Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta
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Mazatlan
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| We arrived at Marina Mazatlan December 10th just in time to participate in some of Mexico's Christmas celebrations. Guadalupe Day is celebrated Dec 12 with a parade that starts at the beautiful Cathedral. Guadalupe was Jesus's grandmother, she is dearly worshiped is Mexico. On January 6th throughout Mexico Three Kings Day also know as (Feast of Epiphany) is celebrated. This 12th day of Christmas signifies the day the three magi, Gaspar, Melchor and Baltazar, arrive with gifts to present to the baby Jesus. Central to the celebration is the colorful Rosca de Reyes, a round sweet bread decorated with red. green, and yellowed candied fruit representing the jewels of the magis' crowns. Baked into the bread is at least one, and often two, small plastic dolls symbolizing the baby Jesus. The one who finds the doll are traditionally obligated to host the El Dia de la Candelaria party on February 2nd at which tamales and atole are served. This day marks the end of the Christmas Season. We were served a piece of Rosca bread and Kip was the lucky one to get two baby Jesus in his piece, so we will be having tamales on February 2nd. |
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While in Mazatlan we enjoyed spending a lot of time with of our friends Gwen and Dave from Alberta. They spoiled us, showed us a lot of Mazatlan we would not have seen on our own. We celebrated New Years Eve on the beach with a group of Canadians, went to a couple of the Pacific Coast League baseball playoff games. Gwen & Dave took Kip to a small mexican town called Quelite which is close to the Tropic of Cancer
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San Blas was a "blast". This small Mexican fishing town located approximately 125 miles south of Mazatlan was founded in 1535. In 1768 Father Junipero Serra started his missionary work here and eventually founded San Buena Ventura. CA. Several other cruisers anchored in the very peacefull estuary along side the large shrimp boats. Every evening a few of us would meet Captain Norm Goldie and his wife Janet in the beautiful plaza on Calle Mercado for dollar tacos and great stories. |
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We visited La Contaduria (the fort)which was built in 1770 and housed the Colonial Accountants and Marine Customs offices. At the fort we met Guillermo Carvajal who wrote several songs about San Blas. See San Blas slide show. In 1882 Longfellow wrote his last poem here, "The Bells of San Blas" and now the bells of San Blas are silent at Longfellow's church ruins. |
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A group of us took the Jungle Trip along mangrove-lined creeks and through marshes with many birds and small turtles to a crystal-clear spring-fed swimming hole at Tovara Srpings next to where crocodiles are usually spotted. Unfortunetly we had no sun that day and we only saw one crocodile. |
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The unique beadwork and stichery of Huichol Indians can be found in San Blas and Tepic for a fraction of the price charged for copies elsewhere. Our day bus trip to Tepic, the Capital of the Nayarit State was very interesting, great markets with excellent prices. We found very view tourist in Tepic. |
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| We really enjoyed San Blas and all the people who were part of our experience here. Someday we will return. Only in San Blas can you buy bread dough at the bakery to bake at home when there is no more baked bread. |
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Chacala Bay lies 21 miles south of San Blas. This cove has a beautiful little beach with palapa restaurants lining the shore in front of the towering coconut palms. This has been a resort popular with local inhabitants and snowbirds from Canada and the United States. We took a tour around town and enjoyed a beer at one of the palapa restaurant. Left to right Kip, Kathy, David off the vessel Andante, myself and David & Melanie off the vessel Talerra. |
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| The Punta Mita point marks the northern end of Bahia de Banderas and is the first available anchorage within the bay. Big hotels and a green golf course covers the south half of the bay. We only stayed here one night. We could not find a good digny landing on the beach so we did not get on shore. |
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La Cruz is a pleasant older fishing village with brightly painted gringo restaurants. There is a new marina being built here which makes dingy landing very difficult. A lot of boats anchor here as it is the closet anchorage to Puerto Vallarta and it's easy and very inexpensive to take the local busses into the the city. It's a well sheltered anchorage and the town has al lot of services including internet. Like all the other achorage we have stopped at, La Cruz is also becoming crowded with condo's and plenty of tourists. |
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Shrimp boats and other fishing boats as this one are seen everywhere along the southern Mexican coast. It's neet to see them at work.
While we were in La Cruz we celebrated Melanie's birthday. From left to right is Kathy from Andante, myself, Kip, David and Melanie aboard Talerra. |
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The city of Puerto Vallarta is located on the north east shore of Banderas Bay. Old town is really neet to visit, the streets are lined with Spanish colonial architecture, fun sculptures dot the restored beaches south to Mismaloya. The historic El Cento has a swinging bridge that takes you to the central market. |
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Puerto Vallarta is the sister city to Santa Barbara, CA and the same dolphin fountain dots the boardwalk. The Marina Vallarta we stayed in at the north end of the channel is surrounded by shops and restaurants, with a neet light house which greets you as you enter the channel. |
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