Saturday, November 17, 2012

Staying put… for now


We have been exploring the town of La Cruz and enjoying the free anchorage outside the marina. We are in contact with the one human on the planet who knows and sells parts for our boutique Beemer engine. He is working on shipping a new exhaust pipe to a dealer or yacht broker in PV. In the meantime our patch is working fine, so technically we could move on… but maybe we like the excuse to stay put a bit, and La Cruz is a fun place to do it.


Very cool place to snorkel at Isla Tres Marietas
We took the day on Thursday for a field trip – about 2 hours NW to the islands of Las Tres Marietas – for a day sail and some primo snorkeling! We got there about 9 (3 hours before the tourist party boats). We set our anchor where “the book” advised and headed in toward the rocky beach, used our dinghy anchor and saw some gorgeous fish of all hues. It was a windy, and blustery sea, so the visibility was not the best, but still spectacular and relaxing. Soon we were approached by a very kind panga driver who explained (or somehow helped us understand) that anchoring was not allowed, due to the coral preservation. There were 3 buoys available (which we had assumed were for the commercial boats that would be bring the PV Adventurers). We picked up a buoy, but not until we had a huge fight to dislodge a 100-pound coral covered rock that was wedged in our Bruce anchor when we pulled it up. Oh my! Afraid we didn’t do the coral in that 30 foot spot any good.

Caves above and below the water 
So we had a relaxing day, swimming off the dinghy and boat, then a terrific speedy sail back and re-anchored here at La Cruz. We are a little way off from the bulk of the boats now. The water seems cleaner for jumping in and cooling off, and the pelicans (and their poop) are a little more of a distant source of visual entertainment. It continues to be great fun to watch the birds dive bomb for their dinner.

We have continued to explore the town, and get real familiar with the waiters at the marina bar. We tie up our dinghy at the secure marina dock for $30 pesos a day ($2.50) and can walk into town from there. On one of our evening explorations we came across an English class being taught at the Biblioteca aire libre (Free Outdoor Library). We had a chat (mostly in Spanish!) with the woman who runs it and I am signed up to help with the pequeno ninos class next Monday and Tuesday! On Monday I will help another volunteer and on Tuesday I can bring an activity to do with the kids. I’m very excited to check this out! It’s the kind of thing I am hoping to find opportunities for while on this trip. This will give me a good taste of it. The class is held at 5:30… and that’s about all I know right now. Stay tuned!



My successful excursion into making fresh salsa verde y rojo!
So, we are hanging out, maintaining the boat with daily chores (outboard motor mount improvement, chrome cleaning and polishing…), cooking with chilies, cilantro, and lime, reading up on next ports as well as our novels, and trying to stay cool. Everything is pretty moist, but we haven’t found mildew (yet?) The next challenge is finding wi-fi to get these recent ramblings out to you. We got a password and connection today, but the speed was not going to make picture uploading feasible. Ah well, we’ll try again tomorrow.

And... it's Saturday, we took a mini bus into Bucerias, found free Internet (fast!) with a bucket of beer. Here are extemporaneous photos... Lanham talking to Ellie on cell phone (hi Ellie) and Lisa -- here is a view of the beach you can walk when you get her in February!

Lanham had a visit from a this nina selling her bracelets and they made quick friends!







No comments:

Post a Comment