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.
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| Baha Filter that keeps filters out dirt and water. All the boaters in the Baha used them hence the name |
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| Refueling while underway |
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| 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.
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| View from Dave and Sue's house |
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| Paradise entering the Bay |
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| 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.
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| Unfortunately Jack burned his hand pretty bad with the pressure cooker steam |
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| 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.
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.
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| Dave and Sue selling raffle tickets |
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| Fun Gala Dinner with Dave and Sue and her friend Suzy and hubby |
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| 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.
If you look at the deco you can depict Jelly fish made out of the lantern, all for the Carnival theme.
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).
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| Beautiful decorations throughout town. Unfortunately we never got to walk though it all due to the virus |
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| Love this sign at a restaurant |
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| Every Thursday is Pozzole night a wonderful Mexican soup either Green or Red Pozzole |
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| 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 |
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| Amazing root system |
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| 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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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.
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| 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!
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!
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| These fishermen took this once jetski fishing every day through the breaking beach waves. |
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| lots of flying fish around the boat especially at night |
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| spectacular sunsets |
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.
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.
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.
/s
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.
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| Not much has changed in the 20 years except this big eyesore a hotel project gone belly up. This will be here forever |
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| Look at this guy on his pattle board with a seat, a cooler a bait bucket going fishing |
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| These mountain created their own weather |
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| 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!
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.
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| 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 |
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| We used to follow this river and through the mangroves to the other beach |
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| This was just a little shack of a restaurant now pretty nice and big |
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| Glad to see they are doing good business |
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| 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 |
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| One of the prettiest beaches on the Mexican Pacific side |
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| Happy, Happy before the walk and sad on the way back, no humans anywhere |
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| Beach was littered with stranded Jellies, beautiful though look at this golden beauty |
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| Lonely foot prints |
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| Sign of civilisation. This is when I lost it |
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| The lonely man |
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| Weird looking creature if they were flying they would be mistaken for UFOs |
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| brought out own beer and sat under the palm shade by the restaurant |
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| and toasted to everybody's health, cheers |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The murals on the building in La Cruz are amazing |
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| The GoMeds made sure nobody can enter either that or someone stle the door and bricks were cheaper to replace it LOL |
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.
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. 
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| Until the next Blog |
Here the videos of the incredible guitaristas from Zihuatanejo:
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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