Las Hadas, Manzanillo

Ahhhhh what a great place to be blogging from. The water is crystal clear in this beautiful spot, and I have not had one mosquito take its breakfast, lunch or dinner from me yet. While provisioning at the Comercial Mexicana, I even found an eggplant!!! ( A rare find ) Which quickly became Baba Ghanoush. I have to say, we have not gone hungry while in Mexico, but the produce section of the markets does leave me missing Whole Foods and my local Thursday Farmers market. We have it soooo good in the U.S. From what I hear the provisioning only gets worse as we head further south. That is hard for me to believe, since it is already slim pickens.....I can find romaine lettuce, tomatoes, limes, onion, garlic, spinach, zuchini, watermelon, papaya, mango, something like an orange/lemon, avacados, and peppers. Celantro is hit and miss. Good thing my Basil plant is still thriving!!!! So we are getting by, but man-o-man do I miss Jessica's Kale salad. What was a staple is now a non-entity in our life. Along with the beloved sweet pea sprouts. I know - looking at these pictures you must really feel sorry for us. The trade off is quality food folks - which I can give up for two years to experience this for sure. Photos include the BEAUTIFUL EGGPLANT ( never take these for granted people!) views from our boat, A few shots of Las Hadas, a sweet shot of Santosha from a palm filled walk way, Jack holding a dead crab, and lots of him playing with his Birthday present ( full dive gear) He is not certified yet, but we hope to do that in Ixtapa. The snoreling/diving is amazing here, AND.....no jelly fish in this anchorage!!! Every where we have been so far in Mexico has been plagued with these critters. We will stay here another day and then head to Ixtapa where we will spend Christmas. Alex and Blake will join us on the 20th, and we are all so excited for their arrival!

Bahia Navidad

We just spent the last few days "on vacation" in Bahia Navidad. By on vacation, I mean we cooked very little and took advantage of the pool side resort we were anchored near. They were kind enough to let us use their facilitcies, provided we ordered pool side drinks. You don't have to twist my arm to comply with these rules! While here, we met up with a family I have been following via blog this past year as I prepared for our trip. S/V Calou was better in person then on blog! This family of 4 was such a delight and even helped us celebrate Jacks 10th b-day. Calou had much info to share with us novice sailors, as they have done extensive research on the path we are traveling. ( Thank you Pascale and Bruce! ) We enjoyed their company and really hope we cross paths with them again one day. Photos in this post: a sunrise shot at anchor, art class ( yes we are still keeping up with school! ) a shot of Jack enjoying one of the pool slides, a beach shot, the 6 of us adults in the Grand Bay Hotel - and also aboard Calou, the cupcakes Lisa made for Jacks birthday, the kids singing happy birthday, and the three Amigos out on the town for pizza in Barra. The town of Barra was great, and should not be missed if you are ever in this area. And - the people, once again, were so sweet.

Tenacatita Continued......

Today we crossed the bay and anchored off the town of Tenacatita. We took a panga to shore and our sweet panga driver, Jaun, didn't speak english, and we didn't speak spanish yet he managed to be our tour guide for the day. Juan immediately took us to see the Croc's that live here. This is not the zoo people - they are in their home in the lagoon that runs thru this town. They were so amazing, and also very active, unlike the croc's we see at the Zoo....... makes me wonder if the Crocs we see are highly medicated or very depressed....... Afterwards Juan took us by panga around the corner to Tamarindo where we had fish tacos, in a setting I can not even descibe in words. This is a 5 star resort, that I hope to revisit by land one day and stay in one of the private Villas.....hey a girl can dream.... Jack and Ben enjoyed a dip in the pool, and swam out to a water trampoline which left us parents with a few moments of peace. I had a quick siesta in a hammock while waiting for Juan to pick us up and bring us back to our boats. The last photo shows us at Anchor with the Lisa Kay right by our side. It is good to buddy boat with another family. Just in case you ummm.....run out of gas while dinghying thru a mangrove, and then pop your dinghy on some rocks on the way out, which totally deflated in a matter of seconds. Lucky for us we were close to shore and in knee high water, so we made it without any casualties, other the our dinghy who is now in need of some serious patch work. Yes, just another day in the life of a sailing family. It is always an adventure!

Tenacatita

The passage from PV to Tenacatita was uneventful. We left PV at 4pm and arrived here the following day at 1pm. It was great to be under the star filled sky again, with the sound of rushing water all around. We motor sailed most of the way, The winds were light, and it was a plesant passage. We are now anchored off a empty beach, with a family of dolphins who live here and like to rub on our anchor chain all day long. It feels good to get on the paddle board again, and practice yoga on the beach. I enjoyed our stay in PV, but it was a lot of doing and not much being, so this week, I plan to perfect the art of doing nothing as we spend our time in this quiet beautiful anchorage. Jack is doing better with homeschooling now that he has a friend waiting for him to finish up. Just the motivation he needs! He enjoys driving his dinghy and loves playing in the surf. We set up our volley ball net on the beach yesterday and had a good 3 on 3 match. Today we will check out a good snorkel spot around the point, and take a ride through the mangroves in search of Croc's and other wildlife rumored to be here. The dolphins just showed up again as the sun is starting to rise. Just another day in paradise.