Sadly, my daughter Sarah was unable to come visit us because her Uncle Sam just couldn’t get around to delivering her passport. Expedited and overnighted be damned. So we’ll try again at the end of the semester.
We toured a small family tequila distillery, Tequila Mama Lucia, in the town of Mezcales, fascinating how different from the distillation methods of rum, whiskey & scotch, which are well known to us. Did you know that good Tequila is harvested from plants that are between six and 12 years old and then aged six or more years in barrel? No wonder the good stuff is expensive. Tried the gamut and bought a very nice bottle for sipping. (Sure hope it’s as good as we thought it was after all that tasting!)
We made one last trip through the fabulous Sunday market in La Cruz and had a couple of farewell dinners with good friends we’ve made over the last couple of months. One boat is headed to the South Pacific, one has to return to work (egad) and the rest are heading back north. I’m sure some of our paths will cross again.
On very short notice, we were able to replace our three AGM batteries and get them installed without any problems. Really! We had a good two day weather window to go down to Yelapa and then around Cabo Corrientes, which has quite a reputation for very very strong winds. Yelapa is a self governing indigenous community that was granted autonomy in 1581 by King Philip II of Spain. This place didn’t get electricity until 2001. Only accessible by boat, we enjoyed exploring the steep hillside walking streets (did I mention they were steep?) and found our way to one of the two waterfalls. Then we had a drink at the Yelapa Yacht Club, a very attractive restaurant, where we watched a small panga try repeatedly to pull a big one off the beach. The rope broke three times, but they finally got it.
Then we motored around Cabo Corrientes to an overnight in Ipala. We are now in Chamela, a large protected bay with a couple of small towns, 100 miles south of Puerto Vallarta. Planning to hop from bay to bay south over the next week to Tenacatita and Barra, two major cruiser hubs.
