My Beloved Sayulita

Next week is the 2 year anniversary of our arrival to Sayulita as full time residents. For many years we visited these shores as tourists, visitors, day-dreamers, hoping to spend more and more time here as the years passed. After various visits, we decided that the place to get married was our fave vacation spot, Sayulita. During these years, we had been casually discussing on and off the frustration many must feel with only being able to visit their favorite places in the world once a year, if that... why can't one really make a life in their dream-location? Why does it have to just be a week per year, crammed full of joy and happiness, but ready to fade at the return to work? During our wonderful Wedding week in Sayulita in May 2004, we made the big decision that we were going to do it... the big IT... move to Sayulita. We were managers and big level planners, after all - why can't we make a plan, a schedule, a budget.... all the things we did for our company to keep the work flowing and get the job done... lets do it for us, and our dreams. And so we did... we laid out a 2 year plan, with a solid list of the things that had to be done before moving anywhere. We had a task each to do each passing month, and we did them, big or little...and as the time approached, we felt we really had a good handle on things, and that this dream-plan-scam was really going to happen. We left San Francisco on March 11th, 2006 and headed towards our new home in the sun.

Today we live in our own house in the Tamarindo neighborhood of Sayulita. It is about a 10 minute walk to the beach, and to the center of town, and we love our hood. Though Sayulita has changed so much since our first visits in 2002, it's soul and spirit remains the same. Dusty Bohemian, pure Mexican, mixed international, new faces, old faces and a colorful bag of characters litter the streets, and though they are cleaner than years past, the dogs still rule the roost. A few more streets are cobbled, but you can't stop the dust, especially as we fall deep into the dry season. Today is the start of Semana Santa, or Holy Week 2008. Many businesses close, gringos run for the street and the huge Mexican tour buses line the streets near the beach, bringing throngs of Mexican tourists to fill every nook, roof-top, street corner for the next 2 weeks, the busiest 2 weeks of the Mexican vacation season. Half fun, Half scary, mostly dirty is the feeling one gets during this time. We all wish the travelling Mexicans respected their towns as much as we do, since by the end the streets are covered in garbage and Modelo cans - but all we can do is make it thru it safely and keep our town in good shape.

No place stays the same, nor does any person - we keep this in mind as we watch our Sayulita grow and change in the face of progress, as the new title of "Riviera Nayarit" http://rivieranayarit.com/ brings new gangs of visitors, and slowly changes the world around us. But like any friend you love, who grows and changes because of a changing world around them, we keep loving them, and we keep loving Sayulita. We care for it, we protect it, and we think of it fondly when we are away from it. This, after all, is our dream spot, and we have been lucky enough be living in it. I look forward to raising my child here, among a people and culture that believes and thrives in Family and friendship.