Getting to Manzanillo

This whole trip was initiated last year over Labor Day. I was doing an outdoor art show on the Museum Grounds of Jacksonville, Oregon. A couple approached me inquiring if I'd consider trading commissioned paintings for them - for - a week's stay at their condo in Mexico? What, why, of course. During the next few months we worked out the comparable size and number of paintings to equal the $600 rental for the condo. And, now here we are going to Mexico in the cold, rainy month of March, for a revival of spirit and assembling material for the 3 proposed commission paintings of Manzanillo, Mexico.

It was 2:30 am on March 14th and , "Beep, beep, beep," chimed my alarm. The trip to Mexico had begun. Meditation, yoga complete, it's breakfasting, feeding Cody (he gets 3 bites from my banana) and final packing. At 5:30am our 'partners en route' pick us up and we wave g'bye to Cody (he looked so baffled) and Joan, our house/puppy sitter - and were off to the airport. All proceeds smoothly thru Medford, Oregon and LA Airports. Between Medford and La the sun rose out the window adjacent to us and caught this flash of color in the airplane. With a 2 1/2 hour layover in LA I had a chance to play with some contour drawing (without looking down, just lead one's pen to 'trace' the outline of what you see). And around 3:30pm, Mexico time (we've lost an hour) we land in the small, simple Manzanillo Airport.

About a 20 minute drive from the airport into the city of Manzanillo, we pass plantain orchards and hill after hill of arid, scrawny treed terrain. As we approach the north end of town colorful buildings begin to pop up, some fruit stands and soon, the turnoff to our condo, "Club Santiago". Our neighbors include private, modest and well maintained homes. Once parked we climb the stairs to find our spacious two story condo with lovely golden colors on the walls and newly tiled bathrooms.

We're anxious to touch the ocean and walk down, after settling in, thru the "Oasis Restaurant" to this welcoming view - ahhhhh! The boys decide they must "get in" and we saunter along to laugh as they bob up and down and in and out of the modest waves. It's a dreamy landing into this warm and colorful land and we can't wait to wake tomorrow to start sampling local life. Buenos Nochas!