Last Month in Mexico

Trying to catch up a little on the blog, I realized I never posted anything about our last month in Mexico. So I'm now going back in time. The last month in Mexico was wonderful, filled with friends, social opportunities and continuing to enjoy Mexico. Frankly I miss it, Hawaii is great, but Mexico holds a very special place in my heart. We spent the last month in Banderas Bay, mostly in the town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, but also a little time in Nuevo Vallarta and Puerto Vallarta with a short trip out of the bay to Punta de Mita and Chacala, as well a day trip to Tres Mariettas islands aboard our friends’ boat Asunto. However, it wasn’t all fun and games, we had a long to do list to complete before our big passage to Hawaii. Being in the Puerto Vallarta area made it much easier to get projects and provisioning done than it had been in the Sea of Cortez. So, between friends and projects, our time was filled!

La Cruz is the center of cruiser life in Banderas Bay. I heard a fellow boat parent say that La Cruz has its own gravity, and I can completely agree. It was so tough to leave. La Cruz is kid boat heaven. It attracts kid boats for many reasons; the community of other kid boats, and community events like a kids VHF radio net, crazy science Fridays, and fundraisers for local charities, all done by and for kids. Not to mention a pool, it’s not big, but it doesn’t seem to bother the kids! It’s a great place for adults too. We met so many great people there. Walking down the dock was difficult to do in a timely fashion since there were so many people to chat with, up and down the whole dock! The town itself is wonderful too, there are certainly tourists there, but mostly they are cruisers and as a tourist you don’t have to deal with the same sort of tourism madness found in Puerto Vallarta.

I will let pictures tell the rest of the story.

  

La Cruz cruising family potluck. All the kids getting
 ready for a scavenger hunt.   

Zippy dinghy ride with Asunto to check out Islas Tres
Mariettas in Banderas Bay. Beautiful! 

Islas Tres Mariettas

Lars and Fynn always working on something together!

Provisioning made easy, a lovely friend of the cruising fleet
 in La Cruz offered a ride to the Costco in Puerto
Vallarta in her giant Suburban. It made provisioning for
 the passage to Hawaii SO easy!  

Lars was my stowing partner for all the food. A great helper!

These pictures show just a portion of the food we crammed
on this boat. No going hungry here!

The La Cruz Kids club put on a fundraiser for the orphanage in the
nearby town of Bucerias. They made smoothies for people
 to buy at the cruisers swap meet. successful and delicious!

Odin and Neli made a great team! 

Michelada! Bucerias had the best ones by far, see
those prawns on top? That is probably only 1/3 of them left.
Amazing!

Marina La Cruz sunset.

Buddy Boating with Riki Tiki Tavi and Caramba to Chacala.
Some seriously good beach playing time!

Odin LOVED boogie boarding!

Lars always does things his own way :)

The Easter Bunny came!

For our last week in Mexico we left La Cruz for Puerto
Vallarta. Partly because we wanted to see a different
 place, but also because we found we were having so
much fun in La Cruz that we weren't getting much
done. Riki Tiki Tavi generously made the trip over
 for a couple of days to see us off. Poor Liam got really
 sick, but it didn't deter Neli, Lars and Odin from getting some
serious playmobil playing in!