Back in Mazatlan

We are back in Mazatlan for the summer, currently anchored in the Old harbor, but will be moving to the marina around the first of June.

It is nice to be back here as this is our favorite Mexican City. The old historic area is very interesting, lots of older buildings, some restored and some not. The plaza is always a good place to visit, during the day it is quiet and comfortable, you can find a nice shady table and enjoy a cold cervesa and relax after walking around all day. In the evening the plaza becomes more active. The one street that runs one side of the plaza is closed to car traffic and the restaurants there claim the space for their tables. The families, friends and couples come out to walk the plaza, there is usually live music playing at two of the corners, as well as wandering mariachi’s. The Angela Peralta theatre art school is at one end the the plaza so you can often here the bands inside practicing (classical, jazz, etc..).

The last time we were there some type of show was going on at the school. There were dozens of kids about high school age, all wearing what looked like dance/band outfits, what looked like several of the carnival princesses, and lots of families. It was interesting to sit and people watch while we ate our dinner.

Another thing that we like about Mazatlan is the public transportation, the buses here work very well. The buses are 5 pesos (about .50 cents US), with the air conditioned buses costing 6 of 8 pesos. The buses run very often and each has the major areas/stores that it goes to written on the windows of the bus. It is quite easy to hop on a bus that is going to the correct area even if you are not familiar with the route that that particular bus is going to take. We use the busses a lot! The only problem is that the busses stop running around 9pm, which is just about when the plaza and the nightlife is just getting started! Besides the buses there are taxi’s, pulmonarias (sort of a overgrown vw powered golfcart, unique to Mazatlan), and pickup trucks with 2 bench seats in back. These are plentiful and reasonably priced, more so if you can bargain well!

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We are now anchored at the east side of Isla Isabela. This is an interesting island, and is a bird sanctuary. The anchorages here are marginal and are not tenable in bad weather, so we are enjoying a few days of clam wind and seas. We went for a hike on shore with Sailsoon to see the birds, there are a few young birds and eggs, though it is not the best time of year for viewing the hatchlings. It is the end of the dry season so everything is dry and brown, and the trees are bare. It was a hot, dusty,
and buggy walk, but it was interesting to see the Frigate birds and the Boobies (brown and a few blue footed). Several of the Frigate nests are just at head level and the birds are not concerned even when you a very close. One nest was directly over the trial, and as you ducked under it you were just inches from the bird. The Boobies nest on the ground and are a little more protective, but were pretty tolerant till you were within 10 feet of their young.
I hope that we are able to stop here again in the fall at the end of the wet season. I am sure that the island will be completely different, lush and tropical, rather than dry and desert.

Barco Fiesta

We have moved on from Puerto Vallarta and Banderas Bay and are now anchored at Jaltemba.
We had a nice visit with Cindy's brother John and his wife Gwen while in PV. They were down with friends at a hotel and were able to come out for a nice day sail, their friend Dennis came along also. It was a great day for a sail, with a good amount of wind and not too hot. We used their visit as an excuse to spend a few days in a marina, the first since leaving Mazatlan in January. It was really nice to have plenty of fresh water to wash the boat, as it was quite filthy. You would not think that
a boat would get so dirty, but we were coated with dust, dirt and salt. Unfortunately the day we left the marina the wind was blowing pretty hard and built up some wind waves, this resulted in our clean boat getting a new coating of salt water.
Puerto Vallarta is not a favorite area for us. It is extremely built up for tourists, but what we did not like was that everything seemed geared to get the most money out of you as possible. The busses are expensive (relative to other cities) and are not set up to be convenient for the tourists, who they think should be taking taxis instead. The taxi's often want to charge per person, and were much pricier than Mazatlan or La Paz. There is one marina that is charging $10 US just to park your dinghy
once, a normal cost is 2 or 3 dollars for the whole day and usually includes using the showers etc.
Oh, well it was nice to be at the dock with plenty of water and power, plus the marina was part of a hotel so we got to use the pool and hot tub which was very nice. John and Bridget from Sailsoon (www.sailsoon.com) stopped by and so we all went over to the hottubs together. We did like Punta De Mita, which still feels a bit like a surfer hangout despite the development going on.
Jaltemba is a tourist area that is off the beaten track and we have seen only a few gringos. We are getting into the low season so many of the stores and restaurants are closed. This just adds to the quiet laid back atmosphere. At least until the Barco Fiesta (Party Boat) comes by. This is a catamaran party boat that cruises around the bay playing music at a 1000 decibels (a catchy salsa tune). Today they came by pausing the music long enough for the tour guide to give a spiel, something about the
tranquil little beach, then up comes the music and off they go.

Moving Northward

We are now located in Banderas Bay, at Punta de Mita. Puerto Vallarta is on the far side from us, and we should get over there in a few days.

We have begun the move back north towards Mazatlan. We made short stops in Barra de Navidad, Tenacatita, Chamela, and Ipala. Most of the other boats are ahead of us and we are also at the end of the tourist season (winter) so there are a lot fewer boats and people ashore as well. This is fine with us as we don’t really like the crowds, but it also means that some restaurants are closed or don’t have all their items available. We can tell that the weather is starting to change. We are heading from the dry season (no rain in 4 months) to the wet (hurricane) season, the winds are changing and the humidity is going up. We will soon need to have the boat somewhere safe from Hurricanes.

 

We have been a little disappointed in the water down here this season. When we first arrived the water was warm and clear. Within a week or so the temperature dropped over 10 degrees and made swimming uncomfortable. After a few weeks the temp started to go up and we had a chance to snorkel on the wreck in Santiago. However in a few days we had a huge algae bloom and the water turned murky green or an even worse red/brown with no visibility at all! Heading up the coast it has improved a bit and the algae is in patches, so it all depends on where you are and what the wind/waves are doing. We had hoped to be in the water pretty much everyday during the season, but have gone swimming rarely and only snorkeling a few times.  Our friends tell us that last year was much better for water quality. Oh well, I guess we can’t have everything perfect.

 

I finally added some new photos to the mainland Mexico page, Guadalajara and other pics. I also fixed the guestbook, so that should be working again (thanks to Fran for letting me know!).