Dia de los Ninos

Quimixto

April 30th is Dia de los Ninos, Day of the Children. For this holiday, a field trip had been arranged for the kids at RISE. Since she knows we have car –will drive, Chris Amo asked if we wanted to go to Quimixto with the kids.
We all met at the shelter at 8:30. Kids, madres and volunteers were piled into the cars for the drive to Boca de Tomatlan. There we loaded everyone plus all the supplies for lunch into 2 pangas. The water was fairly calm and the trip to Quimixto went quickly. Once in Quimixto, we carried all the lunch supplies to the house where the party was being held. One of the board members of the Children’s Shelter of Hope, Jim, has a small place there and was hosting the group.
After bathroom stops, a cold drink and a snack, the kids were ready to go. First Jim showed them the huge iguana that lives in his garden. Another, even larger iguana was also there for the kids to feed and touch.
There is a waterfall in Quimixto accessible by hiking or horse. Some of the group rode up on the horses and some hiked up. Once at the top, almost everyone went swimming in the pool below the waterfall. The water was really cold but felt great after the dusty walk up. Even though it is the dry season there was plenty of water in the waterfall. After swimming, everyone headed back down. Luckily, those of us who had walked up got to ride down!
Once all hikers and riders returned, lunch was served. Hotdogs, chips and fruit were popular with the kids. Poor Jim’s house looked like a tornado had gone through!
After lunch, we took the kids to the beach. It was almost like having a private beach. Two guys gave the kids kayak rides, the bigger kids swam in the ocean and the little ones played in the sand.
The kids all walked down the beach to get back to the boat while some of the adults went back to Jim’s house to get the things we were taking back. Amazingly, the house had been cleaned up and looked as good as new. There was a lot less stuff to go back! The boats were loaded and we returned to Boca. Once back in the cars, almost all the kids went to sleep on the trip back to the shelter.
It was a wonderful day in the little town of Quimixto. Quimixto is a step back in time, there are no cars and it is accessible only by boat. The kids all had a great Dia de los Ninos.

An evening in Bucerias

We went home after the Quimixto trip and took a siesta. After the short rest we headed out to check on our construction work in Bucerias. When we got there, the workers had already left for the day. We went to the main plaza to see what was happening. A show was being held for Dia de los Ninos. There were 3 or 4 clowns performing, handing out balloons and running contests for the kids. Apparently there had been a parade as we saw some floats parked on the street. After watching the clowns for a while, we decided to have dinner. El Lugar is located on the north side of the main plaza near the church. It is on the 2nd floor so we decided to eat there and watch the action in the plaza. We heard a band playing and there were many people in the plaza. Harold had a calzone and I had shrimp pasta. The food and service were both good.
After dinner we walked around the plaza. The band we had heard was now playing in another part of the plaza. It was a 16-piece band named Banda Perla Negra. It appeared they were playing at a family event. Some of the little girls who had been in the parade and show were there in their princess dresses. They had food, drinks and were dancing in the plaza. We sat and watched the dancing. We particularly enjoyed watching the kids dance. After about an hour, the band packed up and was headed to a nearby restaurant to play at a wedding reception.
We were worn out after the long day but we had a great time at the events.