Day Two in Lo de Marcus

I had intended to show y'all our bungalow, but life kinda got in the way on Tuesday and too many other things happened to take photos...  so our day went like this...

We had to get our rental car back to the rental office by 2:30 pm so we wanted to take advantage of the time we had with it.  Lo de Marcus is a very small town...  only has 7 blocks in all.  We live about a block from Rt 200, which is the main road down to Puerto Vallarta and about 6 blocks from the Pacific Ocean.  There are a few side streets...  which include several other apartment rentals as well as quite a few trailer/RV parks.

There is no bank here and most places can't make change for large bills.  We really needed to change the money Bill got from the ATM into smaller denominations.  We drove about 10 or 12 miles north to a bigger town...  La Penita, where there is a bank.  

That town was so busy...  it made us feel like we were in a thriving metropolis like NYC or Chicago or such.  We quickly did our shopping and banking and headed back to our quiet little village.

There we drove the car along the coast road...  which ended at the foot of the jungle...  but did see a lagoon where later we'll take our binoculars and go birding.  We're told that there are flamingos there... that's exciting!

Mostly we wanted to walk around town and get a feel for what is where...

We located the church (Saint Mark... what else?) but there was no posting of mass times.  

We walked one more block past the church and came to the ocean...

Really beautiful beaches...  sandy...  not really any shells.....  

The Pacific Ocean here is like it's name.... quiet and peaceful.

We were still getting settled in our bungalow so it was another night of eating out...

My favorite...  Shrimp Diablo

The shrimp were spicy (as the name implies) and the refried beans, rice and salad complemented it wonderfully.

Bill had a fish dish... also spicy and tasty.  The upper right... we were visited by the resident kitty.  He didn't beg for food, but liked to be petted.  I miss not having a cat and both Bill and I enjoyed his visit.  The lower right says it all...  we cleaned our plates!  There are lots of restaurants here and who knows?  we may try them all in our time here.

As we were walking toward home, we passed the town plaza.  It's a very nice place...  gardens, a gazebo, tennis courts, a bandstand and nicely kept paths.  Something big was going on...

I still don't know what "DIF" means, but they were the sponsors of this holiday festivity...

There was seating (lots and lots of chairs!) in front of the bandstand...  lots of music...  and dancing and contests for kids.  The folks in the light purple shirts were the DIF folks and they sure kept this lively.  At one point, a fellow had a drone with a camera fly overhead taking photos of the crowd.  We stayed about an hour then headed home.

I love walking down the main street...  there's always something going on.  Many of the shops kind of spill out onto the sidewalk.  All along the street I'd noticed Christmas decorations.  

I was surprised to find that there were folks making these by hand.  They'd put paper mache around a blown up balloon... then cover the dried base with colorful paper and decorations.  I watched this girl decorating one with ribbons and bows...  I was really impressed!  It looks like this whole town is what small towns in the USA used to be like.

And to further this feeling...

These men had a domino game going on.... right out on the sidewalk.

Earlier in the day I'd seen a few men here playing cards.  Guess this is the local hangout for the guys!

We headed on home...  

We both think this is going to be a great place to be... it's already beginning to feel like home.

That's All For Today!