I'm back at anchor off La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. Paradise Village was nice, but expensive. The moorage fees weren't bad, but the rest of the resort and resort area was priced for people on a short vacation: 42 pesos for a beer? 35 pesos for a little taco? After months of paying 15-20 pesos for a beer and a max of 15 for a taco, the prices there just put me off too much. And the marina didn't get much breeze, so inside the boat got up to 87 degrees every day, which makes it kinda hard to work. Why not work by the pool? Well... bad battery, shortage of electrical outlets. Am I complaining about heat? Sorry, I realize it's still snowing up north.
One of my least favorite things about the resort, however, was its emptiness. There are so few people around right now that it's just no fun to be alone there (having not yet met the girl from my eponymous blog entry). Empty restaurants, empty bars... it makes people-watching a lot less fun when there are no people. I think I've pretty much determined that I'm a city person. I loved Guadalajara, and I love crowds. I guess I get my fill of solitude on the boat, and when I'm ashore I need to be social. I'll go so far as to say I'll take a crowded airport over an empty luxury resort.A new group came into the resort yesterday for a conference that runs all next week. I had a chance to talk to one of them yesterday, and they're from the Congress of Quantum Masters. It's some sort of computer program that helps tune peoples energies or something like that. This lady said she had a machine that she could program, for example, to her son's energy levels and heal his health issues from 1000 miles away. Ooooh kaaay. Well, I can probably buy into some of the energy / universe / spiritual vibrations stuff, but I'm definitely skeptical that she could make someone feel better from 1000 miles away by running a computer application on an energy machine. I have no idea how accurate my recollection of any of this is. I haven't checked out their web site and I was drinking my second very strong margarita at the time (happy hour at the hotel is 2-for-one drinks).So I settled up with the marina this morning and cast off the lines again, exited the harbor and raised the sails for the one-hour beat across Banderas Bay to La Cruz. It was blowing pretty hard, about 20 knots with some decent sized chop, but it was great to feel the motion of the boat again. I hadn't sailed since my trip down to Manzanillo (on the way up from Manzanillo I motored the whole time in zero wind). Chemistry is in need of a bottom scrubbing, which I started this afternoon from the dinghy but I'll need to get in the water and get serious tomorrow. There is so much growth on her that it felt like we were a thousand pounds heavier and a knot slower than we should be. Add to that the fact that the growth got loose a bit on the sail over, and now is clogging the raw water intake for both heads. Doesn't sailing sound fun?I'm considering yet another change in plans, the eight-hundred and twenty-fifth such change in plans since the plan-changing started a year and a half ago. This time I'm considering leaving the boat in Mexico and living out of my backpack for the summer / hurricane season. I'll be with the boys for much of June, and then to a friend's wedding in Colorado for several days, and then spreading myself around my company's offices in Seattle and San Francisco.... Basically, I've got a lot of visiting and state-side work to do. With all that traveling, it makes little sense to beat the hell out of Chemistry and myself making our way up the coast of Baja against wind, swells and current to pay $800/month to have her sit in L.A. while I roam.TT
