Monthly Archives: December 2014

Banderas Bay

We headed 280 nm over to Banderas Bay from the Baja and located ourselves in Punta de Mita, the northernmost anchorage in Banderas bay just off a large rocky point. Banderas Bay is a popular sailing area: it is very well protected, stretches 23 miles across, is home to 4 large marinas, and has an amazing assortment of wildlife. Puerta Vallarta, Bucerias, Sayulita are all interesting places to visit and just an easy bus ride away.

Josh returning from surfing all afternoon

Josh returning from surfing all afternoon

We anchored off Punta de Mita for a few days which allowed Josh to hone his surfing skills.  He is definitely hooked on surfing! There are lots of surf breaks in Punta de Mita  area, the best ones being off the  point itself. I enjoyed catching beach break waves off the shore with my boogie board. The town of Punta de Mita is very small, and has the typical contrast between very poor small homes and opulent hotels and tourist homes. The tourists bolster the local economy and the Mexicans happily capitalize on it. It all works!  To get internet access we typically pack our computers into the wet/dry bag, make a beach break landing, and pop up to one of the beachside palapa restaurants. You often get free internet if you order something;  $12 Canadian, will feed all three of us a simple but delicious lunch including a Pacifico which allows us to catch up on emails etc.  One of the things we noticed right away was the climate difference between the Baja and mainland Mexico; you leave a desert and enter a very lush, beautiful, tropic. The humidity was very high when we arrived and the first few nights were definitely an adjustment, very hot, wet and sticky inside the boat and out. Luckily the overcast nights and humidity subsided and most evenings since have been more comfortable.

From Punta de Mita we headed 9 nm south in Banderas Bay to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle where many cruisers spend the entire season. La Cruz is laid back and a little bit more of a town than Punta de Mita. It has lots of cobble stone streets, big shady huanacaxtle trees, everything you need for provisioning including an amazing fish market and an organic farmers market on Sundays. There are a number of Canadians and Americans who have made La Cruz their permanent home and these expats offer services  for the cruisers; there is a variety of night life, music, restaurants, and little cafes.

While in La Cruz, you can either anchor out or stay in a very lovely, well looked after marina.  We looked forward to connecting with a few more cruisers in La Cruz and decided we would anchor out for awhile and then go into the marina before exiting the area. We met lots of great people and in particularly enjoyed meeting a family from France who had teenaged boys close in age to Josh. Very rare!  We all went to Sayulita together to play in the surf and check out the scene. I was shocked to see how much Sayulita had changed over the last nine years since we had been there. It has been on development steroids for nine years!  We were there on the 14th of December, still a little early in the tourist season, but it was packed!  Lots of young people, every nook and cranny was selling something, many different nationalities are represented by the goods being sold, hustle and bustle, and even young americans were trying to sell you stuff on the beach.  Its still very beautiful, and you wouldn’t want for anything in Sayulita  …. except for maybe a little bit of laid back simplicity. The boys had a great time in the surf, Josh got to check out the babes on the beach….I think he’ll definitely be back!

After La Cruz we headed back to Punta de Mita as this is a good spot to head out of Banderas Bay, give the Boy some more surf time, possibly snorkel at Las Tres Marietas Islands (just a couple of nm away) then start making our way south for Christmas in Barra de Navidad.

Los Frailes

Just a short 25 miles north of San Jose del Cabo is Los Frailes, a bay at the south end of a large marine park dedicated to protecting a large coral reef.  This should have been a quick trip but the weather man was wrong and I should have check in the morning before we left. Alas we ended beating upwind in 20 to 25 + knots, which meant it took all day to get their and that clean boat was again covered in salt.  Here we found small cursing community that were waiting out of the northwesterly’s , a group of about 10 panga fisherman camped on the beach and a quite a number of trailer vagabonds that camp in the arroyo ( some have been coming for up to 20 years).

View of the point with the bay in background

View of the point with the bay in background

The hiking was great but the big plus here was the reef.  Visibility was good and we spent hours snorkelling taking in the seeming endless array of colourful fish of all shapes and sizes.  We easily wiled away 5 days,  then taking the next wind window we were off to Banderas Bay,  280 miles away.

 

Giving us attitude

Giving us attitude

We are in the land of whales, dolphins, turtles, sail fish, a feast for the eyes.  Oddly it felt like we were in a National Geographic nature show.  A new surprise for us on the crossing was how the Boobies, loved to hitch a ride on our boat. They were not even afraid of our attempts to remove them  solar panels and push pit.  We wouldn’t have minded the hitch hikers,  but they tended to shit on the boat while riding – what a mess!

Christmas and New Year

Thank you to all friends, helpers and well wishers that helped us on our way.  We are so lucky to adventure on Adesso and feel  blessed by such fantastic  family and friends.  From the Mexican Riviera, Merry Christmas to all and  a Happy New Year!!!!

San Jose del Cabo

Notice all the glass is missing

Notice all the glass is missing

After the escape from Cabo we headed to the marina at San Jose del Cabo to wash the boat, our selves, the laundry and just about anything else we could think of.  The trip down Baja was dry  with wind blown grit everywhere.  This part of Baja is interesting because of inflated prices some of which is caused by the uber rich that tend to frequent the area sport fishing and the hurricane – some resources were hard to find.   Sue an I  took a walk down the beach and were surprised by the number if hotels that were under full renovation because of the storm damage.  We heard that  this also was taking a toll on the local population, the loss of service jobs, and quite a number had their houses literally blown over!  At the marina docks were damaged or completely missing. Washed and stocked after a trip to the Mega we were excited to head out to our first anchorage that had reefs to snorkel.

Sign of the times!

Sign of the times!