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…..

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…..

More stuff from Banderas Bay 02-20 to 02-27

02-20, Mon. – Off we went to Paradise Village Marina with “Journey”, which is all of about 1 ½ hours by boat at 5.5 to 6.0 knots . It is located between La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta in Nuevo Vallarta. The marina runs along the back side of the resort, the Vallarta Yacht club, a shopping mall and some condos.

Our slip ended up being right under an outdoor restaurant and a wall of windows from one of the resort towers, woo hoo. The buildings are between the docks and the Bay, so the wind doesn’t get to you very well in this estuary and hence it is warmer.

Across the estuary from us is an estate with a villa on it, which you can’t see due to the foliage on the grounds. The estuary is quite busy with charter business for everything from small go-fast boats to fishing boats and sailing charters , Oh and jet skis too. All are heading out to the Bay. So, it is a bit noisy during the day with that activity and at night with the band, restaurant and resort noises. It wasn’t too bad though. There is also a surge in the marina that really causes the boat to woggle around in the slip. Almost feels like you’re at anchor ( except nosier = D). Anyway, this is home for the next three days. We walked around the place again and scoped out a place for dinner (and later had a delicious dinner in one of the resort restaurants – D). The sunset was beautiful. With all the moisture that has been in the air, it has made for beautiful sunrises & sunsets.

Tues. – We hopped on a bus and headed to the cruise ship docks in PV and the little restaurant we had picked to meet the folks. They were on the lovely Sapphire Princess ship, which my Dad says was just completely renovated inside and beautiful! We all hopped on a bus and went back to our Marina/Resort. We showed them all round the beautiful grounds, including the tigers & birds. We had a lovely time sitting in the cockpit chatting, opening my birthday presents (early) and watching all the activity that goes on in this area. Then, we had lunch at the Vallarta Yacht Club, which overlooks the estuary and the marina. We had a lovely time, but had to send them back to get on the ship. Both my Mom & I forgot to take pictures we were so busy catching up. Got some pictures of the ship though :--), even got pictures of the ship leaving the bay, from the breakwater wall at the entrance to the estuary and from our beach at the resort. We met two really nice couples that were vacationing at the resort together while we were on the breakwater wall. After talking with them for a while, they were interested in taking a tour of Journey, so we had them over for some snacks, beverages and a tour. We’ve been eating out so much, we decided to eat simple aboard tonight.

(The bus trips with Mom and Dad remind me that I wanted to say a few things about the buses down here. The short and sweet of it is that they are a wonderful, inexpensive and efficient way to get around. They come in all sizes from vans to big highway buses, ages and states of repair, colors and personalities. Most common are the medium size – about a small school bus size. Everybody and their grandma rides the bus. It’s a wonderful tapestry of people. Occasionally, musicians get on and play for tips, sometimes just for fun.
Fares here in the Banderas Bay area are based loosely on distance and range for a short trip – 6 pesos { $.50} to the longest – 16 pesos {$1.35}. Taxis for the same trips would range from $15 to $40. The driver decides the fare, I’ve had the same trip range from 8 to 13 pesos. They drive with great zest and at times with what seems like wild abandon. My personal favorite is going completely into the oncoming lane to avoid the speed bump on their side of the road. Tailgating, sudden lane changes and rapid start/stops are the norm. Stand up at your own risk. They stop anywhere along their route to let you on or off.

By the way, they love their speed bumps down here. They are everywhere, from highways to dirt roads. Made from steel domes, concrete, heavy ropes and wood they will pop up at you at any moment, sometimes singularly but many time in groups as high as a dozen or more.

It took us a while to get into the buses, never used them in La Paz, got slowly introduced to them in Mazatlan and have embraced them fully here in Banderas Bay. We seldom use any other form transportation, including for picking up the parents, bringing them to the marina and their return to the ship. They are that reliable and timely. Reliability and timeliness comes from frequency, we have seldom had to wait more than 5 minutes for a bus and if one dies you just hop off and get on the next one. – D)

Wed. – Since this is a resort and we can use it, we decided to “do in Rome as the Romans”. We spent a lovely day at the pool reading and swimming. Nice and relaxing! We had been told about this restaurant in the mall called the Brasil Steakhouse. There really wasn’t a menu here, which we were confused by at first, until we experienced the service. They put bowls of various condiments & salads on the table with an empty plate in front of you. Then they come around with hunks of meats of different kinds on skewers (chicken, sirloin, filet, ribs, arracherra and more - with a new one showing up every few minutes - D) and slice off a hunk for you to eat. What an interesting concept which, we were told was quite common in Brazil, but since we’ve never been to Brazil we haven’t experienced. Super yummy!

Thurs. – Back to La Cruz anchorage for us today. Yay! We love the anchorage here. After being at “the dock” for a couple weeks, it is nice to be back out here. It is much quieter, peaceful, cooler with the afternoon winds and more private. We got situated here within the fleet of boats, had some dinner and waited for the afternoon winds to die down to take the dinghy into town. Tonight is karaoke night at Café de Huanacaxtle! You know what that means ;--)………….. Yes, I got to sing! Oh Boy! Oh! I won the contest this week! I get some kind of light I have to go back and pick up later. Woo Hoo!

Fri. – Oh Boy! My birthday! Dick is studying for his General Ham license test which comes this Sunday, so I spent the day alternating between cleaning the boat, reading, playing computer games, talking to friends and family on the phone, responding to e-mails & Facebooks well-wishes, and getting ready for my dinner celebration tonight. I had a nice surprise from my Sissy Yvonne & her husband Tom, who gave a gift to Dick in November when they visited to give me on my birthday. So, I got to open that and two cards from them while I was on the phone with Yvonne. I will wear the beautiful amethyst necklace and ring to dinner tonight. We got together with our friends on “ShantiAna”, Bill, Keene & Shanti, to go back to the restaurant we went to on Valentines Day, Pacifica. When we got there Mizzy & Brian, the brother & sister couple from the boat “Alegria”, were sitting at the bar waiting for us and wanted to “crash” the dinner party. So, we were a party of seven for yet another FABULOUS dinner. Shanti made a cake for the occasion too, so the restaurant was kind enough to serve us all pieces of it with a candle to blow out. The same fabulous trio of guys was playing beautiful flamenco music too! We stopped by “Anna Bananas” to see if they were having decent music, but it wasn’t that great, so we went on back out to the boat. It was late anyway. It was a lovely birthday.

Sat. – Dick is studying furiously for his test, which is tomorrow. So, another day of various tasks and self-entertainment for me. Really, a nice quiet day on the boat.

Sun. – Today is the big day for testing and Dick is sharing a ride in a van to the Vallarta Yacht Club with a few other folks who are also taking their tests. I took him to the marina on the dinghy at 7:50 a.m. to catch the van at 8:00. So, I had one of those rare mornings on the boat to myself. I also am going to visit the Sunday market again so I can get some more of that Peach jalapeno jelly!! I had to return the cake pan to Shanti, so I took the dingy over to their boat at the dock. They are preparing to go back to Seattle for a week on this coming Tues. We will miss them! Dick got back from his testing and passed with an almost perfect score! Congratulations to him! He is now an official hamster! (Yeah – D) We chatted with the “ShantiAna” folks for a bit and then went to the market. We also made reservations for next Sunday to take an overnight tour to a small, old mountain mining town called San Sebastian, with about 600 inhabitants. We’re going with a group from Philo’s, at this point about 85 people and includes the house band. They take over the town. The trip includes lodging, dinner and breakfast and a fire light jam session with the band. Should be great fun! Stay tuned…….