Punta de Mita

                                                      

We pulled anchor from Chacala and headed south towards our next destination, Punta de Mita, about 35 miles away. 

We passed several pods of humpback whales during our passage.  We saw several of these lumbering animals slapping their fins on the surface of the water. Biologists theorize that this may be a way of signaling other whales. 

"Hey guys, over here...I spy some hot babes..."

We saw one breaching as well -- always a thrill!                                       

 There are a few submerged rocks coming around the point, so we motored very slowly and carefully, watching our waypoints, with the first mate (me!) up at the bow looking for growlers just under the surface. It is best to keep a mile or two off the coast as one comes around into Banderas Bay, just to be on the safe side.

We dropped anchor in 16 feet of water at lovely Punta de Mita.

Espiritu enjoys some blessed solitude at Punta de Mita

This tiny resort town is apparently a surf mecca. The water was warm, and the waves were oh-so-tiny! 

I'll admit I was tempted to rent a board and paddle on out and give it my best shot. Fortunately for all concerned, the impulse quickly passed.  :-) 

We wanted to stretch our legs, though, so we donned our backpacks and headed inland about 2 miles across the isthmus to a wild stretch of deserted beach with large crashing waves. We crossed a highway and came upon this disturbing yet mesmerizing sight at the side of the road:

Flattened-like-a-pancake dog on the Mexican highway

Well, he certainly felt no pain. Kind of a good way to go, if you think about it. Quick and painless.

After our long hike under the hot sun we were eager to return to Espiritu. 

Chris looking out at Espiritu in lovely Punta de Mita

Chris and I had the beach nearly to ourselves!

On another topic, in the name of frugality we've been pretty good about keeping with our plan of preparing and eating most of our meals onboard and staying out of restaurants.

In deciding what meals to prepare, it's all about what fresh foods I have on board.  Fresh papaya, avocado, mango, lime, local cheeses and fresh tortillas are a part of every meal aboard Espiritu. 

Chris caught a tasty Sierra mackeral in Chacala which went down real easy. :-) 

The telltale yellow spots of the Sierra mackarel

Interestingly, the average tienda does not carry chicken. And I've yet to find it in the can, either. Yet eggs are everywhere for purchase, and one of the charms of Mexico are the countless chickens and roosters which roam and play in open, ungated front yards, meandering into the streets and cock-a-doodle-doing all over the place.

A rooster struts up and says "Hola!"

Surprisingly, neither dogs nor cats attack or eat these animals. They can clearly defend themselves and seem to have the run of the place. Most families do not kill the chickens for their meat -- instead they cherish them as family members and actual pets who provide an endless supply of daily nutrition: eggs.

The bottom line is this: Mexicans love their chickens and roosters, and do not appear to relish eating them except for very special occasions.

Well, last night was the winter solstice. We have officially entered our third time zone. This new life we have been living for the past 7 weeks truly feels like a dream. And when I say a dream, I mean like an alternative reality. 

One interesting phenomena in SCUBA diving is this: when you have left the surface (the "real world") and after you have spent 40 or 50 minutes literally submerged in a completely different underwater world, there is a sense that you are literally in a different reality, and when your face pops up to the surface, and you see land, and people, and "real life," and begin breathing regular air again rather than breathing underwater -- it feels like a re-entry. Like awakening from a dream -- leaving one life you were  living only a moment ago, and entering another, completely different life.

Two different realities -- underwater and "real life."

Anyway, it feels like we've left our other life for awhile and are literally living in a completely different reality. It's not better or worse than our lives in the states -- it's just completely different.

 Like a dream.

Chacala Bay

Chacala Bay consists of a lovely beach with small restaurants and hotels, and a tiny town which backs up to the rain forest.

Chacala from the anchored Espiritu

It is necessary to double anchor here, as the northerly swells clock around the point. But it is a secure and comfortable anchorage once the hard work is done.

Chris and Ian from Kasasa on Chacala Beach

We pooled our resources with Kasasa and Talaria, hired a taxi and ventured inland a bit. This is verdant and lush farmland. We passed miles of mango trees, which unfortunately will not yield their succulent fruit until May.

Ya gotta love a man who gets so excited about fresh fruit!

We went on a hike up into the surrounding hills. We were told by the locals to follow a certain trail into the rainforest where we would be greeted by the sight of a dormant volcano.

Dormant volcano caldera now replaced by a gentle meadow

The trail through the rainforest was spectacular

               

We were fortunate to trip upon a flock of several black throated magpie jays, a tropical bird with the cartoonish characteristics of a blue jay with a foot long tail and a quail-like head plume:

Blue-throated magpie jay

                             

                                           We also passed countless varieties of butterflies:

Crimson-patched longwing

Zebra longwing

                               
I tried to get one of these dainty creatures to land on my hand. Several flew close, circling me curiously several times, but never made physical contact. I will continue to try as I venture deeper into the tropics.

In other news, our families Scandinavian/German blood is famously irresistable to biting insects of all kinds, and this trip has shown that alas,  my blood has not lost it's sweetness.

"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.

It has been 2 hours since I my last orgy of scratching my countless dozens of bug bites covering my arms and legs.

My name is Liz, and I'm a scratch-a-holic."

And meanwhile, my husband sits comfortably at my side, skin pristine and free of trauma of any kind. Sigh.

On another topic, being away from the internet and TV, I've read and read and read and read over the last weeks.

                                                      "Schultz and Peanuts: a biography"


Like many of my generation, I've been entranced, inspired and encouraged by the Peanuts gang since early childhood. The life of Charles Schulz interests me as he was a very private person. He told interviewers he was a simple man and that his comic strip said everything that needed to be said about him.

I was born in Minnesota, as was "Sparky" (as Schulz was called).

                     My maiden name is Schroeder, I play the piano, and yes, I love Beethoven.



Anyway, the book was a fascinating read, but so far I can't find any other sailors who want the book in trade. It seems most sailors we meet merely have an inexhaustable appetite for more and ever more Grisham and Clancy.

 But I won't dump this treasure in a free book exchange YET. I know if I have the patience of Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, I will eventually find my kindred spirit -- the Peanuts fan who is also sailing the seas of Mexico!

 Speaking of Charlie Brown, Christmas approaches. We plan on being anchored in La Cruz (a few miles south) for Christmas, hopefully surrounded by new friends, which should ease the sting of being away from home. We'll see!

We plan on pulling up anchor tomorrow and heading south to Punta de Mita, 35 miles away.

San Blas and Matanchen Bay

We arrived at Matanchen Bay on 12/10 after a one night trip south from Mazatlan.

We had a beautiful night passage. Gentle, warm southerly winds propelled us deeper into the tropics under a glorious full moon (the small flashlight, in all her glory).

We rolled so gently in the swells that I was actually able to see the rings of Saturn when I lifted my binoculars to one of the tiny flashlights twinkling down from the east.

In a tank top and shorts, I laid on the deck at midnight listening to Mozart, Brahm's German Requiem and the B-52's "Love Shack" -- all with a big silly Cheshire-cat grin on my face and a tear streaming down my face.

The moon was so bright that the frigate birds silently circling the boat could probably see my teeth glowing in the sparkling darkness.

The next morning, I saw what looked like a brownish blob floating at the surface of the ocean. As we approached it, the "blob" lifted his head and took a deep breath of air.

Sea turtle preparing for a long dive

I was so surprised to finally see my first sea turtle of our trip on this spot, because we were still several miles out to sea! These little guys are hardy souls, and can swim for miles and miles.

Matanchen Bay is famous as it was the place from which Father Junipero Serra sailed north to convert America to Christianity. Little did he know how successful he would be.

Me exploring beautiful Matanchen Bay

The bay is about 3 miles across, and no more than 20 feet at it's deepest. It is very protected and we slept like a baby 3 nights in a row. There was only one other sailboat in the harbor when we arrived.

We had been warned that Matanchen Bay is awash in jejenes (AKA "no see-ums"), tiny little biting bugs. We deployed our bug screens on all of our hatches and went ashore.

Chris in Matanchen Bay Village

As you can see from the photo, we are now in palm tree country. The town had several tiny family owned store-fronts that sold coconut milk, banana bread, cornbread and coconut sweets. All around families burned coconut husks as an insect deterrent.

In fact, my only complaint about gorgeous, friendly Matanchen Bay is the rain-forest covered hills were obscured by a Beijing-like veil of smoke at all times due to the constant coconut husk fires. Ah, well...no place is COMPLETE paradise, right?

The next day we took the bus north into San Blas, only a few miles away.

San Blas has a harbor that is famously challenging to enter due to shoals, and it has tiny but new and well-kept marina.

Charming tin-roofed house in San Blas

                                                 

More typical Mexican homes here in San Blas

San Blas also has a great history. Before Mexican independence, this town and harbor were the major hub of the Spanish Navy for the entire Pacific coast.

Remnants of old church where Father Serra prayed for our future California souls

                                            

This is a good time to point out the obvious: if you are planning an extended trip to Mexico, the more proficient you are in Spanish, the easier, happier and more relaxed your stay will be.

While the Mexican people (as in all of Latin America) are famously friendly and easy-going, the fact that I speak Spanish is making everything go more smoothly. You can see their shoulders relax and their faces lighten when they realize I am able to show them the small yet meaningful respect of communicating in their native language.

Plus, I can make them laugh. Which is always a plus!

When we returned to Matanchen Bay, we were thrilled to see that our friends Rick and Dena aboard "Talaria" had arrived from Mazatlan and dropped anchor.

The next day the four of us took the Jungle Tour. This is kind of like the Disneyland Jungle Cruise except, well, it's REAL.

Disneyland Jungle Cruise

The real thing in Matanchen!

And at 10 bucks a head, I can tell you that our Matanchen jungle cruise was not only much more dramatic than the one at Disneyland, it was incredibly economical.  Unfortunately, our guide Augusto, while very knowledgeable, did not tell jokes in English OR Spanish as they do on the Disneyland version.

Weaving deep into the rainforest on our jungle cruise

                                           

A crocodile! And YES, this is OUR photo!

Deep in the rainforest, we passed some jungle huts which had been built a few years ago for a Spanish language movie. Look who moved in!

A squattor iguana enjoys rent-free real estate with a view                                     

At the end of the river, we came up to a spring which emptied into the river. The locals gated it off rendering it safe for swimming. Welcome to paradise:

We swung and dove into the crystal pool

                                             
Wow. We could not believe the beauty. While the entrance to the river was gated off to protect us from crocodiles, we wondered what kept crocs from simply crawling into the pool from the other three sides.

Rick thought maybe they posted signs around in the jungle (in crocodile language, naturally) which say:

"Humans only. No crocs allowed."    LOL...

Happy after our amazing swim in the crystal pool

After 3 days in San Blas and Matanchen Bay, it was finally time to pull up anchor and again head south. It was a day sail (20 miles) to the next anchorage:

Chacala Beach

                                                     

Playa Bruja and flamingos...

Well, it's our last day in Mazatlan.

We thought we had seen most of Mazatlan in our week staying here, but we were wrong. Last night we went to dinner with a group of sailors at a tiny spot called Playa Bruja.

A surfer enjoying the beautiful Playa Bruja

                                         

Playa Bruja looking towards downtown Mazatlan

"Playa Bruja" means "Beach of the Witch" in Spanish. I looked around to try to find the witch, but it wasn't immediately evident who she was, or if she was even there.

In poker games, they say to look around the table, and if you can't tell who the sucker is, then you're the sucker.

I hope that same story doesn't hold true for ME and finding the witch amongst the ladies at Playa Bruja! I've been trying to be very sweet to Chris, and I think by all accounts I am not, nor ever have I been, a witch.

Which means she was hiding in plain site. Yikes.   :-(

The open air restaurant right on the beach at Playa Bruja

Anyway, witch or no witch, this beach was so beautiful -- the sun was just setting, a gentle breeze wafted through the restaurant as surfers enjoyed the breaks off in the distance.

And my tortilla soup only costed 3 American dollars!

On another topic, Chris and I do not have health insurance. Turns out many of our fellow sailors here in Mexico don't have it either. And after much discussion, I think it is a decent risk to take. Here's why:

I chatted with a Mexican cab driver in Cabo who's wife is pregnant with his third child. He does not have health insurance. For each child's hospital delivery, he must pay in cash.

Price for one normal vaginal delivery with over night stay in a Mexican hospital: 600 American dollars.

I also read of a young couple who ran into trouble when the husband developed a bowel obstruction and needed major abdominal surgery. He was in the hospital for several days.

Cost of major abdominal surgery and several days in a Mexican hospital: 3,500 American dollars.

I think we can all agree that the same care in an American hospital would cost you probably ten times as much.

Some might argue that care in Mexico will obviously be sub-par when compared to in the U.S. I might remind you that we read every week of American surgeons in prestigious American hospitals accidently amputating the wrong leg, or some other mishap.

The Americans I've spoken with who have rendered medical care down here rave about it. So -- you be the judge. Anyway, I seem to have thrown my right shoulder out (doing Lord knows what?!?!?!?) -- I'm resting it and stretching it and taking Advil. I trust it will be fine. But it's reassuring to know that should I need surgery down the line, the cost would not mean the end of our travels.

On another subject, it's been unseasonably cold here in Mazatlan (according to the locals) so we're heading south yet again tomorrow in search of the tropics. We know they're here somewhere!

We've noticed Mazatlan seems to be the dividing line between the desert southwest and the tropics. When climbing the mountain to the lighthouse, we noticed a cactus wrapped in a tropical climbing vine:

Cactus and climbing vine intertwined...

So this place is the end of the desert, and the beginning of the jungle. We placed our bug screens on our boat here in Mazatlan so we'll be ready for 'em at our next stop, about 130 miles south.

I heard on the cruisers net this morning that flamingos have been spotted on Mazatlan beach. Wow! Wild flamingos!

So needless to say, for the coming hours and days I will have all eyes peeled for this amazing sight!


As always, we won't be at a major port again for 1-2 weeks (Banderas Bay, home of Puerta Vallarta) so this will be the last entry for awhile.  We are hoping to anchor in at San Blas, Chacala and Punta de Mita on our way south.

Punta de Mita, Mexico 

Just a little bit more Mazatlan...

We're moored in Mazatlan marina for another two days, at which point our plan is to head south to San Blas, about 140 miles away.

Yesterday we took the bus into town on our own for the first time, without the experienced Bill and Kat to help us find our way. We wanted to climb the hill/mountain to the Mazatlan lighthouse.

                                               It is the second highest lighthouse in the world.

The many switchbacks on the road to the lighthouse

It was great to stretch our legs and sweat for the first time in a long time! We miss mountaineering, so climbing this little mountain was very enjoyable for us.

Some of you may be wondering how my withdrawal from TV and the 24 hour news cycle is going. Well, more than a month into this adventure, I am pretty much "clean and sober," media wise. But we do have DVDs which we have been trading and borrowing amongst the other sailors.

Our friends Tom and Jeannie aboard "Eagle" surprised us with a gift of the complete 3rd season of "24."

Needless to say, we are not exactly the target demographic for this infamous Fox terrorist drama. We had never seen it before, but being sort of starved for new DVD entertainment, we gratefully accepted their gift and dove in.

We were shocked to see our American hero Jack Bauer inject heroin at the end of the opening episode!

Well, actually, he did't inject it -- but he put on the tourniquet right at his top secret government desk, drew up the heroin, and ALMOST injected it, but at the last minute he threw it against the wall, punched some things, groaned loudly and decided that rather than shooting up, he was going to go kick some major ass instead, as some sort of withdrawal therapy, I guess.

  Anyway, he's trying to kick it right in the middle of this terrorist virus threat, which maybe isn't the best time to attempt such an undertaking, if you ask me.

Jack Bauer: "I picked a bad day to kick heroin!"

                             
Anyway, weather permitting we will sail south on Thursday. Our next destination is a little port called San Blas.

San Blas is really the tropics. So today in Mazatlan we're fitting our hatch screens onto Espiritu so that we don't get inundated with mosquitos and "no see-ums" (really tiny little irritating biting bugs) once we arrive there. Too cool, huh?

Tour of Mazatlan

                             Chris and I have been anchored in Marina Mazatlan for 4 days now.

We were extremely fortunate in that upon arriving in the marina after 2 nights at sea, our very good friends Bill and Kat of "Island Bound" were arriving from La Paz at the exact same time. They have been here several times so they were able to guide us into the marina over the radio and led us right into our slip!

During our passage to Mazatlan, it was again clear how Chris and I have different ideas of how to pass the time during our watches. Chris is constantly letting out the jib, bringing in the jib, letting out the staysail, bringing it in, unreefing the main, reefing the staysail...etc. etc. etc. Anything to squeeze out that extra knot of speed.

                                                                    Me? I'm all about:

"Set it...and FORGET IT!" 

                                                         

I just pick a comfortable, conservative sail plan, sit down and hopefully dive into my book for four hours. That's my idea of a good time. Chris, not so much. He's still a racer in cruisers clothing. :-)

Marina Mazatlan 

                                                             

Anyway, our first couple of days at the marina were spent provisioning, ripping apart the boat, doing maintenance work, and just basically cleaning, etc.

We finally had a chance to head into town and do some exploring after our work was done. Mazatlan is a very large, very old town with lots of history and beautiful scenery.

Mazatlan cliff diver

                                                             

We watched a teenaged boy do a cliff dive (for money from the tourists). I was terrified. I know many people have died at this spot and I didn't want to witness the carnage. Fortunately, after crossing himself several times, the young man emerged victorious after his dive.

We walked for several miles along the main beach at Mazatlan. It was quite lovely, and children were happily playing in the water.

We also explored Mazatlan's historical district. It is quite lovely, well preserved and quaint. We always felt safe.

                                  We toured the great Catholic cathedral, nearly 150 years old.

It was a powerful experience walking through it, although I was disappointed to find that if you want to "light a candle" for someone, the candles are electric. Sheesh. Kinda takes the beauty and mystery out of it, if you ask me.

This morning we attended a seminar on Cruising El Salvador. Now I know that when many people hear the words "El Salvador" they think of civil war, death squads, etc. But that all ended 20 years ago. It's now a peaceful country waiting to be explored.

One of El Salvador's 26 volcanoes

                                                     

Anyway, there is a cruisers rally of about 50 boats which sails from Mexico to El Salvador together in March. Sounds kind of exciting, doesn't it?

We also celebrated my husband's 50th birthday this week. I baked him a cake in my sailing EZ bake oven (my first nautical cake!) and bought him fresh grapes, chocolate coins and four dollar DVD's in English with Spanish subtitles.

I'm a lucky woman. I hope I show him how grateful I am that he is my husband! We still laugh -- alot. That is the key after 15 years.

Anyway, we've got another few days here in Mazatlan before we head south to our next port.

Baja to Mazatlan!

Hola from Mazatlan, Mexico!

Chris and I made the 2 night passage east across the Sea of Cortez and arrived early this morning in Mazatlan.

Las Frailes, Baja California                                                    

We spent the last week at a beautiful anchorage at the far southeast tip of Baja called Las Frailes. If you look in the photo above, you can see our sailboat amongst the others in the anchorage far below.

Espiritu happily anchored in Las Frailes

                                                 
Our 5 days at Las Frailes could not have been more different than Cabo San Lucas, obviously.

We hiked, snorkeled, swam, read and played music.

 I made chocolate chip cookies and we played chess when a storm passed through and we had a full rainy day inside the boat.  Having a few more hours to kill, we read the headlines to each other from a week old newspaper we found in Cabo.

Is Newt Gingrich really the man to beat now in the Republican Race? Or is that so two weeks ago now? LOL...

"You know how I beat you at chess? I just sit back and let you beat yourself." -- The Hubster to me after soundly beating me at the game of kings.  (sigh -- LOL)

Doing some Aunt Liz and Uncle Chris duty with Leah and Holly of "Wondertime."

                                         

We also got to see the famous jumping manta rays of Baja. For reasons unknown, juvenile manta rays leap several feet out of the water, several at a time, as a group, then slap down onto the water.

We saw this show not 15 feet off of our boat! Wow! There were 10-20 of them doing this all at once!

After 5 wonderful days in this lovely spot, it was time to move on. Time for more night watch as for the first time, we turned away from land and made a serious ocean crossing, over to the Mexican mainland.

In further reading of Joseph Campbell's works on myths and their meaning, I'm coming to understand that my purpose for this adventure is to work on my courage. Fear tends to grip me sometimes, sadly. If I am to be honest, fear is probably why I never had children.

So -- since this is my achilles heel, I'm seeing that addressing my fear, and working on courage -- is my purpose on this journey.

In my last two night watches, I've developed a new way of looking at the night.

If you understand astronomy, you know that the universe is mostly a very dark place. It's naturally that way.

During the day, the reason it is light is because the sun is shining on the earth, like a big flashlight. And then...the flashlight disappears under the horizon for the night. But it's not completely dark. We have the little flashlight (the moon) and the tiny flashlights (the stars and the planets) lighting our way.

In short, I'm trying to visualize that the night and the day are really the same thing -- just with different size flashlights shining on us.

Last evenings solo night watch went really well. I'm becoming more comfortable in the darkness.

An odd event:

As Chris slept below, at around 2 AM I heard a voice come on the radio whispering in a cryptic voice:

"Filipino Monkey."

What? Well, although some of my favorite people are Filipino, I definitely am not. And though anthropologists say I have Simian origins, I am not a monkey either. So I knew the message was not aimed at me.

Whispered again: "Filipino Monkey."  

I looked aroun Espiritu was the only boat around for miles and miles. So the message was not aimed at me.

One minute later:  a whispered, cryptic "Filipino Monkey."

 I wasn't scared. 'Cause I had the little flashlight and the countless tiny flashlights shining down on me.

Ah, well. Some mysteries in life will never be solved.

So we're here in Mazatlan for one week.

Mazatlan! 

We feel that now that we are on the Mexican mainland, we are truly entering the Real Mexico.