La Cruz to Mazatlan, Mexico

Beautiful La Cruz beach

After several weeks immersing ourselves in the Banderas Bay local culture, 

                 Captain Chris and I finally pulled anchor and made the 150 mile passage

 north from the Puerto Vallarta area to Mazatlan, Mexico.

The trip north to Mazatlan was a relatively calm one nighter

Here's one last blast of Banderas Bay images:

An "almost-infinity" pool on the La Cruz beach

Great advice we found on the cruiser's 

wall at Anna Bananas in La Cruz 

We spent a day during Easter Week at the beach in Bucerias, packed 

with locals enjoying their rare time off with their families. 

Gorgeous Bucerias beach

Live musicians are often found playing for tips right on 

the beach during Mexican holidays.

     This poor guy was sweating mightily, carrying his giant bass through the 

        sand in the 84 degree weather. I think I heard him mutter: "Why, oh why

      didn't I take up the violin in the 3rd grade? What was I thinking?"

After the older band passed through, a younger, hipper group of musicians took the beach.

As a former bando I can confirm: drummers are always the coolest 

guys in the band -- or at least, they THINK they are. 

OK, you know what? These kids were awesome. They rocked! Auntie Liz, 

beaming with pride, gave them a big, fat tip.   :-) 

 I'm happy to report that instrumental music is thriving down here in Mexico. 

Brilliant idea for moms who worry the ocean 

is a bit much for their little one 

An American woman reads Bill O'Reilly. To each his own...

Me in Bucerias. Happy. :-) 

Our friends Bryce and Arlene running errands in their "car"

La Cruz boy

I LOVED this. Check it out: it's the Mexican version of the carnival game you might see at the county fair, with a few changes. Throw a rock at the beer bottles on the wall in back. Break a bottle, get a can of Corona. Break THREE bottles, you win a whole case! Love it. 

Father and daughter sailors in La Cruz. And yes, that's one crop of very red hair!

OK, this was weird. I needed to refill my Thyroid medication, so I headed over to one of the small pharmacies in La Cruz. I arrived to find the front doors wide open, and not a soul inside:

"Hello? Hellllll--oooooooo?! Anybody in there?"

Nobody replied. 

I could hear the wind blowing through the bottles of pills.

Well. That was strange. And it felt like a test that many might fail. While I admit the thought did enter my mind that maybe this was my one chance to score hundreds of pills of every color for free, I kaboshed that idea real fast. 

Morality issues aside, if you're going to cram your shopping bag with a veritable pharmacy of stolen pharmaceuticals, Mexico is not the place you want to get caught.

I hightailed it on out of there before my brilliant brain came up with any other crazy ideas. I've got no idea where the pharmacist was or what was going on, though. I can't imagine this ever happening at your local Wallgreens.

Locals fish off the La Cruz jetty

One morning Chris and I walked the entire beach from La Cruz to Bucerias. 

It took us two hours, but it's definitely doable during low tide. 

La Cruz marina

Since we're economy cruisers, we were in the anchorage during our stay

 in La Cruz. But we got to visit our friends in the gorgeous Marina Nayarit 

(AKA Marina La Cruz) which was good enough for us.  :-) 

La Cruz fishing nets rest in the sun

"Look what daddy caught!"

This mannequin was in a local boutique -- or should I say MANNequin.  Those are DEFINITELY man-mannequin arms on this display. Was it intentional? Or did they run out of "woman" arms and hope that noone would notice? I know in the era of Bruce Jenner the transexual thing is in -- but truly, I have no idea if this was intentional or not. Your thoughts?

P.S. This store was not in some arty, hip section of Puerto Vallarta. It was at a family mall in Bucerias. I guess we'll just file this under "Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm..."

Veggie stand in Sayulita

Sayulita main drag

Singing with Sherman and the boys at Gecko Rojo in La Cruz

Chris and a local dog patrolling the area in front of an outdoor eatery 

personify a typical laid-back La Cruz evening

Speckled sky over the La Cruz marina

Adios, Banderas Bay. Te amo siempre. 

  

Welcome to the Trump Apology Tour of Mexico!

A crowd in Mexico burned a Trump effigy back in January. 

It wouldn't be the last.

Chris and I remain in La Cruz, Mexico preparing to sail north for summer in the Sea of Cortez. I'll talk about the "Trump Apology Tour of Mexico!" in a minute. But first:

Images from around Banderas Bay:

Evening in La Cruz 

This is a first class golf course in Puerto Vallarta. One little problem, though. 

Notice the sign. It says:

"Careful. Crocodile Habitat."

Um. Okee dokee.  Not sure how playing golf on a crocodile-filled golf course works.

 It probably adds to the inherent drama, though! 

It's Easter week here in Mexico, which is a huge deal.

Altar for virgin Mary in San Pancho

After countless hours of frustrating work and problem solving by Captain Chris, 

our used watermaker is FINALLY up and running. 

Chris studying the watermaker components aboard Espiritu

While Chris worked hard on the watermaker, I put in a couple of more shifts at the orphanage in Bucerias with my friend Marne of s/v LeaHona. 

Little Charlene had a high fever. 

We took her to the doctor for medical attention. 

While the big kids are still at school, a little one eats lunch alone in the 

dining hall as the cook Anna Maria checks facebook

Little Priscilla says her prayers at the orphanage

Bucerias boy shows off his new Captain America action figure. 

Why don't they make Captain Mexico action figures? 

Lovely scene in Punta de Mita

Clowning around with my buddy, La Cruz local Ernesto

These wild bananas are growing next to the La Cruz marina. Does that mean 

they're free?  Unsure, we left them for the locals.

Laser sailboat race in the bay

La Cruz is the meeting place for sailing friends old and new:

James and his every growing family, crew of s/v Jean Marie

Reunion of sailors we met in El Salvador in 2012: crews of 

s/v Sundancer, s/v Dawn Trader, s/v Espiritu and s/v ChanteyV

Reunion with besties Howard and Lynn of s/v Swift Current. These two kept us 

sane during our months in Costa Rica and Panama back in 2012. 

Chris and Nico of s/v Yellow Feather. He's a single hander who left the insanity of Silicon Valley, jumped on a little yellow sailboat alone, and will be leaving for the South Pacific in 2 days.

 By himself.

 Fair winds, my friend.

Meet new friends Jon and Shannon of s/v Prism.  We were thrilled to find out they're musicians as well! We broke out the instruments one rainy afternoon and had an impromptu jam aboard Espiritu.

Chris on the fiddle, Shannon on the mandolin

Adding Jon on mando and me on guitar made for an amazing rainy afternoon.  A few days later, our new friends shoved off for Central America. They're actually famous online, with many thousands of followers of their blog and YouTube videos. Fair winds, kids! 

This cucaracha climbed up through the manhole, looked around, and returned to the depths

And speaking of cockroaches...

Saturday night we were in the La Cruz town square enjoying a lovely Easter festival with music, dancing, rides for the kids, etc. I was chatting with my friend Marguerite and her family, all lifetime La Cruz locals. 

Suddenly one of them looked at me and said in an agitated voice:

"Trump. Trump. Que paso?"

The happy conversation stopped suddenly -- all of the Mexicans in the group stopped talking. Then, eyes wide, the whole group of them turned and looked directly at me for my response.

I can't be sure, but I think the carousel stopped turning, the children stopped playing, and the entire TOWN went suddenly stone silent, turned, and looked to me for my response.

 They looked frightened and concerned. Scared.

You see, nearly every family in Mexico has a young son, niece or nephew living and working in the United States. So, they have skin in the game. They're worried.

Remember, Donald Trump said that Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers.

He did NOT say that SOME of them are rapists and drug dealers.

When pressed by journalists to clarify, he did not clarify -- instead he doubled down on his statement.

He looked right into the camera and calmy, impatiently even, repeated it as a fact (as if it's so obviously true that it should be clear to everyone): Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers. 

Period.

Sigh.

When we first crossed the border into Ensenada back in December, I told the locals not to worry, that it was only a small number of people who followed Trump, and that he would never be elected.

Fast forward to today, and he's about to be nominated for President by the Republican Party. He could very well win the election.

And in case you're wondering, Trump coverage is 24/7 down here in Mexico. The populace here is fully aware of his every move.

I have no idea what to say to my Mexican friends anymore.

 I'm out of excuses for the American people.

From here on out, when a Mexican fearfully asks me about Trump, I'll simply shrug, wave my hand, say "No se," (I don't know) "La gente son loco," (the people are crazy) do a Sign of the Cross, and say: "Dios, ayudamos." (God help us all).

Today they burned another big effigy of Trump in Mexico City, to the joy of cheering crowds.

I really don't know what to do. All I know for sure is, tonight our American flag is coming down off of Espiritu's stern.

Not because I'm ashamed. But because I'm kind of afraid.

Well done, America. 

New Photo Journal: Around Banderas Bay

Cloudy morning in La Cruz, Mexico 

We rise early every morning on Espiritu to watch the sunrise.  We saw these very strange clouds one morning last week, and we hadn't seen anything like them, before or since:

The whimsical, strange clouds had the appearance of whipped meringue

At the restaurant La Glorieta in La Cruz, 

where we watched the futbol Americano playoffs on TV

Bucerias children with their pet chicken

This guy was juggling machetes in the middle of the highway, obstructing traffic. Imagine if this happened on the 405 in SoCal -- the police would have immediately shut down traffic in both directions for several hours to deal with it.

Here in Mexico? No big deal. Nobody calls the cops. Everybody just shrugs, laughs, and drives around him. 

Welcome to Mexico!

Pipeline on La Cruz beach 

Catholic church in Puerto Vallarta

Every saturday night La Cruz has a band and dancing for the locals at the gazebo in the town square. Our tradition is Chris buys his handmade ice cream bar and we hang out watching the festivities.

Chris dances off his ice cream sugar 

high by getting his boogie on...

This La Cruz local takes her dancing very seriously...

These blooming yellow trees are erupting all over the area

We made a Costco run with Bret and Marne of LeaHona, which involved a long bus ride and a mile walk in the midday sun.

Yes, even in Puerto Vallarta, pizza and a big 

Diet Coke are a vital part of the Costco experience!

Cats, dogs and chickens inexplicably live completely peacefully amongst one 

another on the street here in La Cruz and throughout Latin America. Perhaps there is a lesson for us humans here?

Hillside above La Cruz

We took this shot of the La Cruz anchorage a few days ago. 

Espiritu is somewhere in the middle of the shot. 

This river cuts right through the middle of bustling Puerto Vallarta

There was a big cruiser's bonfire this week, and I played real

 Mayan music with real Mayan locals. Wow. How cool is that? 

They have yacht racing every week in Banderas Bay. We dove in and did a buoy race aboard Wind one afternoon. Chris was bowman extraordinaire.

I helped douse the spinnaker and jib. Just like the old days racing in SoCal...

...Speaking of which, we ran into our old Newport Beach racing adversary Scavenger down here in Banderas Bay. She was bought by two lovely young Australian ladies and is now a cruising sailboat bound for down under (note the flag)! 

I volunteered at the Manos de Amor orphanage in Bucerias.  There are 24 children ages 2 - 14 living there. I did laundry and washed dishes, but mostly I just played, talked and read to and with the children.

 What a privilege. It was a powerful, emotional experience, and I can't wait to go back. I need to be fully healed from my Dengue Fever before they let me back (go figure -- ha!). 

A generous Canadian benefactor donated these brand new "Canada" hoodies to the kids at the orphanage, which they happily and proudly wore on their way to school in the morning.

One blustery afternoon a couple of weeks ago, the cruising sailboat Rage suddenly broke free from her anchor and began hurtling toward the rocks (Noone was on board).  Several of us jumped into our dinghies to try and help save her from disaster.  

Cruising saiboat Rage. One moment she was resting in the anchorage with the rest of us, 

five minutes later she's on the rocks.

Several dinghies and pangas tried to help. But the waves were just too strong. In fact, not one, not two, but THREE dinghies were flipped trying to get close to Rage. Before our eyes, she broke apart. There was nothing to be done except help rescue the rescuers in their flipped dinghies.

It was a sad day, and a grim reminder that anything can happen to any of us, at any time.

Be safe, life well, live NOW. Make hay while the sun shines.