Skinny Girls Roadshow LIVE from Mexico — To Eat or Be Eaten

Down here, south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where there are iguanas on the rooftops and butterflies in the house, where flowers and rubber trees grow from rock walls and rain gutters and cobblestone streets, where that chirping call you hear from the trees at night is not birds but geckos, where moths are the size of your hand and walls transitory, time takes on a drowsy quality and you get into the rhythm of the tropics and the realities that entails. Some of those realities, like the lush beauty and balmy waters, are lovely. Some, like the mosquitos, are not.

Baja from 30,000 feet

Baja from 30,000 feet

The last time I contemplated myself as meal on this blog was a post I did from Lake Tahoe reflecting on the Donner party. But after our first night of our now annual fall trip to Casa Tres Coronitas in which I received some 15 to 20 bites inside the mosquito netting that surrounded our bed (while my daughter, outside the netting, got that many on her face alone), I find myself considering it again. More

Skinny Girls Roadshow, LIVE from Mexico — Casa Tres Coronitas

It was two or so years ago, at the preschool silent auction. I may have had a drink or two, I can’t recall. Browsing the yoga classes, crappy wine baskets and tickets to Legoland, I discovered seven nights in a house in Puerto Vallarta. The opening bid was $1,000. The value was $10,000. Nobody had bid, so I figured I’d go ahead and get things rolling. Puerto Vallarta was my favorite town in Mexico, and if I won, it wouldn’t be the worst thing.

I won.

Vista bonita — Casa Tres Coronitas

Fast forward a year. We hadn’t yet claimed our winnings. And once again, there was the week in Puerto Vallarta at the preschool auction. Our friends Nat and Shirley had bid the opening $1,000. Wouldn’t it be nice to have two weeks, I said to my wife. So I bid $1,100. “Stop overbidding us!” Shirley insisted. I agreed, on the condition that we combine our time — after all, the literature said 5,000-feet, two master suites, ample room for children — and go either two consecutive years, or for two weeks. They agreed. More