Banderas Bay

Our friends from home (Jay, Linda, David and Angela) had planned a vacation in Puerto Vallarta for December so we sailed south from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle to the marina at Nuevo Vallarta so we could join them for a few days. Staying at the marina we were only a half mile from their time share, and we got all of the amenities of the Grand Mayan Resort (including golf, pools, water slides, swim up bars, and restaurants) as our reward. The marina was located next to a dolphin exhibit so each day we also got to watch the dolphins being trained to do their incredible acrobatics. We also got our first experience taking true landlubbers to sea when we invited everyone for a sail on the Bay. We headed out on a true Gilligan’s Island type adventure aboard Mañana. The 3 hour tour to Mismaloya and back was calm and sunny, but both David and Jay quickly jumped ship when we got back to the dock, and I don’t think either of them are going sailing again any time soon. Mal de mer the French call it and green is the color. No one actually got sick but there was certainly a lot of whining about the slow pace and the rolling seas.

 

Andrea’s daughter (Michal Ann) and her husband (Mohammed) also joined us for a week’s vacation aboard, and we set out to explore some of the other destinations around the Bay as well as to visit Viejo Vallarta, the older tourist sections of the city. We sometimes complain that places like PV are a little to “touristy”, but that is what provides the entertainment. There was plenty of shopping, pleasant walks along the malecon, quick beer stops, and some great restaurants. Although PV is considered a little expensive by Mexican standards we were still paying a fraction of the costs we would have paid at home and getting some wonderful meals.  

 

We took a bus trip (actually 3 buses) to Boca de Tomatlan along the southern coast of Banderas Bay. The road ends at Tomatlan so from there we took a panga (Mexican Boston Whaler) to the remote town of Yelapa. Yelapa is a small cove on the southern coast that is only accessible by boat, but is home to a few hundred people. This is a beautiful beach with a steep shoreline and rolling breakers so we were happy to be on the small water taxi rather than trying to bring our own boat close to the beach.

  I was particularly struck by the town water system and I have attached a picture of the water system at the Bar Manguitas in Yelapa where we had lunch. In fact all of the water to the village came from similar hoses and pumps with the hoses winding through the tree tops.

Our return to Tomatlan via panga was on a crowded water taxi with about 20 people which I thought might be a few too many bodies for this small boat. I happened to turn around to see the boat driver bless himself with the sign of the cross just before he hit the throttle. Gracias de Dios for the safe trip. A bit later the bus driver on the city route did him one better.  When the bus stalled at one stop he left the bus, crawled under the rear wheel somewhere, and magically started the bus from under there. Must have been a hidden key. Mexican travel has been filled with “ordinary, but out of the ordinary” incidents like these.

 

Michal Ann and Mohammed have sailed with us before, and they were quite happy to sail the Bay and to spend a few nights at anchor when we revisited La Cruz.  We also took another side trip by bus to Sayulita where we enjoyed the beaches, bars, and shops. Sayulita is a very attractive surf town with a beautiful, wide sand beach for strolling. 

   

Days have turned lazy and our only sailing is day trips on the bay. We did sail out to the Tres Marietas islands (20 miles) and had an incredible day of sailing and whale watching. We spotted at least 20 whales and many of them were within a few hundred feet of the boat. At one point we had four fast moving whales headed directly towards the boat, but about 150 feet away they dove and reappeared on the other side of us. Andrea spends a lot of time telling me which way to turn the boat to get closer to these behemoths , but sometimes the whales swim to windward and I can’t get closer, and sometimes I am quite close enough, thank you. The humpbacks are just now returning to the bay for their winter stay.

 

Did you know: The whales mate in the early winter months, migrate north in the spring and summer, and then return south the following year to give birth in the warmer waters. The locals say that since they are born here all of the whales are Mexican.

Christmas is just 5 days away and we are still in shorts, dining outdoors at night, and swimming during the day. We hear it’s a little cooler in Santa Cruz and new England, but we do feel the chill now that the temps are in the low 70’s some days.  Christmas dinner with other cruisers will be a pot luck at a local bar that supplies the turkey for free if we bring a plate to pass. We’ll be there with bells on.

Merry Christmas to all…

San Blas to La Cruz

Yes, I have been bad, but not at sailing (at which I am getting a lot of experience). Bad at writing and keeping in touch with those who think we are in danger out here (which we are not). Last e-mail was Mazatlan on the Pacific coast of Mexico, and we’ve covered some ground (water) since then. We are currently in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. This is a small town on Banderas Bay. Banderas is the 2nd largest bay on the Pacific coast and is better known as the home to Puerto Vallarta. La Cruz is about 10 miles north of PV. At this point we have covered close to 1600 miles at an average speed (I use that term loosely) of 5 miles per hour.

We got a good weather report so we sailed from Mazatlan on December 4 in good winds and flat seas. This was a welcome change from the choppy, rolling seas we had been experiencing for several weeks along the Baja, in the Sea of Cortez, and on the crossing to Mazatlan. The first leg was an overnight sail leaving Mazatlan at daybreak and we arriving at Isla Isabella dawn the next day. Isla Isabella is a small island about 40 miles off shore and a quick survey of the island (this is a bird sanctuary, think white rocks, think what caused the white rocks) and the exposed anchorage led us to believe we could find a better spot by continuing on to San Blas as long as we had several hours of daylight left. We found a great anchorage in a broad, palm tree lined Mantanchen Bay near San Blas that was both scenic and calm, and we congratulated ourselves on a job well done. The scenery here is decidedly tropical and very pretty. The next morning we motored into the estuary at San Blas  and headed ashore for check in with the Port Captain and to do some well deserved bar hopping.

San Blas is a sleepy little town that never got past the hippie, surfer, remote vacation themes. Dirt and cobblestone streets crisscross the town, but there are also many small tiendas, taco stands, 4 table restaurants, and watering holes.  The town square is a lovely, landscaped flagstone square dominated by the church on one side and a variety of shops and restaurants around the remaining perimeter. 

I particularly liked the San Blas Social Club. This small bar had old jazz and country record albums on the walls, and the bartender would play any of them you requested. Music was “eclectic” and entertaining all afternoon and the beers were cheap. We even met two guys from Santa Cruz sitting at the bar who had “retired” to San Blas several years ago. I didn’t remember them, but they had frequented McCarthy’s and were very familiar with the Aptos Club. I always wondered where the Aptos Club clientele had disappeared. We also met a young Russian woman at the Social Club who had jumped ship a few days earlier when the sail boat she was crewing on was struck by lightning. San Blas was to be her new home if she could stand the no-see-ums. Fortunately we had still been in Mazatlan during that same lightning storm, and we again thanked whatever forces have been watching over us on this trip.

December 12 is a huge celebration here for the Virgin of Guadalupe and San Blas was our first exposure to the religious processions that run for several days preceding the feast. (We later saw the large procession to the cathedral on the 12th when we were in Puerto Vallarta). The church on the square was the destination for hordes of small children carrying candles in the procession and apparently recess occurs shortly after reaching the church.  It was a crowded and festive evening. We also spent a pleasant hour on the square with a fellow who was the unofficial harbor master of San Blas having moved there 40 years ago to go fishing. Several cruisers also stopped by and we ended up in a nearby taco bar for dinner.

Puerto Vallarta beckoned so we again hauled anchor and headed for another interim stop in Chacala. Nothing there except a very picturesque anchorage and a half dozen palapa restaurants on the beach. This is a Mexican vacation destination, and it was very quiet on this night. Very, very pretty and very pleasant.
The trip from Chacala to Banderas Bay started in flat seas and no wind, but our reward was whales and dolphins. We came upon 3 humpbacks basking on the surface, and we got to within 50 feet of them floating with sails down and motors off. We just sat there for about an hour as they spouted, rolled, and lolled about in the sun. Beautiful.

A bit later we were startled to see the seas frothing ahead of us. We had come upon a large group of dolphins herding fish. Many hundreds of dolphins jumping and circling the fish who were also jumping and circling (for much different reasons). The winds picked up substantially around noon and we found 20 knots and sunny sailing for the last 4 hours of the trip. We rounded Punta Mita at the north end of the bay with huge rollers breaking across the reefs. We had originally planned to anchor at the first available place in Banderas Bay (Punta Mita) but the winds were so good that we sailed on another 15 miles to La Cruz.  La Cruz is another cobblestone street town that is just about to bust loose with development (new marina scheduled for completion in 2008) so we were very happy to get here in time to see the still decidedly Mexican town before the tourists discover it. Dinner at Ana Bananas Sunday BBQ with open mike night was a great introduction to La Cruz. At least 6 different groups/single artists performed while we were there for dinner.

Did you know: San Blas, Mexico was the subject of Henry Longfellow's last poem "The Bells of San Blas"? You could look it up.

Next stop Puerto Vallarta where friends and family will meet us and keep us occupied pretty much through Christmas.