Haul-out and Vacation in Guadalajara

Location:  Jocotepec, Jalisco, Mexico

Since the last blog, we have been busy.  Early July, we hauled out the boat to have the bottom painted and to do some other boat projects including repair of the main engine cooling water discharge piping, rust removal from the swim deck and installation of a new swim ladder, touch-up of the topsides paint, and installation of a rack for future solar panels.  After the boat was splashed and back snug in her slip at Paradise Village, we headed for the mountains and cooler weather.  We have a lot of pictures to share, so we'll keep the words to a minimum and let the pictures do the talking.

First, a few "nature" pictures:

On the voyage from Paradise
Village to the La Cruz shipyard
(about 1 hour) we were followed
by brown boobies.

Picture of a brown boobie
diving for fish.

After it rained, hundreds to these
tiny frogs could be found
crossing the road.

At the fish market:  50 -80 kg tuna, freshly caught.

Tiger at Paradise Village, napping in his pond.

The shipyard:  We hauled out at the La Cruz shipyard in La Cruz de Huancaxtle.

Coming up out of the water

Moving to the work area

Bottom being prepared for paint

Minor hull paint repairs in progress

Bow repair in progress

Bottom paint, almost complete

Main propeller with new prop speed

Removing rust from the swim platform.
Preparing to paint and install
new swim ladder

Swim platform complete
with new swim ladder installed

Main engine cooling water
discharge piping removed
for repair

Main engine cooling water discharge
with piping removed

Main engine cooling
water piping removed for repair

While Dave monitored the
shipyard workers, B went
to town every day to get cash.
This is the church in
Old Town Puerto Vallarta.

A statue along the melancon (walkway
along the beach), Old Town,
Puerto Vallarta.

The entrance to the apartment
we rented while the boat
was out of the water

Doofus enjoying the green space.

Puddy enjoying the green space

The small dipping pool that was oh so
refreshing after the end of a hot day
in the shipyard.

A view of the back of the apartment

The boat ready for re-launch.

Moving towards the water.

New rack for solar panels
to be installed above the poop deck

Getting ready to splash.

Solar rack, view from the stern

In order to escape the summer heat in Puerto Vallarto, we headed east up into the mountains and to Guadalajara, Mexico's 2nd largest city.  For pictures of the apartment we rented in Guadalajara, Casa Rayon, check out their website, www.casarayon.com

We have been doing lots of touristy things, including taking the double-decker Tapatio bus tour, going to the shopping towns of Tlaquepaque and Tonala - where they actually make many of the crafts found at other marketplaces, going to see the Guachimontones archaeological site near Teuchitlan, going to the theater to hear the symphony and to watch folk dancing and hiking in the forest.

Guadalajara cathedral

Entry door at Guadalajara cathedral

Inside the Guadalajara cathedral

The rotunda.  This is surrounded by
statues of famous Mexicans

Waiting to board the Tapatio bus tour

The Glorieta Minerva in Guadalajara
A huge traffic circle with a statue of
the Roman goddess Minerva in the center

Statue of horses in another traffic circle

Another cathedral

Statue of a dog on a rooftop

A park near the cathedral

Taking a break after the bus ride

Inside the Degollado Theather

Inside the Degollado Theater

Tickets and program from the
Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra
Friday night performance featuring
music of Richard Strauss

Tickets and program from the Ballet
Folklorico, Sunday morning performance 

Folk dancing

Children playing in a sidewalk
fountain, Guadalajara Centro

Ceiling murals at the Hospicio
Cabanas. It used to be an orphanage
and is now a world heritage site
displaying art by local artists.

A picture of a picture of the orphans

The courtyard

Overlooking the lake near Teuchitlan

The ball court at the Guachimontones
pyramid site

Looking down at one of the
Guachimontones pyramids

Ready for lunch after hiking around
the pyramid site

Tree down during a huge rainstorm

Another tree down

Dave ankle deep in water
as the rain runs down the street
in front of our apartment

Vegetable stand at the local market

Popsicle man with fruit popsicles

Pottery at Tonala market

Coffee mugs at Tonala market

A much needed beer break after
walking through the market

Another boat project, getting
a sheet of HDPE (poly-ethylene)
cut for a fish cutting board which
we'll mount on the stern

Every Sunday in Guadalajara, they
block off one of the main streets so
that people can bicycle, skateboard,
walk, etc. They also have outdoor
activities in the park for families, including
jumping rope, hopscotch and dancing.

Children in the park on Sunday
doing acrobatics using cloth
hung over tree branches.

We're now in Jocotepec, a small town south of Guadalajara, on the north shore of Lake Chapala.  The climate here is very pleasant.  We've rented a house with beautiful grounds within walking distance of the center of town.  More on our time here the next blog...

Summer Solstice

Location:  Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico (Paradise Village Marina)

We moved into our home for the summer, Paradise Village Marina, on Monday, May 26.  Paradise Village is a luxury hotel/resort with lots of amenities including four swimming pools, a spa with massages, hot tubs, saunas and work-out facilities, tennis courts, a golf course and a nice beach.  Check out their web site at www.paradisevillage.com.  This place is definitely at the other end of the spectrum from where we spent last summer in Panama.  We have been taking advantage of the facilities and have enjoyed a massage and we go to the beach or the pool every other day.  

Man cutting down coconuts.
At some of the resorts, they cut down the
coconuts so that they don't fall
on people's heads.

They also have a local yacht club, which we got free access to for two weeks, so we took advantage and had a few drinks and meals up there and used their free internet.  Most of the people that come here for vacation only come for a week, so they have a welcome ceremony every Sunday night, with native dancers, games, prizes and they offer discounts for spa treatments, golf and some of the adventure trips.  There are so many things to do that I can’t imagine only staying here for one week.  The only downside is that it is like living in the suburbs.  We are isolated from the Mexican culture and don’t have easy access to local restaurants or watering holes.  The good news is there are plenty of buses and taxis available if we want to do any exploring.

Pelicans following a local fisherman
in the estuary near our slip.  Guess it's
easier to get a fish from him instead
of diving for their own.

Speaking of exploring, the local buses are very easy to use and don’t cost much ($0.50 to $1.50) so we have been learning the system and riding the buses to Puerto Vallarta and to the major nearby shopping centers.  You can decipher the bus routes and stops by reading the writing on the front windshield of each bus and by checking with the driver when you first get on.  The first time we went into town, we asked the bus driver to let us off at the Marina Vallarta near the hotel district.  Apparently he forgot, so we rode the bus all the way to the bus station and then had to walk about two blocks away to get a bus going back in the other direction.  Another time, we were waiting at the bus stop to come back to our marina, but none of the buses for Nuevo Vallarta were stopping at our bus stop.  We hopped on another bus with “Wal-mart” on the windshield thinking that we could catch a transfer once we got to Wal-mart.  We ended up riding the bus through the streets of Ixtapa, a small town just north of here and then got off, transferred to another bus, went back the way we came and got off at the airport, where we knew we could cross the road and catch a bus home.  Turns out the original bus we were on does go to Wal-mart, it just happens to be the one about two stops before we got on the bus and not the one near our marina.  We learned later that the buses to our location “Nuevo Vallarta” only stop at the airport, at the other Wal-mart and then at the bus station at the other end of the line.  So now we use the airport as our transfer station to get to other places we want to go.  Needless to say, we have been able to “tour” some of the countryside and the local villages.

Tree blooming near the golf course.  This is Dave's
favorite tropical tree.  We tried to grow some in
Alabama but the winters are too cold.

We’ve been walking for an hour every morning, which is nice.  It is cool and there is usually a light breeze and there are always lots of birds and iguanas to enjoy along the way.

Iguana sunning himself in a tree.

Iguana sunning on a rock

Woodpecker atop a light pole.
He was sitting up there tapping away.

Looking north up the estuary

And of course, there are always boat chores to keep us busy.  Dave has been up north in the land of free air-conditioning, so I have been doing inventory of all the spare parts we have on the boat.  

Now that we have the new shelves in the lazarette and the shelves in the steering flat it is much easier to store and organize our stuff.  Except for a few odds and ends, everything is counted and cataloged.  We have also completed computerizing our maintenance tasks.  The next step is to tie the two together so that when it comes time to do maintenance we will have the parts available and will know where to find them; and, when we need to replenish our inventory, we will have a system that tells us what parts and how many we need to order. 

We are preparing to haul the boat to have the bottom painted next week and we have been meeting with several contractors to discuss other projects including installing sunshades over monkey island and the poop deck and installing solar panels.  Since we are here for the summer and they have good facilities and resources, we are planning to check a few projects off of our list.

Happy  Summer Solstice!  Can you believe the year is almost half over?

Sunrise

Change in Plans

Location:  La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico

We have changed our plans for the summer season and decided not to continue our journey north.  As we were making our voyage plan to cross the Sea of Cortez and move up the Baja Peninsula, we were also watching the weather.  Hurricane season starts May 15^th on this side of Mexico and there was a potential storm system brewing just south of here.  With no waiting on weather days and just a few rest stops, it would take us 15 days to make it to San Diego.  Then, we reminded ourselves that we are retired, not in a hurry and not on a schedule.  So we decided to stay in the Puerto Vallarta area for the summer and to do some inland trips to the mountain towns in order to soak up the culture and escape the summer heat.  We were trying to get to San Diego because of our insurance requirement to be north of Ensenada by June 1, but Puerto Vallarta (Banderas Bay) is a hurricane hole and we were able to get insurance with storm coverage and no huge storm deductible as long as we stay in this area. We are just north of Puerto Vallarta in a small fishing village called La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (La Cruz).  There is a nice marina here, plenty of small restaurants and street taco stands and a good music scene.  On Monday, we are going to move to Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta, where we will have access to their resort amenities and, since it is in an estuary, better protection if a storm does occur.



Wind Festival - La Cruz, Saturday, May 17. 
There were at least 75 kite surfers
plus at least 20 wind surfers.



Kite surfers on the beach,
preparing to launch.



Kite surfers waiting for the
race to start.

On the journey up from Ixtapa, we made a few stops.  One in Manzanillo Bay near the Las Hadas Resort.  They filmed the movie “10”, with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek, here in 1979.  Even though we were at anchor, for a small fee the marina allowed you to come ashore in the dinghy and use the resort amenities, swimming pool, restaurants, trash drop-off, etc.  The Paradise Restaurant near the marina had yummy blackberry margaritas.  Next stop was at Chamela for an overnight and then on into the La Cruz marina.

View of Manzanillo from the anchorage.

 

View of Manzanillo, 
Notice all the bougainvillas.

Sunset, Manzanillo Bay.

We have been keeping busy with boat projects.  We had the outside of the boat cleaned and detailed, including removal of the rust stains and waxing of the stainless steel.  We had the teak decks cleaned, stained and sealed.  We installed the old shelves from the lazarette in the steering flat, stowed all of the loose items and took a few things up to the dumpster.  We’re also working on routine maintenance items and getting our inventory system up and running.

In addition to the chores, we’ve also managed to have some fun.  There are many brands of Mexican beer and we were having a hard time deciding which we liked the best so we decided to have a beer tasting contest.  We assembled ten different beers, filled a bowl with peanuts to cleanse our palates between tastes and found a blindfold.  It turned out that Dave and I have very different beer taste buds.  He liked the heavier beers best with Bohemia being his favorite and I liked the medium beers with XX lager being my favorite.  We’ve also been walking for an hour every morning trying to work off our beer bellies.

Dave finishing off his favorite.



B beer tasting.



The ten beers included in the contest.

We’re looking forward to having visitors this summer and to doing some fishing offshore and more exploring. 

Until next time…

Earthquake

Location:  Ixtapa, Mexico

We’re still in Mexico, continuing to work our way west and north.  We stayed in Chiapas for almost a week after Dave got back from his trip, waiting on weather, doing some re-provisioning and waiting for our new shelving to delivered and installed.  It turned out very nice and has more than doubled our shelf space in the lazarette.  We will re-install the original shelves in the steering flat for stuff that we must carry but seldom need.

New aft lazarette shelves, sitting
on the dock waiting to be installed

New lazarette shelves being
carried down the dock



Fernando (the carpenter) and his
son-in-law installing the shelves

 

Lazarette shelves installed and stocked

After being inspected by the Navy, we left the marina in Chiapas on the morning of April 3^rd, for a 32-hour trip  (237 miles) across the Gulf of Tehuantepec.  The weather window looked good for the voyage with very little wind and some swell, but no rough seas.  We traveled about 10 miles off the coast and arrived at Bahia Tangolunda on April 4^th at a little after 3:00 p.m. 

We dropped the hook and settled in for a couple of cold beers and a good night’s sleep.  Bahia Tangolunda is one of seven small bays near the town of Huatulco.  There are plenty of large resort hotels in the area with lots of people vacationing, riding jet skis, kayaking, wind surfing, etc.  We decided not to go ashore, but we did jump off the swim platform to cool off.  We stayed another night on Saturday and then Sunday morning left for another overnight journey to Acapulco (241 miles, 33 hours).



Resort hotels at Bahia Tangolunda

Acapulco

We dropped our anchor in the bay near the Acapulco yacht club at about 4:00 p.m. on the 7^th.  We decided again not to go ashore.  We didn’t need any provisions and we were both tired, so we hung around on the boat and did some light chores and voyage planning for the next day.  On the 9^th we left Acapulco early morning before the sun came up and traveled to an anchorage called Papanoa.  On the way there, we spotted a huge group of spinner dolphins, jumping, playing and spinning in the water.  They are named spinner dolphins because they spin on their longitudinal axis, sometimes doing up to four rotations in one leap.

Group of spinner dolphins

 

Spinner dolphin spinning in the air

Spinner dolphin riding the bow wake

We arrived at Papanoa and made our way inside the breakwater before dropping the anchor, in time to watch the sunset while drinking a few cold beers before dinner.  The next day was a short run (38 miles, 5 hours) to Zihuatanejo, where we planned to stay for a few days to explore the town.

Zihuatanejo (or Z-town) is a mid-size coastal town, with nice shops and restaurants and it is easy to walk.  They have a large fishing fleet of pangas that takes up much of the beach but have an area set aside where people can park their dinghies.  Someone is always there to help you come into shore and to launch again and for 20 pesos a day (about $1.50 US) they watch your dinghy for you.  We stayed for five nights and went to town almost every day for either lunch or dinner, to buy fresh fruits and vegetables from the market and to wander around and see the sights. We met a guy from Jamaica Plain, MA (near Boston) who drives 3000+miles each way to spend the winters down here. He gave us a few good tips on where to eat nearby.

On the 15^th, we left Z-town and moved the boat about 5 miles north into the Ixtapa Marina.  This is a huge marina, with space for over 500 boats.  It was the week before Easter (Semana Santa) which is a major holiday week for Mexicans.  The marina was very busy with boats going on day trips out to the nearby islands, going fishing and just cruising around.  One day we took a bus back to Z-town to shop for some small boat rugs that are hand made by indigenous Indians. 

Marina walkway after the earthquake

Friday morning, as we were eating our breakfast on the 2^nd floor of the golf club, a 7.2 earthquake rattled the area.  The epicenter was between Ixtapa and Acapulco.  In Ixtapa there was no major damage, but there was a lot of settling around the marina area, some broken glass in nearby stores and other minor damage.



Marina walkway after the earthquake

Dave and I both headed for the airport mid-day Sunday for a quick trip to Houston.  Dave to get his passport renewed and me to get a visa for a trip to Angola.  We ran a few errands, picked up some parts for boat maintenance and made a quick trip to Austin to see the kids and grandkids while waiting for all the paperwork to come through.  We carried back enough Buna-N gasket material to replace the gaskets on the rest of our fuel tank manhole covers so that will be the chore when we get back to the boat.  Then we’re headed north again with Puerto Vallarta as the next major stop.

View from the back of a "collectivo",
a small mini-bus.  This is an alternative
to taking the taxi into town, cost 20 pesos
per person ($1.50 each) versus 200 pesos
($15.00) for a taxi

Until next time…