Mexico Archives - Page 2 of 3 - La Colina Project

A beautiful lotus growing in our pool

Currently more of a pond…

Jungle Journal

Six Months in the Jungle

March 25, 2018March 27, 2018
by Jayne

Living in a treehouse, clearing and cleaning jungle out of living spaces, the swimming pool and everywhere else, close calls with trees and bees, gaining a Maustrappe and losing weight… A lot has happened in just six months.

It’s been just over six months since Beave and I applied to become Mexican residents and moved to Mexico. It’s been just under six months since we took possession of “La Colina”, and started living in 3.5 hectares (8 acres) of jungle just outside San Pancho, Nayarit.

We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, and we’ve worked very, very hard.

Jayne and Beave being the gate to La Colina in Sept 2017

Cleaning out the sky casita in November 2017

Checking out the well when we first arrived

Back when it was just a Brick Sh*t House

Now a three bedroom open air glamping jungle retreat

Our intention of building a place using sustainable methods and materials, permaculture principles, full of art, which will be self-funded by hosting guests and creating value on the land is becoming a reality much quicker than I had thought possible. Back in the summer, as we packed up our lives in England and prepared for the unknown, I’m not sure where I thought we’d be now, but it wasn’t with five cabañas and casitas rented out and living fully off-grid with solar power and hot water showers from our well!

We moved to La Colina at the end of rainy season. The palapa roof on our house has three major leaks. We learnt to put buckets in the right places. We had no power. Just a few headlamps and solar lights we’d brought from the UK. We bought brighter lights, and a generator to charge them. At first we used a small cooler with ice to keep a few things cold, and soon upgraded to a chest freezer with the bottom filled with ice, it was clear that a more permanent (and much quieter – that generator is LOUD) solution was needed.

We were introduced to Frank, who is a retired firefighter from the USA and now installs solar systems in Mexico, where he lives with his wife and twin children. Frank designed us a solar system and we took the (very expensive) leap in October. We ordered 12 solar panels and a space age set of batteries, inverters and controllers from Outback.

Then we waited.

We’d been told that the hurricanes in the Caribbean and the associated “disaster dollars” had bought up all the off grid solar systems in stock.

So we waited.

My dad came to visit for three weeks and helped us wire up our house ready for the arrival of the fabled solar power.

Christmas came. Christmas went.

And still we waited.

We bought a single solar panel and hooked it up to this Amarine-made 24V Submersible 4″ Deep Well Water DC Pump we bought online. Best $125 we’ve spent. That pump pumps water up a massive hill to fill 2500 litre tanks without missing a beat. When it’s sunny, it’s pumping. Now we just need to see if our well goes dry before it starts raining again…

Wiring up the solar panel to the well pump

That time when we made water flow uphill!

And still we waited.

Our friend Alex came to visit and started building our composting toilets, Beave and my sister continued the good work. We had learnt from seeing raw sewage flowing into the ocean in Sayulita and having to lug all our water up the hill to our house, that using water to flush poo down the drain is not the way we want to live. Inspired by The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure, we built ourselves five wooden boxes with toilet seats on them, into which we place buckets with a bit of sawdust in the bottom.

We don’t use precious water to flush – we use sawdust to create compost instead!

These are what we, and everyone who visits La Colina, use to make our deposits. After each use more sawdust is added to cover the business and keep the smell away. When the bucket is full it is emptied into our compost bin, and the cycle begins again. In a couple of years we will have beautiful compost for our gardens, and no sewage will have polluted the local rivers or oceans. The cycle of life, looking after our planet.

And still we waited.

Since the day we moved to La Colina, our neighbour Rogelio has worked with us. We would not be where we are today without him.

He and his son (also called Rogelio, but lovingly referred to by his family as “Burro” (Donkey)) help us with pretty much all aspects of our land. In particular Rogelio Sr is a genius with a chainsaw. He made our gates, stairs, and so much more with just a chainsaw. We feel privileged to call him our friend, and to help provide his family with a living. It’s what La Colina is all about, providing abundance for us, our friends, and our community.

My sister arrived for a visit, followed shortly by my parents and then my brother and his family. At one point in January we had nine people visiting at once!

And still we waited…

One of the reasons we wanted to live here is so that we can welcome our friends and family to visit us. Having so many visitors is both a great pleasure and a jugging act. It was wonderful to spend time with my family, who I don’t see often. The number of visitors we have means that we need to have online forms to collect information about when people want to visit and what skills they want to share, and to keep a calendar of who is here when, and where they are going to stay.

It is also a balance between being very social and having time at home to ourselves. I find that if I spend too many days and evenings out working hard then socialising I run out of energy and get grumpy (poor Beave takes the brunt of that). I am learning to make sure I get some evenings at home, spending quality time with Beave and looking after myself. Sometimes this means leaving our guests to their own devices for a time, which is not always easy. I’m working on learning how to get the balance right and not upset anyone in the process.

Mid way through February we swapped my family for Beave’s. Over the space of a few days my family left and Beave’s son arrived with his girlfriend and two more friends. We installed them in our newly built palapa roof cabañas and put them to work.

Location of the La Colina Grand Opening Party

We’d been in touch with our solar designer throughout this time, and now, four months after we’d ordered the system, there were finally rumours of our equipment being in Mexico.

After overcoming some issues with the frame for our panels not being quite level, the panels were installed.

We met some wonderful new friends who offered to come help us. We put them to work laying hundreds of meters of cabling and conduit from the batteries to our treehouse, the bodega and the cabañas. This is backbreaking work, and we can’t thank them all enough for their help. Even Nicky, one of our first ever paying guests, helped lay the cabling!

It was the 22nd of February, 2018 when we finally switched the solar power on. We had silent light in the treehouse. We bought a fridge the next day.

After such a long wait it was great to finally have on demand power. There was also however a feeling of loss. The days of living by the rise and fall of the sun, of candlelit evenings, of a simpler life were gone. It was an important lesson to us both that living without modern day essentials is not only possible, but very enjoyable.

Recently we’ve wired in power to the Sky Casita (thanks to our good friend Kevin), the Las Palmitas Cabañas and the Jungle Cabin. I felt the most proud of myself I have in a long time when I switched on the power to what is essentially a three bedroom house, that I had wired myself, and it all worked. I am very grateful to my father for teaching me electrics and so much more in life.

One of my favourite aspects of living in the jungle is achieving tangible successes. Picking a chili off a plant I’ve grown from seed, watching a tank fill with water on top of a hill, plugging a light into a socket I’ve wired and having it work – these give true feelings of achievement. I can’t help but feel that the lack of physical, tangible achievements in so many office jobs is part of the reason so many of the people I care about are feeling disenfranchised and disillusioned. Getting your hands dirty, learning new skills, and enjoying the fruits of your labour are fundamental parts of being human.

I invite you all to visit La Colina and experience the joy playing in the dirt can bring.

These have been some of the most fascinating months of my life. It is amazing how rewarding building, making things work, welcoming guests, living in nature, and settling down in a beautiful jungle paradise (full of biting creatures and falling branches though it may be) has turned out to be. I am so fortunate to have Beave as my partner in this endeavour, we make an excellent team.

It is difficult at times to be away from family and friends, and to balance “work” with “me time” while living and working in the same place. It’s a constant act of juggling relationships, friendships, responsibilities and relaxation. But really, we all have that same juggling act no matter where we live, or what business we are in.

At least with this home, and this way of making a living, we can invite others on the journey with us. Our guests, our family, our friends, our community, our volunteers and our staff are all so important to us, and they all benefit along with us.

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

La Colina Project

Who Flung Dung? By Linda (Jayne’s mum)

February 20, 2018
by Alan Davidson

Jayne’s Mum, Dad, Brother and Sister all came to visit La Colina in January. Here’s a guest post from Jayne’s mum Linda.

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After driving 4595 km from Calgary, we arrived at La Colina late one January afternoon, Alan and I were hoping to surprise Jayne and Beave as we were one day early. Instead, they surprised us by not being there! We set up camp.

Following closely on our heels, were Sam and Taryn, the motorcycling duo from Australia. We had hosted them in Calgary as couchsurfers last July. (rideto-theend.com)

Our daughter, Heather, and a Romanian from Switzerland, Andrei, were already here. Then Philip, Kelly and SnakeJaguar flew in three days later, so now we were nine camper/volunteer workers enjoying a reunion with each other and Jayne and Beave in the jungle.

Lots to do and we all sweated the days away woodworking, plumbing, sewing, painting/varnishing, cleaning buildings, fixing the truck and generator, and preparing for, and erecting, solar panels. The busy days were often followed tasting Mexican fare in the little town of San Pancho, or neighbouring town of Sayulita.

Mr. Fixit Philip working on Truck Brakes and Generator

Heather’s boyfriend Julian and Kelly’s sister and family joined Beave and Jayne and the whole Davidson clan for an evening out in San Pancho.

No sign of scorpions, snakes or other scary jungle creatures (except for Beave in his baggy work pants!), but there are beautiful colourful butterflies and birds in abundance at La Colina.

One of the Mexican workers caught an armadillo one night and his son brought it to show us, carrying it by its tail!

After a few days of cold, outdoor showers (which Beave assured were good for us!) Alan hooked the shower into the Bodega’s tankless hot water system and we all became instantly squeaky clean. Philip, Kelly, SJ, Alan and I, set off for town in the Razor ATV. Part way along the dirt road, we came face to face with a cow which couldn’t make up it’s mind which side of the track to allow us to pass. Finally, it chose to turn sideways, completely blocking our path! Continuing on, Philip drove through a fresh cow patty – a gift left by the obstructing cow, no doubt! The newly cleaned Razor, Kelly, and I, got completely splattered in dung. We were not amused!

Jungle Journal

Guest Post #2 – Dad’s Jungle Adventures

December 2, 2017
by Jayne

Hello everyone,

My dad’s back with another post about his visit to us here in the Mexican jungle. I hope you like it!

– Jayne

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Woke up early this morning and it is already December and I am to go home in 5 days. Jeannie let the cat out of the bag and revealed that I did find my camera after a couple of days… fallen between the seats of the Toyota truck. On it was the picture above of the beach scene at sunset, which we have seen only a couple of times.

The trip has turned out to be days of helping Jayne and Beave with many projects, the biggest being wiring the tree house for power, in anticipation of the Solar System arriving in a few weeks. They are on a mission, to which they are very dedicated, to recover the infrastructure created by the previous owner on this land, and putting it to good use. The plan is to get an income from renting out small apartments in the jungle. The balance is to create comfortable living spaces without costing a fortune, and not provide all “mod cons”, but enough to be comfortable.

San Pancho is a great tourist beach town. An active beach, getting busier all the time, and a main and side streets filled with many small restaurants that spill onto the street offering many kinds of food. We have eaten at quite a few different places… from low end to medium. All meals have been very well priced… many close to half what I would pay for the same meal in Calgary…. and yummy food.

Service is generally great. Most servers speak some English, but being with Jayne who spouts quite good Spanish, and Beave who is learning fast, most of the banter is in Spanish. My Spanish is still pitiful, but I can follow the drift of the conversation at times. Uno Masse… means another when it comes to drinks. Fresh Limonada made with local limes for about 2 Canadian Dollars.

We stop in a nearby town to order wood for Jayne’s composting toilets, and Beave’s window frames for the apartment above the workshop. Heather will go crazy looking at all the woodworking marvels in this shop, made from many hardwood trees that we only dream of. The yard is full of stacks of wood from large trees waiting to be made into furniture, etc. To order.

The road to the La Colina Jungle is a rough one. Five creeks to cross. Large rocks and holes. Some local houses in various states of repair and construction, from simple one room shacks to multi room houses. Two nights ago, the locals were congregated at one farm playing music on their guitars… there is music everywhere in town, with both musicians doing sets in many restaurants, and other itinerant groups travelling from restaurant to restaurant for tips. We saw even more in the neighbouring town of Sayalita, about 5 km down the highway.

This prompted a discussion about renting out a 4 seater ATV to guests, and we went on a mission to look at one that a contact had found for Jayne. It is a Polaris RZR 800. It was bought by it’s owner, a part time resident from Toronto, and he now wants to upgrade to a new one. This has had little off road use and looks like new.

We negotiate a price, and agree to buy it. Since I am investing in this machine, and will get to use it while here, I have to convince Linda to approve the purchase. After some discussion, she reluctantly agrees to my mad purchase. We pick it up today.

My home away from home “Dad’s House”, as Jayne calls it, is serving me well. I only come down here at night and it has been comfortable. The nights got colder and Jayne has provided a comfy duvet which makes getting out of bed into the cold plus 17 degree celcius air more of a challenge. Last I looked Calgary is in a warm spell around minus 2.

We went to a local “garage sale” in Puerto Vallarta and picked up a mirror for it…. along with deck chairs for the pool, light fittings, etc.

The only light I have in the accommodation is provided by the LED lantern I brought for Jayne and Beave as a housewarming gift. Once the solar panels are in, and wiring done, it won’t be needed here.

The jungle does offer lots of bugs of all sizes. One in the house is spiders. The flat ones don’t bite, so I am told.

On the trip to Puerto Vallarta I got to show Jayne and Beave a tower that we had found on our previous trip here a few years ago while geocaching.

It is right in the middle of town, and one would not know it was there if we had not been looking for the cache.

Great views of the city.

Still on the mission to get internet from the town. We climb to the highest spot on the property and find an even better view of the hill with the house in town that we hope will provide a link spot. It is on the left of the right hand hill in the photo. Folks from the house arrive this weekend… so may possibly hear from them before I leave on Tuesday, but if not the negotiation will continue with Jayne and Beave.

All over the property are mystery pipes. In the ground. On the ground. Broken ends… where do they go? Some we have traced. Most are unusable as are so old that they break when water is added. We used a piece from one yesterday to provide a piece to hopefully fix a broken valve on the swimming pool.

Jayne and Beave keep mentioning Tinacos… these are water storage tanks that hold about 3000 litres each. There are five of them on the property, and are/will be refilled from either the waterfall water or the well. A solar powered water pump is somewhere in transit, and the water system is such that water will be pumped from one tank to another further up the hill.

Moving this has come to be done by the local Mexican family living next door and working for Jayne and Beave most days, along with Beave’s assistance. The tanks are now in place, but what a challenge moving them, and Beave acquired several ticks on his body in the process. Somehow he picks them up almost daily, yet I search and haven’t found one on my body yet. Just mystery bites on my legs… not sure what has bitten them but they itch from time to time.

Mousetrappe cat is a real joy… very active in the house and takes an interest in everything. The younger Mexican son Rogelio was playing with it during the Tinaco moving. A few minutes later I see a streak of a cat running at full tilt down the hill as a plastic tinaco swings on the hill from a tree… apparently a planned move by the tinaco movers, but not a planned thing for poor Mousetrappe. Beave removed half a jungle from it’s fur later on, and the cat is still in good form.

I finish with the story of my fall. Not fall from glory… just tripped on the bottom step of the first part of the stairs at the tree house when I was walking down to turn off the generator under the house. Landed flat on my side after stopping my crash with my right hand, creating a 3/4 inch long surface gash. Nurse Philip in Vancouver is consulted.

The major drama was that I just missed a fairly large rock by an inch that could have created serious damage to my hip bones. Close call. (My hip was where my shoe is in the photo)

We picked up the Polaris RZR today…. did part of the paperwork, rest happens Monday. Four different offices to visit. It ran well on the trip home and is great on the Jungle roads. More next blog.

Alan

La Colina Project

Making a Jungle a Home

November 1, 2017November 1, 2017
by Jayne

What is it that makes a place home?

We arrived in Mexico nearly two months ago.

To me, it feels like we have been here much longer, and Mexico feels like home.

I love waking up snuggled between Beave and Maustrappe the cat, listening to the morning orchestra of birdsong, woodpeckers, neighbour’s rooster, and the local cowherd with his distinctive shouts. When I open my eyes I am greeted by a million shades of green through the haze of the mosquito net over our bed. Our house now has all that we need (other than power, but that’s coming).

Our biggest challenge in the house is refrigeration. To that end we bought a small chest freezer, which we plug in when we run the generator (about every 2 or 3 days) and we bring bags of ice back from town. It works like a big cooler box, and keeps our milk, cheese and other essentials cool. I’m looking forward to having a fridge once the solar system is installed.

Every day we make progress. It’s a very rewarding way to live, knowing that poco a poco (little by little) we are building a sanctuary, for ourselves, for the wildlife and vegetation of the forest, and for the people who visit.

I cried the day we had to cut some trees down to make way for the sun. We feel very strongly that our place is to protect this slice of nature which we have the honour of shepherding, and to fell those strong, graceful beings was heartbreaking. Don’t get me wrong, it is part of looking after the forest, and had to be done. Losing those trees makes space for the rest of the jungle to thrive, and we will be using the wood on the land, but still it hurt.

Click here to see a video of the end of one of our trees

I feel everything very strongly here in the jungle. I think it is because we feel the impacts of every action so clearly and visibly. In corporate life I often felt like much of what we were doing had little to no impact, it is hugely motivational to see the results of one’s actions – seeing the pool water clear after adding chlorine, green shoots resulting from planting seeds, and people greeting you by name because you took the time to introduce yourself the last time you crossed paths.

Nursery on the steps – the start of our permaculture gardens.

The other night we were walking home and when we reached the streams, there were hundreds or maybe thousands of fireflies all around us. It was one of the most magical moments of my life. Walking down the stream, being led home by blinking fairies all around us, I felt like I would burst with happiness. The reason we were walking at night? Because our truck, which we depend on to get down the 1km dirt road, started making terrible grinding noises, an it is now with a mechanic being fixed. The truck upset me much more than it should have. A combination of annoyance that we have just spent a lot of money buying a 4×4 and having it fully overhauled, and fear that the cost of repair is going to blow our very precarious budget.

I need to learn to feel freely and completely, but not let the emotion overtake me or bring down those around me.

Beave and I spend so much time together that our moods have a much greater affect. If one of us is happy, sad or angry, the other can’t help but feel the consequences. It makes being upset even worse, because you know that it is not just yourself who is suffering from it. However joyful moments are fully enjoyed. There are two sides to every coin, and we spend a lot more time being happy than sad.

I am grateful every day that Beave and I are so well suited, for otherwise this crazy undertaking would not be possible.

In the past two months I have learnt a lot about our new country.

1. The people are incredible. Both Mexicans and those who have chosen Mexico to be their home are welcoming, kind, friendly, cheerful and generous.

Our neighbour Rogelio greeted us the first time we drove past his ranch with a big smile, and he has been the one person who has most helped us. We are incredibly fortunate to have him as our friend and neighbour. (I’ll write a whole post about him soon.)

We’ve met many people in town, and now any time we walk down the main road we run into friends. We have found favourite hardware stores and restaurants, and are greeted with huge smiles as soon as we walk in. In Las Varas, a town about 40 minutes North of us, our friend Jesus, who owns a couple of delicious taco restaurants, will drop everything the second he sees us, and take us to the best place to buy whatever it is we need, be it a new water tank, or a 20kg bag of oranges to put our new orange squeezer to good use.

2. Things happen in their own time and space here. Patience is a requirement. Lines and queues are a way of life, and it is normal to spend over an hour buying paint, or applying for a tax code, or getting a chequebook. The thing is, it’s okay, because time moves more slowly here, and everything gets done eventually.

3. While the cost of living is significantly less than in the UK, things still cost money. (Shock of the century, I know!) I’ve been writing down everything we spend, so that we can predict our expenses and figure out how much income we need to break even. Our savings have been going down very quickly, but that is what we knew would happen with all the investments we have been making in the buildings, solar power, vehicles and the cost of the land itself. We do however need to ensure that we’re finding opportunities to secure an income. So much to think about!

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I have no doubt that buying La Colina was the right thing for us to do, and despite the few moments of upset, I am full of anticipation for what the next two months and beyond will bring.

It is wonderful being home.

Jungle Journal

Onwards to Pilar … avoiding the coloured chicks

September 25, 2017
by Beave

I’m in a room in San Pancho we just rented for the week drinking tequila and drying out slowly. Tropical storm Pilar is upon us and this is how we got here …… I’ve added a few extra pictures to bulk it up a bit.

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Daily routine Chapala:

Wake up at some hour exhausted but conscious. Become aware of crazy itching in proximities and the self-satisfied mocking buzz of well fed mosquitos. Make better plan to avoid further blood loss. Sleep/wake cycle till the need for tea overrides fatigue.

Count the bites. Tea . Shower.

First thick coat of P20-50+. P20 is the best invention of all time. A single application sun screen designed by Scandinavians for the lighter chap. “Ginger juice” smells like a vodka cocktail for 20 mins until it sets in and works hard all day to reduce the onset of pink and the freckle spread . At some point I will become a single off-orange freckle. P20 makes the inevitable some weeks away.

So my natural day starts with a thick coating of Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane ( ginger juice) and my ankles soaked in Diethyl Toluamide with minimum 50% Deet to avoid becoming lunch as well as a midnight snack. The Deet stuff has actually melted our shoes.

There are many plans to dissuade mosquitos. The latest revealed to us is to soak cloves in vodka for a few weeks and then add a touch of baby oil. This gunk will apparently give you less delicious baby soft ankles…and won’t melt your shoes onto your feet. Going to give it a go. Will be tempted to taste it before we add baby oil.

Drove the rugrod into town at some ungodly hour this morning. Coincidentally Mexican Independence Day and the whole town has turned out for a parade for Jayne’s Birthday. We watch endless marching children dressed in their best and met the local dignitaries and the president of the area . Everyone is very impressed with Jayne’s age. We remove her before it all goes to her head and feed her breakfast and prepare for cake. Cake comes after hugely successful and well attended dinner to honor the creeping certainty of age.

Been acquiring tools. Brought enough to break a bag or two but need more. We head to a pop up market ( Tianguis ) with cash and a large bag. Not large enough. Only Mexican faces and only Mexican prices. Negotiate with an old guy (who claims to be Jesus )for an old drop saw and handfuls of over loved tools and shovels and a rake that he displays on the pavement. A deal is struck before the local Police move him on. We buy all the rest of the things but avoid the coloured chicks…..

Another Earthquake . The light fittings were swaying for half an hour in Chapla yesterday afternoon. Absolute tragic scenes from Mexico City. Wish we were closer and could have lent a hand last night. The army has deployed many thousand troops now . Outstanding response from everyone. It’s a thing of nightmares watching the parents waiting around the rubble heap that was their kids school . Counting our many blessings today.

Our friend who runs a community center in the North area takes us on a visit. There is a B side to everything. Drugs are traded on the North side and the advertising method is ingenious and well understood. The type of shoe hanging off the power-lines in front of your dwelling denotes the type of drug available. Sweaty old trainers for weed. High heels for coke. The full list may well be available on google. Everyone seems to know it .

The Tepehua centre https://www.facebook.com/tepehuacommunitycenter

is well funded by Rotary and other NGOs and provides day care, sewing craft training , clothing , water (without mercury), dentist and a health clinic for the area. They feed hundreds of people every Friday. IUDs are offered to women in confidence, as contraception is not considered a macho pastime by local men. The previous day care center transformed into an orphanage as parents took babies and small children and forgot to collect them.

There is another of many projects underway to offer woman a rehab facility. This is not a service available to women in Mexico. We are taken to a secure men’s rehab center where 128 males of all ages co-exist without drugs and alcohol. The atmosphere is surprisingly calm and friendly and respectful. We are show around by a young cleanly presented boy . He has been here 8 months but “needs to be in for 12”. There are voluntary inmates & many sentenced by courts. 18 men to a dorm. Communal kitchen. High walls and large well decorated locked gates. The girls are treated with interest but respect. The land next to it is designated as the first women’s facility to be opened when construction completed, maybe next year. Wish them luck with that.

We then visit one of the households that is being directly helped.It’s impossible to know how many people live in this pile of bricks topped with iron and laced with damp electric wires. The women won’t say as censuses may result in taxes. We see a number of young kids in a bed watching TV. We are shown where the water comes in.

Total respect for the time and intelligent effort going into real long-term community benefit here.

It’s been a sobering day.

Joy of joys…the land closure date is put back further.

Friday is now the day. Finally and absolutely.

Its completely understandable because ( good luck keeping up ..)

We will need our corporation to have a tax code in order to close this deal.
The tax code is available to us when we have closed the deal. …. !?
Our passports are not considered ID in the tax office. ….!?
Our address needs to be confirmed in order to close.
This can only be done by proof of purchase of the land……!?

In order to weave through this latest conundrum of knotted red tape we are required to be in PV on Thursday to sign over power of attorney to our accountant and have a false lease created so we actually lease the land 24 hours before we buy it so there is proof that we and it exists… and our accountant can be officially us .. even if we are there… unofficially. …… Simple.

Chipala is comfortable. May be too comfy. Good friends and food and weather and a pool and lots of very reasonable excuses to stay. Our van is undergoing major facelift and life saving surgery. It now has a lot less original parts , which we are told, is a very good thing. It has new brakes and a compete air con system designed for alloy monkeys freezepops ( or ginger men) . But it is always nearly ready… its been over a week now and we are starting to feel like cuckoos.

Friday is not the day. Further very dull and inexplicable reasons have put our closing back now to Tuesday but require our presence on Monday and so we decide to leave on Saturday.

Before we leave we make plans to transform the rugrod into a total babe. We will get all the bits working and add roll bars and seat belts and other luxuries like a speedometer, tyres & indicators. We will return to Chapala to pick her up…. Sometime after the rains. She will never be waterproof.

After a day in Guadalajara buying acres of mosquito netting and seventies kitchen wall fabric ( future curtains apparently) we manage to tear ourselves away ……. without the truck. It will be delivered to us sometime next week gleaming with perfection & refrigeration . … maybe.

5 hours of van time and we arrive back home in San Pancho at 7pm… just in time to meet Tropical Storm Pilar who arrives on our tails at 7.05. It rains. Oh how it rains. The sort of rain that gets all your bits wet at once pretty much immediately. We are reunited with 16 bags and a surf board and our ever patient hosts . We are soaked to our bits.

The road becomes a river and then all the roads become rivers. We are already wet so we dig out our small inefficient sun broleys and venture out. Wading through the town to a few bars to drink and eat and watch the sea eat the beach in large mouthfuls. It’s an incredible view. An Italian pIzza guy from Rome surpasses himself with distracting pear and blue cheese yumminess. We eat well & drink better and stare at the endless rain. We meet many wet locals doing the same and eventually wade home to return to a dry room . We catch the flashes & listen to the drumbeat of storm until we sleep.

La Colina Project

You Drive Me Crazy

September 15, 2017September 15, 2017
by Jayne

We rented a pick up truck for our first few days in Mexico. Back in June we left our van with our dear friends in Lake Chapala, which is a 5 hour bus ride from Puerto Vallarta.

Lalo from Gecko Rent A Car was incredibly helpful and gave us a crash course in how to turn on Mexican roads. (Long overdue as we spent 4 weeks driving around Mexico in May and didn’t know any of this important info!)

For those of you who are planning to come help with the La Colina Project: your attention please!

Most main roads in Mexico have two lanes of traffic in each direction with a median in the middle. They also have another two lanes of traffic to each side, which give access to local businesses, gas stations, etc (see picture).

The key to driving in Mexico is to understand that at traffic lights, if you are in the middle lanes, you can only go straight ahead. If you want to turn left or right, you must first exit into the side lanes, and you can only do this when there is a gap that is not at a traffic light.

To turn left, or do a u-turn (retorno) you approach the traffic light in the left hand lane of the side road (or lateral as they seem to call it here) and wait for the green arrow. Only on the green arrow from that specific lane are you allowed to turn left. Have a look at the picture – it helps, but it’s still a pretty crazy system.

Even worse, when on an undivided highway, if you want to turn left, you are supposed to do the same thing, pull to your right, wait for the cars behind you to pass, and then turn left when it is safe to do so. This is partly because driving with your left turn signal on is often taken as an indication to the car behind you that it is safe to pass. Lalo informs us that this is a frequent cause of accidents.

There’s your Mexican driving lesson for the day. Stay tuned for Jayne and Beave’s 4×4 buying adventures.

PS – If you do come to visit, and you want to rent a vehicle, we highly recommend Gecko. Unlike the other car rental places, the price they quote you is the price you pay, including all insurances. They’re also really nice.

Jungle Journal

First few days…..

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017
by Beave

What follows is a rather lengthy diary of the bones of our first few days on the move. I’ll be happy to fill in the blanks next time we meet……..

DAY ONE

Leaving anywhere with 11 bags and a surfboard is always going to be fun. Leaving Manchester at 7 am to fly to Houston post hurricane and then onward to Mexico is special.

Great start to the airport balancing people and stuff in a beautiful RV packed to the gills. Three heaped trolleys to the Singapore counter and then the real fun begins. Despite hours of pre-event planning calls and assurances it is impossible to check our bags through to Mexico and at least as worrying there is doubts that my surfboard (my precious) will not fit in the hold. Sitting on a huge pile of bags at 8 am effectively homeless this is not the best news.

After enough time passes to make our run through security an event, we pay more than twice the price of my first car in excess baggage charges and away we go. My precious is on board …. It could be a lot worse. It becomes so when the Singapore Airlines supervisor follows us to the plane which is now waiting for us spouting platitudes and assuring us that this will all be a funny story (or blog as it happens) one day soon. We both avoid the temptation to punch her.

Plane to Houston.

Arrive in baggage claim Houston and create a luggage train of three packed trolleys held precariously together with a surf board on top. Steering was randomised and did not improve with swearing. As we headed to inflict ourselves on the United desk there was much staring and eventually some help offered and gladly accepted. Two sweaty lumps and 11 bags and my precious arrive in front of a slightly bewildered Carla.

Now as much as Carla was unbelievably inept at helping us and amazingly proficient at making our lives hell, she was lovely about it. We were required to wait 14 hours before we could check in. We were required to pay more than 5 times the price of my first car in further excess baggage. We were to buy a further 4 suitcases and repack everything to meet United weight restrictions. Sitting on a huge pile of bags at 3pm effectively homeless this is not the best news.

While escalating this as best we could to someone/anyone who had any authority to help us we witnessed other people’s less obvious troubles. The hurricane is hitting Florida and airports closing and very many tired and emotional folk were stuck in Houston indefinitely. Houston is recovering from hurricane Harvey and we discover the staff at the counter had been trapped in their houses for up to 10 days due to floods. There are so many drowned cars that there is not a single rental car available. There are so many flooded homes and buildings that there is not a single hotel room to be found anywhere. We count our blessings and feel humbled on our pile of dry luggage.

Carla changes our lives. She has found a human who at the very thought of dealing with us crumbles and waives all fees and throws away the rules and she checks all our bags and us on the plane for 9.40 next morning. Massive relief and gratitude. We leave the airport with only 4 bags (twice hand luggage allowance) and find Jaynes uncle Richard who has been waiting for hours for us outside the airport. He has listened to an entire Bob Dylan collection and two Beatles albums so is chilled out.

DAY TWO-ish

Houston is recovering. We take well over 2 hours to drive the 45 minutes to his house. Seeing houses and cars flooded out gives us added patience. We are well fed (thanks to the skills of aunt Jess) and slightly slept at 6.30 am when we then take nearly 3 hours to drive the 45 mins to the airport. Rush hour Houston with only one good freeway is less conducive to patience. We somehow get through security and on the plane with all our bags and bottle of scotch in less than 30 mins. Somehow. We watch from the windows as we see my precious being loaded. All is well.

Plane to Puerto Vallarta.

Another well practiced luggage train is taken apart by customs. We patiently show our lives in 11 instalments and a surf board. Our friends at US homeland security have kindly unpacked and repacked our bags in advance of our arrival. The unpacking seemed to have gone well but the repacking … not so much. Our vacuum packed tetrus-ed suitcases when opened prove impossible to shut. Their solution was to move spare life essentials into another of our bags. This bag is rammed with tools and hammocks and protests by exploding in transit. Making America great again will take time I fear. Bless them.

Massive cab to a much-recommended rental place. The only one in Puerto Vallarta that does not rape you for bogus insurance. No matter how cheap your website booking thinks it should be or how good your own insurance thinks it is , the companies charge you a huge lump on top for “local insurance charges “or they refuse to rent you the car. Not Mexicos proudest moment when you just arrive in the country, be warned.

Loaded pick up to see our notaria (lawyer).

Arrive in car park under shopping mall to realise my wallet was missing. Jayne sympathy increased notably when she found her passport missing. Not a good start.

We walk to the notaria office in jetlagged befuddlement. That feeling of losing important things sitting hard in our bellies. A thick set bald guy walks directly towards me. Oh, shit what does he want. I judge this dude as a time share salesman. “I have something you need” he says. I don’t need a bloody timeshare …… He then passes us an envelope with a passport and wallet in. We are jetlagged and befuddled and stunned. Much thanks and shame. We stupidly left both on the rental desk. Geko rentals have sent their man to find us. We decide to love them.

Lawyer meeting. Ready to close on the land 18^th September, We homeless till then. We have a plan. Fish tacos and get to see Big Chief and Abi at their rental apartment before our growing stupidity has further consequences.

Outstanding soft landing of whisky and loveliness and 11 bags and surfboard.

It rains hard.

Sayulita is an over popular place. Beautiful but packed all year. No parking even in low season so the smart thing to do is rent a golf cart. Chief is smart so we leave the hill and head to town. Rain has turned all the roads into fast flowing shallow rivers. Some fun is had creating waves on the way to purchase Mezcal and other essentials. We head to a favourite pizza place. We have a Mexican Venice moment eating Italian food overlooking a particularly gnarly road river outside.

It continued to rain hard.

We sleep hard till we don’t. Jet lag is a thing.

DAY THREE

Breakfast and faffing completed we stop at hardware place to load up on machetes and take our first trip out to the land. First time since June when it was dry. Hurricane and tropical storms have made the wettest summer for many years. The pick up is not 4×4 and doesn’t have the best clearance we soon find out. After fording, a few new rivers imperfectly (Chief is quite rightly unimpressed at my 4×4 driving “skills”) we bottle it. Not a chance are we driving to our land. We gather stuff to wade across. Local farmers come to check us out on their horses. They are just making sure these daft looking Gringos are not going to kill themselves. They offer to help us out when we get sorted out with a decent truck. 4×4 now top of our shopping list.

We get across on foot easily if soggy. The water is cool on the body. I’m already a large ginger sweaty thing. Better get used to that. Approaching our land is different this time. The road is a flowing mountain stream and the land is covered in green. The first entrance has 50 feet of yellow flowers about knee height. Machete job no.1.

We survey the land. Measure the well (22m deep with 20m of water today). The girls find bananas, passion fruit and lemons. The boys find huge whip spiders and water pools full of tadpoles. This place is going to be loud with frog song soon.

We discuss endless possibilities while drinking beer tequila and Mezcal while floating in the stream cooling off and nursing the red burns that appear on bare skin from the juices of machetied plants. Nature always fights back. I’m covered in them. Sensitive flower that I am.

Back in San Pancho for lunch and float in the sea. Unbelievably perfect after sweating gallons. I float and consider this will be a daily routine soon enough.

Things take a turn for the ugly when Chief is required to remove a tick from his gentleman area. Not pleasant. Lesson to note about checking one’s bits for ticks.

We (Abi & I) drink hard and sleep hard in sympathy.

DAY FOUR

Awake to 11 bags and a surfboard and news of large earthquake south of us. Thankfully for us over 1000 miles south but have a number of people to reassure.

Load up and leave Sayulita to check in to cheap room in San Pancho. Two Gringos, 11 bags and my precious in one room……

Lunch and airport to release Chief and Abi until next time.

Find Ivan. He has a taco stall in town and specialises in Pastor which is essentially pork and pineapple but somehow tastes uniquely like neither. So, good and cheap. Decided to love the place.

Sleep to the sounds of CNN warning of disaster in Florida.

Wake late.

Head out to see our real estate friend in his new office up the road in Lo De Marcos. He promises us a generator and tools and hooks us up with fix it and solar contacts. We head to beach for lunch. Quiet beautiful beach. Then not so quiet … much commotion as large (much bigger than me) crocodile swims past a few meters from shore. This has a discouraging effect on paddle boarders and swimmers. Our new friend swims up and down the shore till we leave. San Pancho has a lagoon in which a good size bask (newly found collective noun) of the buggers live. A local thief lost an arm trying to swim from Police recently. The rain swells have washed a few of them out to sea. The American Crocodile is not likely to attack when in sea water we are told. This is not reassuring enough to want to find out.

We return to our room and decide to disgorge the bags and find out what we have brought and get organised. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It is amazing to find the things that you “can’t do without”. In our case its mainly art, hammocks, buckets of ginger strength sun screen and tools. After some hours, we repack and agree to store our bags with these poor unsuspecting hostel owners while we go to Guadalajara and Chapala to collect our van and try and find a 4×4.

How we managed it I’m not entirely sure but we now have 16 full bags, 2 over stuffed plastic bags and a surf board!

We leave the room to watch the sunset and meet our immigration lawyer. He knows our land well and is very well connected in many ways. He will introduce us to a girl who lived on the land for many years who will know so much! I’m excited about that. She is currently very pregnant and due her first child any moment so she will have other priorities. Shame …but another lesson in patience for me. Like this guy & feel we are going to have some fun together. Been here a day and already feeling connected. Few too many beers and another visit to Ivan’s and we head back. Got to return truck and get bus for 5 hours tomorrow.

Wake to hear of Florida’s dealings with Irma. We managed to squeeze all our ever-expanding stuff into a laundry room and head out. Drop truck and check into bus. Love these buses. started this diary/blog and watched a movie on Bertha (my tablet) and arrived relaxed…. to wrong bus station …. late. Our friends who were to collect us 45 minutes ago are not here. We decide to taxi to other bus station to find them not there either. They do not have a mobile phone. Dilemma. Before any overriding stress sets in they arrive over an hour late due to traffic at the wrong bus station to find us immediately. All worked out.

We land at our friend’s casita late and collapse.

DAY FIVE

So, we in Lake Chapala and reunited with our van. Amazingly it’s been cleaned and serviced in our absence. It is also packed with old and new stuff and another surf board and inflatable paddle board. We are stuff rich homeless people. We do now have a fab casita to live in this week at our friend’s place. We have good Wifi and time this week to land and sort out a bit.

We don’t need to be back till 18^th and Saturday 16^th is Mexican Independence Day and more importantly … Jaynes birthday. Our shopping list for even more stuff is getting long. Solar, well pump, generator, tools, small ATV, 4×4 truck, bed, fridge, new locks …….

We are both dealing with jet lag but overall relaxed and happy.

Could have done without the scorpion in the tea pan this morning but there you go.

lt’s not a bad start.

La Colina Project

Shift in time & space

September 4, 2017September 4, 2017
by Beave

So you may have noticed a strange shift in the very fabric of things.

I’ve put it down to the effect of the impending move of the centre of the universe from it’s previous home in Darlington to a small treehouse in a Mexican jungle.

Strange days preparing to take the plunge. Leaving family , friends, house, Elvis, the wives and all things familiar to surf into the unknowable.

Overwhelming gratitude.

Here we go……….

Jungle Journal

The Final Countdown

September 4, 2017January 16, 2018
by Jayne

Tomorrow we will be on our way back to Mexico to start our jungle adventure.

The past couple of months have been a whirlwind of leaving preparations. Our house is empty and ready to rent out and our lives have been reduced to 11 suitcases and a surfboard.

Leaving the house completely empty was more emotional than I expected.

It’s good to feel things deeply, the excitement, the sadness, and the slightly nervous anticipation of the unknown.

La Colina Project

Waking Up at Home

August 11, 2017August 13, 2017
by Jayne

We were just over three weeks into our Mexican roadtrip when our lives changed course.

The day before we had driven down the pacific coast from Aticama to San Pancho. Our friend Pedro had recommended we visit San Pancho because it was smaller and more chilled than Sayulita.

We couldn’t find San Pancho on the map, which was confusing because our map was very detailed and had even very small villages listed. We used google maps to find the San Pancho Hostel. It wasn’t until the next day that we worked out that “San Pancho” is what the locals call the town. The official name (the one on the map) is “San Francisco”.

It makes me smile imagining the confusion we would cause telling people we have bought 3.5 hectares of jungle in San Francisco.

It was while wandering down the main road in San Pancho that we passed a blue and white real estate office. We could tell already that San Pancho catered more to tourists than the area around San Blas that we had just been in, this was certain to lead to higher prices. In Todo Santos, a tourist friendly town on Baja, we had popped in to a Real Estate office and been shocked by million dollar price tags.

Curiosity about property values and the luxury of spending a few minutes in air conditioning lured us inside. We were greeted by a friendly lady called Mariel, who gave us a binder full of the properties they had listed.

We were about to find our new home, we just didn’t know it yet. We still thought we were just doing research for a future trip when we would come back to Mexico to find a property “for real”.

Here are the 10 ways we realised we’d found our perfect property:

1. It was the only property in the book under $200,000 USD

We flipped through the pages of the binder, and while they weren’t as high as Baja prices, the first few properties were listed for between $250k – $1 million – in US dollars, not pesos! But we kept flipping and suddenly a picture of some trees rather than a building caught my attention. Then the price… Significantly less than all the other properties…

2. The property was bigger than an acre

After the price, the next thing we looked at was the size. Most properties listed were 1000m2, some up to 3000m2.

We really wanted enough land to be able to build treehouses, grow a food forest, keep chickens – we need space! When originally dreaming about potential land, we said we wanted at least a hectare (10,000m2) but the past couple weeks of viewing land in Mexico had readjusted our expectations.

We were now aware that we may only be able to afford an acre (4046m2) or so if we wanted land that met our other goals too.

This property was over 35,000m2. Our eyes met with raised eyebrows and hopeful smiles. We kept reading…

3. The land is covered in trees. Lots and lots of trees.

We love trees. Our vision for treehouses, hammocks, a food forest, shade, and privacy all work best with established trees. There are plenty of things that you can buy or make happen quickly with hard work.

Old, big, established trees have to be there already or take decades to grow.

The first piece of land we looked at in Mexico looked like this, so to find a property with 1000+ big trees was a major plus.

4. Location is only a few minutes drive from the surf

I have always wanted to live by the ocean. I grew up near the Rocky Mountains and loved it, but have never lived close to the waves. Beave loves surfing, and doesn’t get much opportunity in the North of England. Being able to wake up and be in the water in 10 minutes will be a dream come true.

For example, this was our favourite campsite of the whole road trip, on the Baja coast just down from Mulege.

5. Living close to a village where we can be part of the community

Down the coast from Mazatlan we viewed some remote beachfront properties. They were beautiful, some had some trees that had been planted years earlier, they were bigger than a hectare, and they were almost affordable. Seeing these properties, and not feeling like they were quite right, we realised how important having a community nearby was to us. We want to be an active part of a strong community, not squirrel ourselves away somewhere where we have to drive for ages to find a shop, a restaurant or a town.

6. The Real Estate agent lit up when we said we wanted to practice permaculture

We soon realised that in a binder full of expensive houses on small pieces of land, we had found one property which, on paper at least, met all of our criteria. We asked the lovely Mariel for more details and she disappeared and returned with Shannon, a laid-back American expat who has been living in Mexico for years.

Shannon introduced himself and brought us into his office (with even better air conditioning) to tell us more about the property. The second we mentioned that we wanted a property where we could practice permaculture, his face lit up and he said:

“In that case this property may just be perfect for you. Let me tell you the whole story.”

7. The previous owner ran it as an eco-community

Shannon explained that the property is very unique, and has a very interesting history. The previous owner was a carpenter, who bought the property with the intention of creating an eco-community. He succeeded in leasing plots to at least four other people, and for a time there was a vibrant community. They would meet in the mornings to work in their communal garden, they ran on solar power and had a functioning well for water, and each resident was building their own homes in various ways. The owner wanted his wife to love it there too, and so he did things especially for her, the most notable being that he built a pool for her.

While we have no aspirations of building an eco-community, our plans for a natural space, with permaculture and art at it’s heart, are in keeping with what has been there before.

8. The property has challenges we’re willing to face.

Why was a property of this size, in this location, affordable? We knew there had to be big challenges. It had been on the market for over a year and no one had bought it yet – we needed to know why.

Despite the property being just over a kilometre off the highway, it is not an easy road to travel. In the dry season it is uneven and covered in big rocks. Almost (but not quite) impassable for a standard car. (We later tested this in a VW Jetta, but that’s another story…)

In the wet season, the road traverses four arroyos (rivers/streams) of varying sizes. The last and biggest one involves driving into the arroyo, driving upstream for about 10 meters and then driving out.

We’re told that there is only running water in the arroyos for about 10 hours after it rains, so most of the time it’s dry. But a few times a year, for a few hours at a time, there is so much water that it will come up to the windows of a small car.

The second reason it hadn’t sold yet is the property is mostly protected forest. We can’t subdivide, we can’t build big houses or hotels, and we can’t chop down all the trees. Luckily we don’t want to do any of those things, and it means that the property isn’t attractive to developers.

Another possible reason people were reluctant to purchase the property is that there is a highway being built about 250 metres to one side of the land. We feel it’s far enough away, with enough trees between us and the road that it shouldn’t cause too much noise, and it might eventually provide us a route to town that doesn’t involve fording through a river. It’s all about turning “problems” into solutions (a core principle of permaculture).

9. There is tons of potential and a lot of work

We are becoming protectors of the jungle. Our role will be to manage the forest while also creating a place where it can be enjoyed without harming the flora or fauna.

The jungle has had four years to take over since the previous owner lived there. It will be a lot of work to restore, rebuild and improve what is already there. We’re excited to have a new challenge, and such a important responsibility.

10. When we woke up we both felt at home.

The moment when Beave and I knew for sure that we were going to buy this property was a couple of days after we first saw the listing. Shannon had taken us to see the property and had given us permission to sleep in our van there overnight.

I woke early to the sounds of the jungle, and climbed out of the mosquito net we had hung in the van overnight. I sat in the shell of the stone cottage and felt completely at one with my surroundings. Beave emerged and saw me there. He looked around and said with absolute certainty:

“We’re buying this land aren’t we?”

I could only nod yes with a tear in my eye because I was so overcome with joy.

There in the middle of a Mexican jungle, in an old van and a half built cottage, we had woken up at home.