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Deborah and I have been living in the finished second level for some time now as I slowly finish the ground floor. We've made some changes from the plans.
For example, the ceiling over the great room now soars to a height of 34 feet above the floor. The ceiling/roof is a hexagon, and made of a framework of massive, hand-peeled guayabilla logs, then covered with palm thatch. It's been varnished and gives almost a log-home warmth to the room.
We also greatly enlarged the back (canal-side) terrace, and the corresponding upper balcony. They are very wide and expansive, and wrap around the entire back side of the house.
A year or more ago we bought a boat, a 26 foot sportfisher with 225 hp V-6, small vee-berth cabin, and lots of stretch-your-legs walking around room. The "Rika Rio" has a VHF radio; Garmin GPS (satellite Global Positioning System); small auxiliary engine; a fair amount of teak; tall, flag-flying outriggers for serious deep-sea fishing (if we ever learn how); a swim ladder; and a nice bimini top for shade. Great old boat.
We designed and built a 30 foot floating dock to moor the Rika Rio in the canal beside our property.
We cruise out of the canal system and into the bay once a week or so. Whale sightings are common in winter and spring, and we are apt to see dolphins, giant mantas, and sea turtles at any time.
Wanna come along? Click here: CyberCruise
Deborah 
and I 
have
learned some interesting history regarding our Nuevo Vallarta property. From 1982-'88, during the presidency of Miguel de la Madrid, the lot was part of the compound known as Mexico's western white house. The communications building and radio tower were located on our property, and there is still a small ruin remaining. Across the cul de sac is a large, open grassy area; this was used as a helipad. The main house is still owned by the government of the state of Nayarit, and is used by the Nayarit governor as a weekend and vacation retreat. Consequently, there is quite a bit of security in the area, especially when the governor is visiting.
(Don't be too impressed by all that gubernatorial proximity, however. It seems that, in Mexico, you can't swing a dead gato without hitting a governor or ex-governor.)
Our Nuevo Vallarta HOUSE PHOTOS. These are as of July 2003. Coming along poco a poco...
Quotes:
"Work should not take all your time. Maybe for brief periods, but not over the long haul... As we become more competent and confident and productive, we must return some of the benefit to ourselves in the form of time, life's most precious resource, and not let ourselves be eaten alive by voracious corporations or by incompetent colleagues.
The overachiever who delights in knowing more and doing more than anybody else may be cannibalizing her or his own life and breath and sinews, and in exchange for what? We're awash in motivational propaganda that promotes achievement and sacrifice and killer hours, all of which is fine for Amalgamated Grommet, but what about you?
There is much to be said for mediocrity as a way of life. (Look at me.) I think that a 35-hour workweek should be the goal for
any person who wants a decent life and that by the time you're
50 you should be carving that down to around 30. Shoot me but
it's true."
Garrison Keillor
"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?"
Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), 1885-1962.
"France was a land, England was a people, but America, having about it still that quality of the idea, was harder to utter--it was the graves at Shiloh and the tired, drawn, nervous faces of its great men, and the country boys dying in the Argonne for a phrase that was empty before their bodies withered. It was a willingness of the heart."
F. Scott Fitzgerald
"He was awake a long time before he remembered that his heart was broken."
Ernest Hemingway
"The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock- proof shit detector."
Ernest Hemingway
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Highway (Mex 200) in the mountains south of PV, heading toward El Tuito. In this area, as elevation rises, the tropical forest begins to give way to pine and oak forest.
(Photo by Barbara Tresenriter)
In late September '99, Deborah and I took a fall-foliage and family-history trip to Vermont and Quebec. We stayed in the Northeast Kingdom region primarily (natural lakes, mountains, deep forest, a few picturesque farms), and it was exciting countryside. The forest is a towering mix of evergreens (majestic spruce; huge, stately, white pines) and hardwoods (mature maples and tall, white birch). Natural mountain lakes wind through the hills.
To see photos of Vermont and the Foster homestead (dating from the early 1800s), go to our VERMONT PAGE by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
"Goodness is the only investment which never fails."(Thoreau)
"With the thoughts you've been thinkin' you could be another Lincoln, if you only had a brain..." (Dorothy to Scarecrow)
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LINKS:
Our Nuevo Vallarta HOUSE PHOTOS
LOT SHOTS (Photos of our Nuevo Vallarta property before construction began.)
MARIKA AND RIO (the early days)
FOSTER AND JENNINGS GENEALOGIES
