04-17, Tues - 04-24, Tues

Yaaay! What a fun week! Tuesday was La Cruz day. We all took the two required busses to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle so we could show them where we’ve been for the last few months. So, we made the rounds to all the places we’ve been blogging about. The only bummer is that it is very much like a ghost town these days and it was pretty HOT in town. We went out to the Yacht Club and had tostadas (25 pesos ea), checked in at Ya-Ya’s Café, had a cold one at the Huanacaxtle Café, said hello at Philo’s, had dinner at the wonderful La Cava Mexican restaurant and, of course ended up at the Britannia Pub to sing. Our friends Bob & Sherry joined us at Huanacaxtle Café and then again for dinner. At Britannia, the band had worked on the song “Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray” for me and I got to sing it for the 1st time. That and Dick finally got pics of me singing there :--). It was an all-around fun day. The next day the boys played a round of golf while Yvonne & I lounged by the pool and lazy river. When the boys returned they joined us for a couple hours and then we all went to dinner at a lovely place on the estuary called “Eddie’s” that they thought was a $2.00 taco joint, but ended up being a really nice dinner-house. Not too expensive, but a nice menu and a trio band playing classic rock. Thurs. we motor-sailed over to Yelapa on the other side of the Banderas Bay. We had been looking forward to sailing there all season, but hadn’t made it there yet. (We had saved the experience to share with them – D). So, we discovered it with them. It truly is a small gem of an anchorage. (Small and very deep, so we had to rely on a mooring – cost $10 and included a panga ride into and out from the beach – D ) We walked up into town and had lunch, then hiked up to the waterfall. It was lovely! When we came back down to the palapa beach where the panga dropped us off on the way in, we had a cold one with some chips & salsa at the Oasis which is the restaurant that belongs to the panga driver. He took us back out to Journey for the sail home. It was great weather, not crowded and beautiful! Our last day together, the boys golfed another round (Tom creamed me both rounds, the course was in excellent condition, with alligators being the most interesting hazard – D) and Yvonne & I went into Bucerias to shop for a ceramic sun for her fence. I’m hoping she will post a picture of it on Facebook :--) We stopped to see the fellow we now call “Mr Myagi” who sings at the Fat Boy restaurant on the beach and to have lunch. He’s the one who sings “Pretty Woman” and it sounds like “Pretty Puma”. So cute!! After shopping & lunch we returned to pool-side. This time at a different pool! This resort is HUGE and full of pools. (It would take close to an hour to walk from one end to the other through immaculately tended grounds – you would be hard pressed to find a dead leaf. – D) This is probably the prettiest one they have though. The boys joined us after golf at the pool for a while. We topped off the visit with a FABULOUS dinner at a restaurant of a friend of theirs called “The 159”. Exquisite! Many thanks to Y&T for bringing us down some things we can’t get here and for treating us to a taste of resort living, dinners out, etc. etc. Mostly thanks for just being them :--) ( A great time has had all around – D). We spent the next two days recovering from all the activities and on Sunday night we had a farewell dinner with our Canadian friends, Bill and Brenda, from the boat “Tahnoo”. They are leaving their boat in Paradise Village Marina for the summer and going home to Canada until October. Monday we brought the boat back into the La Cruz marina to prepare her for the voyage north to the Sea of Cortez. We need to get the bottom cleaned, remove some rust-drip stains on the sides, provision for the trip and wait for the weather. We already have found out that the weather will not be cooperating until next week. However, when we do head out we will pretty much be tracing our path back up to La Paz and then head further north where we have not yet been. We are bracing ourselves for this coming week. Tomorrow, Wed., begins a 9-day festival here in town. It starts with fireworks and a parade tomorrow morning at 6:30 a.m. (not kidding). There will be fireworks again around 7:00 p.m. and then again around midnight. ( I am told the fireworks will repeat every day – including the 6:30 AM ones – they do love their fireworks here – D). There are going to be carnival rides in the parking lot here at the Marina and all kinds of booths in the town square. There is bound to be lots of loud music, Mexican style, with guitars, drums, tubas and trumpets until all hours of the night. For details check out the website amigosdelacruz.org – D). I am looking forward to taking pictures of this festival, so stay tuned….

04-11, Wed - 04-16, Mon.

Week in a nutshell:

We were trying to stay quiet this week so we would be rested up for the upcoming visit of our friends Tom & Yvonne. We were half successful in this endeavor :--) as there is always something that comes up.

On Wed. night there was a birthday party at Philo’s for a 92-year old former cruiser who “swallowed the anchor” here and is now resident of Puerto Vallarta. “Capt. Ron” is what he goes by. He came down here in the 1970’s on a boat and has been living here ever since. He is now living on land, of course. He has done a lot of work raising support for the single moms in the area. Anyway, we wanted to meet him because we’ve been hearing him on the radio every morning and he’s quite a character. So we went to Philo’s for dinner with Bob & Sherry and Brenda & Bill. Well, Ron didn’t show up….. We were all worried about him, of course, and we found out the next day that he had a bad case of diarrhea and was unable to come out. At any rate, Philo called me up to sing with him and I got to sing a couple songs plus backup vocals on a couple songs.

On Thurs. there was supposed to be a party at Huanacaxtle Café for a boater that was heading North, but the location must have changed, because no one showed up at the Café. We went with Bob & Sherry and Karen, from the boat “Solitary Bird”. Since no one showed up, we went to dinner at a new sidewalk restaurant and had a FABULOUS and inexpensive meal. Bob wanted to play his mandolin, so we went to Philo’s again. Yes…… was asked to sing yet again.

We stayed out at anchor with the exception of going to Bucerias to get my FM3 finalized on Thursday and to get my FM3 card on Friday. Yaaay! Finally got it!

Saturday we took Journey to Paradise Village Marina and did some work both Sat. & Sun. on cleaning both her and the bottom of the dinghy.

Tom & Yvonne arrived on Saturday and spent Sunday acclimating to the time zone and their resort.

We got together with Tom & Yvonne on Monday to go to the Romantic Zone of Puerto Vallarta. They met us here at the Paradise Village Marina, Vallarta Yacht Club for breakfast and mimosa’s. Then we took a water taxi over to the Romantic Zone and walked through the area. Unfortunately the city was hosting an economic summit with a lot of world dignitaries attending (including Hillary Clinton) so much of the Malecon was barricaded off and there was VERY tight security everywhere. We had a pleasant time though and a wet ride back to the Marina. We went over to their resort so we could see it, sign in as guests for the week and have dinner. A very pleasant day and evening! We are very happy to see our friends!

04-03 to 04-10 La Cruz

04-03, Tues to 04-10, Tues – Tues nights are usually spent at Britannia’s at some point and it was true again this week. We had dinner there with Bob & Sherry and Bill & Brenda. Got to sing my song again, but with a different band and Geo the Violinist. This band plays in Bucerias regularly and has asked me to come sing with them. Had to tell them “maybe next year” :--) Anyway, it was fun as usual.

Thurs. night, at Philo’s, our friend Bob (of Nirvana) got up and performed with the guitar class he has been in for the last couple months, so got some cute pictures of that.
He plays the mandolin though and had a solo in the middle. He did GREAT! The whole class did great and everyone enjoyed it. I also got to sing “Stand by Me” with Philo & of course “Stormy Monday”. Yikes! Can’t go anywhere without having to sing now. Too funny! (Can you say “crocodile tears” – she’s loving it – Tami has definitely made a name for herself in the music circle of town. We’re probably one of the most recognizable couples in town between the “Jazz Singer” and “Santa Claus” – D)

Saturday night was the 8th anniversary party for the Britannia Pub Restaurant, so we attended the party and Yep... I got to sing again!! Here are some of the pics from that evening...


There is a 75 year-old woman named La Donna, from Kansas, with her husband, Bud, who live here in La Cruz 4-6 months out of the year. She came up to me at Ana Banana’s and asked me if I would sing a duet with her. She is such a doll and a nice woman, I went to her casa to practice “The Rose” with her so she could sing harmony (which is what she has wanted to do, but couldn’t find anyone to do it with). So, we performed that at Ana Banana’s on Sunday night before the band played .

Other than those few things, we have been resting on Journey in the anchorage, reading, interneting, watching movies and relaxing. Getting ready for a visit from Tom & Yvonne this coming weekend! Very EXCITED about that :--) We will move Journey to Paradise Village Marina on Saturday so we can be near their resort. Can’t wait!

Easter is a HUGE holiday here in Mexico. The biggest of the year! Bigger than Christmas! The beaches were crowded, the roads were jammed and the locals were in very festive moods. La Cruz put up a carnival around the newly-renovated town square, including rides, food and games. They also put up a stage on the dirt lot where they had just had the Charros perform and bands played until 4:00 am. The square was jammed with people every night all week long. The Mexicans love any excuse to party :--) This is also the time of Carnival. You didn’t dare go into Puerto Vallarta it was so crazy. It could take 2 or 3 hours just to get there.

I am still waiting for my FM3. Because of the Easter/Carnival Holiday, it has been delayed yet again. It sounds like I MAY get it on this Friday.

(And then we’re off. The plan is to take a few days to provision and then start working our way back north. First back to Mazatlan by way of Chacala - can’t wait for a shrimp and garlic pizza at Benji’s in Stone Island anchorage, Mazatlan - then across the Sea to Baja. Re-provisioning and rest up in La Paz for a week or so and then up to Puerto Escondido, Bahia Conception and ??? Cruising plans are written in sand, you know.

We keep getting reports back, by SailMail - from our friends who have left on the Puddle Jump. The furthest has crossed the equator and is closing on the Marquesas and our friends on “ShantiAna” are about half way. Seems that the weather has been cooperating. – D)

03-21 to 04-02, La Cruz

03-21, Wed – 04-02, Mon. – So, what have we been doing for the last two weeks? Let’s see… Cynthia was with us for another week, until 3-27. We did not end up going into PV. As Cynthia put it “Why go into PV to be around people you don’t know and spend all kinds of money when you can have fun here with all the nice people you do know”. Amen!

So, we enjoyed some of the town events and people, more food and more music. The marina hosted a HUGE event for tourist promotion. Government tourism agencies spent $1.5 Million dollars for a one-day event. It was amazing to watch them put this thing together. (And then tear it all down in two days –D) They also had a big fireworks show at nearly midnight. We were all woken up by it of course and got up to watch it.

We spent a lot of time with our friends from “ShantiAna”, including a day-sail on Journey in the Bay and a farewell dinner for Cynthia.

Our friends on “Nirvana”, Bob & Sherry, raced in the Banderas Bay Regatta and came in 3rd out of six boats in their class, so they were very excited! We celebrated with them, of course, with a brunch at the Octopuses Garden restaurant. Our friends John & Gilly on “Destiny” tied for 1st place in their division.

(Tami doesn’t mention the music events of the past two weeks but last Tuesday was a watershed day. A week earlier she had sung “Stormy Monday” at the Britannia Pub again but this time with the band made up of different musicians than she had sang with in the past, more the “A” team. The lead guitarist and singer, Freddie, a local, had not previously heard her. Though the band had trouble with the music, he was impressed with Tami’s voice and energy. Without letting Tami know, he and the rest of his band rehearsed the song through the next week until they had it cold – with instrumental solos and all. When we showed up this last Tuesday, the band was playing and they announced we have a “special guest singer” tonight. They called Tami up and proceeded – to her great surprise and pleasure - to nail the song giving Tami the opportunity to really belt it out. Applause and cheers all around. The bands are starting to ask her what song she would like them to learn. – D)

We saw Cynthia off at the airport after a wonderful two weeks and began to prepare to go back out to the anchorage for a couple of weeks.

About 10 of us got together for a farewell dinner for “ShantiAna”. We are watching a lot of folks leave for their various destinations as the season here is grinding to an end. (The season here in La Cruz is winding down and people and boats are scattering. Several of our new friends have already left on the Puddle Jump to the Marquesas and points west. Some are headed further south - C. America, S. America, the Panama Canal and the Caribbean. Others have started the process of moving north to the Sea (of Cortez) for the summer as is our plan. A few are bashing back to California and north, The rest - are putting their boat on the hard or tucking them away in marinas and flying home for the summer. It’s hard saying good bye to friends that we have shared so much with over the last 5 months– D )

We also attended a birthday party for Oliver at the Huanacaxtle Café. He is the son of the owner there and requested we attend his party.

I was fortunate to have met a gal in town who has a car, so she took me to Walmart so I could provision! What a treat!

We went back out to the anchorage and rested up for a couple of days and I began cleaning the boat inside. With all the dust that has been kicking up around here, it needed it.

The locals put on a Charro dancing horse performance in the dirt lot by the Huanacaxtle Café to raise money for one of the girls that is competing to be the Queen of La Cruz. It was a lovely show of horsemanship and roping tricks. I didn’t have the camera (head smack) but I have posted some pictures from the rodeo we went to a while back for some flavor. I didn’t have the rodeo pictures until recently when Brenda sent hers to me. Our batteries went dead at that event, but now we have her pictures.

We had a little dinner party on Journey last night with Bob & Sherry and Bill & Brenda (from Tahnoo). I made an arrachera (marinated beef) taco buffet and it turned out fantastic. Of course it took me all day to prepare it, but it was worth it in the end. We had a lovely time with our friends.

Stay tuned…..