Our original plan had been to stay on the mooring buoy in Yelapa early in the morning, before the pangero came by to collect more money for our stay.  But shortly after all being delivered back to our boats, the crews that would soon dub themselves Belvenache but were still hailing each other Bella Star, Panache and Ventured agreed to leave after dinner.  Describing the mooring field in Yelapa as rolly would be like saying a wooly mammoth was merely fuzzy.   An overnight sail was actually preferable to trying to sleep on a boat imitating our swimwear in a wash cycle.

So off we all went, rounding Cabo Corrientes and turning once again south.  And a bit east – as of my last look we are due south or Roswell, New Mexico.  The overnight sail turned into an early morning motor for a short period of time before discoverd the leak in the fuel line detailed a couple posts ago.  Once it was fixed in the morning we continued and slipped on Chemela near dusk, found an open spot to anchor and caught up on some sleep.

Jenn gets in some shore time.

Walking on solid ground after 36 or so hours on the boat.

Empty, but very scenic beach.

Chemala turned out to be an enjoyable stop.  The next morning we all dinghied ashore, making a successful surf landing.  Many of the anchorages along the Pacific coast of Mexcio involve breaking waves along the beach.  Landing a dinghy takes a combination of patience, timing, and general luck.  Failure to reach the proper combination of the three can result in an upside down dinghy and all of your cargo floating in different directions.  Leaving the beach requires the same set of skills, along with remembering to have the kill switch that inserted in the engine so you can start it (don’t ask me how I know this).  You wait for a lull in the surf, or at least a small set of waves, while hovering a ways off the beach.  When you fill the waves are a manageable size, you ride one in to keep deeper water under the outboard prop, which you need to have spinning to keep the boat going forward, and not sideways to the wave.  As the wave washes up the beach you have to kill the engine, swing the outboard up out of the water, hop out of the dinghy, and start pulling it up the beach. Oh, and time it so the wave brings you up on the beach, but doesn’t break over the stern of your dinghy.  This would all be a bit easier with the huge dinghy wheels many people have on their dinghys that actually extend lower than the outboard prop so you can just drive up on the beach and the wheels prevent the prop from hitting the bottom.  But… I don’t have those.  I did, as promised on the blog, install the less expensive and shallower wheels on the dinghy before we left La Cruz, and they help with pulling they dinghy up the beach on hard packed sand.

Even the few businesses on the beach didn't seem to be packing in crowds.

For you today, practically free - of other tourists. Or even locals.

Anyway – we landed successfully.  As we have a bigger dinghy than Bella Star we all went ashore in ours, and having a couple extra people makes the beach landings and departures much easier.  After a swing through what little bit of a villager there is at the head of the bay, we set off on a beach hike.  I kept wondering what we were missing, as we were hiking on a beautiful beach in a scenic bay with almost no one in site.  There were a few hotels and an RV park in the town, and after that it thinned out to almost nothing.  We (the guys) set our sites on a ruined building a mile or two down the beach.  Somewhere along the line someone heard that it had been dynamited twice, but while crooked, it was still standing.  Upon reaching it everyone took photographs, while Zach and I scrambled up and explored a bit.  While nothing spectacular, it was an interesting structure to scramble around on, and the crooked stairwells gave me the feeling of being a a live MC Escher painting.

Aarron works his magic for the camera.

Just the vacation shot you always wanted, in front of a crumbling resort.

Walking on this probably wasn't brilliant, but health care in Mexico is cheap. Just maybe not readily available in this village.

For reference, Zach is standing up straight.

And one more picture from a bit further back.

Back on the beach, we headed back towards our dinghies, pausing to chat with some fellow beach walkers with three schnauzers and a pug in tow.  Eventually the afternoon sorted itself out in a beach day, with attempted kite flying, boogie boarding, bocci ball, and of course a few cold Pacificos.

The boys playing with their umm, Bocci set.

And suddenly, the sky got all dramatic for a moment.

The next morning we made long haul to some islands a couple miles away, and after some probing around anchored in front a small sandy beach, maybe 400 to 500 feet long.  The island appeared to be home to quite a few birds, including some baby pelicans in nests. Again we made use of our day by snorkeling from the dinghy, and collecting up wood on the beach.  Aarron beefed up the existing fire pit, and built up a stack of woods in a ready to ignite form.  As evening approached, Zach set off with his Hawaiian sling, used to spear fish and bagged three fish for ceviche.  The rest of us used ingredients on our boat to make some dishes we all brought to the beach for a potluck dinner.  As we finished our delicious feast and dusk arrived, we lit the fire and celebrated the full moon with a raging bonfire.  It was quite a party, as we had collected enough wood for a few hours of bonfire, and Nicole even produced the ingredients for smores.

I still find it a bit bizarre to see cactus growing right next to the ocean.

Our own private beach, perfect for a day of sun and sand. And a night of bonfire.

The ladies do some floating.

A close of of some of giant cacti growing on the island.

Prepped and ready for sundown.

The hermit crab races worked better in theory than reality.

More floating the day away.

A thrown together potluck dinner takes shape.

This hermit crab was a bit clingy.

The gang, minus Jenn the photographer. And yes, I'm due for a haircut.

Some of the many birds on the island roost for the evening.

And it begins...

Long exposure of the full moon rising.

The bonfire, with Steve standing nearby for scale.

Full moon and fire, a fun combination for our evening.

The whole Chemela experience was quite a highlight of the trip, a very beautiful area  with very little development, no mega resorts on the beach, and a sense of isolation but with access to some little stores that have enough supplies to keep you fed.  However, we are currently traveling with some boats that are participating in the El Salvador Rally and while they aren’t hurrying, there won’t be any more month long stops like La Cruz.  So our time there was limited to a couple days filled with full throttle relaxing.  I’m pretty sure we’ll stop in Chemela on the way back north, both because it is a convenient anchorage, and because it will be a nice spot to feel isolated before the jump back to civilization in Banderas Bay.  However, it will be missing something without Panache and Bella Star there to share in the fun.

I’m not sure what exactly made La Cruz so special, but it was. There was the warm climate, a good group of friends, sailing on Profligate, a visit from my sister, lots of good food stores, delicious street tacos, live music and easy, fun day trips to beach locations. And of course, the Huanacaxtle Bar and Cafe. It took as a while to clue in, but once we did the fun usually began around 4:00 pm, when two hours of Happy Hour began. Draft beer ran about .77 cents and there were wings and nachos to snack on. After Happy Hour we usually found some tacos at a local stand, and more and more frequently returned to the Huanacaxtle for their live music or what were usually private karaoke parties. The staff wasn’t just friendly, they actually became our friends. We will be passing back through and I can’t wait to go in and say hi to everyone.

I probably shouldn’t say negative things since I’m out here living the dream, but the low point of La Cruz was Philos, a restaurant with live music and featuring a menu of pizzas. We were told this would be the cruiser hangout in La Cruz, and it even had a blurb in our guide book. But we found the food mediocre, the beers overpriced and the service abysmal and in stark contrast to the friendly folks at the Huanacaxtle. While we were not there for the excitement, several of our friends had the staff threaten to call the police on them over a disagreement on the bill, which our friends were in the right over. Kind of a mistake on Philos part, these were not two guys who’s bar business you wanted to lose. I would have given these two a free beer if it meant they kept coming to my establishment! I did enjoy the music one night, but then realized pretty much every night the owner sang lead and he does not have a voice I wanted to listen to multiple times. It also seemed the patrons were less any cruisers we knew, and mostly Gringos who now live in the area.

As long as I’m on my negative streak, let me move on to our next stop, Yelapa. It is about 15 miles from La Cruz, across Banderas Bay and is touted as a beautiful little village, populated by native people that own the land as a collective. Sunday morning around 7:00 am, we set sail motor for Yelapa. Let’s just say Yelapa got off on the wrong foot with us, and never got back on the right one. Because it is a deep bay, there are mooring buoys to tie up to – for a fee. I already had heard several stories about boats dragging the buoy, or swinging into each other. When the panga came out as we approached, Nicole on Bella Star tried to negotiate a deal with him as we had three boats coming in. Rather than bargain, he just drove off, and approached our boat. Thanks to the VHF, we were already aware of what had happened to her, but tried to bargain too. He gave us an off hand wave of his hand and drove away. Apparently he knew if we were coming in, we were getting a buoy from him and paying full price for it. Well, sometimes cruising costs money, so we took a buoy and paid up – it cost more than a night in the marina in Mazatlan. The price did include a dinghy ride ashore, so after waiting a bit to make sure we were staying in place (and backing down on the buoy after the panga left since he was telling me not to pull on it) we headed ashore to wait for Panache to arrive. Of course, the panga dropped us off in front of the palapa he worked for who encouraged us to sit down and have some drinks. I was a bit surprised beer was only 20 pesos, actually cheaper than at Philos. This in a town with no road to it, so everything is brought in by boat. We had a some beer and nachos and as Zack and Steve from Panache arrived requested our bill. Our waiter gave us a total 35 pesos higher than it should have been, and when we questioned it he corrected it by “realizing” we only had two beers, not four. Okay – maybe he did make a mistake, but he still pretty much flat out asked Jenn for more of a tip as he was giving her change.

With the Panache crew ashore, we decided our time was a bit short so we hiked to the closer, smaller waterfall. The trip though town was fun, the street was more of a path with enough room for the occasional 4 wheeler and pedestrians. We climbed a staircase with branching paths to various doors to arrive on the path, and walked about 30 minutes to a small waterfall where a few of us braved the cool water to splash around a bit. Then a walk back down to the beach, where we sat back down at the palapa for another round of beer to cool down from all the hiking walking. Steve from Panache asked our waiter (same one as earlier) how much the nachos were. He replied “80 pesos”. Funny – when we looked at the menu on our earlier visit and ordered them, they were 60 pesos. A question of the price brought a menu and a correction. I’ll say this, maybe our waiter just made a couple honest mistakes, but it sure felt like he was trying to pocket some extra pesos if we weren’t on our toes. He did make it up a bit by bringing us a couple free shots of Racilla, a moonshine version of tequila that was surprisingly smooth with a nice smokey flavor.

After our afternoon session at the palapa, and an unsuccessful quick scan of the beach establishments for the Super Bowl on a TV we headed back to our boats. I managed to get a slow internet connection with our Banda Ancha and tried to call the Super Bowl party I was hosting in spirit, but while I could here Andre and the crowd saying Hi to me, my voice was not reaching them. Still, hearing some friends back home was enough to make up for not being able to watch the game. The small bay was very rolly and it didn’t take long for all of us to get on the radio and agree that after dinner we were going to head for the next stop down the coast rather than wait till morning.

So, goodbye La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, until we meet again and we will. And good riddance Yelapa, I doubt we’ll be returning. While your town is in a picturesque bay, we have found other places with their own beauty, better anchorages, and waiters less prone to arithmetic errors in their favor.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I’m still on a pretty slow internet connection. We’ll be heading to a bigger town today or tomorrow and I’ll upload some pictures from Yelapa and La Cruz. And despite my little grumbling, I’m having a great time even if we are experiencing so much gray and rain that I’m not sure if we are in Seattle or Mexico.

A couple days after re-anchoring, we did a provision run and returned to the boat with bags of groceries to stow away.  It really doesn’t work on the boat to just set the groceries on the counter and deal with them later, one asshole overzealous powerboat running through the anchorage can send the contents of the counter to the floor quite quickly.  As we were stowing groceries, Jenn felt some heat near the stairs down into the cabin that cover the engine.  About the same time I suddenly smelled a burning electrical smell.  After a quick check through several cabinets I pulled the engine cover off to witness several wires arching onto the engine block, setting the insulation on fire.  Luckily Jenn’s suggestion to turn off the batteries solved stopped the arching, and the small bursts of flame from the insulation also stopped.  Once things calmed down, I began checking the damage.  Five wires melted through, in a less then easily accessible spot.

This is not the way your wiring should look.

Luckily our fridge runs directly from the battery bank (a combination of laziness and convenience due to the installed location), we can hand pump water, there aren’t any anchor light nazis and we have a handheld VHF that covers the area we were anchored in.  So I had some time to work on this, which was fortunate cause it took a couple days.  I had to sort out all the wired, unwrap them from their shielding, splice in new wires to replace the melted pieces (and this is the temporary fix, I need rerun the wires) and take out the alternator to have it tested.

Once all the new wires were in, I set out with the alternator to find a testing location.  I stopped to say hi to Deep Playa and ended up looking at their Nigel Caulder book (an accidental omission to my cruising library) and reading how to do some of the tests myself.  I then spoke with my mechanical expert David, co-owner of Cheers Automotive in Spokane, and he felt the voltage from the alternator wouldn’t be sufficient to blow holes in the insulation.  I more likely culprit is the combination of age, friction, vibration and heat cycling, as the wires lay right on top of the engine.  After several days of keeping the batteries off while we weren’t on the boat, and watching the new wires while we were on the boat, my repairs seem to be working and  there has been no more arching, fires or melted insulation.

Fast forward to our resumed travels (yes, I’m jumping out of chronological order, I’ll come back to leaving La Cruz and visiting Yelapa) and becoming becalmed a few miles south of Cabo Corrientes around 3 am.  Jenn fired up the engine, and I poked my head in the engine compartment for a quick look and noticed fuel dripping off of a line.  Quite close to the location of the wiring fix, actually.  After looking things over I decided the leak was coming from a line that returns excess fuel delivered by the fuel pump to the fuel tank.  One end of the hose unscrewed easily with a wrench, but the other end took a wrench, vice grip and choice words.  Once it was off I found a spot where the protective cover and hose had chafed through, most likely unrelated to the wiring issue.  What I couldn’t find was a replacement hose or something to seal with.  As it was late, dark and we were both tired, we decided to wait till morning to fix it.  Our speed dropped from 3 knots to .1 knot as the wind died and we ended up essentially adrift, but far enough off shore and with no traffic in sight.

At least I found the problem.

Prepped for a fix.

When dawn arrived to tackled the search for a host sealant.  I got lucky and found the Rescue Tape I thought I had in the second place I looked.  I’ve never used it before, the the instructions were straightforward and half an hour later I had the hose back in place.  We fired up the engine and so far so good, although I’m continuing to monitor it.  I’m hoping it will hold to Manzillo, a couple stops down the coast where I think I can find a replacement hose.  So far I’m very impressed with rescue tape, but not my ability to remember where I put things.

Rescue tape to the, uh, rescue.

Rescue tape works wonders, when you can find it.

So Ventured is still shiny and clean on the outside, but having some internal bleeding I’ve stopped with my boat first aid skills, but need some surgery to fix for the long term.

In tandem with arranging for the bottom to be cleaned, I dug out the receipt the previous owner left on the boat for what I’m assuming is the last bottom painting, and realized I’m having issues because it was dated 2008.  Bottoms Up Marine Service in Port Townsend was very responsive to my email and helpful with advice about how to prep the current paint (or what is left of it) for the next bottom painting.

Having worked out and date and time with one of the local bottom cleaning crews in the marina, we arranged for a slip and brought the boat in for the dreaded exercise in docking.  This is only the third time I’ve docked the boat in Mexico, but with a couple friends on the dock to catch lines it went smoothly.  Because the dinghy dock at the La Cruz marina is usually packed, and a bit of a walk from the happening spots we’ve been slipping in between Bella Star and Jace (aka Knee Deep).  Since Jace pulled out the day before we went into the marina, we grabbed their spot since we were already so familiar with it.

We arrived mid morning, and our cleaning crew showed up within 10 minutes or our appointment.  Not shabby for Mexican time!  They were done within an hour, and stuck with the original quoted price.  I pitched in a few extra pesos for a job well done.  With the bottom clean, we started to think about the topsides.  Of course we had given the boat the mandatory scrubbing that comes with getting a slip in a marina after weeks of anchoring.  But there were some crews that do topside cleaning, and one of the cruisers on the dock I had been talking to about boat cleaning had just hired a crew that was well regarded.  He sent the Jeffe, Ernesto, down to talk to me, and the quote was pretty reasonable.  So, we took the plunge and hired them to start the next day on our boat.  Of course this also meant a few extra days in the marina, but the rate wasn’t unreasonable and since Aaron’s birthday coming up it would be nice to be able to walk back to the boat after a night out rather than taking the dinghy on the search through the anchorage for our boat we sometimes find ourselves involved in after dark.

It took Ernesto’s crew two days to polish and wax the stainless steel on our boat, clean and wax the topsides, and buff and wax the hull.  Ventured looks great, except now my motivation to do something with the teak toe rails is a little stronger.  We’ll be working on that soon.  We also spent the time in the marina to let the growth on our anchor chain die off by spreading it up and down the dock beside our boat.  I never anticipated scrubbing my anchor chain as part of the cruising life.

The house and car, looking shiny and clean.

Next post – How Ventured thanked us for all the TLC.

While the boat was being cleaned, Nicole arrived back from Seattle with a couple goodies from Seattle including our new Coast Guard documentation and some cat toys for Minion, kind of a late birthday present for him.  And speaking of birthdays, she arrived on her husband Aaron’s birthday so we headed out on the town.  After some happy hour draft beers at the Huanacaxtle Cafe, it was time for some tacos.  Full from our trip to Red Chair Tacos, and approaching cruiser midnight, we poked our noses into the Huanacaxtle Cafe to say hi to their friendly beyond description staff on our way back to the boats.  They waved us in and despite an approaching closing time offered to serve us more beverages, and agreed to let us plug in a computer and play our own music so we could dance.  I had my laptop and soon started playing DJ, trying to play songs everyone knows and loves rather than dipping into my obscure collection.  And then… the karaoke book came out.  It didn’t take long for the door to be closed and our own private karaoke party to begin.  We didn’t even have to request songs, we just ducked in the back room and punched in the number for the songs we wanted and they queued up.  Besides ourselves and the birthday couple, we were joined by the Deep Playa, Panache and Wings of the Dawn crews, and the eight of us tore it up.  The staff even joined in some songs while keeping our social lubricants flowing.  It was a great time that would have been hard to top if we hadn’t returned a couple nights later for another karaoke party, this time joined by crews from Jace and Popoki along with their kids.  If you ever find yourself in La Cruz, go say hi to the folks at the Huanacaxtle Cafe, they are delightful, friendly and have the best wings we’ve found in Mexico.  Their Happy Hour draft beer is 10 pesos (we’ve agreed you can’t afford not to drink it) and the cocktails are 2 for 1 and they bring the bottle and mixer to your table and pour the alcohol till you say stop.  And they don’t chicken out.  But I have – I’ve yet to order a mixed drink but I need to do it once before we head out.

It isn't a Mexican karaoke birthday party without the birthday boy wearing a sombrero.

I couldn't let Aaron have all the fun.

Jenn doesn't want to be left out of the fun.

Dawn (SV Deep Playa) and Oliver, patron of the Huanacaxtle Cafe, play along to Sweet Child of Mine.

Karaoke night round two, this time with children. It didn't keep things any tamer as one of the mothers (who shall remain nameless) sang Why Don't we Get Drunk and Screw.

After just two days Ventured was sparkly clean, the hull shiny enough to reflect the sun hitting the ripples of water dancing around the boat.  Since we had to do something to keep ourselves from feeling too guilty for paying others to work on the boat, we scrubbed the dinghy and installed the dinghy wheels (finally).  We returned to the anchorage, happy with our investment and hoping Ventured enjoyed two days of spa treatment.

I think I can see my house.

I’ve had a hard time getting a chance to upload some pictures from a street fair in Bucerias, the next down south of La Cruz where we are staying.  Jenn and I took a bus down and wandered around for a few hours.  I think we missed the real party with the locals, as we had to take the last bus back around 9:00 pm (and there was some concern we had missed the last bus for a few minutes…).  Still, it was fun to check out the vendors and carnival booths.  Somehow not winning a prize when you’ve spend .40 cents is a lot easier to live with.  Plus, the prizes were mostly not cheap stuffed animals.  One booth even had bottles of alcohol as prizes, but you had to step up and spend about $1.60 to try and win that.  So, in one of my least wordy posts over, here are some pictures from the evening.

A senorita does some shopping.

Jenn kills some time sharpening her Fruit Ninja skills while we wait for the fair to get going

I'm a little sketchy on the mechanics of this ride.

I'm not sure this a licensed image of Winnie the Pooh.

Just some typical booths.

The sign does not encourage my business.

The futures so bright...

I love Mexican snacks.

Colorful local outfits.

These are prizes I would want to win.

A vendor arranging her wares just so.

A focused young motorcycle rider.

Apparently riding trains doesn't take as much focus as motorcycles.

I'm not sure I would look happy riding this ride either...

...especially when the attendant has to push the coaster to assist the start.

Someone is enjoy the ride!

Several tries did not yield a winning dart throw, but at least it was cheap and you could win cookies instead of cheap stuffed animals.

Some of the trinkets for sale, and my attempt to be artistic photographing them.

A young markswoman takes aim.

When I said full bar, I wasn't kidding.

Somehow people rolled marbles to try to win prizes. I need to learn a lot more Spanish to ask how this worked.

Our tasty dinner being cooked.

Jenn waits with anticipation, and a pittance of Pesos to pay for two hamburgers.

While probably tasty, we ordered food cooked to order.

A double decker trampoline. The mind kind of boggles. If I ever return to Burning Man, bringing one of these would be on my list.

A vendor demonstrates a toy - whether or not that is helping I'm not sure.

Some fresh doughnuts and a bus ride home complete the evening.

And that completes our evening at the street fair.  I’m off to finish some boat projects, and then we will start prepping to head south down the coast for a bit.  We are having a wonderful time in La Cruz, but it feels like time to head out, and we will be heading back by on our way north for the summer so we can catch back up with our favorite taco stands and the Huanacaxtle Cafe then.

We’ve (and by we, I mean Jenn) added some widgets to the side bar including a Blog Roll of boats we’ve met and enjoy keeping up with both in person and online. Feel free to check out our friends – just as long as you don’t like their blogs better!

I’m attempting to go through my old posts and clean up the tags and categories so the blog will be a bit better organized. I know, exciting stuff but I have to come up with something to amuse myself with all my free time.

And just to keep up the visual interest, here is a picture for all of you dealing with Snowmagaddon back in Seattle.

Beach in Still Life (Photo Credit to Jenn)

Just another jungle\ocean view from our hike.

I’m not sure her inspiration, but Nicole on Bella Star somehow overcame cruiser lethargy, breaking the chain of happy hours and taco stands to organize a jungle hike with a local resident that promotes her tours on the morning net. April (under the call sign Wave House) is expat from the good ol USA who now resides in La Cruz de Huancasxtle, and has several available tours she can take groups on. Nicole wisely chose a jungle hike, got a group together to fill the van, after much effort found a day we were all free. So on a Monday night we did something I wasn’t sure we would remember how to do, and set an alarm clock. Luckily years of needing to get up for work and engrained the skill into our DNA, and were up and had a pack ready for a day hike in time to head to shore to meet up with the crews from Bella Star, Hello World and Panache.

April picked us up in a Toyota van that isn’t sold in the US, and off we went through downtown Puerto Vallarta, to a river mouth meeting Banderas Bay a bit south of Playa Mismaloya. While driving us there April filled us in the history of the area, and on details of the local architecture. Once we arrived at the trail head, I managed to get my hiking boots on and after a little effort managed to the laces. I think I’ve been wearing flip flops a little too much lately. Zach from Panache braved the hike in flip flops, as they are the official footwear of cruisers.

The hike took us along a trail that generally followed the shore line of Banderas Bay. At first we passed a variety of houses along the trail, but after reaching the end of the little inlet the river flowed out of the houses thinned out and the jungle closed in. April continued informing us on a wide variety of topics, from land ownership issues in Mexico to narcotic flowers in the jungle that make hallucinogen tea. Other details included historic facts about the area, the coconut palm oil industry that has died out, and with some questions from me a rundown on the Mexican political system. All in all, April has a great knowledge base about the area and Mexico and is a great guide. As an avid surfer she also gave us the scoop on some local surf breaks, including the one in front of a house we later hiked by that she had rented a few years previous.

The river mouth at the start of our hike.

Don't tell Minion we pay attention to other cats.

Where we live when we aren't on the boat.

This would make me feel at home if I ever own a house.

Some beautiful scenery. And the jungle and ocean.

Much to my surprise, we didn't encounter armed cartel guards at this house.

The trail meandered up and down, into the jungle, then back down to the beach. We were in a very unique area of dry rain forest, not duplicated until Costa Rica. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife, just a few birds, but the topography, flora and fauna and shoreline were amazing scenery. Palm trees, banana plants and even a tree know as a Gringo tree (it has red bark that peels off) along with underbrush and thick patches of vegetation passed by as we began to feel the burn of hiking after weeks of boat life. We do a fair bit of walking around when we dinghy to town, but our legs were unused to the rigors of hiking and I think we all got in a pretty good workout. The trail would take us down to to stretches of beach where we occasionally had to dodge incoming waves or scamper over some rocks, between smooth patches of golden sand.

April advised one at a time on these walkways. I chose to heed her advice.

One of these garned it's nickname because of its red color and peeling. The other wears a lot of sunscreen.

We did see jungle flowers, but I'm only posting one picture of them.

You would think a cruiser could time waves better. Maybe being back in Seattle has put Christy out of practice.

If all trees had bark like this, there would be a lot less broken juveninle arms.

On one stretch of beach hiking, April led us to an abandoned resort. Apparently it was only accessible by boat and during a botched Panga landing the owner had broke his back. He vowed never to return, and the resort is now a rather interesting ruins. There are still stone beds with tile headboards in several places, lacking mattresses and walls to the rooms. There was a small tower with stairs winding around the outside that I braved climbing, leading to an almost castle like turret at the top. We paused to scatter and explore before continuing down the beach. Nearby was a small cabin that is popular with Muslim honeymooners, as the remote location allows the brides to sunbathe sans burquas.

I can see why a panga landing here would go awry.

Lizards really do loose their tails! (No I didn't pull it off)

I need a macro lens, so this will have to do for a close up.April, our tour guide on the right in a picture taken from the tower I climbed.The jungle is taking back over, but we may go restart the resort.

Zach gets a little personal with the ants.

For reasons only mom will understand this reminds me of my childhood.

After a rather remote stretch of jungle and beach we began to approach a semblance of civilization, walking through a beach front resort and a new large mansion complete with tennis courts and a volleyball spot located next to the beach. We finally arrived at some Palapas where we stopped for Michaladas and lunch. Probably my only negative comment for the days experience is the restaurant was a bit pricey, and not that good compared to most of the meals we’ve eaten here. Of course, with no road leading to the beach at Los Animos where we stopped, there is kind of a captive audience of you find yourself there. April bought a slice of Queso pie from a lady selling pie slices, and broke off pieces to share. A rather unique and tasty variety of pie that I’ll have to try again if I find it.

I'm just a sucker for animal pictures.

If this was just out over the water, I would really feel like I was on a tropical island.

Sorry for the blury photo but it was taken quickly to capture Nicole cavorting.

Have to give the dogs some respect too.

After sitting for a spell, it was a little hard to roll back into hiking mode, but after the first few stiff steps we got back in the swing of it, and continued to follow the shoreline to the next little town of Quimixto. This is a rather small and poor town for a couple hundred. Most of the residents have horses, and take turns having a day where they rent their horses to tourists for a ride up to a waterfall. I can’t say I didn’t consider the 150 pesos fee for a ride, but since no one else wimped out, I sucked it up and headed up to the waterfall. I will say moving around on a boat does not stress a bum knee quite as much as hiking up and down a trail for a long hike. I probably shouldn’t have played so much soccer on a surgically reconstructed knee, but these are the foolish mistakes we make in our adulthood. About the time we started up the trail to the waterfall I recognized the trail. In several previous visits to Puerto Vallarta we braved the time share sales pitch in exchange for freebie tickets to things like a booze cruise that stopped at the beach we had hiked to for a much shorter hike up to the waterfall. It didn’t take long to reach it, and much to my surprise there was now a little bar\restaurant with tables on both sides of the river, connected with a small footbridge. We were told rather briskly we couldn’t go up to platforms, prime viewing spot for the waterfall, without a purchase. The prices were quite high, and we weren’t thrilled about less than welcoming tone, especially as were the only ones there at the time. Since the river was not private, Zach and I waded up the waterfall and swam around a bit. Last time I did some cliff jumping but somehow in the neighborhood of 15-20 years later, and not on a booze cruise, I wasn’t feeling the bravery this time.

Hey Macarena! (Yes, that is a veryinside joke)

I think this dog has mad Wizard skills.

Just more ho-hum scenery.

All they need is some Coronas between them.

After enjoying the scenery for a bit, we entered the home stretch and hiked downhill to the beach. We stopped to pet a couple cute local dogs, a Chihuahua, and a mutt that looked like a golden lab with 4″ legs that enjoyed a good belly rub. Once at the beach, April arranged for a Panga to take us back to the van while we arranged for a round of cold Pacificos from a local tienda. After a rather tenuous drop from a fixed dock to a floating boat bobbing up and down in the Pacific swell, we were all aboard with no disasters. We sat back and enjoyed the propulsion of a large outboard engine instead of our own two legs, and quickly motored past the stretch of jungle and beach we had just hiked, picking out places we had seen on our hike. The Panga made a smooth beach landing, we all hopped out and after a quick stop and some sketchy port-a-johns loaded back into the van to head home. April took us on a loop highway around PV for a change in scenery, and discussed the hospitals and health care in Mexico on the way back (as well as some of other tours, which do sound tempting).

Aaron displays some serious balance so he doesn't step in 2" deep water.

I'm thinking about adding Rule #3 to my personal life.

At long last, a waterfall. I used the cold water to cool my burning muscles.

It was a great day out, nice to get away from the boats for a bit and see some different scenery. We all though April was a great tour guide and would recommend her anyone in the area that wants to take a trip out of La Cruz. A few days later I think my legs are mostly recovered, although I’m still a little curious if I can find the spot on the beach that supposedly had hour massages for $20. Of course, that would involve another walk on the beach toward Buscerias. Maybe I should have brought a bicycle!

Would you ride this borro?

Two fisting, doggy style.

In some other brief news, some good friends have finally caught up with us, Leif and Jackie on Dodger Too, and Rob on Wings of the Dawn. While they don’t have burgers to die for like The Shack in La Paz, we’ve started to headquarter at the Huancaxtle Cafe for their 10 peso Happy Hour draft beer and tasty chicken wings. And my quest for a new pressure switch for galley and head water pump was successful, as was my installation of it using some 3M 5200 sealant after the removal of the old switch somehow left no threads in the pump body to screw the new switch into. It never ceases to amaze me how a job that really involves 15 minutes of actual work can turn into a 3 day project of finding a part, gluing in a part that should screw in, waiting for things to dry, hooking things several times, letting the part dry some more, and finally having to rewire one of the connections. It makes it so much more satisfying with the water pump actually stops running when you turn off the faucet.

This is not how you keep your cat happy.

Minion here – my first post. While my owners were busy prepping their blog post and surfing the internet and generally being bad parents, they neglected to pay proper attention to their wonderful cat. And while being neglected, I somehow managed to fall in Banderas Bay. It is all a bit of a blur – all I know is I’m very wet, and somehow managed to get back on the boat using the dinghy floating next to it. At least the water is warm here, someone should come visit, go swimming, and pay better attention to me.

I suppose this is a post all of us cruising bloggers write at some point, but today feels like a good day to share my doing quite a bit while not really doing anything at all.

Jenn suggests a birthday present for Minion.

Despite it being Sunday, we actually got up and off the boat by about 9:00 am.  Of course, we took some time to sing Happy Birthday to Minion and give him some raw tuna for breakfast as a gift for his first birthday before we left.  We then went ashore and walked to the Huancaxtle Cafe to meet Bella Star for breakfast.  There we found out they were closed till 10:00 am, and would have a buffet at  11:00 am that cost a little more than our breakfast budget.  We radioed Aaron and Nicole to let them know, and after meeting in person we all walked up to The Octopus Garden.  We had been there once before, just for a drink, and really like the space the restaurant is in, plus Aaron wanted to try their pancakes.  Of course, they aren’t open on Sunday.  Another radio call to Anon, who was supposed to be meeting us there, along with the visiting Hello World crew who had a bag of goodies they brought down from stateside.  So another hike through town brought us to Eva’s Brickhouse, where we ordered coffee and someone got a bloody mary (hint, it wasn’t me).  When Keith from Anon arrived we found out he wanted to go to another place for some music with breakfast but we had already put in the beverage order so we agreed to meet them later.  Sometimes VHF conversations don’t quite seem to communicate all the important details.

I can’t say we enjoyed our breakfast at Eva’s – they had no pancakes for Aaron, we had to wait for refills on coffee because our waiter told us someone forgot to start the next pot, and the cook came out and yelled at us for telling our waiter what ingredients we didn’t want in our omelets, not what we did want.  Our waiter explained his behavior with the words “Italian Cook.”  After all that, the food was decent but priced more for tourists than locals.  I doubt any of us will return with so many other choices in town (on any morning but Sunday anyway).

A quick break from doing nothing to help Ben on Jace, who was not having a lazy day.

We then proceeded to wander around the local market.  We were told later that the merchants at this Sunday market have to either make their goods, or grow or use locally grown products for the food items.  Of course when you live on a small sailboat you usually aren’t shopping for local handicrafts, but we did grab a tasty salsa and some caramel filled pastries.  We also chatted with a few cruiser friends we ran into, and caught up with Jason and Christy from Hello World.  I glanced at enough jewelry, baskets, organic produce and Mexican blankets to last me for at least a couple months.

Jenn and Nicole practice their shop till you drop skills.

I think I would rather catch a real one than have this on the boat.

Pretty safe to say this artist is producing locally made goods.

Aaron amuses himself without checking out locally produced goods.

Finally marketed out, we took a quick trip back to Bella Star to drop off our purchases and the goodie bag from Hello World.  Somewhere along our trip through the market we picked up Zack from Panache, since his plans for the day hadn’t been made yet.  Our load lighted up a bit, we set off for a beach hike.  We headed east along an almost deserted beach where we spent some time making sure Ventured seemed okay in the anchorage, as there was enough swell coming for some locals to surf just a few hundred yards from where we were anchored.  Every thing seemed okay from our vantage point so we continued down the beach, stopping to look at birds, explore some tide pools, attempt to skip some rocks and just kind of take it all in at a relaxed pace.

A little shore break just behind the anchorage.

Some local wildlife.

We eventually arrived in Bucerias, which after some later inspection I determined is apparently Spanish for souvenir stand.  But before we explored that portion of town, we quenched the thirst we had worked up with some cervesas, then decided we had worked up enough appetite for some tacos.  Of course there was an ice cream shop next door to the taco stand, and we felt obligated to spread our tourist pesos around to support the local economy.  However as we wandered through several streets of souvenir stands our generosity dried up, despite being told that items were “almost free.”

I do love the colors in Mexico.

Zach takes a new apporach to sampling salsa. I prefer using tortilla chips.

We braved the guantlet. Sometimes you have to be adventurous when traveling.

The girls were relieved to find out if they join a cult, they can still have stylish clothing.

Finally feeling the pull of home, we walked up to the highway just in time for a dash across to hop on the bus that pulled up moments after our crossing.  A short ride later we spilled off back in La Cruz, and walked back down the the Huancaxtle Cafe just in time for happy hour.  Which they don’t have on Sunday, plus they were out of draft beer, our favorite happy hour special.  We’ve been having a great time at this place the last few days, and Jenn even thought the wings we had there yesterday were the best we’ve had in Mexico but today just wasn’t their day for us.  JC, our very friendly waiter, promised to try to get more draft beer ASAP and discuss adding a Sunday happy hour with the management.  So instead it was back to Bella Star for a couple drinks and a discussion that mostly centered around movies, ending with a couple list of movies for each couple to watch.

As it was getting on towards Minion’s dinner time we said our goodbye’s and headed back to the boat.  More tuna for Minion  while Jenn whipped up some beef stew, and I typed this.  And now that it is just about ready I’ll wrap this up while so we can eat, then get some pictures together and post it after dinner.  One does have to keep their priorities straight, and eating Jenn’s cooking is one of mine.

Nothing completes a day in Mexico like being chased by a Chihuahua in a pink sweater.

Tomorrow probably won’t be so exciting as it will include the search for a pressure switch for our water pump which will now not shut off after we shut off the faucet like it is supposed to.  Hopefully the full moon beach bonfire in the evening will be exciting, but not too much so since we are up early for a jungle hike on Tuesday.