M and I were really really ready for the pandemic to end and we tried to sign up on any list we could to be one of the first to be vaccinated. We added our names to lists for last minute leftover shots and then tried to volunteer at vaccination sites with hope of getting our shots. Somehow it worked and in Mid January 2021 we got a text asking us to come in for shots the next Saturday. I think it was a mistake but we ended up being fully vaccinated by Mid February.
So… M was still working at home. My job allowed me to work partially from home and I had a lot of vacation because we didn’t go anywhere in 2020. So… why don’t we just “work from home” somewhere a little warmer than Seattle. We found a cheap condo on the beach in Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico near Puerto Vallarta and ended up spending the whole month of March in 80 degree weather.
This was an incredible experience actually living somewhere instead of just vacationing somewhere. Our condo was almost a mile away from downtown and we didn’t want to rent a car. Our best option was renting bikes. We got a great deal on a monthly rental of 2 fat tire step through 7 speed cruiser bikes. We got them from Joel Gowalski from Bike Bucerias. He also helped found Veloguide which is a service that lets tourists ride rental bikes with local guides all over the world. Pretty cool idea… but we were most interested in just renting some transportation for the month.
M had to work all day until 6pm because of the time difference. It was harder for me to have enough to do working virtually so I was able to work just 5 hours a day and be done around noon each day. So I had a lot of time to kill waiting for M to get off work. I did a lot of biking. I would bike into town to get us some cheap take out tacos. Then I was encouraged to get out of her “office” condo for the afternoon. I rode it the grocery store on the other side of town almost every day. The Bucerias cobblestone roads were not conducive to traditional road bike wheels so I converted to be a fat tire fan really quick. I would take it South on bike trails through the fancy resort town of Nueva Vallarta. I drove North to La Cruz and Punta de Mita to check out other towns. I went up to the farming villages East of town. I did a lot of bird watching in the swampy jungles and even found a really cool Crocodile sanctuary zoo.
After M got off work we would bike into town and eat some really good cheap meals. We intended to eat more in the condo but it was so cheap to eat in the local restaurants and they were very very eager for customers. Bucerias is a snowbird town in the winter but many people had didn’t show up this winter because of the pandemic. On the weekends, we would do longer rides together or take buses to other beaches and towns. As usual I saw much more of things biking than I would have if I was in a rental car. I ended up doing about 400 miles over the month. Here are my heat maps from Strava.
We are now huge fans of Bucerias and some of the other small towns North of Bucerias. We can’t wait to retire some day and have some more extended biking vacations away from the Seattle winter rain.