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…….

02-12, Sunday to 02-19, Sunday :-)

02-12, Sun. 02-19, Sun. – Sunday is Market Day here in La Cruz Marina. We hadn’t yet made it there yet, so today was the day! We wandered through the lovely booths with beautiful art and …… yes.,….. FOODS to eat and buy.

I found some peach-jalapeño jelly to pour over cream cheese and serve with chips/crackers. Yummy! Also found some mango chutney!

The rain has stopped for now, so it is lovely and just the right temperature, with the clouds covering the sun. It is supposed to be this way all week.

My parents are coming into PV on a cruise ship on 2-21, so we needed to find a place to meet them and get the info to them before they leave this coming Saturday. We took a bus into PV to scope it out. We found out which gate they would be coming to and found the perfect little restaurant to meet at. Of course as is usual in Mexico, this took all day. With the pace of life down here, we are lucky to get more than one thing done in the day.

When we returned, we found that our shore power cord had a melt-down, so Dick is going to have to fix that right away. We’ll live on battery power for now.

Our friends from “ShantiAna”, Bill & Shanti, came over on Monday night for hors d’oeuvres and we were having such a good time that they went back to their boat and brought over the spaghetti &meatball sauce they had made earlier. That, with some garlic bread, was a perfect dinner.

Tuesday was Valentines Day. Dick had to go to Zarragosa Marine in PV (hour bus ride each way – D) again to get the parts necessary to fix the power cord. (All the necessary parts were available - not a given – a straight forward fix, YEAH – D) We made reservations for this evening at a restaurant that we had not yet tried by the name of “Pacifica”. WHAT A DELICIOUS MEAL!! Was the best meal we’ve had yet. A four-course meal: 1) Tuna Tartare for me & Beet Carpaccio for Dick, 2) Cream of Pumpkin/Cauliflower Soup for Dick & Bruschetta with Caramelized Onion, Apple & Veggies for me, 3) Roasted Chicken for Dick & Mushroom Risotto for me, 4) Chocolate Madeline Cookie with small scoop of ice cream and valentine candy. Since it is Tues., I got to sing again at the Britannia Pub! Lots of fun there and a late night. (A great time was had by all – another good food, good music, good friends kind of night – D)

Wed. was another rain-off-and-on kind of day. Clean the boat, tidy up and get ready for dinner guests, do oil and filter change, fill the boat with water, etc. etc. We had Shanti, Bill and Keene over for dinner as a thanks for the spaghetti dinner they brought over and I fixed my first arracherra tacos. They turned out terrific! Nice day and nice evening.

We are also looking to get our FM3 Visas going and were told that a lady here in town does them for a small fee. So we went to see her on Thurs. and got instructions from her as to what she needed from us, which we will take care of tomorrow. She will get with us tomorrow evening to put everything together. It is worth every penny to not have to spend hours in immigration and fill out forms and letters in Spanish.

So, Friday we took the bus to Bucerias to get our pictures taken for the FM3s, had lunch in town, took another two buses to Paradise Marina Village so we could make reservations for “Journey” to be there Mon to Wed next week, took another two buses back to the Mega market for provisions and then a bus back to La Cruz!! Busy little day. We then had to sit with the lady regarding the FM3’s and help her fill out & sign the forms, letters, and drop off the pictures.

OH forgot one thing that was pretty funny and will have to go back to the bank on the bus today because of it. I went to the bank to change money yesterday and after standing in line for quite some time was told that the system for changing dollars to pesos had “crashed”. The gentleman told me that “It is very busy on Fridays and the system usually crashes about this time. Welcome to Mexico.” Funny! It is just like when we were waiting for the bus yesterday, the man who was organizing people getting on and off the bus (which they do at busy bus stops so people get on the right buses) told us “the next bus will be coming in 5 Mexican minutes”.

So, Saturday was another lovely day in paradise. Had to go back to the bank at Mega, so Dick went to the local swap meet in the marina. We hooked up with our friends Dave and Leianne on “Cricket” for dinner at the FABULOUS La Cava restaurant in town. This is our 3rd time eating there because they have an excellent menu of Mexican food at super reasonable prices.

Sunday we prepared the boat to leave the dock and go to Paradise Village tomorrow and attended a farewell party for our friends Nancy & Nick on “Jessie Marie”. They are heading north tomorrow for the Sea of Cortez. (It’s taking some getting used to – the constant making of new friends and then the departure of new friends, with in between a couple of weeks or months great memories. And then the joy of meeting them again weeks or months later. – D) Here are some various pictures from La Cruz.

01-30 to 02-11, La Cruz

01-30, Mon to 02-11, Sat. -- Today is actually Saturday 02-11 and it is RAINING! Yes…raining. However, we are sitting here in sundress & t-shirt/shorts. A nice change actually and a nice day to catch you all up with our blog.

On Monday the 30th we went with our friends Bill & Brenda on “Tahnoo” to a local rodeo.(the 1st National Charro Championship – D) We shared the ride in a taxi to a brand new stadium up by Las Palmas. It was a lovely ride through the countryside and little villages. Then, the driver turned off on this dirt road out into the middle of nowhere!! He kept going & going & going, and we realized we would have to have him come pick us up afterwards because there was no way we were walking all the way back out to the road to get a bus back. Here in the middle of nowhere was this brand new rodeo stadium!! Go figure! It was interesting, to say the least. There weren’t that many people there and I have to say, they weren’t terribly skilled cowboys. Everybody was having a good time though. They took a break after about an hour and the break lasted for over an hour. The cowboys were mingling with their families in the stands and drinking LOTS of tequila. (The gentleman in the seats in front of us insisted on sharing his with us -D) This was the last day of the rodeo and I think they were more performing and having fun than competing. (I more than think – D) They had their kids riding on horses around the ring and the young boys playing with their lariats. Aside from that the food was great :-). Our taxi driver, Oscar, came to pick us up perfectly. Yay! (Our camara batts were dead, so unfortunately didn’t get any pics.)

We moved into the marina here in La Cruz on Sunday, before the Super Bowl started, to do some things on the boat and take some day trips on land without worrying about Journey going “walk about”.

We enjoyed the Super Bowl at the restaurant here in the marina with all you can eat tacos and all you could drink beers & margaritas for 140 pesos each (wow) (About $12 - D). A great time was had by all. We called our friends, Don & Amanda, whom we have been going to their home for super bowl party every year until now ( It seems like forever, great memories – D), and talked to all our friends there. That was fun!

I got to sing with a band at a restaurant called “The Britannia Pub” last Tuesday night and will get to sing with them again. There is another restaurant in town that does karaoke, so have been having fun with that too.

We took the bus to Nuevo Vallarta to visit the Paradise Village Marina to see what it would mean to bring Journey over there. It is really nice. It is very touristy and full of resorts and condos. The marina is part of the Paradise Village Resort. You get to use the resort and all its amenities when you stay there. It will be fun to stay there for a while.

As it is with cruising, you keep running across folks that you’ve gotten to know. We were coming back from a bus trip and saw some folks waiving at us on the street. As we got closer, we saw that it was our friends from the boat “Shanti Ana”, Bill, Shanti & Keene. If you remember our stories from La Paz of Keene playing guitar in “The Shack” restaurant, that’s them. Anyway, they finally made it here and had just arrived. So, it is nice to get back together with them. Keene & I are going to work on a couple songs to perform together.

We also got together with some friends, John & Gilly, whom we met through Yvonne years ago. They left for Mexico on their boat “Destiny” in 2007 with the “Ha-Ha” and we had met them at the HMBYC that Labor Day. I had also met Gilly with Yvonne on our boat that year before they left. They were on the “Ha-Ha” this year after having spent the summer in San Diego, so we got to chat with them then. They have a condominium here in Punta de Mita (which is just south of La Cruz). So we took a bus over there and met them at their place. (The buses here are an ongoing source of adventure, entertainment and occasional white knuckle experience. Like crossing over to the wrong side of the road to avoid a speed bump in heavy traffic and they do love speed bumps here, they come in all sizes, shapes and colors – D) We walked down to the main road there in Punta de Mita and had a lovely lunch. They had plans in La Cruz that evening and their boat is in the La Cruz harbor, so they drove us back over here. They are going to be staying on their boat and cruising around the Banderas Bay and participating in the Regatta here in March.

(We also continued to eat our way through La Cruz, there is a lot of great food here. More on this in the next blog –D)

We had the stainless steel on the boat cleaned and treated by some locals for only $120 US dollars (THE WHOLE BOAT)! (A team of five all day – well worth it – did a great job – D)

I got to talk to my Ya Ya Sisters last night, Fri. night, on the phone at their get together. What a treat! Thanks ladies for the early “Happy Birthday” serenade! Love you all.

Back to our rainy day here on Saturday, 2-11. The rain is actually quite nice and was perfect for cooking on the boat. We had John & Gilly over for a delightful brunch this morning and are now relaxing.

We are going to stay here in the marina for the next week at the most and then move back out to the anchorage. Stay Tuned…….

01-24, Tues. to 01-29, Sun, La Cruz

Another week in paradise! La Cruz is such a lovely anchorage and the surrounding areas of the Banderas Bay are great! Although, we have yet to venture out too much yet. This week the town of Bucerias was hosting a festival in which the fishermen get their pangas blessed for the season (similar to our Opening Day on the Bay). Dick got some pics of their decorated pangas as they sped past us on their way to Bucerias.

We spent most of this week continuing to sample the restaurants around town. The German restaurant in town, “The Black Forest”, had a “Beerfest” night with special items on the menu, so we went there that night. The food was terrific. We are going to have to go back for dessert though, as we didn’t have enough room to fit it in. (We also went back t6 the “Brittania”for Sheppard’s Pie and checked out the “Octopuss’s Garden , owned bt a Brirish couple who sailed in twenty years ago and never left – D).We also spent a few evenings checking out the local music scene. (Tami’s starting to make some connections into the local music scene – D)

Dick took a trip to the big chandlery in the area, Zaragosa Marine, in Nuevo Vallarta, which is on the way to PV, but didn’t find anything he needed at this time. (Once again we’re getting to the point of at least partially mastering the local bus system, a must if you want to avoid the expensive taxi’s – D)

We took a short trip over to Bucerias yesterday, which is next door to La Cruz (after a cruiser’s swap meet at which I did find a few useful items – D). It is a small bayside town on the beach. It is far more commercially tourist than La Cruz. They had restaurants on the beach with a lot of the roving vendors bothering you. We walked the streets which were lined with touristy shops and vendors trying to get you to walk in. In that respect it was kind of like being in Cabo, but smaller. We were told to go to the town square and get tacos from the street taco stands, especially the ones who make their own tortillas. So, we did!!! Very good advice!! They were super yummy! We also each got an ice cream cone at the corner shop. Nice trip and a nice way to end the week. (Last night was beautiful night in the anchorage, calm, flat and mild temperatures – lazy night to end a relaxing week – D)

Last but not least, we got some laundry and provisioning done.

This week we are planning to visit more surrounding towns. (And maybe sail over to Yelapa for a day or so – D)

01-17 to 01-23 Banderas Bay

01-17, Tues. through 01-23, Sun. -- We are here in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Banderas Bay, enjoying the nice warmer weather in this region. It is in the low 80’s every day with a nice breeze that comes up in the afternoon. Below is a list of things we’ve done this week:



- We explored the darling town of La Cruz, which we absolutely LOVE! It is a small town with several streets, cobblestone, brick or dirt roads, very friendly people, lots and lots of good restaurants and LOTS of music. They play music in at least one of the restaurants every night and usually more than one! There is everything from rock and roll, jazz to country music being played. The more popular places in town are Philo’s, Café Huanacaxtle, Ana Bananas, The Britannia, The Octopusses Garden and The Black Forest. There are MANY more though. You could spend a year just trying to eat your way through this tiny town. (This does not count the small nighttime taco places that sprout up on the streets at night – D)

- We spent most of this week just walking the streets of town, eating our way around town, listening to music and visiting with a lot of fellow cruisers we haven’t seen in a while.

- We also took a side trip on a bus on Saturday for the day to Old PV. It is about an hour ride on the bus to Old PV as it is the southern-most part of PV (the ride was in a unair-conditioned bus with a suspension that died years ago, but it was cheap – 15 pesos for a one hour bus trip – D) . We were dropped off in a non-tourist part of the old town but with a map and some help from very friendly locals we soon found our way to the beach. We had lunch at a beach-side restaurant. They were launching people on a parasail from the beach right in front of us. I much prefer the kind that launch you from the back of the boat on a platform, than a beach take-off. It was fun to watch though. We were surprised that the prices in the restaurant were not any more expensive than in La Cruz, which are cheap. We then walked further south on the beach and walked the Malecon to the heart of old tourist PV, checking out the shops, clubs and restaurants. It was a lovely day and will be fun to spend more time in that portion of town.

- When we returned from Old PV, we were rapidly informed that “Journey” had pulled anchor while we were gone and a bunch of people had boarded her and reset our anchor!! WOW! Scary! Thank goodness we leave the key in the ignition, and someone was able to locate our windlass motor switch in the V berth. We had not locked the boat, or they would have had to break the door to get in. It seems to be a very safe area. No one locks their dinghy to the boat or the dinghy dock either. However, we now know that we need to pull and reset the anchor every few days, as we turn around and around on the anchor the chain gets wrapped around the anchor and will pull it. In this instance it had actually gotten wrapped around one of the flukes of the claw. Thank goodness we are surrounded by folks who knew just what to do and took care of it. One man started the engine, the other found the windlass switch and a few dinghy’s were in the water trying to keep her from drifting down on anyone while they were doing all this. Whew!!!!! We owe some folks big time. Thank goodness no one and nothing was injured or damaged.

- We watched the 49er game at Philo’s in town on Sunday. Sad we didn’t win the Championship, but a good game was played. We are very proud of their performance this year.

This coming week we are going to check into a land trip to Guadalajara with a group of people. We will be going to a meeting this evening regarding this possible trip and will keep y’all posted. We will also be doing more exploring of the Banderas Bay area. Our friends on “Nirvana” arrived in Nuevo Vallarta and we will be visiting them. They are in the Paradise Village Marina, for which we won a free week stay. So, we want to check it out. It has a five-star resort associated to it and you can avail yourselves of all the amenities when you stay in the marina. Woo Hoo!