Mazatlan

Ok we are in La Cruz/Puerto Vallarta area, finally! and our blog is in Mazatlan! We are a bit behind but will try this week to get us up to speed!  What a great town, we loved Mazatlan! We headed out with our rockin' fleet of s/v Destiny, s/v Wanuskewin, and s/v Valkyrie, from La Paz to Mazatlan and made it safely across (1.5 over nights? - Saturday morning to midnight Sunday).

Tim has been here before, many years ago, many times, but it was my first time. This town is charming, a great blend of old and new and sometimes even feels like you are in Paris if you can believe that! So far, it has been one of my favorite towns by far compared to others we've visited. Mazatlan, meaning 'place of deer',  hosts the 3rd largest Carnival celebration in the world - the 1st being in Brazil/Rio De Janeiro, the 2nd being Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Mazatlan starts their celebration at the beginning of February (I think it's going on now!).  The city was gearing up for the festivities and large statues were lining the malecon in prep for it. Mazatlan is the home to the Pacifico, Corona and Modelo breweries. We tried to take the tour, but the plant was under construction, so no tours until March/April timeframe, bummer! Great food, art and open markets can be found here, along with breathtaking views, outdoor activities and of course, cliff divers (check out the video)! And for $20 USD, you can have a mobile vet come to your house, give your dog an exam, 3 antibiotics and you're on your way! So awesomely cool and inexpensive!

Here are some pics:

Sunset for our overnight heading to Mazatlan

View of the marina at El Cid Marina in Mazatlan

Rhythm docked at the marina

Carnival sculptures lining the malecon

Us on the malecon, beach and island in the background

View of Mazatlan from the malecon

This is a view of the island on the Pacifico beer bottle

More views

Another view 

And another nice view of Mazatlan

T, at his favorite restaurant, Gus Gus

Bacon wrapped jumbo shrimp - yum!

Smoked marlin tacos - T's favorite!

Cliff diver! Watch the video! This guy is GOOD!

One of the largest mosaics, at the conference
center in Mazatlan

A view of the entire mosaic, huge!

Close up of the mosaic

Another close up

Carnival statue at Plaza Machado

Main cathedral near Plaza Machado

Inside the beautiful cathedral

The library, how pretty!

Main square gazebo near the cathedral

A charming walkway

Another charming walkway with lights

Us, at the Pacifico plant, too bad they were closed
for construction, no tours!

Me, eating a my favorite
Jaimica popsicle (pronounced hi-mica) 

Best tres leches in town from the Panama Bakery, to.die.for.

Pinatas at the market

The market, fresh fruits/veggies

A panaderia (bakery) at the market

Night lights at Plaza Machado, where the Center for Arts and Music is

Another statue in Plaza Machado

Love the architecture and charming balcony

A darling cafe lined street in Plaza Machado

Another quaint cafe / building in the plaza

Holly & Mike of s/v Wanuskewin enjoy Mexican coffee and
other libations with us at Pedro y Lola in Plaza Machado

A night view of the beautiful cathedral

Leaving El Cid Marina

A cool view of Mazatlan as we were leaving with our fleet

T & Old having a special moment via sunset

A fishing vessel off the cost of Mazatlan at sunset

From Mazatlan, we headed to Isla Isabel, a beautiful secluded island about 20 miles off the coast.  Tons of whales, views, blue-footed boobies and more. From there we went to the San Blas, Chacala and then into Banderas Bay, where we are now for a bit before we head further south! More photos to come...

-K&T

Captain Moe's B&B in Mazatlan

Moe, T & Dorothy

T's father, Thom, wrote a blog post about retiring in Mazatlan.  Enter Moe and Dorothy, who read the blog and said 'We want to live there!'. Fast forward 14 years later, they have been family friend's of T's family every since and they own a charming and meticulously decorated B & B in Mazatlan. Rated #2 on Trip Advisor (it shows #3 however the #2 B&B listed has gone out of business!), Captain Moe's B&B is not to be missed! Moe and Dorothy generously let us stay there for 3 glorious nights, a much needed break from being on our boat, and bring Oldsmobile, as they have an older dog too, named Zoe. They also let us use their car, which is a luxury when you are cruising, since we haven't driven in months and we forget how easy it is to do grocery shopping with a car! Moe and Dorothy also had been cruisers for 15 years, cruising the Caribbean in a sailboat, so they understand the cruising lifestyle; it's the little things! Thank you Moe and Dorothy for a memorable time at your awesome B&B!

Our room at the B&B, cozy cozy cozy!

The main table at the B&B, gorgeous, complete with cheery chairs!

Another cozy room in our suite!

Our awesome bathroom, love the painted colorful sink!

A view of the B&B from the rooftop stairway/deck

Super meticulous - darling tiles greet each step!

The lovely courtyard and tile table, created by Moe & Dorothy

Stairway down to the courtyard from the rooms

Some of Dorothy's favorite Los Muertos statues

Sunset from the rooftop deck, muy bonita!

If you are ever in Mazatlan, visit Captain Moe's B&B! You won't be disappointed!

~K&T

La Paz

We are now on the mainland and very behind on blogging! Some of the small towns we've been visiting do not have internet or have an extremely slow signal, so it's been challenging to write and post over the last few weeks!

We spent several weeks in La Paz, and got stuck there for longer than we'd like due to storms and northerly winds. Everyone keeps telling us how rare the horrible weather has been, and boy, has it been horrible - windy as all get out and cold!!  

La Paz ("Peace") is known as one of the best cruising destinations in the world, as it is the gateway to the Sea of Cortez. Jacques Cousteau called the Sea of Cortez "The Aquarium of the World", while write John Steinbeck wrote a book about his travels with his biologist friend called "The Log from The Sea of Cortez". La Paz is a good stopping point to get provisions and do boat projects before heading north to explore the sea. La Paz is touted as one of the safest and friendliest cities in Mexico, along with one of the best places to retire. There are plenty of gringos there to make it feel a bit like the USA, but enough Mexican culture and natives to make it feel like Mexico. There is great snorkeling in the area, along with swimming with whale sharks and sea lions, hiking, mountain biking, diving and more. If you have a VHF, there is a great gringo community that you can tune into daily on channel 22, for activities, events, swat meets, etc. Club Cruceros is a great way to meet people (locals, ex-pats, etc)! 

Here's an brief overview of what we did in La Paz:

-Had a lovely and tasty Christmas Eve dinner at Steinbeck's restaurant at the Costa Baja Resort (we are almost finished listening to the audiobook of Steinbeck's The Sea of Cortez, he surprisingly travels to all the places we are currently visiting and now we can say that we've read/heard another of his books besides Of Mice and Men!)
-We were invited to a super fun Christmas day potluck. Definitely not your typical xmas, but fun nonetheless!
-Spent time at the Costa Baja Resort and enjoyed their amenities along with hanging out with our new friends that we met (s/v Damiana, s/v Adesso, s/v Living Free, s/v Destiny, s/v Wanuskewin, s/v Valkyrie to name a few)
-Did boat projects - installed a windlass remote (a windlass is used to drop and bring up the anchor for you non-boating people) and a new faucet in the galley, fancy!
-Had a fun New Year's Eve downtown La Paz!  Here's to a fabulous 2013!
-Got a lycra suit! Since there are many jelly fish in the waters here, you need to wear a wet/dry suit or have a lycra suit made. A woman named Katty, in town, makes custom Lycra suits for $50 USD,  so I got suited up, in lycra, for safe snorkeling
-Waited and waited for the northerly winds to chill out so we could leave and head to Mazatlan!

Here are some pics!

The malecon (boardwalk) in La Paz

Awesome sculptures line the malecon

This popular sculpture is known for being a meeting spot,
 'Meet me at the mermaid'

Main square in town. If you've never been to Mexico, pretty much
every town has a 'main square'

The church in the main square, packed at xmas time!

Inside the church, decorated for xmas, it was pretty!
Complete with the guy in front of us with his guitar,
strumming and singing God knows what at the top of his lungs!

Rhythm, decorated for the holidays

We were missing snow, so we needed a reminder of what we
would be playing in had we not been in the sand in Mexico this year!

New Year's on the malecon in downtown La Paz

New Year's Party!

3-2-1, Happy New Year!
The fireworks ashes and embers fell all over us.
This would be a lawsuit in the US, but here in Mexico, everyone was
super happy to be celebrating! It's was pretty cool!

The malecon lit up for the festivities

My handsome T, with our New Year's libations

Us on New Year's!
I'm not sure why I'm making a half fist, because it makes my
fingers look like nubs - LOL.

Our favorite taco stand "Gonzalez Brothers". These are called
"fish pillows" - fresh fish, steamed in foil with spices - yum!

"The Shack" burger. The Shack is a popular gringo hangout, if you are
missing the states and American food, go here.

Costa Baja Resort, where we stayed for several weeks, stranded,
waiting for the northerly winds to subside so that we could make
the jump to Mazatlan. Not too shabby eh? 

Infinity pool 

Our view every evening from their gym

One of the holes at their golf course, amazing!

A view of the resort, marina and bay from the golf course, hole #14

A view of Playa Ballandra, one of the most beautiful beaches here.
We hiked the ridge from another anchorage and this was the view
from the other side.

Me, eating a sandwich outside of the Mega, a giant
grocery store/everything store that we
frequently shopped at.
You can barely see me it's so big!

Leaving La Paz/ Costa Baja to head to Mazatlan.
The mega yacht on the left is one of Paul Allen's fleet, "Meduse",
apparently he has many of these yachts all over the world,
complete with helicopter on the back.

So, we finally have arrived to the mainland, with our new and improved fleet. It's been a blast since we got here - warm weather, warm water, tons of sun, great people! More to come on where we've been including Mazatlan, Isla Isabel, San Blas, Chacala, and Punta Mita, where we are now on our way to Puerto Vallarta. We can't believe we are almost in our 6th month of cruising! Since La Paz, we finally feel like we have hit our stride and have truly been enjoying our trip; this hasn't been without its challenges along the way. Our good friend Todd wrote tonight in an email "You can't cross the ocean unless you are willing to lose sight of the shore"; it really puts transitions, challenges and changes into perspective along with taking the plunge to live your dream and willingness to 'lose sight of the shore' to try something different or make a change and trust that everything will indeed be ok, no matter what the outcome.....I dare you to 'lose sight of the shore', you'll find that it's actually great here in the open 'ocean', even if it's uncomfortable from time to time....and if nothing else, a good learning and growing experience....a life lesson outside of your comfort zone. We did it, you can too!

-K&T

Spinnaker love...

There is something super fun about flying a spinnaker. I'm not exactly sure why, but some strange excitement happens when cruisers and racers can fly their spinnakers, and when we can see it from our own boat and know that it's their spinnaker. It may be that most spinnakers are special, have amazingly wild and fun colors and are flow only at special times, but flying a "kite" is something everyone should try, at least once.  It's a hoot to fly it and show your colors, and also, because everyone can see it! In our case, every time we see one, I say 'Oh sweet! They're flying their spinnaker!' It's a special sail, what can I say?

Here is ours, thanks to s/v Eagle for hooking us up! It's a1.5oz asymmetrical with a sock (in excellent condition!). We can sail it in 5-15knots, since it's a little heavier so we can fly it in stronger winds. Pictures below, blue, yellow and a giant pink seahorse, fun! We went off path on our way back from the islands off of La Paz just so we could get the right angle to sail it.

Who wouldn't love to have a hot pink seahorse on their spinnaker?!

We tested it out for fit in the marina on
a light wind day and everyone came by to see it

Good times with a fun sail!
We arrived to Mazatlan on Sunday at midnight, and are heading back out to head south (destination Puerto Vallarta/La Cruz area). We hope to have the opportunity to fly it on our way south; praying to the wind gods! More to come on the spinnaker front....

~K&T