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. 

  

Surf's up at Sayulita

Lovely Sayulita

We jumped on a bus to Buserias, where we caught a second one north to the beach town of Sayulita. 

This is a good time to talk about Mexican buses.  Some people call them chicken buses as it is not unheard to see one or two aboard combing the aisles.

The drivers of Mexican buses apparently have free reign to decorate their interiors in any way that they see fit. There is almost always an image of Jesus or Mary up front, right next to multiple cultural icons, drawings of Mickey Mouse, soccer team logos, you name it.

A colorful Mexican bus

After taking dozens and dozens of trips aboard Mexican buses so far, we have never ever felt unsafe.  Sure, they're not air conditioned, but at 8 pesos a ride, whose complaining?

Anyway, Sayulita awaited. 

Sayulita is the surf mecca of Pacific Mexico. It's got a young, artistic feel to it

Chris with Tricia and Derek of Enterabang! on the Sayulita waterfront 

After soaking up the local color, we wanted to stretch our legs and take a walk outside of town.

A waterfront home south of Sayulita

An oceanfront Sayulita vacation cottage

We headed up into the jungle to get a bit of exercise. Nothing like getting out into nature to clear the cobwebs!

The road less traveled...

                                               

Chris in the midst of splendid isolation

Back up on the beach into Sayulita for lunch

                    We ate at a taco stand on the street. Notice how they put the plastic plate in a plastic bag -- instead of doing dishes they just threw the bag away after the meal. Hmmmmm. That's one way to do it!


                        After lunch I did some bodysurfing in the famous Sayulita waves.

      The waves and surge were bigger than usually experienced in Southern California. The ocean floor was quite rocky in some areas and I cut my knee on the bottom. One big difference between Mexican beaches and California beaches? No lifeguard stands down here. No lifeguards, period. You're on your own.

                        No, this isn't some strange post-mortem body preparation before cremation. This woman actually paid to get a full body massage right on the Sayulita beach with some strange mud concoction. She seemed to be enjoying it...


Well, we thoroughly enjoyed Sayulita, and heartily recommend it for anyone visiting this part of town. It's too bad there isn't an anchorage here -- then the town would be perfect. But we sailors need an anchorage...

                                             So we headed back to La Cruz.

Chris sits at the actual bus stop in Sayulita. How cute is that?