Puerto Escondido

After staying in Puerto Los Gatos for a while we started getting itchy feet and since the weather was so calm we figured we'd go ahead and make a 'big jump,' all the way to Puerto Escondido.

Puerto Escondido (Escon-Gringo to some of the more cynical cruisers) is the home of Loreto Fest, a big cruiser party, that had just completed a few days before. We really only went in for one reason, to hook up with our friends Stan and MJ from SolMate. But since we were there anyway we thought we'd go ahead and get water.

PE has great fresh water. But only one spigot. The spigot is on a sea wall about 8 ft high, and the depth next to the wall is only about 4 ft (NAKIA needs 6). However, it's much deeper only a few feet from the wall. There are two ways to get water in PE. You run back and forth between the spigot and your boat with jugs or you can Med-moor to the sea wall and run a hose ashore. Since we were coming in for a quick turn around we decided on the second method.

Before you can get water in PE, you have to call Jose. Did I neglect to mention that the water spigot is under lock and key? Well, Jose has the key. Before you can get a single drop you have to call on the radio and in your best Spanish say "Jose, necesito agua, por favor." He'll come back in his best English, "OK, OK!"

Having contacted Jose, we called Stan and MJ to take our stern line for the Med-moor. (Med-mooring is done by dropping an anchor and then backing down toward a wall or other fixed structure and then tying a stern line to the wall. It's called Med-moor because the only way to moor in many ports in the Mediterranean is by this method.) We had one problem though, we didn't have any way to get our stern line to the wall. Enter John, super sailor. I quickly tied a monkey's fist using some old line and a tennis ball and then tied a 50 ft piece of small line onto the monkey's fist. I'd throw the fist ashore with our stern line attached so we wouldn't have to get to close to the shallow water at the base of the wall.

All set, we entered the harbor and went toward the spigot wall bow first to check the depth. Finding it sufficient, I pivoted the boat around, stern to the wall and motored forward to drop the bow anchor. This maneuver got a "you're showing off" rating from MJ. Before we dropped the bow anchor, Linda and I switched positions. She would drive and I'd handle the heavy anchor while I gave directions via hand signals from the bow (this is our normal anchoring procedure). In went the anchor, back went the boat, and just before we got too close I snubbed the anchor chain and walked back to the cockpit to throw the monkey's fist to Stan (this got an "You even have a monkey's fist!" rating from Stan). He tied off the stern line and we were set. You'd think we'd done it before. After that it was short work to fill NAKIA's tanks.

For our departure Stan just released the stern line and the anchor pulled us away from the wall. The only hiccup came when I wanted to tip Jose. I put a bill in the monkey's fist and threw it ashore, but for whatever reason I did it left handed and instead of arcing cleanly to the top of the wall it went wide left and too high, almost hitting a guy in his dinghy at the base of the wall. Oh well, you can't always be perfect.

John and Linda

LTR

LTR=Long Term Relationship

Movin' up

Well it's been a long time since our last blog, so I thought I'd try to get up to date.

We spent the last part of April in La Paz where we did two things. Well maybe more than two, but two important things. First we renewed our FM-3 visas. We're now legal residents of Mexico for another year, and it only cost $100 each :-( The second important thing we did was to attend several of the seminars at La Paz Bay Fest. This used to be a real 'to do' in the Sea of Cortez but over time Loreto Fest got bigger and Sea of Cortez Race Week (as La Paz Bay Fest used to be called) got smaller. The new format is less party than Loreto Fest, but has a lot to offer in the form of seminars and a good race. Linda attended seminars on diving and snorkeling in the La Paz area, summering in the Sea of Cortez, Mexican laws applicable to Baja Cruisers, and First Aid. John, not as interested in continuing education programs for cruisers, got a race crew together for his friend Bob on Airpower and sailed the race.

While Linda was taking notes in seminars, John was out with Bob and Airpower trying to get the crew in order to race effectively. We must have done a pretty good job, because we won the race. Not only that we managed to fly two spinnakers at the same time in the process. Everyone was suitably impressed. Bob was a true friend and gave us the winning prize of dinner for two at La Divina Uva, which was a real treat and made for a very nice evening out for us.

After we received our new visas and got finished up with Bay Fest we moved Nakia into Marina Palmira for a two night, three day scrub-a-thon. The teak and fiberglass were looking pretty bad so it was time to spruce up for the coming summer. We also managed to do a bunch of last minute shopping, thanks to Lance and Jo on Milagro who have a truck and were based out of Marina Palmira all winter.

We were back out into the wild on April 30th. SolMate told us about a large beach on the east side of Espiritu Santo Island so we headed out that way. The wind didn't cooperate, and we ended up motoring almost the entire way. The beach was as advertised though - almost two miles of white sand. Of course the wind came up right as we were entering the anchorage so we had to wait until the evening before we could take a walk. Anytime we do something like this I think of the classic singles add: "SWF seeks LTR, enjoys long walks on the beach." Heck, we just take long walks on the beach because we want to take a walk, and the beaches are, well, long.

We left Bonanza Beach after only one night (I guess we don't like long walks on the beach that much) and headed out to the north end of Isla Partida. The weather forecast looked good to stay at a little cove there. Of course right as we're within one mile of the cove a Moorings charter boat comes screaming by in front of us, cuts into the cove and drops his anchor. As soon as their anchor was set, everyone went below. I went by close to ask if they were planning on staying the night and not just the afternoon. The cove is only big enough for one boat, and even though it was pretty clear they had 'taken our parking place,' Linda and I decided to let it go. After all, they're on vacation and we anchor in beautiful coves almost every night.

We set the spinnaker, right in front of the Moorings boat, and set off to Isla San Francisco. This is Linda's all time favorite island. We posted a picture of it in the blog last year showing its incredible turquoise water and crescent shaped white sand beach. The one bad thing about Isla San Francisco is that it doesn't protect you very well from the Coromuel, a southwest wind that blows out of the Bay of La Paz nearly every night in the spring and summer. In order to maximize our protection from the southwest, I decided to get in as tight as I could in the crescent. The water in there is not very deep, and there was a minus tide early the next morning, but I managed to get Nakia in far enough to get out of the worst of the wind generated chop and still keep about 6 inches of water under the keel even at low tide. It's a good thing the Coromuel did blow, because if it hadn't I'm sure we'd have ended up hard aground until the next high tide. One useful thing about being in shallow water, when I went down to clean the bottom of the boat I was able to _stand_ on the sand to scrub. Much more leverage that way. :-)

We spent three nights at Isla San Francisco, all of them in a stiff Coromuel. But thanks to our almost too shallow anchoring spot we were snug as could be. We'll have to try that again sometime. We had a good sail to Bahia Rincon, going through the usual antics with the sails: raise the main, roll out the jib on a broad reach, jibe the main, pole out the jib, hoist the drifter in double headsail configuration, drop the main, hoist the main, drop the drifter, jibe the jib, take in the pole, roll up the jib, drop the main, drop the anchor. Sounds like a lot of work for a 15 mile sail, no?

We actually survived our night at Bahia Rincon. It was just what we expected when we got there Wed afternoon; a nice calm anchorage with the wind out in the San Jose channel blowing 12-15. We anchored in 35 ft and put out 200 ft of chain, being careful to set the anchor in anticipation of a west wind Wed night. We went snorkeling and I got a medium sized crawler. Evening was calm and we went to bed.

About 1100 the wind started blasting down a little canyon that Lance warned me about on the Southbound net. We don't have a wind meter, but judging by the spray and short fetch I'd say some of the gusts were in the mid 30s. The wind died about 0100 only to start up again at 0400. No big deal really, we were only in danger of getting blown offshore, but it was hard to sleep with all that noise!

We set sail Thursday morning with the last of the blusterlies and dropped anchor on the north side of the Moreno Rocks. There's a little protection here from the SE wind that came up _after_ we motored almost all the way here. We put the dinghy in and went ashore and walked the beach; no snorkeling, it's just too darn cold. After our walk we got back to the dinghy and noticed a large flock of turkey vultures circling over Punta Cobre. That's when we noticed the smell.

We jumped in the dinghy and went around the south side of Punta Cobre and there on the beach was a medium sized gray whale. Or at least what was left of it. We were motoring away from the scene and, swimming between Isla Morena and Punta Cobre, was a small gray whale. Obviously a baby. Neither Linda nor I thought the whale on the rocks was big enough to be a full grown mother, but what do we know, we're not whale bio-persons. We were probably underestimating the size since we were viewing it from a distance, and there wasn't much left of the animal other then the skeleton and a nasty smell.

When we went ashore the next morning to scavenge a bone for Duffy's Tavern up in BLA, it was apparent that the whale was much bigger than we had originally thought. What a sad story if it really was the mother of the baby we saw in the channel. We chased the turkey vultures off and circled the carcass/skeleton taking pictures. I'd had visions of collecting the jaw bone, but it was huge when we got close enough to really see it. Instead we settled for one of the smaller vertebra, which was still a heavy load for John to carry back to the dinghy. John tied it to the back of the pushpit where it doesn't stink as long as we face into the wind. Let's hope we don't get a true downwind sail until it has a chance to bleach out in the sun. [Addendum: SolMate reports the whale was mostly still intact when they were there a week before us. It will be interesting to compare photographs with them.]

We had a great sail up the beach about 10 miles to Puerto Gato, and anchored next to friends Bob and Jennifer on Nuestra Isla. Other than some overcast, Puerto Gato has been very nice. We've been here three nights and haven't had so much as a light breeze. I did a little snorkeling, complete with wet suit jacket, to see if there were any crustaceans crawling around the rocks. There weren't. We also met a nice couple from Colorado who were on a bareboat charter from the Moorings. We spent an afternoon hiking together in the desert and invited them over for cocktails in the evening.

One of the things we found on our walk ashore was a terrible pile of garbage which looks like it was left by kayakers of all people. So this morning we got a bucket, some kerosene and a lighter and went ashore to clean up a little. We picked up as many of the cans and bottles as we could fit in a 5 gal bucket and then picked up all the paper garbage and burned it in a nearby fire pit. We also gathered as much of the plastic trash as we could and consolidated it into a large bag. We had to leave the plastic trash behind, since we're not going to be anyplace with good garbage service for a while, but we did take all the cans and bottles back to the boat so they can be deposited in deep water (over 600 feet) on our next passage. The beach looks much better.

Well, that should bring you up to date. More adventures to come.

John and Linda

New Pics

Here are a few pictures of what we've been doing lately (mostly racing AIRPOWER). We did two races: the Banderas Bay Regatta, and the La Paz Bay Fest.

La Paz Bay Fest crew

Here's the crew from the La Paz Bay Fest showing what place we came in.

Another view

Here's another view of the two spinnakers.

Two spinnakers!

During the La Paz regatta, Bob called the race commitee to ask if we'd get 'points' by doing a spinnaker change. The commity said we'd be penalized if we had two spinnakers. We countered by asking what it was worth if we flew both spinnakers at the same time. They were duely impressed, we got the extra points.

Airpower at the start

Here's a picture of AIRPOWER at the start of the Banderas bay Regatta.

Nikki and Ralph

This is Nikki and Ralph sailing their San Juan 24 near Punta de Mita. They run a bakery from thier home where they make pizza and wonderful bread.

Hitch hiker

We had a little hitch hiker while crossing Banderas Bay. This turn stoped on our chairs to take a break and preen.

Sea turtle release

Here is a baby sea turtle getting ready to hit the waves. Linda spent an evening 'launching' two sea turtles into the wide world.

Mazatlan to La Paz

13 April 2006

Underway at 0500 from Mazatlan headed for La Paz. Passed a Carnival cruise ship on its way into the port. This makes number five since we arrived - Monday, the Mercury (is that Celebrity Cruise Line?); Tuesday, Holland America; Wednesday, both the Viking of the Seas (RCCL) and the Sapphire Princess. Plus there were two Baja car ferries in and out while we were anchored in the old harbor. Needless to say the Port Captain was too busy to talk to us on the radio, so we didn't really get checked in/out there.

Yesterday we took the Sabalo Centro bus (eight pesos each) all the way from the old harbor (where we were anchored) to Marina Mazatlan. We just wanted to see what it looked like since we've never stayed in either of the two Mazatlan marinas. It's surrounded by condo construction and there's no shopping within walking distance, so it didn't seem like a very nice place to hang out. In spite of its drawbacks (the smell from the sewage treatment plant when the wind blows in the right direction, being the main one) we prefer anchoring in the old harbor. It's an easy walk to the old part of town with the mercado, church, zocolo, and theater, and an inexpensive bus ride back to the boat when you're tired and loaded down with all your purchases. The Club Nautico charges 30 pesos per day to tie the dinghy to their dock and use their showers in the bathrooms (which are old and a bit rundown, so we shower on board). They will also arrange propane and laundry services for you, and they have a shallow draft fuel dock.

On our way back from Marina Mazatlan we took the bus to La Gran Plaza which is the largest upscale shopping mall (with a Mega as its anchor store) we've seen in Mexico. It has a movie theater and we must have passed at least two or three other movie theaters on the bus back to the old part of town. There is also a baseball stadium, but unfortunately we didn't make a side trip to see it this time. We like Mazatlan and can see the Marina area turning into a kind of Nuevo Vallarta when all the condos are finished.

We may end up doing a lot of motoring this trip, but will hope for some wind to sail. We're not sure if we'll go all the way into La Paz for Easter weekend, or stop out at one of the islands until the businesses are open again after the holiday. Either way we should be dropping the hook sometime on Saturday.

Linda and John

Banderas Bay to Mazatlan

9 April 2006 (late Sunday night)

We departed Punta de Mita this morning before dawn (7:15 AM Puerto Vallarta time which I think is 5:15 PDT). It was tough getting up in the dark for the first time in ages. Normally we wake up when it starts getting light out or just before sunrise, so having to use the alarm was painful.

Had an uneventful day motoring until 2:30 PM, sailing until 8:30 PM, and now motoring again. It was actually very nice to be the only boat out there with just the gentle swells, turtles, and sea birds to keep us company. We passed closer to the Tres Marias islands than to the mainland, but kept it mostly up the middle. At least one of these islands is a prison and you are required to keep clear of them. They don't keep the prisoners locked up since they are on an island out in the middle of the ocean. I was a bit concerned when I spotted a fishing panga and saw that the two fishermen were wearing orange jumpsuits (panga fishermen usually wear regular clothes and maybe a black garbage bag with head and arm holes cut out in the bottom to keep them warm and dry at night). I monitored them through the binoculars but they didn't wave for help or approach us so maybe they were out on a day pass.

We're almost half way there now, so we should arrive in Mazatlan by late tomorrow. We'll spend a few days there before looking for a weather window to cross over to La Paz. John may crew for Air Power again in the La Paz Regatta which is sometime around April 20-23.

Linda and John

Banderas Bay

Thursday, 6 April 2006

We were sucked into the black hole of Banderas Bay on March 18 and we're only just barely making our way back out of it.

We left Chamela at 6:30 PM on March 17 for the overnight trip to round Cabo Corrientes. Unfortunately it took us until 4:00 AM to break an average of four knots of speed - motor sailing! I'd look out at the ocean during my watch and I was sure that if I could only walk on water, I'd get there faster that way. It felt like we were wading through molasses. We finally rounded Cabo Corrientes on flat seas at 10:00 AM. This felt great until we remembered that we still had to cross Banderas Bay to get to Punta de Mita. We finally turned the engine off at Noon and sailed slow for four hours. Ninety two nautical miles from our start we dropped the anchor at almost 6:00 PM. Yeehah!

We moved into Marina Nuevo Vallarta almost a week later and tied up to a set of concrete pilings. This was a great deal. No dock, no water, no electricity - but only $7 a night. The two (unisex) bathrooms are nice and clean, and Juan, the dock master, is a very nice guy. John spent the next four days training with Bob and crew on Air Power, a J-41, for the Banderas Bay Regatta. He'd come home wiped out from a long day in the sun, and we'd go out to dinner more than usual as a result. It was non-stop busy and I didn't even have time to check email. It didn't seem like I was getting all that much done on the boat, and I know I wasn't doing much reading, but the time just flew. There's a huge amount of socializing here because it's a such a major waypoint on everyone's itinerary. When John wasn't racing we both had our teeth cleaned, ran errands, and even managed to see a movie (Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang). I got my haircut and bought three kilos of good coffee beans in Puerto Vallarta. I also walked down the beach one evening with some friends to participate in a baby turtle release in Nuevo Vallarta. We each got two baby turtles, set them down on the beach (well after sunset), and watched them slowly walk the 3-4 feet to the water. One of mine was especially reluctant to go, and kept turning around the wrong way, but it finally got swallowed up by the swell.

If you're wondering how the race went, Airpower got a second in class and third over all. We placed second in the first race, third in the second race and second in the third race. All in all a pretty good showing for a (mostly) inexperienced crew. John only had to apologize for yelling 5 times, so you can tell it was a lot of fun.

Tuesday we left Nuevo Vallarta, filled up on diesel and gasoline at Opequimar in Marina Vallarta, and sailed out here to Punta de Mita. Yesterday John changed the oil and we spent the rest of the day reading and doing nothing. Today we had to go back in to Nuevo Vallarta, but we struck out on the two errands we'd hoped to accomplish. We made up for that by having a huge shrimp lunch at Mauricio's in Ixtapa. For 110 pesos each (plus drinks and tip), this is the best deal in all of Mexico.

Now we're thinking about how soon we'll get to La Paz. We may end up skipping Chacala and San Blas on our way to Mazatlan. It will depend on how the trip goes. We're anxious to get "home" to Baja so we'll probably be on the fast track once we leave Banderas Bay.

Linda and John

Chamela

16 March 2006

Wow, what a great sail from Tenacatita to Bahia Chamela! We got underway at o-dark-thirty as planned and we had Nakia gliding under main and jib 15 minutes after raising the anchor. In less than an hour we cleared the rocks at the main entrance to the bay and had the spinnaker set in plenty of time for John to run the Amigo net. I drove the whole time he was transmitting since the radio sends the autopilot into fits. We were on a course to take us off the coast in preparation for the freak southerly we were having to clock around as usual from the north in the afternoon. This gave me lots of room so all I had to do was steer and try not to hit any other boats (and there were about four or five out there with us). It was a blast!

The wind never stopped coming from the south so we had a brief debate about continuing north to Banderas Bay, but there's no reason for us to be there this early so we jibed the spinnaker and sailed back in towards Chamela. It really hurt not to take advantage of the prime weather window, since you never know if you're going to get another one as perfect again (especially when you know at least half a dozen other boats who are charging ahead)!

We finally doused the spinnaker after hitting seven knots pretty consistently and went in to the islands for shelter. We'd heard reports from the anchorage off town that the wind chop was getting a little high since it's wide open to the south. Island Girl followed us in and we ate lunch and hung out for a few hours until the wind died down enough for us to continue on to the main bay. It was a little rolly at first but had calmed down quite a bit by bedtime.

We went into town for fresh provisions yesterday morning and I had a brief swim around the boat in the afternoon. The water is very murky (I hate it when I can't see the bottom) but there are lots of birds, fish, and yesterday a pair of dolphins hung out around the anchorage all day, scratching themselves on Island Girl's rope anchor rode in the morning and leaping clear out of the water before sunset. Just like Flipper, except without all the annoying chatter. I was a little apprehensive about swimming with all the dolphin activity nearby, not to mention that it was only 73 degrees and we'd seen a big long worm swimming by the boat the evening we arrived. So I did a fast 10 laps around Nakia and lived to tell about it.

On our last two passages we've seen dolphins, a ray, a big bill fish leaping out of the water, and a shark swimming on the surface within a boat length of Nakia. The shark was about 3-4 feet from its dorsal to its tail fin, but we don't know what kind it was. The dolphins stayed with Nakia for longer than usual as we were sailing into Tenacatita Bay. I told John that was because the adults told the youngsters that here was a nice slow boat on which they could practice bow riding. John hasn't been fishing at all in ages, so no fish report.

There's a Polish man here named Janusz who runs a beach palapa called La Manuelita (which has a nice professional sign out front complete with a picture of a ketch). He and his Mexican wife both speak excellent English, serve delicious food, and he's begun to offer his services (medical assistance, gasoline, propane) to cruisers on VHF 22. Island Girl tried it yesterday by ordering three blocks of ice which were then delivered by panga fisherman on their way out fishing last night at 10 PM. The price was right, and Janusz could prove to be a great resource for the cruising community.

We'll probably be in Chamela for a few days hoping for another magical southerly to take us sailing again.

Linda and John

Tenacatita

12 March 2006

We had a pleasant 15 mile sail from Barra de Navidad to Tenacatita on Thursday, although it took us six hours to get here. It was a close reach in light air for the first 10 miles with John hand-steering because of the 20 degree wind shifts, puffs, and swells. After we rounded the point to make the right hand turn into the bay, we set the spinnaker and had a great time doing 4-5 knots. There were several other boats making this short hop but the only ones sailing it were headed south. When we were settled into the anchorage we got lots of compliments on our red and white spinnaker and the fact that we came in and anchored under sail (main only). All that practice in the Sea of Cortez last summer has paid off nicely.

Since the "Mayor of Tenacatita" departed for the season several weeks ago, John declared Friday's traditional "Mayor's dinghy raft-up" to be "The Great People's Republic of Tenacatita Citizen's raft-up" and instead of holding it off of "Good Dog Beach" it was "Comrade Dog Beach." He used an interesting blend of communist and anarchist terms to announce it over the radio, but people came and had a good time, ignoring politics as usual. The Friday night dinghy raft-up here is a nice winter tradition which typically gets going when the more or less permanent population arrives and a "mayor" is drafted or volunteers. It's mostly a meet and greet position - kind of like a welcome wagon. The mayor anchors his dinghy off shore and all the other dinghies tie up together. Everyone brings their own drinks and some type of finger food to be passed around. It's a nice way to meet people from other boats. The especially cool outcome of this particular raft-up is that after we finished anchoring our dinghy the first couple to row over and tie up to us was John and Kathy from the Bristol Channel Cutter, Gertrud, whom we met up in Canada (see 7/20/2004 blog entry). Another one of those "small world" moments!

After a walk on the beach this afternoon I helped John scrub the bottom. He's been working on it every day since we left Barra and it's ready to take us on a fast passage north now. He says there are spots where the bottom paint is disappearing fast, and it will be a challenge to get through the summer before our haul out in San Carlos in September. But it's great exercise and we always come out of the water feeling that good kind of tired.

We're buddy boating with Christie, who's single handing on Island Girl, because her engine is a bit on the fritz and we're slow enough for her to keep up with sailing. We both plan to leave for Chamela on Tuesday assuming the wind lays down after tomorrow as forecasted. It's been unusually windy down this part of the coast (well, not for March according to Don on Summer Passage), and there are several boats here waiting it out to go north. It's been very comfortable here in the anchorage since the wind doesn't come up until around 1:00 in the afternoon, and later it makes for cool evenings which are so nice and cozy for sleeping.

The last time we were here a couple of friends reported catching dorado right from their boats in the anchorage! The water temperature is back up to around 78 now and no one appears to be catching anything, but it's just perfect for swimming. John hasn't gone out at all yet - I think he's waiting for the better fishing in the Sea, but it sure would be nice to eat dorado again!

Linda and John

Inland Trip Notes (Part 1 of 5)

7 March 2006
Barra de Navidad

We're back on the boat in the lagoon after our first bus trip to some inland cities here in Mexico. These are some miscellaneous notes regarding the trip in general. The entire report contains more detail than most of you are interested in, but I'm writing it both for our benefit and for those cruisers who plan to make a similar trip.

We used "The Rough Guide to Mexico" (July, 2004 edition) and a January, 2006 trip report from S/V Secret O' Life as our references. As to be expected there were several errors and/or outdated info regarding hotels/restaurants in the Rough Guide (RG).

We made no reservations for bus travel or hotel stays. We did usually remember to check the bus schedules for our return leg when we arrived in a city, but for the most part we were just very lucky with our connections. I reviewed hotels listed in the RG, and had an order of preference based on price, description, and location before we arrived in each city.

The buses we took were all varying degrees of First class service. When we looked into Second class service it seemed to take about a third longer (e.g., a four hour trip on First would take six hours on Second), for only three to six dollars less per person. A "stewardess" gave us a snack (usually something a step below airline food) and our choice of a drink (bottle of water or can of soda) as we boarded each long distance bus. These are very comfortable buses with bathrooms and movies, think about the fancy tour busses you see running around popular tourist cities in the US. Much nicer than Greyhound. All the movies shown were dubbed in Spanish.

We tried to keep hotel costs to a minimum without staying in flea bags. Asking to see the room before committing to payment is very important! Rooms with a single bed ("matrimonial" - a small double-sized bed) were cheaper than those with two. The beds were usually hard, often with lumpy pillows. No room was without its faults but we planned to spend most of our time out touring and mostly wanted a place to sleep and shower. When we had TV it was never satellite (local broadcast stations in Spanish only). No room came with wash cloths, only one came with a hand towel, and all included a small bar of soap. We usually paid only one night at a time with the understanding that we might want to stay over another night and would let them know in the morning. This way we could move to another hotel if we wanted to.

All of our transactions were conducted in Spanish. I don't recall speaking English to locals during the trip.

The prices noted include tips where applicable.

We ate a lot of street food because we happen to like it and because it's inexpensive. I don't recall any particularly memorable meals during this trip probably because we deliberately kept them simple. I found the chilaquiles (usually one of my favorites) to be wetter than on the Baja which I didn't care for.

We were unprepared for the high elevations of Guadalajara and Guanajuato, and had some trouble with the extremely dry climate. We tired more easily, and woke up every morning with a sore throat. Next time I would take a saline nasal spray and eye drops. The good thing is that my hair wasn't frizzy and we never felt sticky.

We traveled with a normal sized ("school") backpack each, fanny packs, and my small canvas shopping bag. John could get away with shorts for the bus rides or during the day, but he always changed to slacks at night and I never wore anything but the latter. This was a wise move since no one except children wore shorts in any inland city.

Expenses Summary (six night/seven day trip for two; averaging the peso at 10.5 to the dollar):

Transportation (all buses): 2,023 pesos ($193)
Lodging (6 hotel nights): 1,950 pesos ($186)
Meals/Snacks/Drinks: 1,526 pesos ($145)
Total: 5,499 pesos ($524)
Approximate number of hours spent on bus travel (local and long distance): 24

Colima/Comala (Part 2 of 5)

Monday, 27 February 2006

After John finished the Amigo net Monday morning, Roy on Jellybean gave us a ride to the dinghy dock at the Sands Hotel and we walked to the Primera Plus bus station to catch a 10:15 AM bus to Manzanillo.

DEP Barra de Navidad 10:25 AM (Servicios Coordinados, 39p each)
ARR Manzanillo 11:40 AM
DEP Manzanillo 12:05 PM (Servicios Coordinados, 52p each)
ARR Colima 1:25 PM
Colima Central Terminal to Centro on local bus (4p each)

We walked a couple of blocks to what I thought was the Nunez hotel (Juarez 88), but which turned out to be the La Merced right next door. The latter appeared to be better maintained so we took Room #17 (220p/night) which was off of a small courtyard with tables for playing cards or writing post cards. We dropped our bags in the room and headed straight out for Comala.

Centro to Terminal Suburbana on local bus (4p each)
Transfer to Comala bus (6p each)

Comala is supposed to provide a better view of the two volcanos north of Colima, which we knew we weren't going to see at all because of a huge thunder storm over the mountains that day. Instead we went for the second best thing about Comala - free botanas (snacks) with your drink order at the restaurants next to the square. John had a margarita and a poncha (the local specialty), I had a limonada, and the snacks were enough to make a light meal (102p). The combination of it being a Monday and late siesta made it pretty quiet, but there were a few mariachi bands playing for other diners.

Same bus drill as above for the return trip to Colima.

We walked around the Centro area from Jardin Nunez to Jardin Libertad and tried our first churro rellenos at the pedestrian mall off of Madero (to the right) and across from the cathedral. This was a tube of churro (like a fried donut stick) filled with your choice of chocolate, caramel, or strawberry cream. Yum!

We really enjoyed our brief visit to Colima. It was a bigger city in some ways than we expected (complete with a Wal-Mart, two Sorianas, and a multiplex movie theater), but the historic center was charming with plenty of green spaces in which to relax and people watch. It was warmer than we thought it would be, even at night, and we slept with the ceiling fan on and only a sheet until very late. It's a nice place to break the trip to Guanajuato but if you're only going to spend one night, I'd skip the Comala day trip in favor of spending more time exploring Colima.

Colima to Guanajuato (Part 3 of 5)

Tuesday, 28 February 2006

Colima Centro to main bus terminal (4p each)
DEP Colima 9:05 AM (La Linea Plus, 142p each)
ARR Guadalajara 12:05 PM
DEP Guadalajara 12:25 PM (Primera Plus, 234p each)
ARR Guanajuato 4:30 PM
Local bus to Centro (4p each)

We sat on the left side of the bus out of Colima and got a good view of the volcanos in the clear skies. No snow on them this late in the winter, so it would be more scenic to make the trip in December or January (although then you would have very cold nights).

Note the 20 minute turn around time in Guadalajara. We didn't plan it, had no reservations and basically walked off the bus from Colima into the terminal and just started looking for the next first class bus to Guanajuato. Primera Plus had a bus leaving in 15 minutes so we bought our tickets and boarded the bus. Try that with an airline :-)

In Guanajuato we checked in to Casa Kloster (Calle de Alonso 32) for our first (and probably last) attempt at hostel style accommodations (with communal bathrooms). We had our own room (240p/night) and the place was clean and attractive with a pretty courtyard, but we wouldn't stay there again. It was very noisy with 20-something backpackers coming in at all hours of the night, and bath towels so thin that I accidentally ripped mine while drying my back!

We absolutely loved Guanajuato which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Zone in 1988. The bus ride through tunnels into town was reminiscent of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and when we stepped off the bus I felt as if we were in Europe. The city was absolutely charming everywhere we turned. It was hard to keep walking because there were so many beautiful things to look at. The streets were narrow and winding; there were lots of visitors but it wasn't touristy at all. There were shady squares all over, and lots of road improvement projects in progress using small cubes of granite. The University students keep things lively and are probably the reason for the inexpensive (6p/hour) and plentiful internet cafes. Surprisingly, the pace of life was very hectic; people seemed in a big hurry to get wherever they were going which made walking on the narrow sidewalks difficult. But it was always easy to duck off into a shady square for a respite.

We had a simple meal at Pinguis (NE corner - at Allende - of Jardin de la Union, across from the top end of the row of expensive restaurants) that night. We asked for the specialty of the house and thought their "miner's enchiladas" were delicious and hearty (110p).

Wednesday, 1 March 2006

After the noisy night John woke up at 5 AM and went out to take pictures of the city while the streets were still dark and empty. We ate breakfast at Truco 7 (Truco 7, 80p), explored the Mercado, and wrapped up the morning with a very worthwhile visit to the Diego Rivera House/Museum/Gallery (15p each).

After lunch we moved to the Hostel Cantarranas (Cantarranas 50, almost hidden behind a small tree-shaded square half a block from the Teatro Principal; Room #104, 400p/night). This seemed like a splurge (large room, king size bed, TV, phone, two small sofas), but it was still noisy with Cal-Poly architecture/engineering students working on a project next door and getting in late at night. Maybe a room on the top floor would have been quieter, but we had to take what was available. There was a large roof top terrace with lounge chairs, and photos of all the rooms in the reception office.

John napped while I Skyped and did internet, then we climbed up to Pipilal for the view of the city just before sunset. We walked around the center of town grazing on street food. At 8:30 PM we accidentally hooked up with one of the student musician walking tours on the steps of the Teatro Juarez (we were attracted by the cheers of the young student group which had bought tickets). We followed them to their first stop for more music and story telling in Spanish, but it was all lost on us and we were beat so we gave up and called it a day.

Thursday, 2 March 2006

We returned to Pinguis for breakfast (91p), shopped, spent about an hour at the Alhondiga museum (if you've already seen plenty of pre-Columbian artifacts elsewhere, and aren't too interested in Colonial portraits and misc. items, you could give this a pass - although the building itself is interesting; 30p each), and took a local bus (4p each) to the Templo de San Cayetano de Valenciana church. This was very impressive, though as with most of the buildings, it's in serious need of restoration/cleaning. An alternative to these sights might have been a visit to the Ex-Hacienda de San Gabriel de Barrera 2 km outside of town. This former colonial home turned museum, with its extensive restored gardens, sounds like a nice excursion. It was very hard to decide how to spend our limited time.

We went back to the Centro and ate a delicious, large cup of strawberries (17p) and some sort of empanada filled with cheese (28p for four) which we ate in nearby squares for our lunch. Did some internet, napped, and shopped. Had drinks and guacamole at La Tasca de la Paz (Plaza de la Paz 28, 110p) and ate a simple meal of soup for me and enchiladas for John at Truco 7 (77p) We were very curious about elaborate stages being set up in the city but they turned out to be for some World Road Rally. Unfortunately the sight lines at the main stage near the Jardin de la Union were blocked by the low trimmed trees making it hard to see the entertainment. By the time things finally got started it was late and we were tired from our long day so we never even saw any of the cars! Later we heard fireworks from our room and managed to run up to the rooftop in time to see a few of them fired off from up at the Pipila.

Guanajuato to Guadalajara (Part 4 of 5)

Friday, 3 March 2006

Guanajuato Centro to bus terminal (4p each)
DEP Guanajuato 8:45 AM (Primera Plus, 234p each)
ARR Guadalajara 12:40 PM
Camionera Nuevo to Centro (TUR bus - with A/C, 9p each)

We wanted to be sure we got on the morning bus out of Guanajuato so we woke up early and arrived at the bus terminal an hour before our departure time. On arriving in Guadalajara we checked out the Hamilton hotel (Madero 381) but this was dreary and too spartan even for us. The Posada San Rafael (Lopez Cotilla 619) was full but a nice tourist followed us out to the street and told us that Posada San Pablo (Madero 429) was run by the same people. I'd passed it by because the Rough Guide has it in the same price category as the Hamilton, but maybe this is a new ownership since it's now more expensive. We took Room #104 (330/night) off of a sunny courtyard. The floor in the room was a little dirty, but otherwise it was fine. While we were there several people came in having been referred there from the Posada San Rafael, so it might be a good idea to make an advance reservation if PSR is your first choice. The biggest pain about staying at PSP is that you're not given a key to the front door which is locked 24/7. You have to wait to be buzzed both in and out. Ninja, the white poodle, looks scruffy but she loves to be petted.

We ate a late lunch at La Dona ("Tacos El Pastor" in my Rough Guide, Juarez 424) which may have been a mistake, though it was very popular with locals. I had three tacos al pastor and a jamaica agua fresca, and John had torta ahogada al pastor (a roasted sandwich which is covered in au jus, he noted it was very spicy) and two beers (70p).

After a nap we spent the evening walking around. We visited the big Cathedral and main plazas in the nearby vicinity. I'm told there are nice parks farther to the NE which we didn't get around to seeing, but what struck us about Guadalajara (especially in comparison to the cities we had just seen) was the lack of green spaces in their shopping Centro. The plazas we saw were huge expanses of pavement with very few trees, and fountains and outdoor art instead of landscaping. After Guanajuato this city seemed noisy, dirty, and crowded, with the pedestrian areas crammed full of the cheap types of trinkets and pirated DVDs/CDs which we've seen at every small town market day.

By this time our batteries were running low and we were ready to return home. That night John's ahogada sandwich came back for a little visit and he had to get up to vomit a few times. By morning he was running a fever.

Saturday, 4 March 2006

John stayed in bed all day. I went out for Tylenol, a thermometer, and Gatorade for John, and meals for me; otherwise I stuck pretty close to our room. The Tylenol brought his fever down and he didn't throw up anymore, but he couldn't eat anything at all. We really aren't sure if it was the ahogada that didn't agree with him, or just a 24 hour bug.