06/08/24

We decided to spend a few days in the nearby town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, or “La Cruz” as everyone here calls it. Part of the hope was that once we had a few days of AC, refrigerator, and stable power, our heads would clear enough for us to solve our problems.

One problem has been that we are very isolated in Higuera Blanca, and making new friends has been hard. We are hoping that in La Cruz, we’ll have more opportunities to meet new people doing fun new things. For example, Facebook shows an event happening this Saturday: an umbrella regatta where you paddle whatever you can, using an umbrella for a sail. It’s at the Marina and it sounds awesome. We don’t even have to participate but I would love to try if we can scrounge up a raft and some paddles.

Other things at La Cruz:

• Watch the fishermen come in
• La Cruz Beach, which covers five kilometers (three miles) and is divided into five sections: El Tizate, Cruz de Huanacaxtle, La Manzanilla, Piedra Blanca, and Arena Blanca.
• Destilladeras beach
• La Cruz Sunday market
• Fish market

What we actually did:

On Wednesday we checked out the beach near our Airbnb. I think this was just the regular La Cruz beach.

On Thursday we sat in the outdoor courtyard of a pizza place around the corner from our Airbnb. The dogs came with us and did not do too badly. Later we tried the 20 peso ice cream on the plaza and enjoyed it.

On Friday we checked out Outdoor Movie Night in the plaza. More ice cream.

On Saturday we attended the Umbrella Regatta at the marina. It was fun to connect with the weirdos in this town. I found a fish market, and we had dorado (mahi-mahi) with asparagus and leftover hollandaise.

On Sunday, we learned the Sunday market is closed for the season. We checked out to go home.

We concluded that it is not cost-effective to stay in an Airbnb during all of rainy season, so we need to think of another solution. We will try having the solar panels cleaned/ maintained and see if that helps. Then we will upgrade the system so we can run a fridge and our computer equipment, even on cloudy days. Then we will buy a backup generator that can run a fridge and a couple fans overnight, for the days the solar fails. Lurko thinks the fuel for that will cost a thousand dollars a month, but I don’t think we will need a backup every night.

We shall see! I’m just glad to be in my own house, in my own bed….with an extra fan.