03-07 to 03-20, Banderas Bay

03-07, Tues. to 03-20, Tues. – Aaaahhhh…. We are now in a state of “what to do”. We were hoping the FM3’s would be taken care of by 3/13 or 14 so we could prepare to head south for a few weeks before heading north into the Sea of Cortez for the summer. However, this was not the case…. This is Mexico after all. So, we will not be able to head any further south this season.

We went to the Britannia (Tues), Ana Bananas (Fri) and Philo’s (Weds) and I got to sing my now “signature song”, “Stormy Monday”, at all three places. It was fun as usual. I also got to sing another song and sing some backup to the groups. (She hit the trifecta of La Cruz venues in one week. The highlight was finally getting to sing at Philo’s with Philo playing the harp. Philo’s live streams so there is an online recording available. As soon as I can find where in the recording she is I will post it – D)

The races continue this week, and there is a LOT of activity in the harbor.

We made some trips to the Mega store. It is much easier to provision when we are at the dock and we fueled up on our way out to the anchorage.

We have been enjoying our friends on “ShantiAna”, Bill, Shanti & Keene. They will be leaving soon on the “Puddle Jump” for the Marquesas, Tahiti and on to Australia. Shanti is a nurse and will be going to work there. So, we are trying to spend time with them before they go.

Also our friends Bob & Sherry from “Nirvana” came over to the anchorage on Thurs. when we moved back out to the anchorage. They have been in the Paradise Village Marina since they got back from their visit home to the US. So, we have been having fun getting together with them too. They will be heading up to the Sea of Cortez to sweat all summer long with us too. They are heading there sooner than us though.

We are now able to see how the season works down here. All kinds of boats we know are coming back into the Bay here after having been south. They are either heading north to the Sea of Cortez for the summer, “Bashing” back up the coast to home, putting their boat in a marina or boat yard and going home for the summer or they are leaving on the “Puddle Jump”. So, lots of comings and goings here.

On Tues, 03-13, our friend Cynthia came to town to stay with us for two weeks. She needed a break from the Bay Area life and arrived at 2:30 this afternoon. We met her at the airport and brought her out to the anchorage.

The races are easy to see out in the anchorage, so we've been having fun watching the boats go by and/or race right in front of us.


We’ve been having fun sharing all the wonderful restaurants, music and people with her. She is enjoying the friendly people here in La Cruz. Cynthia comes from a very musical family and works in the business herself. She has found that her grandfather is known and loved amongst the jazz musicians here and they are quite impressed to have his granddaughter visiting in town.

The owner of the La Cruz Marina also owns a resort hotel down the highway towards Punta de Mita that is really lovely. We took advantage of the ability to purchase a day pass and we three spent the day there. They had a three-tiered pool with waterfalls running down from the top falling into the next pool. The view of the ocean was wonderful and it was easy access to the beach. For $200 pesos you got $100 pesos towards your food and drinks. Nice day!

Cynthia & I went into Bucerias to do some shopping and have lunch. Our favorite singer at the “Fat Boy” restaurant in Bucerias is a little Mexican fellow who looks like Mr. Myagi from “Karate Kid”. He only speaks maybe 20% English and is so darling when he tries to sing American rock songs like “Pretty Woman”. It comes out “Pretty Puma”. He sings very well and has a voice that sounds like Rod Stewart. So very cute and entertaining!

After about two weeks at anchor we took the boat back into the marina for easier access to the town and transportation for the next week while Cynthia is here. We want to take a bus into downtown PV and to Bucerias again for some shopping and clubbing.

The Banderas Bay Regatta is coming up this week beginning Tues., 3/20! So on Monday we took a ride over to Paradise Village Marina to see if we could get a slip there later this week, but they are full up. It was a nice ride for Cynthia to see Nuevo Vallarta and we had a lovely lunch at the Vallarta Yacht Club and headed back to town for dinner and music.

More La Cruz & Trip to San Sebastian, 02-28 to 03-05

02-28, Mon to 03-05, Mon – Another week gone by! Oh Boy……. This week was an interesting week around La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. The town is being torn up from one end to the other with great vigor! (This has actually been building for a few weeks but has now reached a feverish pace with work going on late into the night – D) It seems there are a few different forces at work here. 1st there is the Copa de Mexico (Olympic qualifier and races) (J24s , Optimist, Lasers, 420s, wind surfers and kite surfers – D) which are being hosted by La Cruz and other places around Banderas Bay (which are usually hosted by Acapulco, so it is a BIG thing) this coming weeks from the 2nd to the 18th. Also, an impending visit from Presidente Philipe Calderon, a beautification funding for one of the “Mystic Villages” (which La Cruz is one of four), the annual cruisers regatta at the end of March and some other forces as well (such as big boat race coming from San Diego to Vallarta – D). These events are at the core of all this unprecedented vigorous amount of work being done in the streets of town and the marina. The cobble stones are being torn up with new ones being replaced or cements roads being put in or replaced, the unsightly overhead power lines are being buried, new sidewalks being put in, businesses/houses being repainted/repaired and the central plaza is being renovated complete with a new fountain!! All kinds of racing boats are in the marina (mostly J24’s), banners are flying and concession stands are being erected. There is a lot of security present as well, preparing and practicing for the visit of the President.



What are we doing? Enjoying another week in paradise :--). We stayed on the anchor this week. I got to sing again on Tuesday night at the Britannia Pub, which was fun as always. We went to a pot luck dock party on the Catamaran at the end of Dock 4 where we had a slip. Lots of good foods to share and met a lot of seasoned cruisers whom we had never met before.

We also had our friends from “Chrysalis”, Dave & Leianne, over for dinner one night (another couple we keep running into in our travels that we love). We took a couple trips to Mega in anticipation of leaving the area the following week. However, we are not sure of leaving now in view of the fact that our FM3 visa’s are not yet completed. We’ll see. Friday, we moved into the marina again to the same slip we had last time. We needed to do this in order to take our overnight trip to San Sebastian this Sunday.

Anyway, our much anticipated trip to San Sebastian happened Sunday morning. We met everyone at “Philo’s” Restaurant at 9:45 a.m. to board a beautiful tour bus to take the 2-2 ½ hour trip up into the mountains to this wonderful historical mining town. It was a little bit of a precarious trip up and down, but our driver, Israel, was really a terrific driver. This was illustrated at the very start when he had to turn the bus around in the tiny intersection there in La Cruz in order to get out of town…..WOW!!! It was impressive! Made us all feel better about the potential success of the trip.

This trip was $850 Pesos/person (75 US $), which included an overnight stay in a hotel (not 5-star but cute and comfortable) a lasagna dinner, music by Philo’s band and many other guest musicians and a continental breakfast. The bus cost an extra $8 US dollars/person.

We loved our rustic room at the “Hostel d’Cervantes” overlooking a ravine. Although, as you will see in the picture, we had to be careful climbing the circular staircase to our room that evening. (The only way to and from our room – D) We enjoyed exploring the town: the roosters crowing, the cobblestone streets, the horses, and the authentic Mexico-ness of the whole experience. You would have thought you were in an old western movie in this setting. You could almost see Clint Eastwood riding into town on his horse. (Many of the streets were only wide enough for a horse or four-wheel ATV – D) As always here in Mexico the people were wonderful! (You get a big smile and Hola from almost everyone – D) We ate lunch at a lovely restaurant overlooking the town square and took a siesta before the evening began. We were serenaded in our room by a practicing mariachi band across the ravine, which was delightful, amongst the roosters crowing.

The evening’s event was held in the old fort (since this was a silver mining town once upon a time), which has been turned into a hotel, where they set up a buffet lasagna dinner. Philo’s band was playing and we were all getting to know each other. The musicians kept playing with many talented players and the dinner was delicious. After dinner a bonfire was lit in the center of the fort courtyard and the musicians went acoustic. Many folks were roasting marshmellows on the fire and we were all singing along to some great songs. Some of the local Mexican singers and guitar players were performing some excellent songs too. It was so very inspiring, as they LOVE their music and play it with such passion. We heard that it went until 3:00 a.m., but we only made it until 11:00 or sooooooo. It was a wonderful evening. (While we were enjoying our music fest, the townsfolk were being serenaded in the town square – the white gazebo was their bandstand. It was the band, twelve of them mostly brass, that we had heard practicing earlier and boy did they perform with gusto. Families wandered about, kids romped all over and the teens did the usual flirting back and forth –D)


We were awakened by the chorus of roosters in the morning. Quite amusing! We discovered that not all roosters can sing either. We would hear lovely roosters crowing in different voices and then all of a sudden, this one poor rooster would “squawk” in a most unorthodox and ugly manner. You could only laugh!

The trip home was precarious, of course, but we made it home safe and sound. Met a lot of interesting and nice folks. (There were about 80 in the group, mostly Canadian snowbirds and not infected by the Mexico paranoia, so prevalent in the US – D) (My favorite event happened while we were exploring the town. Another group from our party passed us on the street and asked if Tami was the jazz singer from Britannia Pub and was she going to sing tonight. Alas, it was not to happen as Jazz was not really the band’s style, but I’m sure she liked the compliment and recognition – D) We’ll see what the next week brings…..