Two more weeks have passed here in La Cruz. Here’s what we’ve been up to…
We took a trip to Puerto Vallarta to go to a few marine stores and ended up exploring a little bit, too. It’s a very tourist centered town. On the malecon there is an “Original” Senor Frog’s Store on every corner. We got to see the Voladores de Papantla, who climb to the top of a 50 foot pole, wrap thick ropes around the top, and then fall head over heels dangling by just one ankle. Dressed in traditional native attire and playing drums and flutes, they spin and fall gracefully to the ground as the ropes unwind at the top of the pole.
There’s been a lot of motorcycle riding through town and playdates on the boat.
We visited Jackie and Murray one last time at their resort. It was another fun day spent at the pool.
Nate and Murray played poolside Mexican Bingo and Nate won both rounds! His prize was a Puerto Vallarta tour the next day that lucky for us, Jackie and Murray were already signed up for. Even though the tour ended up being a bunch of stops at over-priced tourist traps, we were happy to spend more time with J and M before they headed home to Canada, and got to see parts of the area that we would never have seen without renting a car. The highlight of the trip was a tour and tasting at a tequila factory up in the mountains where Sully got his first taste of tequila. Just kidding, it was agave nectar!
We took the boat into the marina for a day to receive and install our new batteries and give Astraea a much needed bath. Sully used our soap bucket as his own personal bubble bath.
We finally stopped to see the iguanas that live in the trees near the marina entrance.
The Mexican Navy made their rounds through the anchorage. We had just sat down to lunch when we heard whistles and knocking. I popped out into the cockpit to see four men in a dinghy, two with machine guns. Surprised, all I could think to say was, “Oh. Hi!”, and then, “Nate, the Navy is here!” He came outside and then, realizing he was just in his underpants (a common occurrence because it’s so hot), told the officers, “Una momenta por favor. No tengo pantalones.” They just wanted to see our boat documentation and passports. Nate was very friendly and tried to give them some US Navy t-shirts, but they were very serious and left after taking a few pictures.
I can’t believe we’ve been in La Cruz for a month already. That’s one third of our total time in Mexico spent in one spot! We are getting a little antsy though, so next week we are off to new locations in the bay.
On Sunday we are heading to Paradise Village Marina to get some pool time in for a day, fill up our water tanks and check it out before visitors start arriving. We will be staying at the marina for a few days when Nate’s sister comes next week, and when his parents come later this month. After getting our fill of the crocodile slide at the resort for a day, we’ll be on our way to Punta de Mita, a little town with an anchorage at the entrance to Banderas Bay.