LA CRUZ TO BARRA.....motors, dentists, and underway again

We hit the ground running when we arrived back at La Cruz on January 9th. To start the week, John arrived with a couple of infected teeth. He was able to get into see an oral surgeon in Puerto Vallarta with only a day's notice and had two teeth pulled. We are very impressed with the Mexican Health Care..... Not only was the equipment and the doctor top-notch, the total cost was $320.00USD for the surgery, x-rays, pain pills and antibiotics. We also returned to some interesting weather as a result of a strong El Ninio this year. On the way to the dentist's office we saw this very unusual water spout on Bandaras Bay. The cab driver said he had never seen such a sight in his 30 years there.

Mary Beaubien, who with her husband Scott live in Bainbridge Island, WA is a long-time friend and sailing buddy from our adventures in early 1970's. They happened to be at a timeshare in Bucerias, about 10 minutes from La Cruz the week we arrived. We took the bus and met them at a local restaurant on the beach. We had such fun getting caught up and reminiscing about our old times. It was as though we had just seen each other the previous week. Love old-time friends.......

This same week were talking with our friend Pamela, singlehanding on s/v Precious Metal, when we spotted a bird that had fish skin (that's right..fish skin, not plastic) wrapped around his beak. It was obvious he was not doing well, unable to eat or fly. John and Pamela grabbed a fishing net and took after the bird in the dinghy. They worked at untangling the mess. The bird put up quite a fight including both John and Pamela getting nipped. But the "surgery" was a success. Never a dull moment!

Still the first week....While we were in Bellingham we had our small outboard motor for our dinghy that was in storage shipped to La Cruz. To make a very long story short, it took many emails, phone calls and filling out forms in Spanish plus an extra $200.00+ to get it delivered to the Marina in La Cruz. Kind of offset the good dentistry John received.....So we feel we should record the successful feat. It took over 20 days to arrive from Bellingham.

We finally departed La Cruz on January 19th, a week later than we had planned. The first night on the "hook" was a small fishing village named Ipala, where we had a delicious lobster dinner. It was so good to be at anchor again!! Then on to Chamela where we stayed overnight. The weather was quite sloppy going down the coast but we finally arrived at one of our favorite anchorages, Tenacatita Bay.

We took our dinghy up the estuary (cruisers call it the jungle ride) It takes about 45 minutes to travel up the narrow channel filled with mangroves. Tendrils of aerial roots dangle 15 feet to touch the mirror clear water. Colorful birds dart through the lush foliage. We saw tiny orange crabs on branches and kept an eye out for crocodiles but no such luck. The end of the estuary opens up to a lagoon where you can tie up your dinghies and walk into town. The beach is lined with palapas so of course we had lunch and relaxed.

There is a small tienda (store) that we visited while in the tiny village. It has fresh produce and we couldn't resist taking a picture of this entire aisle filled with bottles of salsa.

Before returning to the estuary we hiked to "the aquarium" at the end of the road. There you can swim and snorkel and the views are fantastic.

At anchor in Tenacatita with Andanzas.

Visiting Marcia in La Manzanilla

Linda, Wally (s/v Andanzas) and us overlooking Tenacatita Bay

Marcia and Joey posed with us in her garden....

Marcia is a very good friend that we knew while living in Lewiston, ID. She has a beautiful home in the small town of La Manzanilla, which is about 15 minutes away from where we were anchored in Tenacatita. We took her up the estuary on one of the days we were visiting. The next day she picked us up, along with our friends Wally and Linda and took us into her town. She took us around town and we went back to her casa where she served us a wonderful lunch of chicken fajitas on fresh tortillas and very spicy delicious refried beans. It was so great seeing her again. We also walked to where the crocodiles are behind fences right in town.

We depart Barra Navidad tomorrow (Thursday) morning bound for Las Hadas, a 4 hour run down the coast. This is the place we spent Valentine's Day last year.... the same place the movie "10" was filmed at.....remember Bo??. Barra Navidad is a very beautiful and peaceful place....were we have been parked next to Mega-Yachts under the Grand Bay Hotel (3 pools). They even have a French Baker here that delivers fresh goodies to boats in the Marina and those at anchor in the nearby lagoon. Until our next update.......