Navidad en La Cruz y Nuevo Vallarta

Hola Again.... Well the kids begin arriving today (23rd). The boat is decorated (Rosie stashed a few things before we left). Our tree is the Eucalyptus adorned with ribbon and several Huichol Indian beaded ornaments. The Huichol still live in the rugged mountain canyons, several thousand in their ancestral heartland about 50 miles NE of Tepic. Huichol art is beautiful and brought down to villages and sold. The Huichol are also famous for their use of peyote... their bridge to the divine!

You can purchase anything on the streets and beaches in the area. Jewelry of all types... a lot of silver. Most of the time it is "No Gracious" . The kids that sell are truly

a kick... I always carry a few baseball caps for them. These two loved the Potlatch orange...

The clothes (T-shirts, dress shirts, dresses etc.) are actually OK... and pretty cheap. They all love to haggle... it's fun for a while...

The beaches near La Cruz are great. We often walked from the boat through La Cruz and on to Bucerias, 4 or 5 miles down the beach. Many beach front haciendas, often brightly colored (several for sale by the way)!!!

On one of our treks, we came upon a large flock of pelicans... and found that fisherman were carving up several large Manta-Rays. They are said to be good eating... Not tried that yet.

Here in Paradise Marina there are endless Mangrove estuaries. Several signs indicating "Crocodiles.. do not swim". We decided a "Crock-Hunt" was in order so we took the dinghy way into the Mangroves looking to photograph one of them......

All we found along the way was a large iguana though.... easy to get lost in these mangroves!!

We did locate a great little restaurant along the way, called Fajita Republic. That evening we gathered up our friends on Suebee, Scott and Sue and dinghy'd back into the mangrove to a little beach in front of the establishment... great ribs!!!

We also heard about a show called "The Rhythms of the Night" that sounded interesting. Native Mexican music and dance. The trek included a 2 hour boat ride to a place called Yelapa. With free drinks served.

You arrive at the destination about 9:00PM. Traditional Mexican food is served in a very pleasant setting on the beach. Following the meal you hike to an amphitheater where the performance takes place... great music and dance!! It's a long night, however and we didn't get back to the boat until 1:00AM.

Well, Rosie and I will taxi to the PV airport soon to greet Lindsay, TJ and Shamus. We will update again after the 1st. Feliz Navidad!!! John and Rosie