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….