AA by dinghy in Punta de Mita mexico

1/3/2011


After a trip to the tiny town of Yelapa we made our way back to the north side of Banderas Bay. Bill and I had been staying in La Cruz but with Barbara aboard we decided to try anchoring at Punta De Mita mostly because the internet had listed an English speaking meeting there.

Once anchored in Punta De Mita I called the contact number for the local meeting. She was a local woman but spoke wonderful English. She gave me some directions and agreed to meet us on the beach and show us to the local meeting hall. She signed off with the instruction to look for a woman with short dark hair which actually describes half the women in Punta de Mita.

The anchorage in front of PdM was lovely but there wasn’t a dinghy dock and the beach landing looked a little tricky. Bill decided to take us in and drop us off then wait on the beach for our return. This surf landing stuff is still new for us and on top of that having three in the boat made it even trickier. Though not completely successful and certainly less than perfect we somehow managed to make it on to the beach with nothing worse than a little sea water on our skirts.

After ringing out what we could we headed to a beach access looking for Lizette. She showed up a few minutes later and we were off to a meeting. It turns out that Lizette had decided to try and start an English speaking meeting in PdM basically on her own. She contacted the local Spanish speaking AA hall and arranged to use their meeting place and then worked with the Web Master for Banderas Bay AA and put up an online meeting listing. Then she practiced her patience. For three months every Tuesday she has opened the hall, arranged the chairs and set out the books waiting for someone to show up. Barbara and I were her first.

We were warmly welcomed in Spanish by member of the hall. He started a pot of coffee for us and invited us back to attend any of the other meetings there then he disappeared and left us to our meeting. It was a wonderful meeting just the three of us and I have to say I admire Lizettes’ resolve to stick it out for so long hopefully waiting. After the meeting we stopped back at here apartment to grab a plastic bag to wrap around our cameras in case the return trip was as wet as the first. While there we were introduced to her boyfriend and then Barbara stepped across the living room to use the restroom. When we first entered her home a medium sized dog moved across the room towards us. Lizette explained that he was a rehab dog they were taking care of temporarily and urged us to “ignore” him completely. Then as Barbara stepped across the floor the dog lunged burying his teeth into the back of her thigh! Poor Lizette felt horrible and Barbara was simply stunned. It all happened so fast there was no way to avoid the confrontation. Eventually amidst the apologies and the conversations about rabies vaccine we got our cameras wrapped and headed back down to the beach.

Our return ocean entry was horrible. Again this is all new to us and our timing truly sucks. We tried several waves and were pushed back each time. The last wet one turned us completely around and soaked us all. A quick regroup and still yet another try and we were soaked but off the beach and on our way back to the boat and some dry clothes.

Barbara is in the medical field so on our return to the boat she was able to determine what the best course of meds would be to avoid any infection from the dog bite. Island Bound carries a full medical kit and we had just what she needed. The next morning we called Lizette to double check the date of the dogs rabies vaccine and so as of her departure everything seems to be healing just as it should.

Two days later we were on the bus to Salyulita and we ran into Lizette again. She was taking one of her dogs to the vet and then was on to Salyulita herself to work with another rehab dog. We knew we were going out the next day to do some whale watching so invited her and Cody along. So the next day they joined us along with another cruising couple on a trip out to the Bay to watch the Humpbacks. It was a great day….a lovely way to spend a little fellowship time and we were able to end the day at English speaking meeting in Nuevo Vallarta.

Getting to meetings gets increasingly difficult the farther I am away from Seattle. My one other attempt at a Puerto Vallarta meeting was a bust. Bill and I walked all over the north side of Bucerias with no luck. At one point we asked a local if he knew where Double A met (which is how they refer to AA in Mexico.) He evidently misunderstood our requests because after a bit of a language struggle he gave us directions for the tequila factory! Regardless of the struggle it is always worth my time to try. I never know quite what to expect but it always turns out in the end. Meeting others in the program has definitely been one of the highlights of the entire trip and I always get something out of my troubles to find just one more soul like me. kat