The Taco Traveler

I hadn't been on that road before because I'd always docked my dinghy at the marina. I was going to go to the restaurant there tonight, but they still wanted 100 pesos for me to park. I understand and have no problem paying that if I'm using their dock to walk into town for groceries or another restaurant or something, but to charge me to go to their restaurant? Uh, no. So they didn't want my business badly enough in the restaurant (where I would have spent 400 pesos, easily, for a Caesar salad, a steak and a glass or two of wine). I left and motored my dinghy over to the beach instead and walked up to Le Reve.

At Le Reve there's some amazing artwork that I wish I had the space or the budget for. I won't try to describe it (much) - I'll just say that I think it's called "yarn art". It's a Huichol thing. It's some sort of small threads laid out on a canvas or other sort of frame. And very very cool designs. Le Reve is a nice, clean place with a comfortable courtyard, good coffee, good people, Internet.... Tonight they had a Bogart film starting upstairs at 8:30, but I hadn't eaten yet and they've stopped serving food for the season (it's very slow here right now), so I just had one beer then walked more to the center of town for a taco. Had a pork-butt burrito and a hot dog, then started walking back to Le Reve for the movie and got distracted because at Philo's the band was playing. But right outside of Philo's I decided that I needed a couple more tacos. So two more carne asada tacos and a beer later (26 pesos total), I went into Philo's.

It's a good bar. A nice atmosphere, a jammin' house band with Philo himself leading a bluesy rock and roll band that on the three nights I've been there has included a fiddle, a washboard, and a six-year-old playing spoons. But the star of the show is Oscar Fuentes. An absolutely amazing saxaphonist, and I've only seen him play guitar and sing once, but he kills at that, too.

I've been working too hard. It feels odd sometimes to be down here in Mexico but still working crazy hours (like 11am to 4am crazy). But things need to get done, and the potential payoff is good. But tonight I needed to get off the boat after sweating all day for lack of wind. Now I sit in the cockpit, listening to the mariachi music and the fireworks from the zocalo and writing on my laptop. As I ate my pork-butt burrito I saw the cars streaming in, and figured there'd be festivities tonight, but I'm not sure whether it's just a regular Friday thing or if this is a holiday. I regret not walking through, but I'm content to just relax now, sip my Corona Light, and listen to the sounds.

TT

This content is copyright Sean Anderson 2007-2010, reprinted via site feed. Original content at http://www.tacotraveler.com.

I've been here in La Cruz (once again) for 5 days now, but this time my only visit to the marina is in my dinghy to pay the 100-peso dinghy dockage fee and walk into town or use the restarant/lounge. Instead, my main purpose here is to keep cool at anchor with the breeze blowing through the hatches, and to get work done utilizing the Internet from the marina a few hundred yards away. The days here are pretty predictable, and I'm looking forward to leaving soon for a little more excitement once I get done what I need to get done. In the meantime, however, in checking my anchor this morning I remembered how worried I've been in the past about the unknown, boat-wise. And now those worries seem so silly. Standing on my bow watching my anchor hold me securely in 20 knots of wind, I thought back and had to wonder where I'd be if I'd let those old worries keep me from doing what I needed to do.

My first sailboat, Chemistry (I), was a beautiful, flag-blue Sweden Yachts 36. A fast and graceful sailboat - a sister of the better-known Nautor Swans from Finland. Better laid out and brighter below than the Swans, I think. When I got that boat, I remember sitting in the club with my friends Bob Byrd and Craig ("Doc") Jackson and asking them everything they could tell me about anchoring. I'd never done it before and somehow with everything I'd read up to that point anchoring was the thing about boating that most concerned me. "What depth do you anchor in? How crowded are the anchorages, usually? How far are you from the other boats? Have you ever dragged into anyone else? How hard do you back her down to set the anchor?" Etc. The reality is you just have to do it. Anchoring now is nothing. There are very few ways to screw up anchoring as long as there's decent ground to hold you and you land your anchor on that decent ground instead of on rocks or coral or a bottomless pit. I won't go into a tutorial - there are plenty of those around. Now docking... that's another matter. Chemistry (I) handled like a sports car. I'd single-hand her all the time and get to the dock and back her in, just like the power boats do with their twin-Cat diesels and their bow thrusters. This Chemistry doesn't handle so well and really likes to "walk" to port, but I've yet to have a mishap and don't expect one as long as I'm smart about the weather and the dock hands aren't too overzealous.

More recently, my main worry was paperwork. I'm justified in that, because I'm the worst record-keeper / paper-organizer in the world. Taxes kill me. So before I set out to Mexico I was very worried about the paperwork part of it. Getting the proper clearances, checking into ports.... That again is another fear that has been washed aside by just doing it and figuring it out along the way. Of course, Mexico is a little more advanced with that stuff than a few other Central American countries I'll deal with next year when I make another go of the Panama Canal to Florida route. But Mexico is a good learning area because they deal with so many cruisers.

For friends, family, the curious dropping by to see some pictures of sunshine, I thought I'd give you a better idea of what it looks like around here in the anchorage. And if you're curious about anchoring....

This is a view looking west towards the Pacific Ocean. The wind is blowing about 20 knots and you see the line running into the water which attached to the anchor chain a few feet below the surface. The snubber serves a few purposes. Mainly, it's to take the load off of the windlass. It also reduces the angle of the chain in relation to the ground, which lets you hold better with less chain. Instead of coming off the very tip of the boat, the load is against the snubber which has a slightly lower angle. Generally, boats using something like this have it set up more like a bridle, with one end of the line going to the port cleat and one to starboard, so the whole apparatus stays off the center of the bow. My snubber isn't spliced correctly (the lengths at the cleat ends are too short to reach both cleats at the same time), which is okay because when I have it snubbed off one side it keeps me turned just a bit so I can control the direction of the bow into the waves, which makes for a more comfortable time sitting at anchor.

Here's a photo of the "yacht club" - the new La Cruz marina building with restaurant, lounge, showers, etc.... They have a "Sky Bar" on the roof, which I'm sure will be a hit when they're all done with construction in and around the marina in a couple years. Granted, it's not a great photo of the building; I'm mainly interested in showing the view from my boat towards the building. :)

Here's my latest mounting technique for my wifi adapter / antenna. I've picked up a much better signal since mounting it higher, and I think it also benefits from the mast acting like a backboard. The wifi signal I'm using is coming from the marina building above.

When it really starts blowing and I want to double-check that my anchor is holding securely, I'll go right to the bow and look towards shore. Because the strong afternoon winds always come from the same direction, I can line up the green buoy in the center of the picture with the farthest-most part of the jetty, and I know I'm stretched out and not dragging.

And finally, just a view aft towards some other boats in the anchorage. The streaks on the water indicate the strength of the wind. The buildings in the background are Bucerias, I believe, which is about half-way between La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta.

So at the moment it's 4:26 Nayarit time (Mountain Time in the US), and I've been eating come chips & guac, listening to Radio Lab podcasts, and answering emails and doing other work since I woke up around 10:30 (hey, I was up till 4am, again). Time for a check on all the scripts and processes I'm waiting on.... When you're dealing with database tables of 50+ million rows, sometimes it takes a while (some photos and a blog entry's worth of time, for example) to get things done.

TT

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

I can't believe I didn't blog in two weeks. My days in Florida had two very different looks the last two weeks. The first week was a regular week with the nanny, so I'd take G to school at 8 and then have all day to work in a coffeeshop. I'd go to either Trigo downtown Panama City, or I'd drive out to the beach area and go to Joey's Java Juice. Joey's is better because it was more relaxing - they don't get the huge lunchtime rush that makes me feel guilty for taking up a table by myself. He also makes killer Reubens. This past week was Spring Break for Grady, and the nanny had the week off, too. So I'd work a lot of the night after the boys fell asleep, just like the old days. But our days consisted of waking up at 7:30 (no matter how late I stayed up), playing XBox, swimming, playing putt-putt golf, playing wiffle-ball and/or t-ball, going to birthday parties, etc.... One thing about the smalll, tight-knit school is a very large number of kids' birthday parties.

Today is Ty's birthday. He's five. This past Wednesday we went to get his birthday present at Toys-R-Us because I had nobody to look after the boys so I could go alone.

So Friday morning I got up at 4am, got showered, dressed, tucked in and cuddled the boys one more time, then hopped into a cab and headed for the airport. The flights are so easy now. After 6 or 7 trips the past 9 months, I'm becoming a good traveler. There's nothing like being super-early for a flight and being able to just relax. Especially when you can go into the airline's lounge for free drinks and a comfortable chair. Flying into Puerto Vallarta solo feels odd, though, with all the families and newlyweds and older ladies in pants-suits on the plane, all heading down for a vacation. "How long are you staying?" they ask each other. "Oh, just the weekend. My son has a condo and invited me down. You?" "We've here for ten days! The kids have already researched the entire resort and have planned out every single day." Me? They didn't ask. But the Immigration folks did. On that form I said, under "number of days": 45, to allow till June 1 to get to San Diego, just in case weather or work keeps me in a marina. And under "address you will visit (hotel, etc...)" I put, simply, "mi barco." They don't read them.

When I got back to Chemistry yesterday, I was blown away by how grimy she was. All the new construction on and around the marina had piled up massive amounts of dust all over the place. I spent almost two hours rinsing everything I could, including the shrouds as high as the water would shoot. And of course some of that dust got inside, too. After rinsing her down, we motored out of the slip to the anchorage just outside the marina, where I still have Internet but don't have to pay for the slip, and where there will be much less dust. It's pretty rolly out here, and if it were less crowded I'd put out a stern anchor to keep my bow to the swells, but I'm leaving soon and I sort of like the wave motion. I've missed it. I've got a request into Paradise Village Marina for a slip, where I've been wanting to stay for a while now for some golf/spa/resort stuff. Their prices are the same as La Cruz but with actual amenities and no dust. I also have some significant work that still needs to be done, so I need to have Internet for a few more days before heading farther north.

What's next? My plan is up in the air, as always, but when I leave Banderas Bay I'll make a couple stops (Jaltemba, Chacala, San Blas, Isla Isabel) and then I'll see what the wind is like. If it's favorable for a crossing to Cabo, then I'll do that. Otherwise I'll head into the Sea of Cortez a little bit and stop into Mazatlan and then cross to La Paz. An easier, shorter Sea crossing anyway. The hard part (especially single-handed) is going to be Cabo to San Diego. There aren't many places to stop, and it's a bash against the wind, swells and current, generally.

TT

Yesterday was a very frustrating day trying to get new moorage closer to downtown Puerto Vallarta. I like it here in La Cruz, and I won't be here for the next two weeks anyway, but I wanted to be closer to stuff when I got back and save some money while I was away. The problem with a lot of marinas down here is they don't often feel compelled to answer email or their phone, so your best option when trying to get into a marina is to just go, be there in their marina, get them on the VHF and say, "okay, what's my slip assignment?" Well, it didn't work yesterday. I won't go into detail because it's boring, but it was a complete waste of a day.

So this afternoon I'm sitting here listening to Radio Lab podcasts and working, answering emails and making stuff happen. And soon I'll start packing for my trip inland, which I've decided I'll undertake tomorrow rather than tonight. I'm flying to Florida out of Guadalajara (partly because it was $100 cheaper, and partly because I wanted to see the city), and it's a five hour bus ride from PV. So no point in getting there at 9pm, paying for a hotel room and then just going to bed. The cheaper flight will end up costing me more, of course, with two night's hotel and a 400 peso bus ride, but I wanted to see Guadalajara. It's supposed to be "Mexico's most cosmopolitan city" and I'm ready for a little more culture. We don't get much culture here on the coast (tacos, fireworks and mariachi notwithstanding).

So I fly out of Guadalajara on Friday early morning, and as soon as I land in Panama City I'll get to see the boys play t-ball. R's been giving me great reports, and it sounds like they're doing great. G is great in the field and Ty hit a grand slam last week to win the game. He can also, apparently, do a backflip into the pool. Not a back dive or occasionally a back flop, which he was doing last time I was there, but a back flip, all the way around and his feet break the surface of the water. Since he's not yet 5 (2 more weeks) I can say "my four-year-old can do a freakin' backflip into the pool. From the edge of the pool." Look for that video soon, destined to be the equivalent of Tiger Woods on the Johnny Carson Show at age 4.

So on April 10 I'm back to PV and checking out of La Cruz on 4/11 and heading either to PV for a few days or more north, stopping along the way at places like Chacala, Mazatlan and Topolabampo that I skipped over before. Then again, if the weather's right, I may just float on north and save some of those places for next year. My plan currently is to do the Baja Ha Ha next year (they leave San Diego Oct 30) and give this trip another shot. But who knows....

TT

Just returned to the boat today after visiting the boys for 10 days while R was on a business trip. Got up at 4am, kissed the boys goodbye as they slept, and drove to the little Panama City airport, locking the keys in the trunk for R to pick up later. Quick flight to Memphis on a Northwest Airlines shuttle, then Northwest from Memphis to Puerto Vallarta with only 20 other passengers. Crazy. I walked up to the desk after getting into Memphis and asked if there was an exit row seat available, and the lady smiled, clicked her computer keys for two seconds, and out popped my new boarding pass with a seat in my very own exit row. It was an Airbus A320, which seats about 150, and there were only 21 of us. I'm just glad they didn't cancel it. What's going on with Northwest? They were so nice, and it was a great flight. Just surprised they aren't more full, I guess.

Anyway, I landed in PV, got through Immigration and Aduana, then navigated the tangles of taxi drivers to get across the street to the bus stop. I did get one taxi quote to La Cruz, and it was much cheaper than I expected (350 pesos, $35), but still, I knew I could manage the bus ride for 15 pesos ($1.50). Arrived here about 2pm and was very happy to see Chemistry again. She looked great, as Denali and Malavika did a thorough cleaning before they departed. I've heard from them that they're in Zihuatanejo at the moment (a couple of days ago, anyway) on a boat with a couple and a young child. So it's a great fit for everyone (with childcare assistance!) but probably a little crowded, I imagine.

The marina here in La Cruz is coming together, and as they continue to evolve it's only going to get better. Christian is the manager here, and he knows service. I just wish they had a desalinator like Cabo; the water is fine for showering and washing dishes, but isn't potable. The upstairs open-air restaurant / bar opened since I left a couple weeks ago. Like all restaurants, they'll have growing pains as the staff learns things like timing (had to keep defending my food from being picked up by eager bussers), but it will be a great place soon, as the food was pretty good. With all the help floating around they have hands available for tableside service, so they probably need me to teach them how to make a kick-ass caesar and add that to the menu. But I'll avoid the "pretentious diner" label here and save my caesar recipe for my own restaurant, someday.

For lunch I had steak fajitas after starting with chips & guac. Para tomar, I had two Sol cervezas and a Jimador margarita. Total price for 1.5 hrs of munching and sipping and working on my laptop with the free wifi: 250 pesos or about the same amount I would have paid for just that margarita in Vegas ($25) if it were a bit closer to a double. My 50 peso note was a decent tip for that meal, and tonight for dinner at the taco stand off the Plaza, 50 pesos included a decent tip. I had a "taco vertical" (my own phrase) of carne asada, pastor (pork) and chorizo (sausage) along with one Pacifico. Total price, 42 pesos. Crazy cheap.

I'll be here one more night before hitting the sea again and making my way down the coast. It's about 140 miles to Tenacatita, which will be my next stop since I was unable to get all the autopilot repair parts I need to rebuild OV's Linear Drive unit as even Raymarine is out of stock for another couple weeks. If I would have gotten the parts, I probably would have gone to Puerto Vallarta where I could get help on the rebuild if I needed it. That's ok - OV Junior, the backup wheel pilot, is doing just fine. I love it here in La Cruz, but I'm looking forward to getting moving again. The Mexican Gold Coast is calling, and I think I may be hearing whispers from Costa Rica. My goal is Panama City, Panama by April 1, so I can stay with the boys for their spring break. In an effort to confuse myself and every ticket agent, gate agent, immagration and customs official along the way, I'll be flying Panama City (Panama) to Panama City (FL).

TT

We arrived here in La Cruz yesterday afternoon after stopping one night at Jaltemba, which is about 28 miles S of San Blas - an easy day-sail. Still traveling with Shiloh and Sailfisher, we anchored at sunset in the lee of the islands at Guayabitos, and since we were three boats all interrupting the quiet and solitude of the one boat that had been there already, I rowed over and invited them to join us for fish and drinks. Igor and Anna aboard Anna were a fun couple to get to know. They've been living in the States for 15 years, left Russia after Glasnost, and have done very well for themselves and their children. Very nice and adventurous people. They bought the boat (a C&C 41) several months ago after never having sailed a bit, and basically just jumped into the cruising life. Anna doesn't like open water so they may have issues when it comes time to make a decision to turn right at the Galapagos, and Igor loves cruising and knows he'll get through any situation, but he's afraid of water and doesn't swim. It's a fear of sharks that keeps him on the boat while others enjoy the snorkeling / swimming around at anchor.
 
We woke up and pulled anchor the morning of the 14th (yesterday) and started motoring in a dead calm towards this place, which is cooler still than San Blas, in its own way. I haven't yet seen all of it, but it's definitely a cruiser-friendly place, with great restaurants and fun nightlife (from what I hear). La Cruz is a new marina still under construction, but one day it's going to be a destination. If I had investment funds, I'd be buying up a nice chunk of property in town and building a chandelry. This marina will be big.

Tomorrow morning I'll say goodbye to my friends on Shiloh and Sailfisher (again), and catch a bus to the Puerto Vallarta airport to fly out for Florida to visit the boys for 10 days. When I return, I'll be moving along solo again, as Denali and Malavika will be setting off to see a friend in Puerto Angel. They've been great crew through this first 1000 miles of Mexico, and I've loved having them aboard, but I sort of miss the solitude and the whole single-handing experience, and with three people the boat is smaller than I thought.

I'll have more to say about La Cruz when I return, as I'll have a couple more days here (the 26th to the 28th) before I depart for Neuvo Vallarta (Puerto Vallarta) for a night or two of the big city, then more south towards Zihuatanejo (with a couple stops in between).

TT