Well the gangs all here in Barra de Navidad. Betsy flew in from Powers, OR the day after Tate and I got here, Tate’s parents Tate and Jane came in the next day, and my old mandolin pickin buddy Steve came in from Bellingham, not to mention all the good folks we meet just hanging out in town. The times couldn’t be better.

Betsy, Jane, Little Tate, Big Tate, and Steve out sailing on Bodhran:

We started out last Sunday with a benefit volleyball tournament to raise money for local sea turtle programs. Beth is a volleyball coach back in Powers and saw a flier on the wall of Rey Momo. There was no question as to whether we were going to play or not, the only problem was that there was a $500p entry fee. Now you have to understand what a bunch of cheapskates we are, but Justin was kind enough to sponsor us as a Rey Momo team if we could get enough people together. So Tate turned to the couple at the next table at the bar and said “You guys look semi-athletic.” From that, we met Seth and Amy and team Rey Momo was born. The tourney was out at the Copa Cabanyas out past the golf course on Isla Navidad. It’s a cool little spot, but in the middle of nowhere. Still they seem to be doing fine and had a great sand volleyball court with the beach in the background. We had some ringers on our team with Amy and Beth both being long time volleyballers and with Tate’s reach. We rolled to victory in our first two games, but then the Alaskan Airlines flight with Tate’s parents flew overhead and our front man had to take off to go and meet the plane. From there our fortunes took a bit of a dive, but we still ended up taking second place coming up through a loser’s bracket in a single elimination tournament. I’m still not sure how that worked. Maybe it was because we were the crowd favorite, pickin tunes on the sidelines between games, or maybe Justin slipped the organizers some pesos to keep us in the tournament, who really cares? In the end old Justin got his money’s worth. He took the afternoon as an opportunity to be obnoxious and heckle everyone that he’s been wanting to flip crap to for years. He was in rare form by the time we took the water taxi back to Barra, heckling all the yachties in the marina from the prow of our panga for their opulent lifestyle choices that are ruining his beach paradise.

Betsy, Seth, Amy and T riding in the back of a pickup truck on the way out to the tourney:

We didn’t really get any action shots, but that’s team Momo out on the field:

Pickin under the close supervision of the local constabulary:

That night we met up with Tate’s parents at Mexico Lindo for dinner, and who should arrive? Good old Mandolin Steve a full day early. He was supposed to hang out in PV for the night before coming into town, but quickly tired of the big resort city and decided to take a bus to meet us. Now Steve’s never been here and we weren’t expecting him so you might have thought that it would have been hard for him to find us, but he was carrying his mandolin at the time and some guy stopped to ask him about playing music. Well of course Steve mentioned that he was coming down to visit Tate and myself. “Jason and Tate?” the guy replied, “they’re having dinner in Mexico Lindo.” So Steve was quickly directed towards us and settled right in for a night of pickin and eating quesadillas.

Betsy and Old T pickin on our favorite street corner:

The last few days since have been a bit of a blur. We’ve been doing some surfing. Betsy stood up on a wave for her first time. I got everyone out sailing. We had good wind and went up and anchored in a little bay north of Melaque where we went swimming and downed a 7 avacado guacomole. The rest of the time we’ve been pickin. As Old T put it this morning, “I love it how we take a little pit stop for sleep and get right back pickin” after a session on the boat that went until 2am and then started back up in the cockpit at quarter to 10 this morning. My voice has been shot, but fortunately Beth sings like an angel, so she’s been picking up the slack while I rest up for our big amplified show up at Rey Momo Friday night. Should be a good one. Hopefully Tate will plug his mic on his mp3 recorder into the mic jack and not the headphone jack this time and I might be able to get some tracks up on the site.

Tate and Steve pickin poolside at the Sands: