The Cruiser's schedule

Juan runs the harbor at Nuevo Vallarta Marina - and does a great job of it. He has two docks of boats that never leave the harbor, on docks that are worth your life to try to travel on - sheets of plywood laid loose on huge holes in the dock. We live on the new docks - beautiful and safe. Juan met us when we returned from Yelapa - ahhh, beautiful, shabby Yelapa. Supposedly you are only able to get to it by boat, but one guide said there was a road. Knowing the Mexicans, of course there is a road - burt one that probably is as dangerous as Juan's old docks.The cove is three hours on engine from NV, and we were met by El Buly in his panga quite quite a ways out to sea. He arranged for a mooring right off the beach and got both MollyJ and I'O settled. I wanted to jump in the water but saw it full of lovely jelly fish - so Jon, Lisa and I walked the beach. The beach is packed with tourists who come in on the tour boats in the day time and at night, peace. Well, we thought so - but we had a norther come through which roared and rocked us all night, with some

nerves. As the wind was off shore, we finally fell asleep to wake up with a cough that wouldn't stop. I croaked to MollyJ that we would head back to find a doctor in NV and join them later. Everything except the beach palapas are on hills, and this place to the left isfor sale.

Back to Juan - he met the boat, got us settled and gently welcomed us back to a place that is not too shabby at all to recuperate, Nuevo Vallarta.

The colors of Mexico

One of the questions a friend asked is why we can't have colorful buildings, buildings with character. My answer: architects. Damn architects. The lasdt couple of years saw site plans and buildings laid out with acute angles - this fad seemed to have brainwashed architects until someone realized it was pretty stupid. Green is now the latest, and possibly the most sensible fad - but I snickered when I heard some green kids discussing "brise soleis" (shade devices) with a frightening intensity. It is all about jargon.

Getting a photo of the cathedral in Puerto Vallarta is dicy unless you can rent a helicopter. The day we visited, a funeral mass had just finished and we wandered inside to be mildly awed. As we have been attending church in a palapa that used to be a bar, we could show some awe. Several years ago, Robert had his flight cancelled and didn't make it down in time for the Christmas Mass and a friend and I went. We coul only understand a few words but felt we were part of something celebratory, as we were.

There is a lot of gold - but out of the photo was the stand of votive lights. I kept throwing in American coins and wondered where the matches were. Now this is a holy place and there has to be some matches - I looked down and realized that each time I put a coin in little lights were coming on.

The snickering this time was coming from Robert.

This spring has seen a cloud of sulpher yellow clouds, similar to the shower trees in Hawaii, only pure yellow against the dull green of the hillsides. We are in the dusty time here in PV and the color is magic. Now the pnk trees are starting to do the same thing, and the African tulips ---the answer to the question, then, is most of North America doesn't have the glorious trees to inspire building colors.

Exuma and the tsunami

You can go online and read about this boat: Yacht Exuma - presently docked in the harbor entrance. Yesterday it had to turn on its engines to keep from being swept from the dock due to the tsunami surges. We are right across the channel in the slips and watched the theater of the tsunami for several hours yesterday. We could see the channel start to flow strongly in and then almost immediately, flow like a river in flood, out. A lot of the boats that had gathered in the harbor for the Banderas Bay regatta had left and were floating around in deep water outside in the Bay missed the show. They heard it, however, on the radio - from disaster rumours to just rumours to just plain ridiculous. We were able to judge the severity of the waves from the internet reports where they had hit earlier and felt relieved when Hawaii had reduced their "alert". We were able to feel some security in our decision to stay docked, but we were still nervous about the possibility of water being drained from the harbor and monster surges coming in to tear the place up. It didn't happen. The harbor would go up a few feet and then drop, with Exuma letting us know when a surge was coming. These were not just surges, but strange currents, (10 - 15 mph...wow) and whirlpools and waves. Lisa and I were thinking it was pretty much a non event, except we were awed by the visible current, and then we walked to the harbor mouth. Wow, I couldn't stop saying that - wow! It was a disaster movie film set - unreal - very eerie. A wave train would start, then we could see gorgeous turquoise water move rapidly across or push the brown harbor water in the channel, waves would build with giant whirlpools, and then crash into the breakwater. A very strange wave train would begin further in the channel and then appear to skate across the surface of the water as it worked its way back out. If you have never seen ocean water behave that way, it was goosebump time. The absolute power of the surges kept all the escapees out of the harbor for hours - in fact most of them went over to La Cruz and anchored out as the entrance stayed strange up until dark. Some boats tried to come in but were waved off, and the parade of tired sailors and boats arrived back in to their slips all morning long. We slept well, but given the ongoing surges and strange behavior of the ocean, those were some tired sailors.

A day being tourists....

The waterfall at Quimixto is as enchanting as ever - except the pool below is only around the bottom of the falls. We used to be able to swim in the bay below the falls. We sat above and ate pupus and had drinks after riding in on horses that knew the way, but who had minds of their own at times: up steep hills, through narrow passages where the stirrups touched the dirt and down steep hills. We left as the horde from the tour boat arrived and ran for the horses to get back down the trail so we didn't have to eat dust and horse pucky if we left first.
The boat trip was strange as we were sure the boat's steering was faulty. The driver would spin the wheel all the way over and then spin it all the way back - leaving s curves behind us.

Leaving Paradise Marina, we had a lovely cat drive us to Marina Vallarta where we joined hordes to get aboard a tub. That was sort of a let down, and Alan made moooing noises. The crew tried to get us enthused, but we sat outside away from the noise and just enjoyed seeing whales and dolphins, and the unending s curves across Banderas Bay. We didn't dive at Los Arcos - good thing as the current was so strong that pangas were chasing the tourists. They had lines out at the stern of the pangas and pulled the runaways back to the various tubs where margaritas and rum punch waited. We had been promised a small breakfast, but had been herded on board before managing to eat more than a few pieces of fruit. We were starving. Alan and Maribeth above in the best seats.

On the tub - the crew on the way back played loud obnoxious music and danced. Very funny seeing large Mexican crew men dancing to YMCA and the Macarena. Alan and Maribeth hid below where it sounded like a herd of elephants trying to break through the ceiling.

We finally were given lunch at 3PM at Las Animas - which was fairly good - but it turned out that the crew were the servers there, also. Pangas delivered us back to the tub and

we s curved all the way back to Marina Vallarta to get back on the lovely cat.

We were out over ten hours and Koa gave us his interpretation of pique at being left that long by peeing on Alan's bed. Alan very gently said, "there seems to be something damp here"---

Maribeth is looking for the snow shovel. Koa loves her, as we do too.

The locals......

Our diver came to collect after cleaning the bottom and brought his family. Mom is expecting another - and we sat on the end of the dock and talked about life on the water. Would we do this with our diver in San Francisco Bay? Uh, no way - he would be off to the next high priced job - there is an ease here that is coulkd be called manana time, or just good social skills. I think it is the character of Mexico - warm, caring and interested in each other. I complain sometimes about how much the workers talk to each other, which is constant - but the lesson there is they communicate and that is a good thing. We could learn a lot there.

Mexicans going home from the US ride cheap buses that allow them to take treasures home. This fellow wore his hat to and from the US, but no one laughed at him in Mexico. He insisted on putting the thing on my head to take a photo to his relatives. He was so full of happiness at going home, there was nothing we could do but share it. Would this happen at a bus stop in Topeka? I don't think so.
We walk the beach some days and find the vendors with their carry cases all sealed up but they want to show us what they have if we even show a little interest. When we say we have no money in our bathing suits, the reply is "Mexican Credit" and we all laugh. Laughing is endemic here. Does this happen as a rule in the US? No.

This fellow was given the challenge of finding something special for our friend Linda. He went right to her Amakua: a turtle....so the disappointing day in Mismaloya turned out to be pretty special, after all. He doesn't look sure, but the smile he later gave was worth the silver in the turtle.
The guards here call, "Amiga" at Maribeth, Lisa or me as we walk by - which means, Hi friend....pretty neat. And they run to open the gate for us if we forget our keys- smiling, always smiling. Viva Mexico.

Estimado Huespedes.....

Maribeth and Alan arrive in Nuevo and have a morning beach walk, looking for snow. All the Canadians at the airport were peeling off their outerwear as they came through immigration and customs, hauling giant bags of golf clubs and tennis racquets. The following morning, the unreality or the contrast between several centimeters of snow and the warm sand/water was mentioned several times. We had a great trip planned to go down the coast and turn around for their return flight, but Sha'ash put a monkey wrench in the works with his vet appointments - although he is now putting sme weight on his leg.

We took the boat out with Lisa and Jon and sailed only on the jib and found a gathering of boats watching whales sound. We had been to a small conference put on by the local university about safety around whales, and it turned out to be information for the commercial pangas and not so much for cruisers, although we can benefit from staying away from the critters.
Actually, the whales benefit...we watched the tour boats follow in a group after the whales and this seemed to be harrassment of sorts for dollars. We have enough photos of whale's tails, fins, mysterious backs in the water so we just watch when we can, now. Captain Jon watching Alan drive the boat, no snow.