San Pancho Life Newsletter

entreAmigos

Recicla Shop

Panchito's Bar

Article by Poki Piottin

Juaquin Lawrence Hershman, a master biodynamic French-intensive gardener, formerly involved in building the San Pancho Civic Garden, has initiated the creation of a community garden at entreAmigos.  The project started on Feb. 26 and is quickly drawing many volunteers.   

Over 200 varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs have already been started. Several varieties of fruit trees have been started in containers. Some of these will stay at the EntreAmigos Community Garden, and the rest will need to find other gardens, in particular the several varieties of rare and delicious watermelons and cantaloupes, which require much space to grow!   

Garden activities are taking place daily, including weekends, from 11-2.  Participants learn biodynamic techniques of preparing soil, creating raised beds, starting plants in flats, composting and more.  Other local plant experts regularly visit the garden to share their knowledge.

The intention behind the project is to inspire and support the creation of efficient and beautiful organic food gardens throughout San Pancho.  We will soon be transplanting young seedlings into the garden. Feel free to visit anytime and know that we love it when children come play in the dirt with us...

Upcoming activities will regularly be posted on our blog.  We also started showing ecology-related documentaries at Café Arte on Mondays 3-5. If you wish to be notified of our activities, please visit: http://sanpanchocommunitygarden.blogspot.com and subscribe to our Community Garden blog on the top right-hand side of the page.

We look forward to creating magical gardens with you.

Juaquin Lawrence Hershman, Alan Heinz and Poki Piottin

Judges Update:

By Tamara Bode

The bridge is open to one lane traffic and foot traffic. The other access, through the warehouse and river are closed. The final pour and then the edging will be finished, along with the guard rails, before Semana Santa.  

A reminder to everyone: San Pancho is very busy during the two week Easter vacation. We will have more dumpsters and trash drop offs available so there will be no need to leave trash by the side of the road. The Municipal Police will be increasing their forces here and will continue to be a 24 hour a day presence.

Please respect the village and drive slowly on Tercer Mundo, there are no speed bumps yet. And with the new surface of the main street, there are a lot more people on bikes and skate boards. Just be aware that kids don't always look where they are riding.

Be sure to remind your guests to lock up all valuables or better, leave them at home. With many vistors for the Easter break, it will be more difficult to monitor everyone and every house. Use common sense.  

Thank you to the home and business owners on Tercer Mundo that have been watering the new palm trees in the planters.

There will be no Farmers Market this Saturday so that we can all go to our neighboting village of Sayulita and watch the 2nd annual Longboard, SUP contest. See you there with San Pancho Surf Shop Tshirts on!  

Have a safe and fun spring. 

An update from San Pancho's Municipal Delegate: Ramón

New  Advertising on San Pancho Life

Check out these great local businesses here in San Pancho. These newly listed businesses in San Pancho services to all our San Pancho residents and visitors alike.

Costa Azul Restaurant  (coming soon)   Los Milagros de San Pancho Restaurant (coming soon)  

Check out the new Lodging listings on San Pancho Life

 <Casa Lolita>    <Palapas Las Iguanas>   <Villas Susana>

<Villas Clavellinas> 

Capoeira: Afro-Brazilian culture and tradition comes to San Pancho

March 17-19 Festival de Arte 

By Glades Huizar 

Driving down the main road, just as I enter San Pancho, I'm reminded how fortunate we all are to live (or visit) a town with so much activity. And, I don't mean the workers on the bridge . Though, the busy work around all that, is definitely a good sign that perhaps the entrance and the main road will soon be done. What is equally exciting is the constant movement of people (young and old, residents and tourists) that is seen around the Bodegas. Thanks to entreAmigos Centro Educativo - the first to renovate these warehouses - that area is a hub of activities with something for just about everyone! 

Between the Bodega 3 (the multi-purpose art venue for events, expos and workshops) and entreAmigos Centro Educativo is the little known Bodega 2 - what many of us call the "sports bodega".  The newest addition to San Pancho's diverse offerings is the Abada Capoeira School.

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, in Bodega 2, students (children and adults) are seen doing some pretty incredible moves - notably impressive considering that some of the students are as young as 4 years old and almost all of them are beginners. Although many of his local students have never seen Capoeira before, instructor Juan Rivera captured their curiosity quickly and his dynamic classes gained popularity with over 20 children and over 15 adults now participating.  These classes are another opportunity for town residents to learn a different art form, gain cultural enrichment and (definitely) to get an amazing work-out! But, it's worth noting the growing interest from local teens - as more positive options for adolescents (especially, sports-related) is always a good thing.

What is Abada Capoeira?

Capoeira is an African-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, music and tradition. ABADA Capoeira's long and prestigious history began with the original master teachers from Brazil. With representation all over the world, the ABADA Capoeira (Mexico) is rooted in Mexico City with schools in the states of Jalisco, Chihuahua, Puebla, Colima and Veracruz.  Proud to mention, now San Pancho is the home of ABADA Capoeira Nayarit.

About the Instructors

New residents of San Pancho, Juan Rivera and Letitia Tarno came to visit nearly 2 years ago while on vacation from their home in Mexico City. With a young daughter, Letitia envisioned a life away from the urban culture and fell in love (like so many of us) with the town and what it offers young families.Soon, they were bound to the coast with a vision - a new life, a new school - and soon Capoeira Abada Nayarit was born. Besides San Pancho, classes are being taught in Sayulita, Bucerias and Puerto Vallarta.

Instructor Furao (as Juan is known in Capoeira) has been training for over 12 years and is a founding member of ABADA Capoeira Mexico. Born in Mexico City, he is the top ranked "foreign capoeirista" in ABADA Capoeira Worldwide. Letitia assists in the younger children's classes. She studied under Instructor Furao.

Festival de Arte Capoeira in March

On March 17- 19, over 100 Capoeristas (including our San Pancho students) will be participating in the very first Capoeira conference where local students will meet and learn with others from around the country. The town will be a base for the union of all the Abada Capoeira schools in Mexico and two legendary masters from USA and Brazil.

To learn more about the classes and how you can help with the upcoming event, contact abadacapoeiranayarit@yahoo.com.mx. Or, join as friend on Facebook (abada capoeira nayarit).  

Class Schedule:

4:30pm (6 to 10 years old) 5:20pm (4 to 6 years old)  6:00pm (over 10 and adults) on Tuesdays and Thursdays inside Bodega 2.  Newcomers or visitors are always welcomed!

SanPanchoLife.com Visitor Statistics 

Statistics for March 4 - March 10, 2011  

Total Pageviews:  4,465 

Total Unique Visitors:  3,547 

Reservation Requests:  31 

Most Popular Business   

La Ola Rica 

A true Story of Falcons, Children, Family and Freedom...

Dear readers, today I want to share with you a story that happened to my family a few days ago and we learned a lot and already count it as a life-time memorable experience for our young (3 and 5 year-old) kids Quetzal and Utsil.

A couple of weeks ago we were at Tao`s (Plantate and Tomas son) birthday party. It was sunset time and we were about to leave when I got a call from our friend Maria who works at the Recicla Shop at entreAmigos. She and some folks from Sayulita had found a small bird of prey they referred as a Kite injured along the main street in town, they were calling me to see if I  could do something for the bird. We got to where they had the bird in a few minutes. The injured bird was a Bat Falcon, one of the smallest species of Falcons that specializes in eating bats and swallows; you can imagine they are good in flight!  The animal did not seem to have any broken wings but was obviously disoriented.

We covered it with a piece of cloth and decided to take it home to sleep it through the night and then see if he was ready to be released back to the jungle. Once at home we emptied out dirty-clothes basket, put it upside down and let it be a temporary cage for our new Bat-falcon friend. At this point my kids were fascinated with their new jungle friend and as most kids they wanted to feed it and keep it as a pet, which for mom and dad was not an option...

 Next morning I woke up when it was just clearing up and listened to the high-pitched call of a Bat-Falcon... first thing I though and felt: the Bat Falcon wants to go back home.

To be continued...

Una verdadera historia de los halcones, niños, familia y libertad ...    

Estimados lectores, hoy quiero compartir con ustedes una historia que le pasó a mi familia hace unos días y hemos aprendido mucho; ya contamos esta historia como una experiencia memorable de por vida para nuestros pequeños hijos Quetzal y Utsil (5 y 3 años).  

Hace un par de semanas estábamos en la fiesta de cumpleaños de Tao (hijo de Plantaté y  Tomás) años de edad. Era hora de la puesta del sol y estábamos listos para irnos cuando reci  bí una llamada de nuestra amiga María, quién trabaja en la Recicla tienda de entreAmigos. Ella y algunos amigos de Sayulita habían encontrado una pequeña ave de rapiña herida que refirieron como un milano a lo largo de la calle principal del pueblo y me llamaban para ver si podía hacer algo para ayudar al ave. Llegamos a donde el pájaro estaba en pocos minutos.  

El pájaro herido era un Halcón Murciélago, una de las especies más pequeñas de halcones que se especializa en comer murciélagos y golondrinas, se pueden imaginar que son buenos volando!

El animal no parecía tener ninguna ala rotas, pero estaba obviamente desorientado.  Lo cubrimos con un pareo y decidimos llevarlo a casa para que pasara la noche y luego ver si se recuperaba para ser liberado a la selva. Una vez en casa, vaciamos el cesto de ropa sucia, lo pusimos boca abajo y lo usamos como una jaula temporal para nuestro nuevo amigo halcón. Para estas alturas, mis hijos estaban fascinados con su nuevo amigo de la selva y como la mayoría de los niños ya querían alimentarlo y mantenerlo como una nueva mascota, lo cual como podrán imaginarse para mamá y  papá no era una opción ...  

A la mañana siguiente me desperté cuando estaba clareando y escuché la voz aguda del Halcón ... lo primero que pensé y sentí: el Halcón murciélaguero quiere volver a casa.   Esta historia continuará ...

Rodeo in San Pancho Sunday March 13th!

Fundraiser 

 By Bill Roberts

This is a big weekend in San Pancho! entreAmigos Fundraiser on Saturday and a Rodeo on Sunday!

The Major fund-raising event is scheduled for Sunday, to benefit La Iglesia de San Francisco de Asis, our local village church, which is hoping to build a multi-use room.

This rodeo - a program of dancing horses, bull riding, and other typical Mexican caballero activities -- will take place on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 (or maybe a little thereafter) at the Salon de Eventos "Los Reyes", which is located just a kilometer north of the San Pancho turn-off from highway 200.  You can experience the excitement of  DRIVING OVER OUR NEW BRIDGE.  There's plenty of parking at the site.

I believe it is a GREAT THING FOR US TO SUPPORT.   And the cost is very reasonable - just $100.00 pesos for admission with the hope that you will buy some  50-peso raffle tickets to make an additional contribution.  Tickets are available from Jose Islas, Skip Dickerson and Bill (Bill Roberts at 258-4518).

Please give your support to this project.  It's a most worthy cause.

Notes from the Ranch  

With winters cold weather slowing the gardens down, I took the opportunity to have some elective surgery. Now, I've not been under general anesthesia for almost 20 years so it was quite an experience! I think the doctor removed part of my mind, too.

I'll call this column Random Thoughts from a Confused Mind (as I had lots of weird dreams and thoughts in the past few days after surgery and lots of downtime to think about them):

-I miss Captain Kangaroo and Mr Green Jeans.

-If the Professor on Gilligan's Island was so smart, why didn't he build a raft?

-What happened to nursery rhymes?

-What if this is Hell? Can I stop going to church?

-Being 9 years old and riding my purple and pink Stingray bike with handlebar streamers to the public swimming pool in the morning and not getting home until just before sunset.

-Riding the same trusty steed to the creek on the other side of town with a paper bag containing a peanutbutter "samich", an apple and a jar of grape Koolaid. Jumping in the swimming hole we dug by hand. Where was my Mom in all of this?

-Taking the bus to the matinee show at the Capital Theatre and watching Bambie. I cried. And buying a "sanitary napkin" to dry my hands on because if it cost 5 cents, it must be cool.

-The Jetsons

-"Lucy, you got some 'slpaining to do".

-Dick Van Dyke falling over the same ottoman every show. Why didn't he move it? And twin beds and pajamas? Come on, you think I believe that?

-The Galloping Gourmet. I can trace my love of red wine directly to this show. He looked like he was having so much fun! 

-My Mom exercising to Jack Lalane and then lighting up a bare-assed Pall Mall afterwards.

-Dancing to Trini Lopez's "If I had a Hammer" on the coffee table in my Mom's polyester slip and my white go-go boots from Christmas with my best friend Kathy. And breaking the table right in half. Try to explain that one to my Dad! I didn't know a human face could turn that color.

-Grandma Erma, the famous quipster, and Grandpa Bill dancing to "Three Coins in a Fountain" and me falling asleep in a pile of coats. Then Grandpa Bill carrying me to bed. Sweet dreams, princess.  

Things I am grateful for: modern medicine, down time and better living through chemistry.

Blessings, Tamara

Tamara Bode has been living in San Pancho for 15 years. She is the owner of Harmonia Holistica. She is a Massage Therapist, and also specializes in nutrition counseling and lifestyle coaching.  Contact

Tamara