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Travalog
Three Hello friends, We are now underway from Zihuatanejo to Acapulco. Can't believe it is already mid February! Since our last travelog we spent a month in Puerto Vallarta over the holidays. Lisa, our daughter, property manager, money manager, bookkeeper, mail service, etc. flew in for Christmas and New Years. It was great having her with us, since this was our first trip away over Christmas. Kurt & Dorothy Jacobi spent 10 days and their 25th anniversary with us. They were married aboard our boat in Avalon in 1974, so it was a special time together. We gave them a "beautiful" stuffed frog playing the marimbas, which we are sure, will be cherished for the next 25 years! The holidays were great fun with so many of our close friends flying down; and with CHARIS, SECOND KISS, SYNERGY AND POSITIVE ATTITUDE docked at the marina. Christmas is much less commercialized in Mexico, and fortunately, we were spared all the Y2K hype. Christmas day dinner was spent at a lovely restaurant where the Rio Cuale meets the ocean…78 degrees and a fabulous sunset! Next, the Meiers and Featherstones threw a great pre New Years party at their condo, complete with strolling Mariachis. On New Years eve, we took all the boats 15 miles north to Pta Mita and spent the evening at a "Swiss palapa restaurant", owned by an Italian friend of Bill Meier. Also on hand were Kurt Richter and his friend Nina from Lugano, Switzerland. Kurt has some property in San Pancho, a little oceanfront village, north of P.V. He sent a van for us and hosted us to a fabulous day….lunch at a small local restaurant, and dinner at his home! We in turn took them on a boating trip to Yelapa aboard CHARIS, hangovers and all! Puerto Vallarta is still one of our favorite stops in Mexico. With all the holiday happenings, we were still able to make a few day trips with VIVA up and down the coast; and even took in a day of horseback riding and a rodeo! More about that later! The day before departing, we were hosted by Bill & Michele Aguilar to an evening at their villa, high above Mismaloya beach. What a way to end our stay! On the trip down from L.A., everything that needed fixing, maintaining or rearranging on VIVA was to be accomplished in P.V. We were sure that a month in the marina would give us time to do it all. However, we got so busy with the social scene, nothing got done! Our new line is…"when we get to Trinidad"! We left Puerto Vallarta on Jan. 18th, motoring on flat seas with no wind past Cabo Corrientes, known as the Pt. Conception of Mexico. However, after rounding the point, the wind filled in behind us at 25 kts and we had a great sail to Ipala, our first anchorage. After a calm restful night, it was off to Chamela, 50 miles south. Only this time the wind was on the nose at 25 kts! By the time we arrived in Chamela, the boat was caked in salt and it was getting dark. The next day SECOND KISS and CHARIS arrived. They had the wind on the nose all the way down from Corrientes. What a difference a day makes! Chamela is a beautiful remote bay with a few small islands in the middle. The islands offer the most scenic anchorage with a few small beaches for exploring, and reefs and rocks for snorkeling. We spent three days there with CHARIS and a handful of other cruising boats. The next stop was Careyes, the land of million-dollar villas…definitely first world! The cove is quite small and narrow, and bow and stern anchoring is required. This stops many of the cruisers, whom I don't think could find their stern anchors under all the junk. However, we Santa Cruz Island veterans, have had many years of practice! On one side of the cove is the Hotel Careyes, definitely five star! Beautiful grounds and rooms starting at $300.00 per night! Having a meal at the hotel entitled us to the use of their pool and facilities and we spent the day lounging around like one of the paying guests! After a couple of days, it was down the "Gold Coast" to Tenacatita Bay. This stretch of coast is quite flat with miles and miles of totally deserted sand beaches, backed by coconut groves, with the occasional villas perched on the bluffs every few miles. Tenacatita is a large protected harbor, very popular with the cruisers; and there were over 25 boats anchored when we arrived. There is a small river feeding into the corner of the bay by the anchorage, and once you have safely crossed the bar in your dinghy, there is another "jungle ride" available. This is a 3 mile dinghy ride through a canopy of overhanging mangroves, which ends at another beach, with a good palapa restaurant, noted for their "fish rolls" (fish filets stuffed with shrimp and covered in an almond sauce). All our CBYC boats attended this little outing, as we had once again caught up with each other. The next day is was off for a 13 mile trip to Barra de Navidad, which offers a choice of 3 anchorages; the bay of Bahia Navidad (wide open, windy and rolly), the lagoon (a very narrow unmarked entrance), or the marina which is part of the incredible Grand Bay Hotel complex (a definite five star). Guess which one we chose? When you stay in the marina, you get the use of all the hotel facilities, pool, etc., and panga service to the little village of Barra de Navidad. Barra is a neat little village with open-air restaurants on the ocean and lagoon, numerous curio shops, small markets and all the basic necessities. The view back across of the hotel is like looking at a mirage. This area was heavily damaged in an earthquake a few years ago, but has surprisingly recovered with business as usual. Numerous cruisers choose to anchor in the lagoon, which is quite large but shallow. There are also a number of great little restaurants built on stilts out over the water…another one of our favorite stops. After 3 days it was off to Las Hadas in Manzanillo of the movie "10" fame. Las Hadas is like an aging movie star - still well maintained, but beginning to show her years! It cost $5.00 per day to use the hotel anchorage; but once again includes the use of all facilities, pool, towels, showers, dinghy dock, etc. It is a beautiful anchorage, particularly at night with the hotel lights, far away from the downtown commercial area. Out little CBYC group took a bus downtown to see the commercial old town area and lunch at the old Colonial Hotel. Then back to the yachts fast! Manzanillo is the main shipping port for the West Coast of Mexico, so it is sort of like a day in Wilmington, only more scenic and much safer! After Manzanillo, it is about 200 miles to Zihuatanejo, and there are two schools of thought on this passage. One is to go non-stop for a day and a half, or the other is to stop at some of the very remote, marginal anchorages along this stretch of wild and beautiful coast. Bob & Connie on CHARIS and us decided to try the remote little coves. We lucked out with perfect weather, flat seas and little wind. Our first stop was Muruata, which looks like a South Seas village. The ponga fishermen live in woven reed "houses", and a small stream provides water for them and an assortment of horses, pigs, chickens, goats and cows, which all run freely about. Time did not allow us to get ashore, but on a previous trip we made the wild and wooly surf landing to check out the area. Truly a special spot. Next, it was on to Caleta de Campo, also known as Buffadero Bluff on some charts. From previous visits, this was one of Steve's favorite surfing spots. The cove is about 2 miles across and contains a small village on the bluff overlooking a long crescent shaped, palm lined beach, with a few palapa restaurants at one end. Totally undisturbed! The air temperature was about 90 degrees, the water 82, and the waves perfect. Steve was in the water so long; he came out looking like a white prune! Just up the coast 5 miles is the beach and reef at Rio Nexpa, one of the top surfing spots in the world. On our last trip down during the El Nino year, the waves were running 25-35 feet high. Steve was not allowed in the water! We only planned to spend a day, but we ended up staying for three. On Sunday we walked up to the little village, and as luck would have it, this was the day for combination swap meet, farmer's market and 4-H club. There were tent-covered stalls set up; some containing freshly picked fruits and vegetable. Others had pots and pans, dresses, babies clothes; and another was nothing but ladies underwear (sort of like a "Frederick's of Caleta")! We next decided on breakfast at one of the small open-air restaurants across from the mercado, run by two very cute senoritas. First we ordered orange juice, which required one of the beauties to fetch a bag of oranges from across to the market. They were then hand squeezed, giving new meaning to the term "freshly squeezed". Since there was no menu, we then ordered "huevos rancheros", a pretty standard dish. This called for another trip to the marketplace for the eggs, and then another trip for the fresh made tortillas. After all the ingredients were assembled, the cooking began. For some strange reason, the orders arrived one at a time, so that the first meals were consumed by the time the last arrived. Glad we didn't order Eggs Benedict! The meal took most of the morning but watching the local action made it worth while. There were baby bulls on a leash, a little girl with a parrot on her head, all the townspeople in their Sunday best, and the young men flirting with all the girls. Lot of local color! After our three days, it was on to Zihuatanejo, which as it turned out was as lovely as ever. Zihuatanejo has fortunately kept its low-key style. No high rise hotel, no discos, no marina. You can only anchor out and must get ashore by dinghy. At the height of the season, there may be over 100 boats anchored out, many of them staying 3 months or more. Of the two anchorages we chose the one closest to the town dinghy landing. The water isn't too clean for swimming, but it is calm and offers easier access for provisioning. The other anchorage off the beach is quite a bit further, with cleaner, clearer water, but requires bow and stern anchoring and is a long dinghy trip to town. With over 65 boats in the bay, it still was not full. We did a day bus trip over Ixtapa to show Bob and Connie the marina, and all of the high rise crowd. Definitely the other end of the spectrum. John & Diana on KISS and Larry & Joannie on SYNERGY showed up on the day we were leaving, but we did get a chance to catch up on each other's adventures. Since all of our previous trips ended at Zihuatanejo before heading North, we are pretty excited to be heading out to Acapulco and points South. It is about a 115 trip, and quite luckily we once again had a very calm motor sail for about 22 hours arriving just at dawn. With this thought, we will leave you until our next list of adventures continues. We wish you all well and hope that we aren't making you too jealous! Life is good. As ever, Steve & Pam
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