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.
No comments:
Post a Comment