On the anchor in La Cruz

Well we left Puerto Vallarta on January 8th, and the safety of the Marina to start our real adventure of anchoring our way around Mexico.  Our first destination was La Cruz.  A place we stopped for one night before going into Puerto Vallarta. 
La Cruz is pretty cool. Well, except for the swell that seems to plague the anchorage. The initial swell is not that bad, but the reflected waves from the beach tend to mix things up a bit. Oh well, at least the price is right to anchor here, aka "free". It's better in the marina, but they still get some surge wrapping around the breakwater. We saw quite a few boats with extra spring lines.

After a little fishing and morning swim call (yeah, the water is still "only" 80 degrees and we know we're not getting any sympathy from our friends up in El Norte.), we spent the last two afternoons wandering around the town. It's definitely more of a small Mexican town than Puerto Vallarta, that's for sure. The old plaza is right out of central casting, complete with the requisite band shell in the middle of the park. The street signs (when you can find them) are enameled or hand-painted. There's a fair bit of construction, both commercial and residential, but it's not clear whether many of the projects will ever be completed. Some of them look like they haven't been touched in years. It's definitely a town of contrasts. Some of the homes are beautiful - they have small private gardens, amazing tropical flowers, and the wrought iron work that you only see in movies. Others buildings are falling down because the cement is crumbling and the chickens wander into the street. A block or two off the main road through town you'll find a few cobblestone streets, but a block or two beyond that and you're as likely to find mud roads. They finished the new marina last year, but there are still a lot of empty slips. Even though they have empty slips, they still haven't lowered the prices. Go figure. There are condos around the edges of town, so I suppose it's only a matter of time before some of the old homes disappear. La Cruz is on the road between Puerto Vallarta and the resorts at Punta Mita, so the town is getting squeezed on both sides.

We also visited one of the world's great crusier hangouts - Philo's - a combination restaurant, bar and recording studio. Philo is a great guy and rides his motorcycle into the restaurant to park it. He caters to the cruisers and the music crowd. They have live music most every night. And the food is pretty good too! Where else can you get a "Mexicana" pizza (complete with chorizo sausage and jalapenos) or a cheeseburger while watching American football via a Canadian satellite feed, all the while accessing the Internet through free WiFi, and then play a game of pool. No wonder the place is legendary. You can spend days in there.

Nothing against Philo's, though, but that would be a shame because there are other great places here. Banana Annie's is another music joint with live music, an open mike on Sunday afternoons, and standing room only after 5 PM. There were a lot of aging American and Canadian ex-pats wandering in with their guitars. (Note to self - if/when you start to go bald, shave it off like Lawn Boy. Admit the truth and do NOT grow a stringy gray ponytail.) Although we didn't get to it, we hear that Ernesto's Great Grub is worth the walk to get there. I guess that will have to wait for the next trip. And don't forget to try the local ice cream treats. Even with my mangled Spanglish, I managed to order frozen strawberries and cream that was amazing.

We ended up having to get fuel at the new marina when we topped off our tank, then we set off across Banderas Bay to Yelapa. The cove looks beautiful, but the anchorage is reported to be so-so. We'll see what it looks like before we drop the hook. If there's no room, we'll just continue around the corner (Cabo Corrientes) and aim for Ipala or Chamela. If we end up heading for Chamela, it'll be about 90 miles to get there.

(Note to reader's of the blog - most of this posting was lifted from an e-mail that Phil composed and sent to his loyal followers.)

Next Stop Yelapa.


- Phil