We do love La Cruz! The picturesque setting, traditional cobble stone streets, the town square, the "Green Market" & bi-weekly fresh produce garage, Huanacaxtle Café and their amazing family, Tacos on the Street & the Red Chair sidewalk cafe, fresh fish market, Sunday market, neighborhood dogs, the crazy loud birds, musica from Ana Bananas, kids playing in the street, Amigos de La Cruz, the friendly local and cruiser community, the yacht club and beautiful malecon that runs along the marina and bay. I could go on and on about what we love about La Cruz. We've had such fun here and have felt a sense of belonging that makes us want to stay. La vida es buena aqui!

We arrived back in La Cruz on March 5th and found it a bit livelier than the sleepy town we left in early January. Our marina had been transformed into a focal point of activities surrounding the Regatta Copa de Nayarit, Banderas Bay Regatta, Tiangus Turistico, which is Mexico's annual tourism fair, and preparation for the arrival of el presidente Calderon (see the picture in our photo gallery Rick captured of him waving as he passed Endeavor in a large power boat on his way out to Banderas Bay.) There are some fabulous websites that explain the different events if you're interested so I'll spare you the details. I will say the atmosphere was energizing and the influx of revenue and positive media attention was priceless for the community. It was fun while it lasted, but after the 3rd week of March, things were slowing down and reverting back to the peaceful norm.

During it all, we still enjoyed the simple things we love about La Cruz, also taking in a few adventures inland with our friend April. Sydney posted about April and our field trip to the petroglyphs in Alta Vista and what a great day we had. The following week she took us up into the hills of Sierra Madre to the historic town of San Sebastian, which was the mining capital founded in 1605. What an incredible history this place has. We toured the Hacienda Jalisco, which was the original ore processing factory and now is a gorgeous inn and home of a small museum. We had a fabulous Mexican lunch at Comedor La Lupita, toured the quaint colonial town of San Sebastian with loads of historical information from April, and then we finally hiked up to where the old mines were located. Some still had small openings, one we actually ventured into about 30 feet. I didn't stay in there long. Couldn't stand the spiders! We ended our day there at the "coffee plantation", which really isn't a plantation at all. It's a where they process and roast the beans. They don't actually grow the beans on sight; they purchase them from various farmers. The coffee was delicious and we left there with a few kilos of Café de Altura. I took some pictures on our way up to San Sebastian and I have to mention the fragrant pine trees and amazing transformation as we went up in elevation. It reminded us of some places back home. I definitely encourage a visit to San Sebastian and highly recommend April as a guide. She is done for the season, but we look forward to more adventures with her next year.

The photo gallery is somewhat up to date and I will post a blog regarding Mazatlan soon. Adios for now!