Sunday, January 12, 2014

Getting to Mexico and Exploring Sayulita

The trip to Mexico was close to being extremely stressful. The night before my flight was scheduled to leave I received an e-mail from American Airlines saying my flight from Minneapolis to Chicago was cancelled. Naturally, I freaked out and proceeded to wake up my dad in a panic. While we were looking over the e-mail I got an automated call from American Airlines. By some stroke of luck the automated lady didn’t understand what I was saying and put me through to an actual person who was able to get me on the LAST seat of an earlier flight. Under normal circumstances I would hate waking up earlier, but when it means making my connecting flight to a destination that is at least 80 degrees warmer I am ALL IN! And my luck didn’t run out there. For a reason unknown to both the curbside guy and me my second checked bag was free. Clearly the travel angels are on my side for this trip. I hope it continues (and that I didn’t just jinx myself)!

I'm so happy I made it to Sayulita on time!

I met the other girls at the airport in Chicago and we flew on the same flight to Puerto Vallarta. The flight to Mexico was about 5 hours. I mostly slept, but Erin and Alyssa made friends with people who were actually travelling to Sayulita for vacation. I know it is a tourist destination, but I did not expect it to be that well known. Getting through customs was easy, we all got the green light when we hit the button!

Fernando, a driver from Sayulita was waiting for us outside of customs. He helped us with our bags and showed us to the ATM and bathroom before we left for Sayulita. Getting money from the ATM was a scary experience. I was the first to try it. I put my card in the machine and nothing happened. Immediately I tried to cancel the transaction to get my card back, but it wouldn’t return it. I started to think the machine ate my card, which would be a horrible way to begin the trip. But then a guard reassured me that I would get it back. Apparently the machine is old and needs some process time. It ended well for me, but the other girls opted to use a different ATM and I don’t blame them!

The drive from Puerto Vallarta to Sayulita was absolutely gorgeous. Our views from the car included the Sierra Madre Mountains and the rainforest. The rainforest was beautiful but looked different than I imagined. As would be expected it is very green, but there are also a lot of long, mossy-looking plants that look almost ancient. Cynhia thought it looked a lot like Jurassic Park, which is actually a good comparison. Fernando told us that there aren’t a lot of animals in the rainforest, or at least not the typical animals we would expect. A lot of the animals he mentioned include ones we have in the Midwest, like coyotes and raccoons! But there are also iguanas, snakes, and spiders—eek! He also joked with us about watching out for sharks when we are at the beach, which launched us into humming the Jaws song. Luckily, he was just kidding and reassured us he has never even seen a shark in his life. And I am happy to say that after spending two afternoons at the beach I have not encountered a single shark. Along the ride we also spotted avocado trees, which made us all really excited for the fresh produce we are going to eat during this trip.

Once we got to Sayulita we met Kathy and Tamra at the house we will be staying at for the next nine weeks. Kathy received her PhD from UW-Madison and moved to Sayulita 2 years ago to become the director of the school, CVIS. Tamra is originally from Los Angeles, California and has lived in Sayulita for 15 years. She and her husband used to come to Sayulita to surf and decided to move here. Now she runs a real estate business. She was very sweet and accommodating—she even had snacks waiting for us at our house, and might lend us her golf cart while we are here. A lot of people here own cars, which they use to take them into Puerto Vallarta. But, while they are in town they usually drive golf carts. It would be cool to have a golf cart while we are here, but if it doesn’t happen it’s ok because everything is in walking distance from where we live.

Golf carts are everywhere!

The house we are staying in is a two-story brown building in a small neighborhood of five houses. All of houses share a pool—score! On the first level we have a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and living area. Upstairs there are two bedrooms, another bathroom, and a porch. Cynhia and I are sharing one bedroom that has twin beds, while Erin and Alyssa are sharing the other bedroom that has a giant bed. It is wider than any bed I have ever seen in my life—we could probably all share it if needed!

Our house, complete with a 
beautiful mountain backdrop.

The pool we share with our neighbors.
Not too shabby!

Arriving on a Thursday was perfect. It allowed us to still get oriented at the school, but then gave us the weekend to get acquainted with the town, and start working on our tans since we look like ghosts in comparison to all of the locals! On Friday we went to CVIS for the first time. It was founded six years ago by two families: Tamra’s (our realtor) and Anne Menke’s (a well-known fashion and tourist photographer from Germany). From what I understand they wanted to create an ecologically friendly school that provides an opportunity for both Mexican and international students to learn English and Spanish in a dual-immersion environment. The school is absolutely beautiful. When you walk in there are some offices for Kathy and other administrators/secretaries, and the school library. Beyond that building is a giant courtyard. Classrooms surround the perimeter of the courtyard for all of the grade levels, which include Kindergarten (which starts with 3 year olds) through 9th grade (they just added the middle school this year, which includes 7th, 8th, and 9th grade). Students seem to do a lot in the courtyard, it is where they eat lunch, have recess, grow their community garden, maintain their compost pile, and more. While I am at CVIS I will be with the 5th and 6th grade teachers, Joel and Jen. Joel is the Spanish teacher, and Jen is the English teacher. We have not decided on my regular schedule yet but I think I will be spending time in both of their classrooms. I cannot wait to be at the school full-time next week!

For the rest of the weekend Cynhia, Erin, Alyssa and I explored Sayulita. Every day we have fallen asleep and woken up to the sound of an assortment of animals. The roosters sing their “cock-a-doodle-doo” or “ki kiri ki” at all hours of the day and night. The street dogs also howl and set each other off as if they are in a pack. I think we have even heard a few donkeys, or “burros.” Although I will have to get used to these noises, they are much more pleasant than the foot traffic and snow/garbage trucks I hear at my apartment in Madison.


Some of the roosters that have been 
keeping us up at all hours of the night!

There is so much to do in Sayulita. Everywhere we go people try to sell us anywhere from a bracelet to a whale watching tour. There are also so many great restaurants and shops. When we went out for dinner on the first night with Kathy I was surprised by how many Americans and Canadians are here. So many people have moved down here to start their own businesses, and many vacation here. Everybody that lives here has a really cool story. A lot of people are surfers that used to come here all the time, but then decided to move down here. There is also a really cool couple that owns the restaurant “Rolley’s” which we went to for breakfast on Friday. Rolley is a retired school principal, and his wife is a retired school-teacher. Rolley always dreamt of opening his own restaurant, so now that they are retired they come down here and operate their restaurant during tourist season. Rolley’s along with all of the restaurants have food that is absolutely amazing and fresh. I have pretty much had some sort of seafood everyday including shrimp, mahi mahi, and fish tacos. At almost every meal we have had guacamole and pico de gallo with chips, and we have even started making it at home since the ingredients are so fresh, cheap, and easy to find! We have also dined at a few beachside restaurants. It is so beautiful and calming to be able to eat, and live in such an amazing tropical paradise. I cannot believe that this is going to be my life for the next nine weeks. Below are some pictures of the wonderful food we have eaten:


Fish of the day, mahi mahi, 
at beachside restaurant.


A vegetable rice bowl with 
chips and chipotle sauce. 


Eggs with shrimp and tomatoes
at Rolley's, a great breakfast place!

One thing that has really surprised me is a warning we have gotten from pretty much everyone we have met: Do not get pregnant. Apparently Sayulita has a high incidence of girls/women who come down here for a vacation, fall in love with a surfer, and then get pregnant. What a horrible thing for a town to be known for! So many people from the school have warned us not to get pregnant, including Kathy, Jessica, and America. Lila, an American woman we met in town who lives in Sayulita and works at a bunch of clothing/accessory shops (we’ve seriously seen her at 2 or 3 stores already) also warned us about this. While I am not worried about any of us getting pregnant, I thought I would share the warning because literally every person we’ve met has warned us!

Below are some pictures of Sayulita. Everything is so gorgeous. I cannot wait to explore more over the next nine weeks!

 A view of the beach. Can you imagine
living in those houses?

A view of the plaza.


Some beautiful handmade jewelry and toys.


One of many calles in Sayulita.

Well that is all for now. Tomorrow the four of us will officially start our student teaching. I am so excited to be in the classroom all day, five days a week. For the first week I will mostly be observing to get a feel for the students and how school works at CVIS. Wish me luck! 

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