The month started out with another visit from my sister, Peg. We had hoped we could meet her in Mazatlan, but we didn’t get a weather window until the week before she was due and we had figured it would take us 10 days to get up there from here (unless we did it nonstop). So Peg was flexible enough to come to Puerto Vallarta for the third time!! At least this time she came to the northern part of the bay and NEOS was at anchor, so it was a different experience for her. We toured La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Bucerias together, took some long walks on the beach and played lots of cards. We had planned a day of sailing, but Rog came down with a cold and we let him rest it off. The very last day of her visit, we arranged for a totally new experience for her though. We woke up March 11 to news of a major earthquake in Japan which meant a tsunami warning for us. By 11am, we did not have any news to the contrary and so decided to do the safe thing and get NEOS out into the Bay. That meant that Peg had to get to the airport alone. She was a real trooper and apparently found her way without too much trouble. Meanwhile, we joined over 150 boats and headed into the Bay. It was quite an afternoon. Clear skies, light wind and everyone having a good time. It was supposed to have been the second day of the three day Banderas Bay Regatta which was cancelled, but all agreed that this was the best regatta in history with everyone just sailing around and relaxing. By 4pm, we returned to anchor and at 5, most of the other boats were heading back to their marinas. Unfortunately, we were getting a significant surge which closed all 3 marinas on the bay and everyone had to come and anchor in La Cruz, the only anchorage in the bay other than Punta Mita was out at the northwestern tip. So it was cozy. We counted 150 boats in the anchorage. The next day they slowly returned to their home slips and life returned to normal.
We watched the weather and finally uprooted from Banderas Bay on March 19. We made a 43 mile daysail to Guayabitos and had a glorious first day. We were able to shut the engines down and sail most of the way and Rog caught 2 yellowfin tuna. Rog saw a whale out in the distance and called me up to see it. Moments after I got up to look, the whale took a giant leap completely out of the water. What a sight!! It was about a mile away, but we saw it clearly and it will be one of those special shared memories.
We anchored offshore of a touristy beach at Rincon de Guayabitos. We were visited by passing hobie cats and jet skiers as well as the usual huge banana float pulled behind a power boat. It was fun for a change. We never stepped on land, but did a tour of the coastline via dinghy, including a visit around the corner to Playa Ayala, another tourist development.
After a few days of enjoying the tourist activity, we had a great sail up to Matanchen Bay just south of the town of San Blas. Along the way, Rog caught 2 more tuna and had another whale sighting. This time, there were 2 or 3 and they were on our track. As we got closer, Rog actually had to turn a bit to get around them. They were frolicking on the surface and waving at the tour boats that had arrived. No jumps out of the water, but I was able to get some snapshots.
Arriving at Matanchen Bay about 2:30, we found a huge shallow bay and about 4 other cruisers. Forty Love came in with us and we remembered them from the anchorage in La Cruz. We had never actually met them before, but they came over to Neos in Matanchen and asked if we were interested in taking the jungle trip together. We would probably not have taken it on our own, but loved the idea of meeting some new folks and spending the day together. So arrangements were made to meet the next day at 7am along with Jack, Diane and their friend Chip on Miss Teak. We spent our first day exploring on our own. Rog was not too sure about the surf at shore and didn’t really want to drag the dinghy up above high tide level, so we took the kayak in. We had anchored quite a way out to avoid the jejenes (Mexico’s version of noseeums and just as bothersome…anchoring out did not seem to help) so it was quite a distance. But we made it, hauled the kayak up to Ishmael’s restaurant and then hiked the half mile into Matanchen to catch the bus. We met Jim and Susan of Windward Bound at the bus stop and they had visited San Blas numerous times in the past. We were able to get the lay of the land and they showed us where to get off the bus in the center of town. My brother had said that San Blas was one of his favorite towns in Mexico so I was always anxious to see it. We walked all around the square, and then the side streets all around it. We saw the main church that they are restoring, the ruins of the old fort, and stopped for an ice cream. I was looking for Huichol artwork on the street and all we found was cheap “made in China” souvenirs. After a couple of hours, we had seen all we wanted to see and took a taxi back to Matanchen. San Blas is not one of our favorites; dusty, dirty and unremarkable. Oh well.
The next morning, we were up bright and early for our “jungle adventure”. The boats leave from Matanchen and we were on the first one. Our guide was Aurelio and he was great, pointing out birds and wildlife along the way. (When we asked his name, he pointed to himself and said “yo?”. “Yo” is Spanish for “me” but Diane thought he was saying his name and so he became “Joe” to all of us for the trip.) We must have seen 20 varieties of birds, crocodiles, and turtles. An hour into the trip, we made a stop at the crocodile sanctuary. Turned out that it was a “mini zoo” with a leopard, coatis, a raccoon and macaws in addition to the caged crocodiles. There was also a nursery with hundreds of small baby crocs. Then we made another stop at the springs, La Tovara. We took a dip in the relatively warm and crystal clear spring water, then sat around drying off over beers and sodas. Then it was a quick trip back to Matanchen. We hiked back to the beach and had lunch together at Ishmael’s. Rog and I shared a BBQ’d white snapper that was absolutely scrumptious, then headed back to NEOS for a siesta.
As soon as we got up the next day, we headed for Isla Isabela, a small island 1/3 of the way from San Blas to Mazatlan. It is a national wildlife preserve and houses hundreds of frigate and booby nests in addition to a small fishing village. The anchorage is small and is known as an anchor eater because of the rocky bottom that can easily tangle with the anchor and rode. Forty Love joined us with one other cruiser and one large fishing boat. It was tight, but doable. Right after we arrived, the one yachtie from the south anchorage came by in his dinghy and invited us to join him aboard his boat for sundowners. We declined, but Forty Love joined him while we watched their boat. The next morning, we picked up Joel and Chris (“Forty Love”) and we dinghied around to the south beach for a morning of exploring. The birds are not easily frightened and let us get eye to eye with them. They did a lot of squawking when we got close to their young, but they didn’t move. It was an amazing experience. The frigates were nested in the trees and then, higher up the hills on the rocky plain were the blue footed boobies. We also spotted a few gulls and brown boobies (which have lime green feet). It was not an easy hike, but well worth it. Many folks compare this island to the Galapagos, but without the tortoises and sea lions, I am afraid it cannot be in the same category. But it was fun. We were back on the boats for lunch and siesta, then picked up Joel and Chris for cards on Neos. They taught us the game “Spite and Malice” and we taught them “64”. Fun afternoon and great folks! They left for Mazatlan before sunrise the next day and we stayed on to enjoy one more day.
We were now alone in the anchorage and had a beautiful sunny day to prepare for out overnight to Mazatlan. We left Monday afternoon at about 2pm and sailed for about 4 hours, then had to motor the rest of the way. No fish caught this time and no whales, but we did see dolphins doing their dance as we entered Mazatlan. We entered the Mazatlan channel and anchored in the municipal anchorage for a few days. It is close to the older Mazatlan and so we were able to catch a bus at the dinghy dock that took us into the center of old town. I fell in love with Mazatlan. It is kept neat and spotless and has rows of sculpted ficus trees lining the streets. We met a couple of expats (one from USA and one from Canada) with bright blue “Mazatlan tourist volunteer” t-shirts on and they gave us a walking tour map as well as highlights on what to see. We walked through old town, visited the malecon for a while, then headed back to the church square. We had lunch at Panama’s, Mexico’s version of Denny’s, then headed over to the Mercado Central Pino Suarez. This is one of the largest covered markets we have seen and it had a little bit of everything. We stocked up on fresh fruit and veggies, then caught a pulmonia (open air taxi-shuttle) back to our dock at Club Nautico. The next day, we took a hike up Isla Creston to see the view from Mexico’s second highest lighthouse. You hike up a few switchbacks on a dusty road then climb what seemed like a hundred deep concrete steps before getting to the top where the lighthouse is. But the view from there is fabulous. We got back to Neos for lunch and siesta then took a dinghy ride up the channel and saw the shrimp boats stacked and rafted four to eight deep along the side of the estuary.
We finally connected with Joel and Chris and decided to join them in the marina for a week so that we can provision and get propane. They have offered to ferry us around town and want to take the local Art Walk with us April 1. So we exited the municipal anchorage the last day of March and spent a day at Stone Island, just south of the municipal channel, so we could make water and set up for a stay in the marina.
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