruit in a little sugar, limes, honey and raisins. It then cools down and ends up in the bucket with I suspect far too much yeast. The true prison method I am told is to add a slice of bread. I cover the brew with a loose lid and cloth and ignore for a few days. I can report that it currently smells bloody awful and tastes absolutely grotesque.

 

We found lamb in the back of a freezer section in a supermarket on special half price offer because it wasn’t goat. This is rather exciting and we decide to make great efforts to deliver the best jungle Sunday lamb dinner possible. I slow cook the lamb as roast vegetables and Yorkshire puddings are created followed by thick dark gravy. Yorkshire puds in the jungle is one of our finest achievements to date. Now as Yorkshire puddings are a gravy delivery systems we find out that a full lamb dinner is a red wine delivery system. Apparently it was a very memorable and delicious dinner. It ended up with a slightly tipsy (smashed) bunch of well fed folk in the pool. Lamb dinners give you hangovers. Who knew ?

We have had a number of days travelling to and from the delightfully surreal immigration office about an hour away from home in order to extend our temporary Mexican resident immigration status for another 3 years. The amount of fannying about is legendary. The administration for administration’s sake is astonishing. This place must produce forests of paper. Endless signatures. Online forms filled in to be printed a dozen times to allow for all the blue ink stamps to go somewhere. We are photographed and fingerprinted again just in case our faces and fingers have changed since last year. Compulsory waiting time is in days and weeks depending on the mood of the staff. Eventually, after some weeks of this, we arrive to deliver our final dozen signatures and are presented with our cards. Theoretically we don’t have to come back to this place until September 2021. Don’t believe that for a moment.

 

When in line (waiting in silence as is customary here) we see the effects of poorly communicated and complex administration. An old girl in her 70s with no Spanish has arrived back from seeing grandchildren in USA. She is retired and living here in Mexico. She has lost her temporary immigration card and wants it replaced. Without it she cannot get free medical services or apply for cell phone contracts, bank accounts and other day-to-day administrative things. It really is an essential for long term living here. On her way back from the USA the airline staff told everyone on the plane (no exceptions) to fill in the tourist immigration card and hand it in to officials as they arrived at the airport. Unbeknown to her, by doing this she has cancelled her temporary resident status and she must now go back to a Mexican embassy in the USA and start the torturous and expensive process all over again from the start. No exceptions. She is stunned and understandably distraught. This is not an uncommon story. No one really can understand all the rules and hoops of the immigration process (that change all the time) least of all airline staff. It is common for aircrew to insist on every passenger filling in forms that will cause serious issues down the line. We have a number of friends that have abandoned their immigration process in frustration. Easier for them to leave the country a couple of times a year and forgo any benefits of citizenship. Can’t blame them.

Aside from the immigration office there is another candidate for the honor of third circle of hell. The Telcel office. This is where great masses gather to wait for many hours to deal with their mobile phone issues. The floor is highly polished white tiles which show up every spec of muck. My first visit there directly from the jungle I left an impressive trail of muddy footprints. I stopped walking and found I was being followed closely by the angry cleaning lady with her wide footprint mop. As she was glaring at this particularly mucky gringo mud was dropping off me onto the floor in a pile. The queue behind me stared and tutted to add to my discomfort. We were then faced with desks full of clean cut, homogenous looking, highly made up, suited girls with limited training and teenage attitudes whose sole purpose in life is to make the process of having a mobile phone service unintelligible. You get a ticket and wait in line for maybe an hour or two to see which one of these girls gets to screw with you. If you don’t have a residence card your hours of waiting are for nothing. Even if it’s being renewed in immigration and you have a lovely photo of it on your phone. Even with a residence card the astonishing complexities which are applied to the most simple of processes test patience beyond male human endurance. Thankfully female endurance is sometimes a touch more resilient to bright red patronizing smiles, dark empty eyes and outright stupidity. After what seems like a week we leave with phones that work and a Wi-Fi box that gives us better service in the jungle at much lower cost than we had in UK. Having unlimited speedy quick Wi-Fi to offer guests and abuse ourselves is a great bonus. Almost worth the trauma. Theoretically we don’t have to return to this place until September 2020. I don’t believe it for a minute.

We have a breach in the water system. Despite the rain we have had, we now have two empty Tinacos so we set about refilling them so we can track down the leak. The water does not appear to be flowing from the pump so we measure current and check solar panels and our new check valve and all appears OK. We then decide to pull up the pump to see if there is an issue. The issue soon becomes clear. It’s an easy problem to diagnose. The pump has gone. Some twat has made off with it.

The well is close to our access road and the temptation to pinch an undefended pump was too much. It’s a 24v DC unit, which is absolutely useless to anyone but us so it’s not a good score. We need to re-enforce the well head, get our mate to bring a new pump from UK and get a good chain and lock on the thing. We have been too complacent. Good job we don’t have guests right now.  Bloody bandits.

Our newest friends here have bought a beautiful house near by and we have a key to their spare rooms should we need them at any time. We stayed over last week after one too many tequilas and the next morning found a dead scorpion in the bed. It might have been our breath that killed it. Since that night our friend was stung four times in one go. Good immunity, a trip to the hospital and all is well. Another tequila fueled scorpion hunt with our black light and machete is planned. We were suitably sympathetic to his plight until our man calls us. He has been bitten by a vampire bat while sleeping in his house! The wound did not stop bleeding due to the anticoagulants in the bat’s saliva. A messy trip to the hospital later and a series of rabies shots are prescribed. Vampire bats are the primary carriers of rabies in the tropics. It’s a serious thing. Tens of thousands of cattle fall victim every season as well as a worrying number of people. We have made double extra sure our house is secure from bats. There is also a vaccine that we will investigate.

It’s a year to the day since we arrived in Mexico. We feel the need to mark the occasion so head out to a much recommended Thai restaurant about an hour away. There have been dreams of Pad Thai. We combine the trip with a visit to our favorite wood suppliers to price up the wood needed to rebuild the raised deck on the white house. It’s not cheap but achievable within budget if the rentals start coming in November. The Thai place, despite assurances on its website, is closed for the season. We have fasted all day so are not best pleased. Jayne’s disappointment at not taking down an immense Pad Thai is short lived as our favorite French place is open and nearby. We celebrate via the medium of outstanding food and wine.

We leave walking very slowly and contentedly with the memory of lobster tortallini and almond crusted red snapper with the lingering taste of the entire dessert menu. As we drag ourselves into the truck we notice the top of the palm trees bending and the sky darkening quickly. There should be at least an hour of light left so we take a chance and make a quick supermarket stop before heading back. At the check outs the clouds break and it chucks it down. We run to the truck but are already soaked. The slow drive down the bloody highway 200 keeps us wide-awake. The wipers are not quite fast enough and it’s suddenly dark. The high beam lights in our eyes and reflections from the wet road surface blind us. We make it to our road and across the first three arroyos that are all flowing. We are then faced with the front end of a lumber truck that has broken down blocking the road. It’s pitch black and the rain is coming down hard and fast. The lightening is close and bright and shows us the way. We brave it and help tow the truck to a less inconvenient spot. We break a ratchet strap in the process but end up using jumper cables as a tow rope and surprisingly that worked. The driver is grateful and we head for home. Arroyo number four which is fed directly from the mountains has other ideas. It’s a raging torrent and there is no chance of getting a truck across it. We back up and head back to town. We will blag a bed for the night and try again tomorrow. Arroyo number three has other ideas. Since we crossed it 20 minutes previously it has become deep and fast flowing. I’m already soaked so I wade out and all too soon end up in thick mud and water well up my legs with a very strong current trying its best to carry me off. I’m only a few feet from where I started . No chance of getting across that even by foot. We are stuck.

 

No let up in the rain at all so it’s going to be a long night. The truck is moved to higher ground. We are stupidly unprepared. No torch. No shoes. No real food. No blanket. We are in our “going out” lightest clothes which are soaked and stuck to us. Thankfully the air is still warm. Our stop at the supermarket included a bottle of wine and some rapidly melting ice cream. We sit in the truck cab and contemplate an ice cream and wine after dinner snack and then trying to sleep. We see torch beams coming from up stream. Only when the lights get right up to the window do we recognize our man and his wife. They too are soaked to the skin and like us they are trapped between the two arroyos. They jump in the back and we set off to investigate the situation. We all stand at arroyo four and survey the water lit up by the lightening and easily agree it’s way too dangerous to attempt to cross. We walk upstream and it just gets worse. Our man disappears downstream and we head back to the truck to get out of the rain. Some minutes later we see a torch on the opposite bank. Our slightly insane hero returns and guides us to a spot where the river widens and the water is less aggressive. He has attached a rope between two trees. We collect the essentials (melty ice cream) , abandon the truck and make the crossing one by one. The current is strong but the rope makes it safe enough. We are grateful that by chance we left the Polaris ATV at our man’s place on the bank in order to collect our truck he was borrowing. We load up, bid farewell and head for home. We easily make it across the first stream and then find the river next to our land is flowing strongly and has washed out big sections. The Polaris eats it up and delivers us home. The rain has reduced a little. We are not contorted half asleep in our truck cab. Never have we been happier to walk up those 17 steps, soaking wet, surrounded by fireflies and covered in melted ice cream.

Jungle Journal

A Year of Adventure

  • September 6, 2018
  • by Jayne

We only had three months from when we first fell in love with La Colina to pack up our lives in England, clear out and find renters for our house, apply for Mexican resident visas, and say goodbye to our UK friends and family.

It was a year ago today Beave and I arrived in Mexico with 11 bags and a surfboard to start our lives anew.

 

Ready to head to Mexico in September 2017

We made the decision to move to Mexico spontaneously – a decision to follow our hearts as opposed to a carefully planned out strategic move.

It could have so easily turned out to be a decision we would regret, however I am grateful every day that we did it, and chose the adventurous option.

I regret nothing about our move to this beautiful land of friendly people and endless opportunity.

Throughout my life I’ve found that making the choice to travel, to explore, to learn new things, meet new people and get out of my comfort zone has always been the right choice. While deliberating whether to quit my corporate job to ride a motorcycle from Alaska to Argentina (a prime example of one of my adventurous, life-changing decisions) my close friend Dave gave me advice I will never forget.

He said: “If you don’t do it, and stay here, how many days will you be in a meeting or sitting at your desk wishing you were riding a motorcycle across two continents? And, if you do it, how many days will you be on your motorbike wishing you were back here in England at work?”

I spent 20 months on that voyage, and can assure you that I didn’t spend even one second wishing I hadn’t chosen adventure.

Even soaked to the bone, having crashed on the highway in Chile because of a flat front tire was better than working a traditional corporate job.

 

A year ago Beave and I arrived to San Pancho, the quaint Mexican village we now call home, to the streets running with six inches of water, energy-sapping heat and humidity, and the beautiful sandy beach having been half washed away.

We weren’t able to close on our purchase of the land because of a series of bureaucratic delays, and the pick-up truck we had rented was unable to make it down the 1km dirt road and across the five arroyos (streams) required to reach La Colina.

We abandoned the truck at the biggest, fast flowing arroyo, waded across and walked the rest of the way.

The land was much lusher and greener than when we had fallen in love with it, 12 weeks earlier, and the task ahead of us all the more real.

The Bodega and Selva Vista when we first took possession
Our treehouse before we moved in
The pool when we first found it

Even when my dear friend Abi, who was with us that day, said with worry in her eyes: “Oh Jayne you have such a lot to do!!!” I felt much more excitement and potential than I did fear or apprehension.

We worked hard for the next six months. With help from our new friend and neighbour Rogelio, my dad, friends visiting from around the world, new friends met here in Mexico, Beave’s son Jake, and cheered on by friends and family globally, we transformed this piece of long abandoned jungle into a place where people can come unplug, get in touch with nature, experience off-grid living, and find themselves.

Feel welcome
Feel welcome
Art
Jungle Swimming Pool
Jungle Swimming Pool
Our outdoor jungle bar
Our outdoor jungle bar
Viewing platform at the cabañas
Viewing platform at the cabañas
Inside the Sky Casita
Inside the Sky Casita
Jayne and Beave being the gate to La Colina in Sept 2017
Jayne and Beave being the gate to La Colina in Sept 2017
The gate to La Colina 6 months later
The gate to La Colina 6 months later
One of our glamping cabañas
One of our glamping cabañas
The Selva Vista Sky Casita - rustic luxury in the Mexican jungle Sept 2018
The Selva Vista Sky Casita – rustic luxury in the Mexican jungle Sept 2018

More importantly than that, we created a home for ourselves, one which we love being in so much, that for the first time in many, many years, neither of us feel compelled to leave to explore the rest of the world.

Have you seen the beautiful two minute video our friend Tim and his drone made of La Colina? If not, click here to see it on our homepage.

We have had so many momentous successes. The day we got water pumping from our well to the tinacos (water tanks) high up on the hill above, the day we finally switched on the power from our 12 solar panels and I could finally have a fridge (and a freezer full of ice cream!), the day I first had a hot water shower in the jungle (thanks Dad!), the week at Easter when all our cabañas were fully booked and we actually made more money than we spent that month.

That time when we made water flow uphill!

It is a real gift to finally find the spot on the planet which challenges, inspires and comforts us all at once. A place which we are proud to show to friends, family and strangers, and which constantly surprises and delights us with its wonders and absurdities.

 

Armadillo
Butterflies
Home grown pineapple
Amazing San Pancho Sunset Photo: John Curley

 

Every week the jungle changes character, fireflies and butterflies give way to armadillos and passion fruit, the dry season’s hot days and cool nights morph into summer’s humidity and thunderstorms. Each development a cause for wonder and delight.

The less-than-delightful happens too of course. Trees fall (sometimes on us!), bees and wasps sting, and we’re constantly dirty; but we’re happy and busy and surrounded by love.

That time when a huge tree branch fell on our ATV!

We have met so many amazing people in the past year. There is something about this small corner of the planet which attracts great humans. We are fortunate to be able to call many of them our friends, and are thrilled that so many who have come to visit are considering making Mexico their home as well.

Amongst all the magic, the progress and the love, there have been two major challenges.

The first is being away from family. It is indescribably difficult to be on a different continent when your loved ones are facing challenges and/or celebrating special occasions. All the phone calls and skype video in the world are not the same as being physically able to be there when a loved one needs your support, or to celebrate special achievements and occasions. This is a challenge I have faced most of my adult life due to my passion for travel, even having faced it over many years doesn’t make it any easier.

Our second challenge has been financial. While the cost of living in Mexico is generally much more affordable than in much of the developed world, our desire to invest in La Colina has meant that we have recently found ourselves property rich and cash poor. Our families and friends have been incredibly generous with gifts, loans, cash and hiring us to work for them. It is because of you amazing people that we are still solvent. THANK YOU!!

We very much hope that the coming months will see more paying guests coming to stay at La Colina, and we have started to find other opportunities here to make some extra cash. It will be a glorious, and hopefully not far-off day that our incomings are higher than our outgoings!

I think all entrepreneurs starting a new business have this challenge to overcome, the period when their investments into their future are high and the income hasn’t started to flow. It takes a lot of faith in the new venture(s), and definitely some belt-tightening and careful budgeting, to get through to the awaited days of plenty.

There’s always the possibility (threat?) of getting a 9-5 job to spur us on to making a success of ourselves!!

Come play in the jungle with us! photo: John Curley

If it weren’t for small challenges to keep us down to earth, we might very well get too full of ourselves. It is with no small amount of amazement and gratitude that I look out of my treehouse, with our cat Maustrappe licking my feet, our three remaining (still eggless) chickens scratching around for bugs, our glistening swimming pool nestled amongst the palm trees and jungle growth, knowing that we live in a community of incredible people, protectors of an ancient jungle filled with fruit trees, home to countless animals and plants, with plenty of room to welcome all those who find themselves in need of a break from their default world. (Is this you? Come visit us!)

It’s been one of the most memorable and special years of my life, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next year. Thank you to each and every one of you for following along with our adventures, for your support and for your love.

This adventure would not be the same without you.

Thank You!

 

Previous posts

  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017

Please note that some of the links in our posts are affiliate links which give us a commission if you choose to purchase through them. We only ever recommend items that we have used personally and love. If you’d like to support us at no cost to you by giving us a commission on all your Amazon.com shopping, just buy anything from amazon.com using this link. Thank you for your support, every little helps! 

Contact

San Francisco (San Pancho)
Nayarit, Mexico
+52 (1) 322 888 6797
admin@lacolinaproject.com

Language/Idioma

Copyright La Colina Project 2018
Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress