We arrived Puerto de la Navidad last Friday and started to get settled. Since we will be here for a month, we got hooked up to internet (which isn't very good) and TV for some CNN news (which all seems to be bad). Maybe getting hooked up to TV wasn't such a great idea, but staying tuned to the world news is important to us.

The temperature has risen somewhat...it's very hot and humid in the morning hours due to very little wind. The afternoons are considerably more comfortable as there is always wind blowing through the marina. We tarped the boat to have shade all day long...and we never turn off the fans.

The marina is very modern and probably the most popular marina on the west coast of Mexico. Barra de Navidad is a quaint little town, the weather always seems to be nice and the Grand Bay Hotel where we are located is a major draw for people on the move...especially the swimming pools. There are an abundant amount of water taxis that run pretty much all day long...not sure about very late at night because we aren't up past about 10:00PM...I'm sure they run well into the night. The Grand Bay Hotel/Marina and Barra are separated by a channel which leads to the ocean.

This is a major destination for cruisers (sailboats, powerboats and mega yachts) and we have been reacquainted with quite a few people that we met last year and the year before. Sort of like old home week. People just come by the boat in their dingy and say hello. We have also met with some Corinthian Yacht Club people that are out cruising...went out to dinner the first night here to catch up on each others cruising plans. In addition, we just missed some CYC friends that left the day before we got here.

There are so many boaters here that the Gold Coast Cruisers Net is always in need of people to help. We were asked to be the Gold Coast Net Manager by the previous manager who was just departing for Bandaras Bay. In addition, Sharon is now one of the net controllers for the month that we are here. She gets on the VHF radio and asks for people that need help, cruiser check-ins, sharing local information at Barra, etc. Her controller day is every Monday at 9:00AM and the net lasts for about 45 minutes. Its fun and we get to meet even more people due to being a net controller.

We have friends driving down from San Carlos this week and more friends arriving from Puerto Vallarta in the next week or two. This is a great place to visit. We intend to take some inland trips and explore more of this part of Mexico.

The only other recent news is that we have entered the Bandaras Bay Regatta in Puerto Vallarta in mid March. We're not a race boat, but we'll be racing other cruisers...so hopefully they will be equally slow!

Stay tuned...we'll keep the blog updates coming when there is something news worthy.