La Cruz

La Crus had turned out to be a rather nice place to stay and enjoy a quiet place while going into Puerto Vallarta to go to the large grocery stores. I coulf stay here a while as many cruisers have done. "Came here 3 years ago and never left as i found the place i was looking for. The plaza is quiet in the week and hustles with shoppers on Domingo. Small sellers who pay 50 pesos for their small stand. The money goes to pay for a childrens reading program. See the picture of the kids drawing on a tarp on the ground.
Watched the football playoff game here and even the owner of the place was a Packer fan.

Outside the restruant i met up with a man with a push cartthat had a steam boiler to keep his roasted banannas and sweet potatoes hot. He let the town know where he was by letting off steam through a whistle. Locals and gringos came a running.

Dinner with fellow cruisers was at the home of a women who puts on dinners and uses the money to send her kids to university and Spain. In her real life she is a lawyer.

So much from here. Will leave thursday for points south. Weather looks good

San Blas to la Cruz

San Blas is a lovely old Mexical town south of Mazatlan. Known as the location where the franciscian monks left from to conquer the indigenous inhabitants of California. Was thinking of the recent Columbus Day celebration renamed as Indigenous Persons Day by my daughter years ago. Both there and in La Paz they pulled no punches in describing how much the Spanish destroyed an existing culture. The town square (Zocolo?) was filled with local families on the weekend showing off their new dresses and shoes.

Took a panga ride up the estuary to look at more birds and crocs. They raise baby crocs and release them in the estuary. As expected there is no swimming anywhere except in 1 very protected by underwarer fence location. The biggest croc we saw swimming was about 8 feet long. Quite different here in La Cruz which is just northwest of Puerto Vallarta. What i can tell so far is that La Cruz works hard to maintain its small town atmosphere. Tougue tacos, roasted sweet potatoes and banannas from street vebdors with steam whistles and wood fired boilers on their carts.

Green Bay just scored another touchdown and the score is now 14-0 Packers. I wonder, does listening to the Packers/Bears game in spanish count as language school? We also can't also understand why there is steam or smoks coming out of the players mouths and noses? Are they all smokers?

Weather is great and sailing friends appear and sail away. A moving transient community that Harp will join me in traveling on in 2 weeks or so.

Aloha

Ken

Isla Isabel

Hello all

Don't have a lot of time to write as it takes forever to download pictures. Isla Isabel is called the Galapagos of Mexico and was as advertised. Thousands of birds and in their mating and display season. Harp just jumped into the scene so I could show everyone how we communicate. That pic was takes from a palapa in Stone Island Ensenada just south of Mazatlan. I do love the Frigate Birds on the basketball backboard and the cute couple sitting on their nest. What about those blue feet on the blue footed Booobies. The other Boobie is a Masked Boobie and has the yellow feet.

Ken

Go Ducks

Monday afternoon sitting in a Palapa with a cervesa with a plan to head south to Isla Isabela tomorrow afgternoon. Will be a 18 hour passage to the island and we will do the majority of it at night to ensure a daytime arrival. That will give us the option to head to San Blas if we can't anchor at Isabela. Yesterdays sail from the marina to here was excellent with 20 knots of wind from the NW. Made it here faster than the same trip to the marina under power back in December. It will be the first overnight sail for Carl and Pam, and expect I will be up more than usual.
Will not be able to listen to the game tonight as this playa closes down at 1800 hours. I feel it will be a close game with the last team to have the ball the winner.
Hey Dee Dee, How about them Packers.
Warm sunny day today, great for the last provisioning trip to the marcado for beefsteak. Pollo and cheese.

See ya south of here

Ken

Back in Mazatlan

Aloha all

After a great vacation from my vacation I arrived back in Mazatlan yesterday. Flew in yesterday with Carl and Pam to weather much warmer than what we left in Oregon. It was hard to say goodby to Harp and I look forward to her meeting me in Manzanillo in February. We now have refigeration on Allymar, all wired up and running on both 11o and 12volt. Ice is really hard to find in the block form and the cubed just dosn't last long. Hope to do our final provisioning tomorrow and headout south either on Sunday or Monday.
Crew is settling in well and I expect us to get along well and have a good trip south. Tomorrow is also a day for going into the old section of Mazatlan and do some exploring and seeing. To get away from the hustle and bustle of the new parts of Mazatlan (Home Depot, Wallmart, condos and Mc Donalds) is refreshing. Lookling forward to some real local food for lunch.
Had to purchase water to fill the tanks today from 5 gallon jugs. La Paz was easier in that the marina/fual dock had their own water purification plant and the water was potable. I sure don't want to purchase a osmosis unit for Allymar but can see why others have them.

Happy new yeat and love to all

Fair Winds

Ken