So here are Bella, the sweet yet NAUGHTY Beagle, and Wilson, the oh so innocent looking Jack Russell. Poor shoes were wet from the rain and our puppy sitter cum foredeck crew cum fashion plate dresser Olivia made the mistake of leaving them on the ground.... ahhhh, the fun of puppies!

We spent Thanksgiving in Portland, Oregon at Tracy and Chris's house (Jeff's sister and brother in law), along with Gary and Eva (Jeff's parents). Thanksgiving is Jeff's favourite holiday and this year Tracy and Chris had warned us they were not doing a traditional turkey dinner, we were going to have an 8 course Italian dinner (feast) instead - sounds good to me! We had a yummy traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner the Sunday before at Gary and Eva's so we didn't miss out on that either.

We weren't disappointed, Tracy and Chris are both excellent cooks and they obviously spent a huge amount of time planning and preparing dinner for us. We had the meal over about 5 hours, so lots of time to rest in between courses and enjoy the vino! Gary was not so sure about one of the desert wines that was a little past its prime... maybe you should have stopped at the first glass!

Thanks Tracy and Chris for an amazing dinner - we both enjoyed it enormously.

We arrived into Puerto Vallarta after a very quick 28 hour downwind sail from Mazatlan. Its very comfortable for us in PV, this is where we started out trip 3 months ago. Its amazing to think back and see how much we have seen, done and learnt about Nemesis already. We have discovered that living and sailing a boat full time puts a lot of pressure on the boat systems - but we are coming out the other end of the "will things ever stop breaking" tunnel. Of course we know it never really ends, but its much easier for us to work out whats going on and fix things these days. Nemesis looks great!

One the main reasons for our stop back into Puerto Vallarta was to head inland to Tequila and check out the town where Tequila is from. We have been drinking lots of Tequila on this trip - it is Mexico... mainly in Margaritas - my new favourite drink. We hired a car for a couple of days, it worked out cheaper than taking the bus and meant that we could explore a little as well.

The night before we headed off to Tequila we had dinner at a PV restaurant called the Red Cabbage, on a recommendation from other cruisers - thanks Paula and Tim for the tip it was definately worth it! We jumped on a bus from Marina Vallarta into the old town and walked the rest of the way. We had been warned that it was hard to find and it was, but it gave us a chance to explore some of old PV a little more. The restaurant is tucked into a residental area next to a river, a very pretty setting. It was Halloween night and the local Mexican kids were dressed up and collecting candy. The food was amazing, gourmet Mexican they call it. Jeff had Fridas Dinner (Frida is very famous here - you see her image everywhere), which is a set menu and I ordered off the menu. The highlight for both of us was the Mole, we've been looking for an authentic Mexican Mole and it was amazing.

The drive out to Tequila was scenic, winding through a mountain range for most of the way. Tequila is a great little town - we stayed in a beautiful little hotel in the centre of town and it was Dia Los Muertos - Day of the Dead, which is a two day celebration of the dead, where Mexicans remember family members that are no longer with them. It sounds a little morbid but its looked on as a celebration for the locals. We did of tour of the Jose Curveo distillery, it was a highlight of the trip. It included the cellar that was exclusively for the use of the Cuervo family until about 10 years ago when they opened it to the public and started selling a limited amount each year. The cellar was very similar to a wine cellar and we treated to a sample of the Reserva Familar Tequila from the barrel - it was very smooth, slightly peppery and is sipped similar to Brandy. Yummy, Tequila can taste great if you get a good bottle - nothing like the throat burners we usually get in Australia.

On the drive back to PV we stopped a road side stall and bought a pottery tortilla holder and a tortilla press. We are perfecting our own tortillas so we dont miss them once we leave Mexico. We did a final detour just before we got back to PV to La Cruz and stopped at Jorge Tacos for dinner - Jeffs favourite tacos in Mexico yet - we couldnt miss the opportunity to have them before we left PV.

One of the vistas we were treated to on our Scooter ride from the top of the Canyon to the bottom...

Top of the world! View from the rim of the Canyon at 8000 feet / 2400 meters.

Amazing scenery all around - this waterfall flashed past us while we were hanging out the open windows between train carriages.