We dropped anchor outside the marina in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle on Friday Febrary 6th. Our first order of business was to get a hot breakfast. After three days of scrounging for food on our propane-less three day passage, we were ready for a real meal. We got the dingy in the water and ready to go into town.

On our way in, we passed by s/v Puddle Pirate, a boat we crossed paths with a couple times in Fiddler’s Cove back in San Diego. We stopped to chat and they gave us a lot of good info about the town, getting around, how to get to Wal-Mart, and most importantly, where to get a good breakfast. Sully was begging for pancakes, so we headed to Gecko Rojo where he and Nate shared pancakes, eggs and various meats, while I had a bagel sandwich. Hmmm, not very Mexican, but we would fix that soon enough with tacos galore!

On our way back to the dinghy dock we ran into Tom from s/v Tappan Zee, another boat that we left San Diego with. We told him about our propane problem and because the marina only fills tanks on Wednesdays, he was nice enough to offer us one of their tanks to use until then. It’s great how cruisers go out of their way to help each other out. The community aspect of cruising is something we really love.

The next day was the biweekly boater swap meet at the marina. We still have way too much stuff on board so we loaded up our wagon hoping to get rid of a few things and make a few extra dineros. It was also a good place to meet people. We were happy to find that there are a lot of kid boats here (as opposed to La Paz where there were none), and Sully had a blast running around and playing with the other kiddos.

On Sunday morning, we moved the boat into the marina. We were giving ourselves a two day dock vacation just for fun. Being at anchor is cheap and relaxing, but being at the dock is just so easy. I stepped right off the boat and made my way up to the weekly farmer’s market. The market was surprisingly huge and full of gringos. I picked up some bagels and when Nate and Sully showed up we got ice cream and tamales for lunch.

Later after nap time, we walked up to the main road and hopped on a bus (actually a van) to Wal-Mart and Telcel to get our SIM card reactivated. We proceeded to fly down the road holding on for dear life as the driver weaved between other cars and slammed on the brakes at the last moment. Sully loved it! We were dropped off across the road from Wal-Mart, which is connected to a small indoor shopping mall.

This little town of La Cruz is pretty cool. The street tacos are delicious (believe me, we’ve tried a lot!) and the ice cream is cheap. The closest supermarket is a 20 minute bus ride away, but there are tiendas on every block that have almost everything we need. Between those and the weekly vegetable and general markets, we haven’t felt the need to venture much out of the little four block radius that is La Cruz.

We did brave the bus again to visit my Mom’s cousin Jackie and her husband Murray who stay at a resort near Bucerias, the next town over, for six weeks every year. They come to escape the cold in Saskatchewan, Canada. We spent a whole day at their resort swimming and taking part in events like water aerobics and beach volleyball. Then we walked down the beach into town for tacos. Sully is such a trooper. He spent the whole day in the pool, didn’t have a nap and at our late dinner way past his bedtime he looked at me and said, “Mommy, me sleepy.” No crying, no tantrums, no meltdowns – just a happy kid. After saying goodbye to Jackie and Murray, and making plans for them to come visit the following week, we took a van back to La Cruz and Sully fell asleep on my lap on the dinghy ride home.

Here’s some more pictures to show what else we’ve been up to…