Kellie's comments-I think we've been a little lax lately about sending
updates. So here is the rundown on the last week or so.
We received a terrific welcome into Banderas Bay by the resident group of
Humpback whales. What a great way to end our 48 hour trip across the Sea of
Cortez. We spent a week at Punta de Mita, the northern most end of the bay.
Wyndeavor was there and various other acquaintances passed through. The
anchorage suffered from a bit of swell, but Peter built us a "flopper
stopper" and that set things to right. -Flopper Stopper: device suspended
off a long pole into the water to dampen rolling. For those of you
engineering types, you'll have to e-mail for details. Suffice it to say,
"Macgiver strikes again."
On Sunday, we took Imagine out to the Tres Marietas with the Wyndeavor crew
aboard. If all days of cruising were equal to that day, I'd have no
complaints. The islands are about a one hour trip away right through
humpback territory. We had a nice whale show on the way over, spent the day
snorkeling, body surfing and hiking, had some great avocado bean dip on the
way home and saw the whales again and the sunset. Not bad for a winter day
in January. The island is a park, so there are lots of fish and the birds
are quite tame. Lots of caves decorate the landscape and the blue footed
boobies nest there. I had never seen one before, and they were kind enough
to give us a close up look at their Easter egg blue feet. The caves were
quite amazing and we wrote our boat names in small stones to commemorate our
visit.
Now we are enjoying a "vacation" from cruising. Our good friends John and
Dee Munckton, along with their three girls, are visiting. We are splitting
our time between the boat and their condo, having meals together and
catching up on all the news. On Friday it was cooler and overcast, so we
took the opportunity to go explore Puerto Vallarta proper. There are lots
of market stalls, touristy restaurants, and a fairly impressive cathedral.
The kids were a bit wiped out and just wanted to try out the pool, so we
spent half a day there as well. On Saturday we took the boat on a small
trip to an incredible little cove about 6 miles away. We anchored right off
the beach (literally) and swam in the fresh water lagoon and river that have
carved out the canyon. The water is over 100 feet deep right up to within
50 feet of shore. Most of the people enjoying the beach were locals, so we
got a break from the typical touristy vendors. Sunday morning we hooked up
with some other cruisers for a church service. One of the cruisers is a
minister and they host a service every Sunday wherever they are. We really
enjoyed the fellowship and time together with other Believers. This was our
first Christian fellowship since we left. The kids were most impressed with
the cookies and looked forward to getting back to the pool. Today we took a
bus to the nearby town of Bucerias for the festival of the "Patron St. of
Fishing." It was great fun to barter for souvenirs and people watch. They
decorated all the fishing boats and had a boat parade. There were also
bands, children dressed up in fish nets and senioritas on horseback in
beautiful dresses. After a nice taco dinner back at the condo, the kids are
now watching a video, Dee is watching the sunset and the guys have run to
the store to buy donuts for breakfast. We plan to spend tomorrow with some
other cruising friends at Paradise Village and all us ladies are going to
have a stamping time.
We plan to be here until the weekend, when we'll head out along with several
other boats for points south. Most of the trips from here to Ixtapa will be
day trips, and I'm pretty happy about that. The climate has changed now and
the vegetation is jungly, instead of the desert of Baja. We're very excited
to keep exploring and enjoying the warm water and air.
All for now, keep in touch. We can receive e-mail this week on the
petekellie acct, so please drop us a note with all your news.
