House-sit #5: Today is our last day with precious Gomita in La Cruz! She’s a Dogo Argentino / Bulldog mix weighing around 70 pounds, but she’s pure sweetheart. She might be the most chill dog I’ve ever met; she doesn’t ask for food, or even bark louder than a snort, but she gets pure joy from walks, pets, and just being in someone’s company while she chews on her toy. Gomita is all about life’s simple pleasures. See our story highlights for more!
During our three weeks with her, she got morning and evening walks, plus a mid-day walk if it wasn’t too hot (she could overheat). Her twice daily raw food meals were a mix of cooked oats and veggies, with raw beef, liver, and sardines. I’ve mentioned this before, but special diets seem to be pretty common with our house-sit doggies.
Gomita is a true survivor with such a sad history; I won’t go into full detail, but I do feel it’s important to give you an idea of what she’s overcome. When she was young, she was left behind, trapped inside an empty house with a litter of puppies and a pad-lock on the door. When finally found, which was a lengthy process, she was very thin, having given so much to keep her pups alive. She was fortunate to go to the only no-kill shelter in the area, but, remained unadopted and alone for the unimaginably long time of 4-1/2 years! So sad. But so incredibly lucky that Gomita was found and rescued by her cool “Mom” who takes such good care of her! Now she lives the pampered life she deserves, without food allergies, and you can tell she appreciates every day.
La Cruz de Huanacaxtle is a delightful little beach village, even in the humid dog days of coastal Mexico summer. I suspect will be staying in the back of my mind for quite some time. You can walk one end to the other in ten minutes, and find everything you need in between: local fruits and veggies, staples, seafood, lots of restaurants and cafes. Most tourists flock to nearby Sayulita, so La Cruz maintains its slow-paced beach vibe. The beach, a five minute walk away, is not crowded, and being in the bay (Bahía de Banderas), the calm waters make for really great swimming. We took full advantage of that, and enjoyed many days swimming. Now that I think about it, this beach village really is the perfect place for a laid-back dog like Gomita! Happy that we’ve made another great friend in Mexico!
The whole town is literally covered in big, beautiful street murals and little pops of art around every corner. It would seem there was an extensive village mural project Colectivo Tomate, as well as a prolific artist with his own unique super-cute style bue thewarrior. I wish I’d done a better job documenting some of the amazing art, but only captured a few. It’s honestly one of the most art-filled places I’ve ever seen.
The photos in this post were all taken with my trusty Paper Shoot Camera. I’ve written about it before over on my photography page Dani Benton Photography (here and here), but a brief description is: it’s literally just a circuit board inside a paper case, designed to take digital photos that have the nostalgic feeling of the old disposable cameras. This is not an ad for PaperShoot, and I don’t receive any compensation, I just really, really love the little camera. As a bonus, it helps lower my screen time, because it doesn’t have one. There’s no telling if the photo turned out, until you get home to “develop” them, which is part of the charm. I love the vintage quality.
Our YouTube video covering House-Sit #5 ⌄
Thanks for reading,
Dani & Evan Benton
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