New Year's Day

New Year’s Eve. We celebrated with our new friends from Redondo Beach the Pond Family – Todd, Margaret, Natalie, Charlee and Luke. We had a great meal that Margaret prepared and then we went out to see all the fireworks and I do mean all the fireworks. From where we were on the Bay – which is about pretty much the middle - we were able to see fireworks all around the Bay from Punta Mita on the north point where the Four Seasons must have spent a fortune - all the way around to the south side of the Bay. It was really fun. We all stayed up til after 1:00 a.m. Needless to say we all slept in on New Year’s day.

The Jungle Cruise

December 30, 2009 Today we took a jungle cruise with our slip neighbors Anton and Rita. Anton had done some exploring with his dinghy and found a great lagoon way up in the mangrove swamp. So we got up early to have the rising high tide that was expected at 8:00 a.m. carry us up the river into the lagoon. Did I mention that the marina where we’re staying borders a mangrove swamp where there are lots of “cocodrilos” (aka crocodiles) and surprisingly few mosquitoes. Some of our neighbors have seen them swimming by the boats but we haven’t. Instead we wanted to go hunting them.

We left as the sun was coming up. Here we are on central time so the sun does not rise until about 7:15 a.m. It is very strange in Nuevo Vallarta where the marina is. It is in a different state from Puerto Vallarta which is only five miles down the road but we have a one hour time change between the two states of Nayarit and Jalisco. So every time we want to do something we have to make sure what time zone we are operating on.

Anton took the lead and guided us up into this great lagoon where we saw all kinds of iguanas and birds – but to the kids’ disappointment - no crocodiles.

What we saw...

Anton and Rita lead the way up into the lagoon

Arriving in the lagoon as the sun is rising over the mountanins

One of the more interesting birds that we saw

Kelly and Ryan looking for crocodiles

Some of the birds that we spooked

Waiting for something to happen

Kelly and Ryan's new play house in the middle of the lagoon.  When the tide goes out this lagoon is literally empty and the mud is pretty thick.

Going back through the mangrove trees to get back to our boat.

Christmas Day

Christmas day. Santa found us. Ryan and Kelly were happy with the computers that


Santa brought them. Ryan got two of the lego sets he wanted and Kelly really liked her Gryffindor sweatshirt. All in all it was a GREAT Christmas.

Note our beautiful Christmas tree in the foreground.

From the kid who almost never smiles!!

To the kid that smiles all the time.

Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve. We planned to go to the big dinner at the hotel and celebrate with all the folks who are staying at the resort. We all got dressed up and went for a sunset dinner on the beach. We feasted on a shrimp bisque, salads of about 10 varieties, meats and fish of about a dozen varieties and of course the kids favorite – the dessert table. In fact we decided to go to this venue for dinner based on the dessert they were serving.

This is just a piece of the dessert table that Kelly and Ryan really found to be the best part of dinner.

Our Christmas Eve picture in front of the Paradise Village Hotel

We headed back to the boat to get ready for a visit from the guy in the red suit. The kids were quite concerned that he would deliver presents to our house and forget that we were on the boat.

December 20th. We’re back on track. School started up again officially. The kids had a hard time with this at first but whenever we aren’t moving or visiting a location we told the kids they had to do school work. We usually do work through lunch and then head out for the pool or beach.

Ryan and Luke playing in the sand

We also decided to decorate the boat since we are finally in one place until after Christmas and we have shore power to hook up our Christmas lights. We strung snowflakes, gingerbread men and ornaments (all purchased from Michael’s before we left) and we also made a 1 foot Xmas tree and foam gingerbread house to decorate down below. Our flashing red and green lights were quite popular with all of our neighbors down on E dock but our friends the Pond’s on Qualchan won the decorating prize with the Christmas tree on the bow of their boat with the luche libre mask as the tree topper.

Our Christmas decorations as seen at night.  Hope you can all see the lights from where you are!


Finally, today was Phil’s birthday so we decided to bake him some brownies to help celebrate his birthday in “Paradise.”

Our oven has been working great when it comes to all things chocolate and for the staples like potatoes.  BUT.... we are having a hard time with the bread pan.  Much to Ryan's disappointment several of the pumpkin breads that we have made have been shall we say a little dark on the bottom.  We still manage to eat most of what comes out of the oven.

Made it to Paradise

December 17, 2009. We got an early start today to head into Paradise Village Marina. It took us about 45 minutes to motor from La Cruz to the marina. It was hard to find the opening to the marina among all the luxury hotels that rim this part of the bay, but as usual Phil was able to find it with his binoculars.

We came into the channel for the marina. “Oh my GOD” was what I thought. I’ve found Mecca. We were guided to our slip in the marina by a panga driver who helped us tie up. We ended up at the bitter end of E dock which is pretty much the end of the line in the marina but let me tell you we went by the high-rent district of A dock and B dock where the mega yachts 100ft plus anchor and let me tell you we were just happy to be in this marina.

Forget the laundry we had to go explore. This place has tigers, parrots, Baskin Robbins, McDonalds, indoor four story jungle gym, palapas on the beach and the best of all the dual crocodile shaped water slides into the biggest pool we’ve ever seen. But for best of all for Phil the Pacifico’s are less than 1USD a piece.

We had a great day playing in the pool which has underwater caves and the best ice cream flavors – I really liked the coconut. Needless to say any weight we had lost up to this point of our journey would be gained back ten fold staying here.
Kelly also got her hair braided on the beach.

The Main Pool at Paradise Village with the double crocodile slide.  The island under the tower has tunnels for the kids to swim through.

It took me a few tries but I finally caught Kelly and Ryan coming out of the crocodile's mouth.  The pool was fairly empty when we first arrived on 12/17, but the closer we got to Xmas and New Year's the more crowded it got to the point that we didn't even bother going to the pool until after the holidays.  Instead we opted for the beach.  Kelly has however managed to rip out the bottom of one bathing suit going down this sllide just one too many times.

The beach was great but what made it fun was we met a family - the Pond's - from Redondo Beach  - who was on a ship in our marina called Qualchan.  Since meeting them we have spent a lot of time with Todd (dad), Margaret (mom), Natalie (16), Charlee (9) and Luke (8). 

Water temperatures are about 80 degrees.  Air temp gets to high seventies during the days and can drop into the high 50's at night.  It  makes sleeping great and keeps the mosquitoes at bay.

Leaving Matanchen Bay for Banderas Bay

On December 16, 2009 we pulled up anchor and headed for the "big bay." It was going to take us about 9 hours to get from Matanchen Bay to La Cruz in Banderas Bay, the place we planned to drop anchor for the night so we decided to get an early start and leave Matanchen Bay by 7:00. We actually did better than then and left at about 6:30 just as the sun was starting to show signs of rising over the hills that surround the bay. We all agreed that we would be coming back here.
Our trip south was uneventful but for all the whales we saw. Kelly saw the best of all a humpback that was breaching. The rest of us only saw it as it was already on its way back into the water. We arrived at La Cruz at about 3:30 and set the anchor. As soon as the anchor was set we all jumped into Banderas Bay. It is amazing how much saltier the water tastes down here.
Tomorrow we check into Paradise Village. We get to buy groceries, get rid of our garbage, fill up the water tanks, and most important, do the laundry.