We got a quick Spanish lesson from the waiter at a restaurant called 'Social' in Maz. He asked us our names and when I said Frank he said 'Fransico or Pancho for short'. We didn't know that.
Linda is Spanish for 'pretty, complete, perfect'. Of course we all knew that.
The picture above is from Wikipedia of Fransico Villa, more commonly known by his nickname Pancho, a prominent Mexican Revolutionary general.
You can call me Pancho and Linda is as always, linda.
It’s getting hot! The heat and humidity are going up in Mazatlan and it’s only June. Days are now in the low 90's while the humidity is in the 70's, sometimes into the low 80’s. We keep at least one a/c on 24 hours a day and sometimes 2 in the afternoon. We have three ac units on the boat but we try not to cool the areas where we are not. The heat and humidity really effect you outside so we have slowed down on our outside projects and curtailed our trips around town.
We made a run up to Tucson already to get some project supplies and see some friends. It's about an 18 hour trip and we make one overnight stop along the way. Highway 15 is fairly nice and there are plenty of places to stop for food and gas and lots of good motels. The roads in the northern half in Sonora are the worst but the highway in Sinaloa are very good. The car stopped running while in Tucson, just refused to start one morning, and we took it to a shop recommended by some friends. It turned out the 'computer' that controls all the electronics had died and because the car is 20 years old they had to get a replacement out of Pennsylvania that took 3 days, so we sat in the motel watching TV waiting for the car. We've had the car since new, 20 years now, and it has 220K miles on her. As the mechanic said "After all this time and miles it has paid for its self and she owes us nothing. Every time she starts it's a gift". It was 108⁰ (but dry) in the afternoon, so without a car we couldn't walk around too much except in the evening. We'll be making another run up north in late July for more parts and do a little house sitting for our friends Jennifer and Dean.
We're trying to keep busy inside the boat without going too mad but we're already looking forward to leaving in November.
It's going to be a long summer.
The picture is of the beach off of Paseo (avenue) Clausen with the Mazatlan skyline behind. There are statues all along the city beaches throughout Mexico.
Another morning in paradise.
We made it back to Mazatlan and have started to settle in for the summer. We’re looking forward to the 5 months of heat and tied to a dock, well, not really. We both enjoy being on anchor rather than in a marina but during the hurricane season, and the summer heat, you need to be in a marina for the protection and electricity so you can run the a/c. At least we have our car so we can explore the city and area and get to the grocery store without having to walk a great distance.
While were here we will get some projects done and order some items that we can pick up in Tucson. There are skilled workman here so we can get help with some of the larger projects and things we just can't manage on our own. We'll try to post some pictures as we go along.
Marina life seems to stifle the adventure of boating. You get to work on the boat without the pleasure of using the boat.
One feature of marina life is we now have internet via WiFi, it's a slow but functional connection. The downside of being on the internet is that you're exposed to all the sad and depressing stories of what is going on in the world. Life in the US seems to be a drag and we're glad we're here and not struggling up north. We watched an episode of Saturday Night Live the other night and didn't get most of the jokes. It just didn't make any sense to us and we realized just how out of touch we are with contemporary life in the US. It just reinforces to us how lucky we are to be doing what we're doing.
Here’s where we went during the last 6 months,
| Arrival Date | Place | Lat/Lon Location |
| 1/23/13 | Marina Mazatlan | 23.270617 N 106.454600 W |
| 2/25/13 | Punta de Mita | 20.764783 N 105.515417 W |
| 2/26/13 | Marina Vallarta | |
| 3/6/13 | Punta de Mita | 20.760133 N 105.521433 W |
| 3/7/13 | Chamela | 19.582583 N 105.130950 W |
| 3/12/13 | Tenacatita | 19.302400 N 104.835550 W |
| 3/17/13 | Barra de Navidad - Lagoon | 19°11.462'N 104°40.362'W |
| 3/19/13 | Barra de Navidad - Marina | 19.195200 N 104.682017 W |
| 3/22/13 | Ensenada Carrizal | 19.096400 N 104.437700 W |
| 3/25/13 | Santiago Bay | 19.108967 N 104.393967 W |
| 3/29/13 | las Hadas | 19.102400 N 104.343600 W |
| 3/30/13 | Santiago | 19.109683 N 104.395183 W |
| 3/31/13 | Tenacatita | 19.299217 N 104.837783 W |
| 4/6/13 | Barra de Navidad - Marina | 19.195200 N 104.682017 W |
| 4/18/13 | Tenacatita | 19.298417 N 104.838117 W |
| 4/23/13 | Paraiso | 19°28.342'N 105°03.639'W |
| 4/25/13 | La Cruz – Anchorage | 20°44.891'N 105°22.136'W |
| 4/26/13 | La Cruz - Marina | 20°44.920'N 105°22.690'W |
| 5/10/13 | Punta de Mita | 20.764733 N 105.520400 W |
| 5/11/13 | San Blas - Matanchen Bay | 21.517183 N 105.241800 W |
| 5/13/13 | Stone Island - Mazatlan | 23°10.910'N 106°24.545'W |
| 5/14/13 | Marina Mazatlan | 23.270650 N 106.454833 W |
The morning commute in Bara de Navidad lagoon.
We have spent the last month on the Mexican Riviera bouncing back and forth between Bahia Tenecatita and Manzanillo with stops in Barra de Navidad Marina (twice) and lagoon, Ensenada Carrizal, Santiago Bay (twice), and Las Hadas. We arrived in this area in the middle of March and the cruising season had already started to come to an end and most of the boats had left to head north into the Sea or south to Central America. We were in this area 3 years ago at the height of the season and all of the bays were packed with boats so it was nice this time to have some space. We were in Manzanillo and Santiago during 'Semana Santa', Easter week and the beaches were packed with people with jet skies and water skiers zooming throughout the bays.
Highlights -
Barra de Navidad - This town is full of decadent treats for boaters.
First is the French Baker, an honest to goodness Frenchman who has a bakery in town and delivers to the boats at anchor and in the marina fresh baked pastries, bread, and pies every day (except Wednesday). His French Bakery store in town has all of the fresh baked items plus the best coffee in town.
Second, the water taxi system for those on anchor in the lagoon or for those on one side of the lagoon (e.g. the resort marina) who wish to get to town. For 20 pesos each return it is a great trip and adds to the magic of the place.
Third, the town of Barra which is a laid back tourist town with some great restaurants. You can eat here daily and never get bored. It's not the cheapest place but is moderately priced. If only they had a good fish taco stand.
The Super Hawaii grocery store in Malaque. Get on the bus in Barra and take the 15 minute ride to Malaque to get to one of the best grocery stores we have found outside of a big city. They have Tillimok Cheese, boxed wine, Miracle Whip, pretzels, good coffee, and pickles. All it lacks is a fresh meat dept. It's doesn't look like much from the street but it is a treasure.
Big Bay Resort & Marina. We never stay in resort marinas but we did this time because we heard they lowered their prices to $.60 pre foot per day from the normal $2.60 per foot they have charged in the past. For us that's $27.60 vs. $120 per day. For that price you can live in a 5 star resort like a rich person without going broke.
Manzanillo & Bahia Santiago
Bahia Santiago is a large, open bay that provides great protection from any weather from the north and some protection from west or south seas. It has great holding in 30' of water and could hold dozens of boats. When we were there it was busy with all of the vacationers but we had fun watching all of the entertainment for a few days. After awhile the constant buzzing by the jet skies became tiring and we decided to move on.
The anchorage in Manzanillo is off of the Las Hadas resort in a small bay surrounded by hotels and condos. We took the dinghy into the resort marina and grabbed a taxi over to the shopping area and bought some supplies and had a latte at Starbucks. We also went out to dinner at the Paradise restaurant with some friends anchored in the bay. The food was disappointing and overpriced but the company was good. Again the bay was full of jet skies and water skiers and the music from the disco lasted until early in the morning so we only spent one night there.
Ensenada Carrizal
This bay was a pleasant surprise. Located just 5 miles north of Santiago it has no houses or development, just steep, rocky sides with a small beach at the head of the bay. The bay is opened and gets waves bouncing around off of the rock walls but it's like a little bit of wilderness along this coast. There are also some blow holes on the outer end of the bay that are fun to explore in the dinghy and provide a periodic booming sound around the clock.
Weather
We first arrived in this area in mid March and the daytime highs and humidity were in the mid 80's but in April the temps dropped to the high 70's and the humidity was around 65 making it very nice to walk around town and work on the boat. Water temps were around 80 in most locations so we swam almost everyday while on anchor.
After 2 weeks in Barra de Navidad at the marina we are leaving to head north. First stop will be Tenacatita for a few days and then work our way to La Cruz in Banderas Bay for 2 weeks before returning to Mazatlan for the summer.
Life has thrown us another small curve. Two months ago we were planning to leave for Panama, then our departure from Ensenada got delayed by a couple of weeks and then the weather turned to crap and we had to wait another 3 weeks to get some half way decent weather. The trip to Panama started to look like a rush so we decided to spend another season in MX and summer over in La Paz. Not a bad plan, go down to Mazatlan and then Puerto Vallarta for a couple of months and then return to the Sea in the Spring and be in La Paz by July. Then Linda's son and wife who live in Tucson decided to move to Indianapolis (Indianapolis???) where her family are. Great, but we stored our Jeep with them in Tucson and they kind of act as our home base up north. So we need to do something with the car and it would be nice to see them one more time before they leave so lets go to Tucson now, say our goodbyes, get the car, drive it to La Paz and store it there until we get back in June. Oh wait, did I mention that we decided to stay in Mazatlan for the summer, not la Paz., so we'll drive to Maz and store the car in the Marina until summer. The boat is in Maz and we can leave it there while we hop back to the States. Change of plans happen and we're getting pretty good at this last minute stuff. Ok, lets buy some tickets, tell people when we'll arrive and hope things don't change again in the next 2 weeks. Oh boy.
So we flew from Mazatlan to Phoenix, rented a car to drive to Tucson where we got our Jeep. We spent 2 days at Linda's sons house where we tried not to get in their way while they packed for their move to Indianapolis and drove to Phoenix to see some old friends. The next day we headed south, stopped at Tucson to see how the move was going and then continued to Nogales and Mexico.
Some thoughts and observations along the way.
Flying sucks. Drive whenever possible. The two hour flight from Maz to Phoenix is expensive, $360 each, and the hassle of airports and TSA should be avoided whenever possible.
Heading south it took us awhile to get to the border and then some more time to get our visas and import permit for the car so we didn't make it very far the first day. We stopped in Santa Ana at the Elba hotel which is very nice but noisy being right on the highway, with our room overlooking the road, and with a late arriving and early departing family on either side of our room. Oh, the bed was as so hard we might as well have slept on the floor.
The plan for the second night was to stop in Navojoa south of Obregon but there was a national basketball championship going on and there were no vacancies in any of the nice hotels along the highway. That was too bad because it looked like a very nice town with plenty of hotels and restaurants. So on we went to Los Mochis arriving at 5 PM and immediately got totally lost in the city trying to find a Best Western that was advertised on the highway. We eventually stopped at a City Express hotel that was a very clean 7 story building with plain but functional roomswith very hard beds.
Los Mochis is an attractive city of 250,000 people with at least 2 WalMarts. We know because we drove past both of them while looking for a hotel.
Sinaloa is known to some as the headquarters for the 'Sinaloa Cartel', one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico. What we didn't know until we drove through it is that it has a large agricultural industry that looks very prosperous. Linda said it reminded her of driving through Iowa, mile after mile of corn fields.
The road trip down highway 15 was very pleasant. There are plenty of services along the way and the roads are ok, not great, with some construction along the way but nothing that slows you down too much. Highway 15 is a toll road all the way, it costs us $65 USD in tolls to get from the border to Mazatlan.
Now that we're back in Maz we are getting ready to head south to PV and try to find some warmer weather. We plan to return to Maz in June for the summer. We are leaving the car in the marina parking lot and we still need to decide what to do with the car next season when we head to Panama. That's a long time from now so we'll see what happens then. No use making plans now.
This is Enrique’s dock in Turtle Bay. Zoom in and you can see the stairs leading from the pier deck to the float below.
Look carefully and you can see 3 of many pelicans that would congregate around our boat at night in Turtle Bay. The light from our interior lights in the evening would attract fish that in turn would attract pelicans.
Mexican navy ship that anchored near us in Mag Bay and in Turtle Bay. In TB the zodiac on the bow was lowered into the water and went around with crew to inspect all the cruiser’s papers, including ours. They were very nice guys.
We came across dozens of sea turtles south of Mag Bay. The water was very calm so they were easy to see.
For a little perspective, this is what they look like from a hundred feet away. It’s amazing what the eye can pick out.
This big grey was less than a hundred feet from the boat. No missing him.
