After returning from Mexico City to the boat at Paradise Village in Nuevo
Vallarta, we enjoyed some of the sights around Puerto Vallarta, in addition to
simply enjoying Paradise.
Visit to the La Cruz Marina
Excellent al pastor tacos in Zona Romantica
Malecon
Breakfast at La Hacienda
Mercado Municipal Rio Cuale
Dinner at Encore in Bucerias
Ah, Paradise...
At the beach with the Campbells from Greenfield, IN, longtime friends of the Negilskis
On 1 February, we finally departed from Banderas Bay and headed south to
explore the Costalegre (happy coast). We made a quick overnight stop at Yelapa
and thoroughly enjoyed this unique fishing village turned tourist destination.
The town has no road access by car or truck, with most people arriving by boat.
We took a mooring buoy overnight (200 pesos), and even though the weather was
extremely calm, we did have a somewhat rolly night. It was worth the visit as
we were able to hike to both waterfalls, and have a relaxing beach day in a
palapa. The hike to the further waterfall was an interesting trek through the
outskirts of town, and the dip in the waterfall pool was very refreshing.
Surf landing in a panga...
The turnoff from the main trail to the falls is through this square
After an uneventful overnight passage from Yelapa, we arrived at Bahia
Tenacatita on 3 February. Tenacatita is definitely an anchorage that a cruiser could
spend a lot of time in: clear and warm water, a nice stretch of beach for
walking or lounging, a reasonable palapa restaurant, La Manzanilla nearby for
provisioning, miles of estuary for exploring, and a well-established and active
community of cruisers. Highlights of our visit included releasing baby sea
turtles, the Mayor’s Raft-up, and meeting our new friends from Lungta. Unfortunately,
it is not currently possible to reach ‘The Aquarium’ at Playa Tenacatita via the
estuary from Bahia Tenacatita, due to land ownership disputes. We literally had
to force ourselves to leave so that we would have time to explore the rest of
the coast, and would have happily stayed another week.
Rollo del mar at La Manzanilla
La Manzanilla
Cocodrilario at La Manzanilla
Estuary tour
Mayor's Raft-up
S/V Lungta
From Tenacatita we had a nice broad reach day sail down to Las Hadas in
Bahia de Manzanillo on 8 February. The architecture of the Las Hadas resort
certainly imparts the feeling of cruising in the Mediterranean (at least in our
minds), but the late night noise of a wedding reception and the day time noise
of construction does not make for a peaceful anchorage. We did pay the steep daily
use fee (200 pesos) to use the dinghy dock and pool at Las Hadas, and it was
indeed a spectacular pool.
After a few nights at Las Hadas, we headed back north and anchored in the
lagoon at Barra de Navidad. We were very pleasantly surprised to find that the
fuel dock there has free showers for those in the anchorage. We spent a lovely
day in town with Dan and Kathy from Lungta, who had discovered that cruisers
are able to use the pool at the Cabo Blanco hotel while enjoying food and
drinks. We had an amazing breakfast of croissants on the boat after a visit
from the French Baker (who delivers fresh French pastries to the boats in the
marina and anchorage every day except Wednesdays!). We also had our first
running aground incident departing the anchorage, distracted from cleaning the
mud off the chain and anchor. Thanks to Matt’s quick thinking, we were able to
row the anchor out into deeper water and use the windlass to leverage ourselves
out of the mud before the decreasing tides worsened the situation.
The French Baker
Matt working on the outboard carburetor
After getting out of the mud (and hoisting our dinghy aboard while motoring
through the bay!), we motored up to Bahia Chamela and anchored in time to have
a lovely Valentine’s Day dinner. The next morning we swam to shore, had a tasty
lunch at the Restaurant Familiar Becerra palapa, and took a nice stroll along
the extensive beach. We departed for our overnight around Cabo Corrientes at
4PM on 15 February.
Getting around Cabo Corrientes from the south can be an uncomfortable
passage depending on the weather conditions, due to cape effects. We chose a
seemingly appropriate weather window, but it was definitely a slog of upwind motor
sailing, taking us 27 hours to travel 105 nm. Fortunately we arrived at La Cruz
just before dusk with enough daylight to navigate through the very crowded anchorage
and get our anchor down. We moved into a slip at the La Cruz marina the next
morning to get ourselves and the boat cleaned-up and provisioned, and to enjoy
the vibrant cruiser community.
