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The cruising adventures of Sid and Manuela

Thursday, June 18, 2020

ZIHUATANEJO TO PUERTO VALLARTA AND IMPACT OF VIRUS






The 110 mile trip to Zihuatanejo was uneventful and we saw lots of turtles and dolphins, a very pleasant trip and arrived in Zihuah (local term) on March 6th






Baha Filter that keeps filters out dirt and water. All the boaters in the Baha used them hence the name



Refueling while underway

approaching Zihuatanejo


 

It was was exciting to finally be here and couldn’t wait to text Sue and Dave on Sans Clef (saw them last 3 years ago in Shelter Bay). She called me asap on WhatsApp and even took some photos as we entered the bay doing a donut to take the main down. 


 
View from Dave and Sue's house


Paradise entering the Bay

 
incredibly beautiful Bay

These two left Panama for the Marquesas 3 years ago but only 600 miles off shore they had the steering brake, they had a decision to make and decided to head to Ecuador to fix the problem. Precious time was used for the fix but there was still time to head out again. This time they only made it 400 miles they broke down again so back to Ecuador but now they missed the weather window to go West, so they headed up the coast to Mexico instead.  I think they were 3 weeks in Zihuah when they fell in love with this place and bought a house on the hill with an incredible view over the whole bay and town. Unfortunately we never had the chance to see it but on that later. 

We also ran into Leslie Bond a PMYC Club Member we haven’t seen since we left Cruising sure was great to see her and catch up, Don Curry also from the Yacht Club was with her. 



And an old, old friend of Debbie and Reg, Jack on Magic Carpet was here so we got to meet him and so happened that Leslie met him at about the same time and is now crewing on his boat and a few other crew members, they just left to sail back to Ensenada or San Diego.






Unfortunately Jack burned his hand pretty bad with the pressure cooker steam


Don Curry and Jack's crew member

While waiting for our mail in Acuapulco I was worried that we would miss the Guitar Fest and we were so lucky we made it 1 day before opening.  OMG what an incredibly organized event with none stop entertainment. The long and lonely/one break down after another journey from Panama to here finally paid off, we were back in the cruising civilization, or that’s what we thought!
The Guitar Fest was even better than I had anticipated.

The players were:

Jose Luis Cobo the Zihuatanejo International Guitar Fest Ambassador. He has recorded and performed across USA, Canada, Europe and Mexico but prefers to entertain his loyal following at his legendary El Canto de la Sirena bar, named after his hit song. One of my favorite players at the fest, he has this romantic raspy voice and his songs have this Latin romance flair. 

Eric McFadden a guitar virtuoso/songwriter/vocalist. He has toured the world both a solo artist, as well as with funk legend George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic), rock legend Eric Burdon (the Animals), Andes Osborn and more. This guy is a wild man and an incredible performer. (The laughing reason is when you look closely the stage light behind Eric looks like devil horns and him being a wild man it was more than appropriate LOL.


Jossy Gallegos, Singer and Song writer from Petatlan Mexico. She began her professional career already with 9 years singing at events and hotels. She now performs in Zihuatanejo. She sings covers of different types of music, including opera and huapangos, as well as her own songs. She is amazing using a lupe, I could listen to her for hours.


Lipbone Redding, this guys is a hoot. Lawrence “Lipbone” Redding is an American songwriter, guitarist, singer , composer, performants artist and voicestrumentalist. He is mostly noted for his ability to vocally imitate trombones, bass and percussion and incorporate them into live musical performances. He is fun. 


La Mango, was a young couple from Huitzilac Morelos, they were not our cup of tea, their music was more a type of chanting to nature, as I said not our cup of tea, but were good. 

Zuleida Suarez from Cuba. She has been touring the world with her incredible classical perfomances and latin American folkloric music. She sure knows how to play a guitar, wow.


Jonathon Bejar  and Carlos Uribe a guitar duo in Zihuatanejo. Jonathan a musical therapist dedicated to music since he was 12 years old. Carlos was 13 when he started playing fingerstyle guitar. Carlos keeps silent when the guitar speaks as it carries a message of peace and happiness. Great duo. 

Brandon Isaak an award winning international touring and recording artists. Great blues and harmonica. 

El Javi, the King of Rock Flamenco is currently touring North America and is a great hit. This guy is amazing. 


Kai Kurosawa, he is widely considered as truly one of a kind player. His instrument Kubo is a custom instrument which he co-designed with legendary builder Michael Tobias. What a unique instruments, definitely a lot different. 

Marina Tomei, she is originally from Rom but teaches classical guitar in Mexico. She started 14 years ago and what a pleasure to watch her play classical guitar, the place turns completely quiet when she plays. 

Tom Lumen is a Hungarian solo guitar player with a diversified style, such as blues, jazz, rock, folk. He is a great entertainer and connects with his fans exceptionally. His charming personality and joyful stories instantly grabs the full attention of his audience. He has toured 3 continents and 15 countries. We had the pleasure to see him play at a Gala dinner along with Lipbone, what a fun night that was. 

Mike Dowling plays blues, finger-style, slider. In 2005 he was one of 12 of the country’s top finger-style guitarist who won at the Grammy for best Pop Instrumental Album. He now lives in Mexico. Great artist. He has the coolest guitar in Stainless steel wow. 


Morgan Szymanski, born in Mexico City started to play guitar at 6 years won many awards, scholarships. 

The opening ceremony was incredible as each player entertained us with 3 songs, the rest of the week they were playing individually all over the place. And every evening one restaurant would host a Gala Dinner. There were workshops during the day, every afternoon somebody playing on the stage and as well in the evening. There were so many places to choose from there is not enough time to see it all. We went mainly in the evenings. (I will post all other videos at the end of this Blog or those who want to see it).


The players are all very talented entertainers, plus they all volunteer at this event and the proceeds go to the local kids to learn about music and learn to play instruments. Each night another restaurant was having a gala dinner and 2 of the players entertained and mingled with the guests. Dave and Sue’s friends always buy 2 extra tickets just in case somebody needed tickets and we were the case, thanks guys. It was a fabulous night, dinner was gourmet and entertainment was fun, fun, fun! We could have not gone to a better dinner then with Lipbone and Tom, they both rocked. 
Dave and Sue selling raffle tickets



Fun Gala Dinner with Dave and Sue and her friend Suzy and hubby





Tom and Lipbone


But the greatest was the closing ceremony they all had 3 songs again but each song they invited one of the other players to play with them and the result was just unbelievable. I am still in awe. We definitely will be back next time with or without Paradise. Great fireworks show to finish the event off.


The next day was another great event we were told not to miss Zihuatanejo Carnival, another incredible surprise. The locals go all out, it’s a huge parade and the floats were amazing. The theme was ocean and anything was featured even Mermaids and Neptune himself, creative and full of colorful displays. 
Beautiful decorations throughout town. Unfortunately we never got to walk though it all due to the virus
 If you look at the deco you can depict Jelly fish made out of the lantern, all for the Carnival theme.


Love this sign at a restaurant




Every Thursday is Pozzole night a wonderful Mexican soup either Green or Red Pozzole




These little potatoes are died in red, I found that out 20 years ago when I boiled the potatoes the water turned red and the potatoes were white, amazing they are still available






Amazing root system














I didn't take the following 3 photos






We enjoyed a wonderful pizza inside Emilio’s in AC watching the Parade go by and were grateful for not having to mingle in this huge crowed, even though the virus was thought not to be in Mexico yet, but being among hundreds of people the chances are definitely much higher. (Comes out after one of the guitar players who had been here for 3 weeks arrived at home with Covid, so Mexico had it already. I am suspecting the cold I had in Acapulco was it as well as I had all the symptoms including fever).


There is a great Expat group here that is heavily involved in guitar playing, they meet 3 times a week in the morning at the beach under palm trees and practice guitar. Sue and Dave introduced me to the group and I was lucky enough to join them 3 times and hired Miguel for private lessons after the festival. Unfortunately I only got 1 lesson in as everybody started isolating. But I learned enough to teach myself. Unfortunately Mexico eventually went into the virus phases and I never got to take lessons again. 







 Miguel is an amazing guitar teacher, but we thought him how to get read of a hiccup  LOL

The virus news was scary, well the media did a good job in demonizing it, and it didn’t help that the consulates asked everybody to arrange to fly home unless they were ok to risk being stuck indefinitely. All the other cruiser, pulled anchor and headed north to leave the boat in a safe hurricane marina and flew home. Paradise is our home so here we are. Since the weather was still with strong North winds on the nose we decided to stay in Zihuatanejo till this virus blew over. Little did we know it would turn into several months of you know what. All the Expats that decided to stay here went into self-isolation. Zihuah became a ghost town.


Ishmael a local who we met 20 years ago through Rick’s Bar was still here and helps the cruisers out with valet dinghy parking, the minute you hope ashore the guys grab your dinghy and within seconds it’s high and dry on the beach, when you return they bring it back into the water and push you safely off cost roughly 1 dollar in 1 dollar out. Great deals! Plus the boys have a job. Ishmael also organized his guys to bring fuel, water, propane, ice, beer, booze, sodas to the boat, picks up laundry and trash and returns the laundry the following day for a reasonable price. He also offers the cruisers to use his address for Amazon orders.  He told us our US account would ship down here. We needed some parts so went for it to find out that NO the US Amazon does not ship to Mexico. Easy solution: open a Mexican account right?!! Done so we sent our order through paid by my debit card. We received the confirmation of out order, an hour or so later followed by an email our card did not go through. So we called our bank to let them know we ordered and it’s OK to let the amount go through, but they told us they found some compromising activity and blocked the card. So I opened my app and I saw 2 US 0.85 charges from Amazon and an 8.95 charge from FL. The 85 cents were strange as our total bill was 306 dollars. And Amazon US always charges the full amount then the packages are sent if not at location from seller separately. The FL charge we did not recognize so the bank had to cancel our card. Since I am the shopper my card is used for everything so yes, maybe it could get compromised and since we still needed the parts and Amazon sent a link to repay with another card so we did just that, didn’t think it would happen a second time, right/!  Wrong, but this time only one 85 cent was charged, but there was another FL charge of 13.01, damn if the bank didn’t insist of canceling Sid’s card as well. We protested as we now have no way to get cash. They also cannot send us the card FedEx or DHL to here they have to send it to our mailing address and said oh it will get there 7 to 10 days. With the US being shut down with the virus it of course took 10 days, but that story later. Just good the previous day I got some money out and did some provisioning for our isolation time on the boat. 

Now knowing that Amazon MX charges the card 20 pesos to see if it works before they take charge for the rest, which is done individually by every item’s seller, and knowing our back up CC send an email with confirming the order, and amazon sending us the link again to use another credit card, so we went for it and used that card. We confirmed the email that we had ordered it and it went through. Well not quite, what Amazon did probably about the same time as I hit the ok button they canceled our order and blocked my account. Then 2 days later I get an email that one item has been shipped but the rest of the order will arrive mid May to begining of June???? So I finally managed to call Amazon Mexico where the guy on the phone spoke perfect English but was not allowed to as protocol is all in Spanish, great. Well I managed to cancel the rest of the orders as we will not be here when they arrive. Also I was told how to unblock my account which they never let me. 1 week later an email that the capo I had ordered was shipped and on its way will be here 2nd of June. (Funny thing about that one was, the day we left we were about 1 hours out of Zuhuatanejo when Ishmael called it arrived, so I called Dave and Sue told them they had a present waiting at Ishmael and to let me know how they like it so I could order a new one, no not through Amazon MX that’s for sure. 


So we got the main parts we needed and Sid did the repairs, we still had to wait for our Debit card replacements and made sure that the UPS store would send it DHL not US postal service like in Acapulco were we waited 1 month and a half and it arrived the day after we left. What is it with us? So the cards were sent to arrive 2 days later, day 6 still not cards so I went to the DHL office and they told me that it was in Customs Mexico, oh noooo , not again. 2 days later still the same, on my tracking from DHL it said at headquarters of DHL in Cincinnati so I called them and I hit the ceiling when I heard that it was still there. Our UPS mail forwarding service has an account with DHL, DHL picks up the package and the account gets charged, well the money never went through so DHL held our CC hostage until they got paid. Do you think our mail forwarding service apologies, no of course not!  Finally from the day they sent it 2 weeks later the cards arrived, so that was another months waiting. We will remind ourselves, next time we come to the US to change our mail forwarding service, they have been nothing but a pain.  

While I walked to DHL office I followed the Malecon just to see the old lady I exchanged a few worlds every morning and also to see the hat lady, wow the Malecon was abandoned and the two ladies were not there, not one soul was walking the beautiful stretch, I lost it I felt I was in a sci-fi movie the last survivor.  
The Mexican Government has been a bit too relaxed for our liking so we did not know what the actually corona virus count is here, we just know it’s much less than anywhere else. In the meantime with all the boats left and still having northerly winds on the nose and not to mention cold further north, we decided to keep waiting it out some more, we have no schedule at the moment anyway. It was sad was to find out that my girlfriend in Spain lost her Spanish School due to the virus, her and her hubby are jobless. They were going to come visit us in October which was a 2 year plan, what a sad bummer.

Ishmael came in handy as well when the 23 year old electric motor of the water maker broke. The magnet broke and the barring fell out. Ishmael had the perfect guy to fix it. The mechanic sent us photos the same day with a quot of 75 dollar and the following day we got the fixed motor back, amazing.



The daily virus news was crazy and the whole world had gone upside down and we realized we are pretty lucky with our deal. Most our cruising friends are in different situations. The Marquesas has closed its doors, any new arrivals although able to provision and repair boat were ask to leave and continue on to Papeete only to leave the boat there and return home (I just imagine the problem that would be for us, our home is the boat. Probably in our situation they may have let us stay). Some of our cruising friends that had already been there were allowed to stay but were not allowed to swim next to their boat and only had limited time to go ashore to provision, for walking some had to call the port captain and ask for permission to go walk with or without dog but not on the island but a deserted island close by, got 1 hour per day then had to return and check in again. The Caribbean islands were not much better, the French islands also forbid the cruisers to swim, not even bottom cleaning or repairs were allowed. One European boat with kids aboard in Curacao after being at sea for weeks were turned away by the Coast Guard with nowhere to go, they were all out of food, unfortunately we never heard if they at least were allowed to provision, we sure hope so.  Scary thought, being at sea for that long then not being able to head to any country. This following story is the most tragic as these cruisers in the Maldives really have a dilemma on their hand. They were told that at any notice they will have to leave, which would mean a disaster for them as the closest safe place away is 1000 miles or heading home to New Zealand 4000 miles, with no food on board and weather very bad at this time a sure death sentence. 


In Panama new arrivals have to go into a marina and be quarantined on their boat for 14 days. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala are closed and in some of the countries a curfew is taking your freedom. In Panama they allow you 1 hour to go shopping, but you have a specific time to shop depending on the last number of your passport. Not just that Women are Mon/Wed/Thurs, Men Tue/Thurs. Sat and Sunday no one is allowed out of the home. Seniors do get extra hours from I think 11.00 till 13.00 where no one else is allowed to go shopping. But then if you live 1 hour away from the closest grocery store you are shit out of luck. Plus they took the Saturday away as an only stay at home day, so the boys get only 2 days away to get out of the house for 1 hour. And Booze is banned to sell. Two of my friends in Panama buy her bottle of wine as she goes, she has no wine and just a little amaretto left in the house, poor thing, the other friend started cleaning house and sorting things out and found a hidden bottle of Scotch, lucky her LOL. 

On April 6th I went to get extra rum for Sid as some States started the alcohol ban and the lady at the liquor store said they might close here on Wednesday as well. Better safe than sorry. 
 
Bird trap as they loved to sit there and poop, but unfortunately it did not work


Do you think isolation has taken a toll on me: Sat on deck box at the bow last night when a heron tried to land right in front of me on my sunset seat. It got a little tangle in the line (trap Sid created to unsuccessfully keep them from landing and shitting on my seat), it had just settled when I imitated their screech, and believe me I master that one quite well by now. Poor bird shot straight up in the air then landed tangling again, up again and took off with loud screeching I echoed. He circled our boat 1 ½ times and I know his middle toes were sticking up, then he left LOL. Not even 5 minutes later another one landed but this time on the bridal just above the water by the anchor chain. Now this you can’t make up, it was very comical. Usually when they land there they see my head pop up when I stand up and they take of screeching. This one was so absorbed starring into the water for fish and did not see me stick my head underneath the bow pulpit and my head was about 1 foot next to his/hers and I screeched of the top of my lungs. Poor bird fell in the water then took of screeching until he was out of ear’s shot, I laughed so hard. Stayed on bow and other hour but not one other bird tried. Wonder though what our neighbors are thinking.  
When the Debit cards finally arrived, I wrote a shopping list and asked Sid what he needed, Sid asked what was on the list, so told him:
Rum, Gin, Vodka, Sweet Vermouth, Grand Marnier, Bubbly, Wine, he broke out in laughter I never got to finish reading the rest of the list Toilet paper, paper towels, milk, butter, bacon, eggs, flour, fruits, veggies…….. Hey there are priorities, all the heavy stuff first on the list and first in the basket, right?!! I call that organized shopping!



Sid more frequently had the binos in front of his face now that made we laugh, isolation has been so tough that Sid now is an expert in fashion statements of people jogging along the malecon (Bordwalk). He is the official fashion police in Zihuah. They are allowed to jog early morning and late afternoon.

He’s been repairing anything that could be repaired and sometimes he gets lucky to find anything else to fix or do. Glad he is not running out of things to do. But eventually he did wander around forlorn with a screw driver in his hand.

One night we had a very good conversation and when we were done we realized it was 3.30 am, wow, that’s way passed cruiser’s midnight. Actually coming to think of it isolation was very blissful!


Then the day when Sid put his favorite hat on and said: “somehow this hat shrank, it’s really tight!”- “No honey your hat didn’t shrink, you need a haircut!” We laughed for a while.


Easter approached and not much to do so Sid sat up my amp and mike and all that goes with it then I sat on my perch and played my newly mastered Mexican song while Sid filmed and we then sent to our family and friends for an Easter Greeting. That was actually huge fun, we giggled and laughed. 



The 2 months went by very slowly and as I always say things happen for a reason, I told Sid I think the constant break downs we had ever since we left Panama and being alone the entire time, conditioned us for this lonely quarantine life. We enjoyed it, thought it was very peaceful.



Eventually Mexico was put on phase 3 with anybody over 60, or diabetic, hypertension are not allowed to go shopping and have to remain indoors. I told Sid I better get some more liquor and provisions before a ban hits in and was going to go the following morning, well that morning on the VHF net it was announced the liquor ban was in effect, so told Sid to stay home as I needed to get some groceries anyway. So I went to Sam’s club which now all the store allow only 1 person per family inside. As I walked back to the meat and cheese section I noticed the liquor corner was not closed off so I loaded up the cart and proceeded with the veggie section, as I came out of that corner I noticed that they chained off the liquor section. My legs moved faster than my brain as they started running to the check out and my brain was hoping that they would not confiscate my loot, wow I was able to leave with it and arrived a home as a hero. 




But of course I didn’t get to do the rest of my shopping so I had to go one more time, including to pick up the Debit Card that had finally arrived. As I also needed to go to the ATT store I took a different rout and for the first time since we arrived here I got to see more of Zihuah than just the Malecon. Wow, it felt like being back in Civilization, the streets were full with vendors selling the most beautiful fruits and vegetable, it was very colorful, people of all ages mingled, no one wearing a mask other than me, it was like the virus was not even around, except the closed restaurants and beaches. 









Yummmm!!!!


Picked up our Debit cards yeah and called the number to start them then went straight to the Grocery store and oh wow the liquor store was open, hmmm?? The following morning on the VHF net I learned the person was wrong with the liquor ban it was still on sale, but also learned why Sam’s chained the liquor section up so that 1 person at a time could go through it. 


The best part was my debit card worked yeah! I only had to get some money out of the ATM and go home, well….. I used the Scotia Bank ATM for my card and it took what seemed a minute to spit the money out and the machine made a lot of noises by the little door the money comes out, then I noticed the in black marker note written above the slot “not working, door stuck”, oh no!!! Well luckily finally the slot opened and I got my money. I wasn’t going to take a chance so I used the ATM from another back next to this one for Sid’s card. As I finally had punched all the info in it went to the spitting money out mode, that never happened instead a receipt with the amount of $0 came up, no not $00.00 and Sid’s card never came out, the #@*ing machine swallowed it. I almost lost it. Of course no manager from the store could help me, but all told me to go to bank. The friendly taxi driver I found drove me to the bank and the news was not good, I was told I had to call my bank to cancel the card as the service guys would destroy it immediately. In the meantime Sid called the bank and told them, their responds was, yes we can see it was sucked in and we canceled it already as they destroy the cards. Wow I was in the procession of the cards for just a little over an hour and we are back down to 1. What are the chances? I should have played the lottery. Well 1 card is better than none. 

Like for everyone the virus deal kept going on and on so here's what we did to make it pass faster, not sure it worked but it was something to look forward to!


















 We enjoyed the La Ropa beach, it was a bit rolly but with the flopper stopper and a stern anchor out, pretty comfortable. We are all alone, the boat you see in the picture left right after we anchored, no idea why and we did shower. Loved the loneliness here. The view of town was spectacular at night.
These fishermen took this once jetski fishing every day through the breaking beach waves.







lots of flying fish around the boat especially at night


spectacular sunsets





The only neighbor we had every other day that picked up the mooring was this rocket ship

I have do add in just one week there were 3 big house or business fires in town. And I guess the farmers were getting ready for the rainy season and burned their fields, the air quality started to get pretty bad and the visibility was smokey. We left at a good time as we heard from the Expats living there how awful the air was.


The evening before we left, another little boat with the same 3 fishermen we saw pretty much daily, stopped and started chatting. One asked where we bought our outboard as they can't buy them here. 
Sid thought for a brief moment went on deck unscrewed our little engine we never use and gave it to the guy. They could not believe it. I told them they had to service it. They were so happy and 5 days later they sent us photos and a video how well it runs. Great story.







Since hurricane season was approaching we decided we better head further north even though Mazatlan and Puerto Penasco were closed in Penasco if you headed there they put the boat on the hard and you had 3 hours to leave, a police escort made sure you did. 

Paradise Village was still open so we opted for that. The weather was finally changing to the south and we had a wonderful motor sail to Melaque, 110 miles, where we spent 3 nights and picked up our Posse flag at the marina. The marina was pretty full but don’t think I would want to summer here for hurricane season.










Not much has changed in the 20 years except this big eyesore a hotel project gone belly up. This will be here forever








Look at this guy on his pattle board with a seat, a cooler a bait bucket going fishing

These mountain created their own weather


 
Social Distancing in Melaque








 The overnight sail from here was amazing








Next anchorage was Tenecatita, one of our favorite places in Mexico. There was 1 other boat there. When we ventured ashore the next day to the little restaurant, now quite big, where we used to order 2 dozen of fresh oysters for 3 dollars, nobody was there. They did build a breakwater into the lagoon, to the mangrove channel that takes you to the other beach. Great memories! 
The following video is for everybody that hasn't been able to go to the beach or on vacation during Covid hope it brings a moment of peace

We walked the beach and did not see one soul, the only thing of civilization was a Mylar balloon stuck in the sand. Lots of washed up moon jellyfish got washed onto the beach. It was unreal we felt like we were in a futuristic movie and the only survivors of this planet. 
The breakwater is new. It was always very difficult to land here with the dinghy, looks like the breakwater makes it tougher getting into the lagoon and mangrove trail
We used to follow this river and through the mangroves to the other beach


This was just a little shack of a restaurant now pretty nice and big

Glad to see they are doing good business





Cruiser's used to get water here, we ended up with Ulzinarias in the tank, not a good thing, this critter makes you very sick



 
One of the prettiest beaches on the Mexican Pacific side

Happy, Happy before the walk and sad on the way back, no humans anywhere

Beach was littered with stranded Jellies, beautiful though look at this golden beauty



Lonely foot prints
 /s
Sign of civilisation.  This is when I lost it

The lonely man




Weird looking creature if they were flying they would be mistaken for UFOs

brought out own beer and sat under the palm shade by the restaurant
 
and toasted to everybody's health, cheers








We were just amazed in the changes, a breakwater

It was pretty depressing walking the beach knowing the devastation this virus did to the entire world. We pulled anchor and left, partly because of this but also we heard a big swell was headed our way for several days to come, so we sailed straight to La Cruz in Banderas Bay 135 miles.  We had a beautiful night and the phosphorescence was so incredible the dolphins were totally illuminated and when the full moon got closer to the horizon and left a trail of sparkling light on the water, dolphins where jumping out of the water, I have never seen anything like this. I tried to take photos of the dolphins and phosphorenscence but just didn't work out. 
There is not 1 Sunset/rise alike ever, all equally beautiful






We arrived early in the morning in La Cruz. There must have been about 30 boats at anchor. Daniela and Beat on Kianga we had met in Golfito and seen in Huatulco were in the marina and invited us for dinner. Dinner and catching up was wonderful. 

Every day around 11 the wind picks up and blows until about 5pm making it pretty bouncy, so after 2 days of that we decided to go to the Paradise Village Marina. We did go ashore and walked through town but didn’t recognize anything from 20 years ago, most all was closed, except a few food stores. I found some nice local papaya and a butcher with ox tail, yeah soup here we come.
So here we are still in isolation and lock down in a marina. Beaches still are closed so are all the great swimming pools here and one is limited to wandering around and you have to wear a mask.

The murals on the building in La Cruz are amazing
 


The GoMeds made sure nobody can enter either that or someone stle the door and bricks were cheaper to replace it LOL
The daily blow was uncomfortable and tough to get ashore or back to the boat so we decided, even though Paradise Village still has the winter rates for us 780 Dollars a month for our size boat, this was far more comfortable than La Cruz. Being able to just get off the boat and walk around has a price but it was worth the price. 
Paradise Village has grown quite a bit especially the marina is now 1 mile long and pretty full as well. They only had 2 slips with starboard tie left and gave us the breezy one, which is great. We are along a wall and people walk by so it feels like being in a fish bowl, but the breeze sure is a huge plus and seems like we get to meet all the people in the marina, well some anyway. I don’t know what it is with the mask, but most people I think, think they are invisible with the mask, you say hi they say nothing just stare ahead and keep going like Zombies, hmmm. The zoo that was once here has been moved to the golf course only the macaws and 2 tigers are left here. Lola the mate of Solo the macaw that was my buddy 20 years ago recognized me, that was too kewl. I go by the bird cage every day and talk to them. The tigers I talk to as well and Daisy the female is getting friendly with me, gosh I wished I could pet and cuddle this beautiful animal but........
The mall they talked about 20 years ago is built and amazing except all the stores are shut down. The market is amazing though found some goodies I haven't seen since Panama.

The second day in the marina I invited Guicha and her boyfriend Patrick over for dinner. We met her here in 99 and saw her last time in Cartagena. What a great reunion this was, so good to see her and meet her boyfriend.


It’s a bit depressing to see this once lively hotel to be quiet, beaches and pool closed and having to walk around with a mask on. I don’t understand the beach with the fresh and healthy onshore breeze, the pools chlorine kills germs right and the mask are really not healthy, every time I have to wear that sucker I have a heavy chest for the rest of the day. Guess it’s no different than anywhere else in the world so “who” is making the laws for the entire world?!
Anyway, we are kinda stuck here as our Mexican Visa is running out May 27th, they may or may not renew it and will not until it expires, if not we have no choice but come States side but how are we going to come back in case the borders are still closed, our home is here in Mexico? If we get the extension we will head further north and out of the hurricane zone. So until then we are just sitting back and doing what everybody else is doing , hoping we soon can go back to our normal life.
Hugs and kisses to you all and hope you are all in great health and hopefully back to your normal routine. 

Until the next Blog

 
Here the videos of the incredible guitaristas from Zihuatanejo:

                                         Carlos Uribes & Jonathan Bejar



                            Carlos Uribes & Jonathan Bejar
                                           and El Javy 


 
                            Zuleida Suarez & Jossy Gallegos 

                           
                            Zuleida Suarez & Marina Tome


                                            Tom Lumen


                      Tom Lumen, El Javy and Kay Kurosawa 


                                        Brandon Isaak

  
                              Marina Tome & Kai Kurosawa


                          Marina Tome & Morgan Szymanski


                                     Eric McFadden


                     Eric McFadden & Zuleida and Host of Fest

                          
                                           Mike Dowling

                            Mike Dowling, Marina and Host
                           
                                      Lipbone Redding

                                      Jose Louis Cobo 



                               Morgan Szymanski & El Javi 
 
I hope you enjoyed the guitar fest as much as we did.

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