Since our last post, we stopped in Chacala, a lovely little town. Spent several days exploring the town, hanging out with other cruisers and hiked the nearby volcano. Great hike/views and the ocean side of the volcano is a very steep guanabana (soursop) orchard. The native people of this area, Huichol, are known for their colorful beadwork. The guy on the beach was one of several colorfully dressed merchants.
We moved on to Punta Mita, the first anchorage in Banderas Bay. Puerto Vallarta is at the furthest point in this enormous bay. Punta Mita is basically a couple of big high-end resorts on the northern point of the bay. We only spent one day anchored there as everything was ridiculously expensive ($120 for a taxi to town, 10 miles!!!) and beaching the dinghy was life-threatening. Moved farther into the bay to La Cruz where we have been doing boat work and still fighting with the watermaker – but making significant progress. Every bus and taxi we have taken has had a shattered windshield, which is comforting. But even in this bigger town, we have found the people to be incredibly helpful and nice.
This is a large anchorage with probably 50 boats at anchor just outside one of the several marinas in the area. Watched a free movie in the marina amphitheater last night. Took our jib sail in to a loft for some repairs to the UV cover this morning. Of course, even though I had attached a mouse line to the end of the halyard, it still managed to disappear up into the mast. So of course I had to go up on the bo’sun’s chair (three times) to the top of the mast out here at anchor this afternoon to get it re-reeved.
