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well, it took us a little longer than usual, but we have a new four legged friend who has joined our family. costa rica doesn’t seem to have as much of a problem with strays as mexico, but there are still plenty of pooches who need help. our landlady claudia told us about another lady called tanya who is running a one woman rescue operation for cats and dogs in the area. she used to have a couple of volunteers who were helping her, but they all quit and she’s been flying solo ever since. tanya has no less than nine dogs and three cats at her house and is understandably overwhelmed. brenda had a chat with her last week and tanya told her she had a very sweet dog (number ten!) that would be perfect to foster.

his name is “blackie”, which isn’t our favourite name, but it is what it is. he is eight months old, and is absolutely adorable. we had to keep him tied up for most of the first few days, as he ran away twice and brenda had to go and find him. he’s been sticking close since, although yesterday evening he went walkabout and didn’t return until this morning, looking very tired. that’s cool though – i think its nice for dogs to have the freedom to come and go as they please, knowing that they always have a place to return to.

IMG_0019i really hope that we can find him a permanent home here. he is so well behaved, walks like a champion, and has a very relaxed, easy going temperament. we would totally keep him if we weren’t jumping around all over the place! nayou, who is normally very wary of dogs, loves him. he’ll take blackie for walks and play with him, which is definitely not his normal reaction to dogs. blackie seems to get that nayou is a little human and is very gentle with him.

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inquiries from anywhere in the world are welcome. if you are thinking about getting a dog, or know of anyone who is, let them know about blackie. this is one awesome canine!

you would think that with our much less hectic life that i would have all the time in the world to take photos and blog, but its really the opposite. isn’t there a saying that if you want something done quickly, give it to the busiest person? personally i am loving the slower pace, not being in too much of a hurry to get things done. i do have to check myself from trying to stay busy all the time though. its all part of the decompression process!

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brenda’s old friend from seattle came down for a week with her husband. they were exactly the kind of guests we love – low key, up for anything, and self-sufficient. they stayed in a beautiful place with a pool, so we got some quality hang time in their neck of the woods!

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here is nayou demolishing some watermelon after a good swim in the pool.

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we are still very much into legos. right now its all about building various spaceships, training centers, cars, hideouts etc and then battling to see who wins (hint: its never brenda or myself).

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i love it when other kids come and play legos. its so cool to watch their individual building style. everyone always uses pieces in some fresh way that gets me all inspired too! here is nayou with kevin and jacob, two relatively new friends who are very chill. their mother takes care of a toddler across the street so hopefully we will be seeing lots more of them in the days to come.

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i love this shot brenda took. our friend sondra wants to take photos of her clothes on the line as a sort of diary, which i thought was a pretty cool idea.

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last friday at the market we cranked through ten liters (2.5 gallons) of green juice. this week we put some watercress into the mix and it made the juice really creamy. probably one of the best batches yet, in my humble opinion! its a good sign that we’re cranking more than ever, despite the fact that the busy season is coming to an end.

here is a little something i made for the three of us today. nayou is feeling a bit under the weather so there is lots of oranges, some ginger, wheatgrass, mint, celery, carrots, turmeric and parsley. it might sound weird but it tastes so good!

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the saga of our canine friend chappi had a happy finish today. ever since chappi came to live with us he has eventually wandered back to his old home. its about a fifteen minute walk across town from our place, so it was definitely a bit of a pain to go and get him every time. its not like he didn’t like it at our place – its just that when he went off on one of his adventures and it was time to go home, he just followed his first instinct and ended up at his original house.

chappi ran away about three days ago and this time we got a bit lazy and didn’t go and get him in a timely manner. brenda and i talked about it and decided to see if the owners would be willing to take him back if we provided the food. clearly chappi was comfortable there (he has a nice outdoor space and its peaceful), and he wasn’t causing any trouble.

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so we spoke with the lady who owns him this afternoon and she was actually happy to take him back! it turns out that chappi has been chasing away the neighbourhood dogs who have been coming in to chase their chickens, so they are cool with him being there again. which is a funny twist in the story considering they were originally going to get rid of him because he was the one chasing chickens. luckily for everyone he doesn’t do that anymore, so everything has worked out as it should 🙂

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see you around town, our little friend. it was great having you around! and we’re so glad that you get to be back where you feel most happy!

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there has been a slow burn of house-related activity in between my yoga teaching, our weekly stall at the market, and chilling at the beach. our favourite space to hang out is just outside the backdoor, where there is a palapa and a nice patio. brenda has put up a swing and made it a more festive place to be with cushions and tables and whatnot. here is nayou with his friend maximo (both obsessed with star wars).

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as i’m typing these very words, this is what is happening right behind me:

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we found an old plastic piggy bank in our backyard. so we spray painted it hot pink!

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oh, and guess who we saw on the beach? well, this was our second reunion but this time i remembered to take photos. rocky has a bit of a crazy look in his eyes because i had a stick in my hand. still as beautiful as ever, and packing some more meat on his bones too!

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nayou loves him some bouncy castle time. good thing there are plenty of them around town, including one in the plaza that pops up in the evening.

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little chappi is doing well with us. we took care of his fleas and his coat is all shiny and awesome. he’s a little more feisty with other dogs and people now but still so mellow in general. we had him snipped today so the por guy is comatose while the anaesthetic wears off. ouch!

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chappi’s story is that he belonged to this old couple in sayulita. they used to have him to catch chickens but then tied him up to a tree and fed him occasionally after the chickens were gone. so he wasn’t exactly neglected like some of the other dogs, but the owners were planning on dropping him off in the jungle somewhere because they didn’t want him anymore. so it was a good time to foster him.

he is super smart and likes to make sure our little tribe always stays together. old habits die hard though, and when he is off leash he runs away and eventually makes him way back to his old home. so we still keep him tied up when he’s at home which he doesn’t mind. we’re slowly going to wean him and see how he does. in the meantime, he is getting lots of walks as we take him everywhere with us.

these branches are nayou’s sunbrella.

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and some nice photos brenda took of things around our neighbourhood:

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i love this sign! so random.

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when its cloudy and windy with no waves, its time to fly the kite.

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… and do yoga on the beach.

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nayou came into the yoga room while i was doing my practice yesterday and followed along with me for a good ten minutes. it was so cool. i was trying so hard not to look at him but it was pretty much impossible. too cute! he’s got a pretty mean warrior a 🙂

as usual we’ve been slack with our blog updates. there are a bunch of photos that i have been meaning to post for a while but haven’t had the chance to, so this will be the post where you get to see them all!

nayou is at the stage now where he is dirty all the time. we have to bathe him twice a day – once for each time he goes to sleep – and change his clothes just as often. i remember stories of my aunt adele hosing her two kids off in the backyard when they needed a clean. usually these stories were related with a touch of mock horror, but now i can totally relate. in fact, we are proudly following in her footsteps! usually when we come home for his afternoon nap, we let him loose on the front porch with the hose. i like to think it fosters independence 😉

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it used to be that we would head down to the beach after nayou’s nap, but these days we usually end up hanging out at home with the neighbourhood kids. this group are a serious godsend as they entertain each other for hours. watching them play and take care of each other is so cool. nayou is slowly getting better at the whole sharing thing, and i’m sure that he is learning a lot from these kids.

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these two pics were taken by ximena, the older girl in the photos above. for some reason i find them hilarious and totally adorable. nayou is using crying as a tool to try and get his way, which is what is happening here. when that lower lip starts jutting out, beware!

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a couple more random shots:

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oh yeah and we went on another one of darrien’s awesome cruises a few weeks ago.

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and brenda took nayou to visit the land that we were (and kind of still are)  interested in buying for our earthship. our boy got into the spirit of things in full expedition gear. note the bag of toys in his hand. we can’t leave the house without some sort of container stuffed full of his things. they don’t have to necessarily be toys – occasionally we’ll leave with a handful of his underwear too.

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check out his big bag in this photo (if you can take your eyes off his golden mullet):

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nayou still can’t swim yet, but he is very comfortable in the waves even when they break over his head. he’s kind of into surfboards, but mostly he likes to splash around in places where his feet can barely touch the sand.

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our friends from revolucion del sueno sent us two lovely photos from the surf competition. the one of rocky is just gorgeous!

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on monday we are headed off to san blas with some friends for a couple of days. our friend risa is from there and so we’re going to get a taste of the local life up there. not to mention the surf!

 


its been a roller coaster of a ride over the last couple of days. so many things happened at once that i felt like we were in the middle of a soap opera. well, not really, since only two of the things were bad. the rest are great.

the first bad thing was nayou getting sick. i mentioned this at the end of my last post but since then he developed a nasty smokers cough that is still lingering. luckily he is on the mend thanks to brenda’s amazing home remedies. the mexican families think we are crazy for not giving him antibiotics, but he got better in the same amount of time using old wives’ remedies like this, and this. its been hard to watch nayou so needy and cranky, but i think he does better than me when it comes to putting on a brave face when sick. we’re hoping that he’ll be all smiles again when he wakes up tomorrow!

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the other bad thing was that rocky got stolen. yes, stolen. over the past week we have been going surfing at punta de mita, which has an amazing wave that just goes on forever. it is brenda and my new favourite surf spot. two days ago we were hanging out there with rocky and we couldn’t find him when it was time to leave. we figured he would eventually make his way back to our spot on the beach, so we talked to the waiters at the restaurants there and decided to come back later. he was still missing that afternoon so we started asking the local surfers if they had seen anything. sure enough one of the guys said he saw a kid leading rocky by the collar up into the residential area. the guy lead me to the house but no-one was home. so we had to drive back there a third time that evening (20 minutes each way) to see if we could find rocky. we were greeted by this shady man who acknowledged that his “step-son” had taken the dog, but that the step-son lived four hours away and took the dog with him. it was all lies of course, but he promised to have the dog back the next day so we gave him the benefit of the doubt.

just because we were worried that the guy wouldn’t come through, the next morning we talked to the police in sayulita who said that they could intervene if need be. yay. we decided to see if rocky would be returned as promised or bring lots of trouble instead. luckily for that family they had rocky, who was very tired but otherwise fine. the kid tried to spin a story about how rocky followed him home, which is unfortunate since three other people told us they saw him pulling him by the collar. we also found out that the kid lives right in town and not four hours away. i guess with role models like that… which is a pity because the kid had a really nice face and eyes. hope he turns out ok! we’re not quite sure why he did it – our neighbours think he was after money, which is most likely, but maybe he just wanted a cute friendly dog? we didn’t really hang around long enough to find out, although brenda gave him a piece of her mind before we left 🙂

our pod has been happily reunited for the last day or so. i think this incident made us realise how much we love this dog. he is a super sweetie and fun to be around, except maybe when he gets excited and nips at you. but that will go away as he gets older (he’s only nine months old). we’ve been giving him extra loving and are very careful about keeping an eye out when we take him out.

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so these stories have or are on their way to a happy ending. there have been other awesome happenings as well. first and foremost the swell has been amazing. i’ve been surfing so much that my body practically shut down from fatigue today. i’ve decided to exercise some self-restraint and take a day off tomorrow, even though the waves are supposed to be amazing. my shoulders might fall off otherwise! as i said earlier we’ve been surfing at punta de mita which is just perfect for longboards. the rides are so long that your legs get tired! the swell in sayulita has been big – like 4-5m (13-16ft.) – which is kinda scary. i went out yesterday to check things out and caught the biggest wave or my life! it was so scary and exhilarating at the same time. you feel like a total rockstar afterwards. but paddling out in surf that big is a chore, and i much prefer the cruisy waves at punta de mita.

another thing that has been fun about surfing punta de mita – partners in crime. earlier this week brenda bumped into matt and susan outside our house and got to talking. it turns out that they are both yoga teachers from san francisco who love to surf. they are really cool, positive people that are a pleasure to be around. their yoga classes also have a lot of similarities with mine, so its been interesting swapping stories with them. matt and susan were with us when rocky got stolen and were kind enough to come and help look for him when we went back. thanks guys! unfortunately they leave on sunday, but that means there’s still one more day of surfing left (except for me… boo-hoo)!

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and here is the cute shot of the day to wrap things up. its time for this tired man to get his ass to bed.

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