Puerto Vallarta to Huatulco Jan 16^th – Feb 19^th

As we left the marina at Paradise Village we realized that it would be a long time until our boat would ever be back in this marina.  Since we left our car there we knew that we would be there but it was still hard to leave for we had met and made friends with some really great people.  The difference was that most of them had already followed their dreams and were back in PV for they had decided it was a great place to settle half of the year.  We still had to strike out and do our wanderlust thing, so off we went over to La Cruz to make water and make sure that everything was good with Equinox.  We attended a pot luck dinner at the new marina, thanks to some good friends, Kellie and Dave on Sweet Lorraine who had invited us as their guests.  It was a fun evening and a good way to say good bye to friends for we left the next morning early to sail to Chamela.  Since this was an anchorage that we had been at before we got the anchor down easily and headed to town to check out the availability of fuel.  We somehow had forgotten to get gas for the dinghy.  Now this is a very important item; for your dinghy is your car and without fuel you are without a car thus you are stuck on your boat. It is important to get off the boat is nothing more than for sanity.  We found that there was not a regular gas station, but several of the small stores had large supplies of gasoline that they sell.  We went in to shore the next day with our gas can and got it filled, purchased a few vegetables, and were back at the boat ready for an early leave the next morning. 

 We arrived at the next anchorage, which is Tenacatita, late in the afternoon.  This anchorage is a favorite of a great many cruisers; in fact some spend several months in this delightful spot.    Every Friday they have a raft up to share appetizers, books, boat cards and stories.  Of course you need to bring your own beverage and we usually enjoy a couple of glasses of wine.  This year besides games on the beach, an open palapa for food and drink, Panchita, a motor cruiser talked about duck races.  These races were going to be held on Saturday so that gave us some time to do the jungle trip to get fresh vegetables on Friday morning and be ready for beach day on Saturday. The races consisted of 42 rubber ducks that would be put in a bucket, driven out to the waves by dinghy, and you would bet on the duck that you thought would reach the shore first.  There were also some folks who came over from Barra and brought with them a large plastic crocodile they called the duck-in-ator. It was all in good fun, a bet was 10 pesos so everyone could afford to pick several ducks to win. I chose a duck with hearts that was pink; unfortunately I should have chosen the red one right next to it, for when the ducks were in the bucket, and in the dinghy; the guys couldn’t get the engine started, so they finally just dumped the ducks in the waves.  It didn’t take them a very long time to come floating to shore with the waves.  We did not win, but I must say that a good time was had by all. Thanks to Ted and Joan on Panchita for providing such a fun afternoon.

 The morning before leaving Tenacatita, Bill and Diane of Wirewalker, invited us over for breakfast.  Diane had made fruit smoothies, muffins and great tasting coffee.  This was a bitter sweet meeting for we had known them for over two years and now we realized that our paths probably wouldn’t cross again for a while.  We had hoped that they were going south through the canal with us, but they finally realized that they would probably just do the season and then take the boat back to La Cruz for the summer.  So after a great morning we finally had to say goodbye to get back to the boat so that we could make ready to sail down to Barra 

 We did the long sail, 2 hours or so, to Barra de Navidad leaving about 11 AM.  We also like being at anchor in the Barra lagoon.  We stayed only a few days for it was getting close to the time we needed to be in Zihuatanejo for Sail-Fest.  Zihuatanejo is another over night sail, if you spend one night at Las Hadas, other wise it is a two night sail.  We did the stop at Las Hadas and left early the next morning early.  We love Zihuatanejo. It is extremely cruiser-friendly.   There is wi-fi in the anchorage, a safe place to leave dinghies on the beach, with help from Nathaniel who also guards them for tips, plus there are all the services for leaving garbage, doing laundry, and shopping within easy walking distance. And, it's picturesque!  Zihuatanejo is known for its painted wooden ware.  Last year we had purchased several bowls which we got pleasure using for our many cruiser get functions.  This year we looked for the same artist so that we could match my other bowls.  We found him painting and he had a matching tray!

There have been about 40 boats in the anchorage for SailFest, way down from the 100 or more boats that have participated in past years.  SailFest is an annual event that began in 2002 when a group of cruisers decided to raise funds to support local schools for the indigenous population. We understand that these children can't attend the regular schools until they can speak Spanish. We missed the tour of the schools that have been built with SailFest money, but it is apparently impressive and since we did the tour last year it was OK to miss it. We knew that last year the amount raised from cruisers and local gringos, as well as matching funds provided by several individuals, was approximately $54,000. All expected this year's take to be significantly less due to the reduced number of boats, but we were delighted to learn that we raised a little more than last year, go figure!. The biggest fundraiser of the week is the Sail Parade, where non-sailing gringos on vacation in Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa pay $25 per person to ride on the boats in a parade from Zihuatanejo to Itapúa and back.   We heard that there were over 160 paid participants, we had 6 on our boat and happily to say we were able to have Pete Boyce ride with us.  He usually has his boat, Edelweiss, at SailFest but this year he had to fly in without his boat.  So we were pleased as punch to have him aboard our boat for he is so much a part of this charity event.  He is also a big help financially so it is always a thrill when he presents a matching check for the money raised.  Other SailFest events have included a sailing race, a benefit concert, a chili cook-off and a beach barbecue, as well as raffles and auctions. We participated in most of the activities, but Hank knew he didn’t want to make chili after doing it in Puerto Vallarta. There have also been seminars for cruisers.  We attended one on Marine Medicine given by a cruising eye doctor, and a "Southbound" seminar moderated by Hank for those of us heading south into Central and South America. We made many new friends sailing down the coast and it was fun to sit with two couples at the benefit concert.  We didn’t even hold it against them that they were power boaters. 

We enjoyed the smallness of this year’s SailFest because we feel it's been more conducive to meeting and interacting with the other cruisers and locals.  One negative part to this gathering was that many people seemed to get a sore throat and a bad cough.  Hank started to feel badly so we went off to find a local doctor who proceeded to give him a shot and a prescription for two different medications.  Since prescriptions are not necessary for most drugs in Mexico, it was just more of a helpful list when dealing with the pharmacy.  The cost of the office visit and shot was 400 pesos.  Betsy went the next day just to be on the safe side and got the same shot, plus Hank got one too, but this time it was only 300 pesos.  We laughed about the difference in price saying it was probably the cute butt discount.  We met a Canadian gal, who was looking to crew on a boat, while we were sitting in the doctor’s office.   We found out later that she was going to go with Lea Scotia but they had asked her if she could join them in Acapulco and since she didn’t want to give their little daughter a cold she was fine with that arrangement.  We invited her to come to Acapulco with us and we could be the “sickie” boat.  So just before we headed off from Zihuatanejo, Ursula joined us.  Now of course that meant that we had to quickly clean out the back cabin for when there is only two of us on board the back cabin sort of becomes a garage with stuff piling up.  We had decided that we would make a day trip to Papanóa with Lea Scotia and Jammin’. 

 Papanóa is a delightful anchorage with a small bay, sea wall, and a place that shrimpers tie up.  There was a couple of palapa restaurants right above the sea wall.  We woke the next morning with many school kids standing by the sea wall and some of them were on the shrimp boat.  It appeared that they were listening to some one speak, finally they got off the boat and the shrimp boat pulled out of the bay.  The students continued to come and the next thing we knew several high school age boys were swimming across the bay.  They were followed by a panga and one older swimmer who was the life guard. When they reached the sea wall and climb up it, they took off running to the far side of the bay.  Now they did not take time to put on shoes so we can’t believe it was that comfortable of a run.  Following the swim race, was a competition of two to four person teams on self constructed water crafts.  Oh, who would have thought that there were that many ways to use a plastic bottle, but each “boat” looked completely different? We heard an awards announcement, so we guess that they were getting some type of recognition.  We all decided to come to the palapa to be part of the action and it was fun to talk with the young people.  The girls were especially interested in trying out their English and we our Spanish. 

 Looking at the log, we see that we left Papanóa at 5 AM and arrived in Puerto Marquez at 5:30 PM. This small bay is just past the large bay of Acapulco, which we had decided to bypass for the anchorages were not so good. It was a motor sail all the way with winds from 2 to 12 knots.  We did a turtle count on the way and we had a total of 23 before we got tired and gave up counting.  We saw two whales, got one Skip Jack, which we threw back and arrived to see the boat Inspiration already at anchor on the northeast side of the bay.  Now the guide books say that the best anchorage was on the opposite side of the bay, but when we checked it out we found many power boats had already taken the choice places.  So we headed over near Inspiration and dropped the anchor in 31 feet of water.  There were many people on the beach and it seemed as if this was a really popular place with locals.  We rested and then ate dinner in the cockpit.  Someone mentioned what a lovely anchorage this was and how peaceful and quiet!  That was all to change at 11PM when we heard the tell tale sounds of someone blowing into a mike, uno, dos, tres.  The music began and it was loud, Inspiration who was closer to shore than we, must really be awake now!  Now the members on board who had ear plugs were much happier than those with out for this turned out to be a wedding celebration, yes it was Valentine’s Day, and it lasted till a little after 4AM. 

 We woke to a once again quiet beach that didn’t seem to fill with people until mid day.  Our first day here we mainly stayed on the boat and enjoyed swimming in the beautiful clear water.  The second day, we went to shore to explore the town and to see if we could find a good palapa for lunch.  The town was friendly, with lots of stores designed for the beach tourist, all sorts of water toys, bathing suits, and cover-ups were for sale.  We chose Palapa Dalfin and had a nice lunch of fish tacos which looked like taquitos to us.  We got a taxi right out side the palapa and for 30 pesos he took us to Costco where we got our last bulk supplies.  We weren’t planning to purchase much, but when you shop at Costco you always buy things that you hadn’t planned on getting.  We got a taxi back to the beach but this time it was 70 back.  The cab driver took us to the wrong place and when we explained that we didn’t say hotel, he said that it would take more gas and therefore we would need to pay more.  We got back to the same palapa, got out of the cab and gave him 70 pesos with no tip. 

 We thought our next stopping spot was going to be Puerto Angel and we had heard that it was not uncommon to have officials, with drug sniffing dogs, board your boat at this harbor.  Since Ursula did not have a fishing license, and one was needed by everyone on a boat that had fishing equipment, we were a mite concerned.  We felt it would be stupid to put your boat in jeopardy for a little thing like a fishing license.  So we went on line and started to fill out the forms for a fishing license for her.  When we got to the selection to pay, all that was listed were Mexican banks.  We took the completed forms, went ashore to Palapa Dalfin and explained our problem to the owner.  He got us a taxi who took us to the closest Banamex to see if we could pay there.  After much discussion, several phone calls, our Spanish and their limited English, he explained that the numbers on our forms were not being recognized by their bank.  He told us to go back to the computer and try again.  So, thankfully the taxi had waited for us, we were back at the palapa to find an internet café.  Ursula again filled out the forms, but this time it said that we had been successful and all we needed to do was pay! Now we also knew that there was not time to make a transfer from Ursula’s Canadian bank to a Mexican account, so we were back in the same predicament.  Only this time we felt secure in knowing that the forms said that everything was complete.  We got another taxi driver, who would wait for us, and headed back to the bank.  Each one of these trips was costing 100 pesos, but we were determined.  After waiting our turn for our number to be called at the bank, we got the same head teller and ultimately we had the same problem.  We had about 3 bank people trying to explain and work with us, when another customer came up to us and asked if he could help us.  He spoke fluent English, so when he got the story, he tried to see what the manager could do – Nothing!  They would not even write on the forms that we had tried to pay the fee.  Now the young man said he would go with us to another bank and try again, but we decided that enough was enough. We would put the fishing equipment on another boat when we got close to Puerto Angel.   We headed back to the palapa where all our cruising friends were going to be meeting us for lunch before we left on the next leg of the journey.

 We all sat around eating chicken or fish tacos, cheese quesadillas, and drinking beer or jamica.  A fruit seller came by with the large tray of fresh fruit on her head, and Ursula and Klarisa each bought a small plate from her.  Hank had gotten a plate of mango from another seller earlier and mentioned how good it was. We all seemed to have a good lunch and too soon it was time to go back to the boat to get things ready to head to Huatulco.  We knew that this would be a thirty six hour passage and we would be starting about 8PM so that we would arrive about 12PM at Marina Chahué.

 In Mexico we have done a lot of motor sailing, this means that the main sail or even both sails, main and head sail may be up, but the “Iron Jenny” is still operating.  On this 36 hour passage we had 7 hours of actual sailing.  It is so-so-so nice when the engine is off, for it is quiet and you are just scooting along. The good thing about the wind was that it was relatively light and coming from behind us, so Hank decided it was perfect to fly the spinnaker. The spinnaker is a bright colored sail that flies out in front of the boat.  Since we had purchased a whisker pole in Puerto Vallarta, it was so much easier to control your spinnaker. Ours flew for about 3 hours until it was getting late and we didn’t want to have to deal with the spinnaker at night.  As we were going along, some time late the next afternoon, Ursula asked if we had anything for sea sickness, for although she had never been sea sick, her stomach was not feeling good.  She skipped dinner and later she really was sick.  She kept to her cabin and there wasn’t much we could do but give her water, a cold cloth for her head and a basin so she wouldn’t have to rush to the head.  She stayed in her cabin, hardly moving.  When Hank was on the radio with the other boats, he found that one person on each boat was sick; it was not sea sickness, but food poisoning.  All we could figure the common element was water melon!  Our boat was lucky for we had three persons aboard, but with only two, and one sick, it makes it a very long time on deck and at the helm for the healthy person.  Now we were very concerned about Ursula for it seemed that she wasn’t even moving and we would quietly check in with her to make sure that she was breathing.  We had read both of our medical books, so we were sure that this would pass, but she didn’t even know when we docked at Marina Chahué. 

 When we arrived at Huatulco Bay there was a collection of 7 small bays with some really good anchorages.  Since two of our traveling buddy boats had had one person at the helm for a very long time, they had decided to stop and anchor at the first good anchorage. We called ahead to the marina to see about a slip and were told to come ahead and take any slip that we could find.  Luckily when we got there at 12:30 PM two cruisers directed us to an available slip.  Of course when they told us the first one, I said that it really looked too narrow, they heard that we were 14.5 feet wide and they told us that if we removed the fenders the padding along the slip would allow us to slide right into the slip!  Wrong, we were not going to do that so the only other available slip was too short but we took it any way with the idea that when a larger one came available we would more.  After siesta, we talked to Enrique the marina manager, who told us that we were fine right where we were. 

   Hank and Betsy took a taxi for 20 pesos to the closest little town named La Crucita.  This town was designed as a Mexican tourist town and it is oh so beautiful and well kept.  There are trees, flowers and grass everywhere and the people are smiling.  Mostly you see Mexican tourist, but when a small cruise ship is in port, there are some foreign tourist.  We visited the town square, Zocolo, and got the lay of the land.  We ate at a restaurant where we had our first Oaxacan black mole and Oaxacan tamale.  Delicious!

 The next morning we made Ursula get up and move around, for we figured the more she slept, the groggier she would be.  It turned out to be true for when she moved around a little she gathered a bit more energy.  She wasn’t ready to go to town for lunch, but she thought that she would be ready for dinner.  Hank and Betsy headed to town again and in one of the fondas at the central market we had great shrimp cocktails.

 That night we all enjoyed fish dinners at a restaurant called, El Patio.  We were the only people there, which is usually not a good sign, but we had a great dinner.  We also helped our waiter practice his English, for he brought out a paper with his homework of English and Spanish phrases.  He told us that there was a free concert that night at the soccer field and that there were to be 7 different performing bands.  We had passed the field earlier in the afternoon and we couldn’t believe that they would be ready by nine for they were just unloading equipment at 3:30 PM. 

 After dinner we walked over and could not believer the crowds, some were getting in by squeezing between a locked gate and the fence.  We asked and found that the real entrance was around the corner, where armed guards looked you over to make sure you were not bring in your own beverages.  Sol beer was the sponsor and they wanted to sell their own product.  There were three different stages set up with a large amount of people standing in front of the active stage.  We were standing at the top of concrete bleachers, where we found people very friendly.  One man even came over to offer each of us a beer. We listened to the music for about an hour, two different bands, and then decided to return to the boat for it was eleven and although it was very early for the Mexican people, it seemed late to at least two of our group of three.

Ursula and Betsy went to town the next day.  Ursula had gone to look at the area that the cruise ships dock and was going to meet me in the zocolo at 2. We thought we would spend the day doing girl things like shopping and exploring the town.  We loved to see that different venders, mango, bread or nuts and candy. 

 That night we had a wonderful dinner at El Pata, which was known by the locals for their fish.  Hank had a stuffed pineapple that had a bunch of shrimp, while the girls had a foil wrapped fish that also had cheese and shrimp.  Both were delicious and we knew that we would return to this restaurant again. 

 We were going to be taking the first class bus to Oaxaca at 11:45PM and Ursula was going to be transferring to Lea Scotia to crew with them as originally planned.  We hoped that they would not have a weather window to cross the dreaded Tehuantepec before we returned from Oaxaca, but we knew that that might be wishful thinking.  We all hugged goodbye for we were off on another road trip adventure.