A Taste of Cruising Mexico

Jeff had a fine time surfing Punta de Mita, but after five days we decided to head back to La Cruz. This time we put the hook down in the anchorage, but that's still close enough to participate in all the fun social activities that take place in the marina. We watched 'Captain Ron' in the outdoor amphitheater on free movie night. This photo shows all of us hanging out at the beach palapa for the Friday afternoon cruiser potluck. If you look closely, you can see Jeff kicking back, beer in hand.

After a few days, Jeff needed to do some patching on the dinghy and we wouldn't have been able to use it while it dried, so we did move into the marina for just one night on Sunday. It turned out that was a good thing because Sunday was the day of our $300 (pesos) adventure.

Sunday afternoon our friends Bruce and Toby called to let us know they'd arrived in P.V. They are flying their own plane down to Costa Rica and were gracious enough to carry some spare watermaker parts down for us. A little bit of figuring with our AAA tourbook to figure out where their hotel was and we hopped on the bus. The bus driver let us off at the wrong location, but we found another local bus to take us the rest of the way. It was so nice catching up with Bruce and Toby over drinks and dinner that the time passed quickly. Soon it was nearing 10:00 and we knew we'd better get a move on before the buses stopped running for the night.

None of the buses at the nearby corner were going all the way back to La Cruz, so we took a guess at a local bus we thought would get us to the main highway where we could catch the right bus. The bus did pass some familiar landmarks, but before we could make a decision about the best place to get off, it turned off the main drag. We probably should have stopped and got out right then, but we thought the bus eventually head back to the highway. Instead it wound its way deeper and deeper into the barrio behind Nuevo Vallarta. Soon it was lumbering over dirt tracks with trees growing in the middle of them and into alleyways that seemed way too narrow for even a small bus to fit. As the bus eventually emptied out, you could see the last of the locals wondering what two gringos were doing still sitting there. Finally we were the last passengers, and the bus driver asked where we thought we wanted to go. Yes, he assured us, the stop to catch a bus to La Cruz would have been way, way back there. This, however, was the end of his run for the night, and he practically pushed us out the door saying we'd have to wait for another bus to come and take us back the way we'd come.

Yeah...right!

So there we were on a dark, lonely street with almost nothing in the way of traffic. Jeff freely admitted he had no idea where we were or how to get back to 'civilization'. Just then a man leaning against a yellow cab beneath the only street light in the area called out, "Taxi?"

Well, this seemed like an answer to prayer. The negotiations that followed were partly in Spanish and partly in English, so I'll paraphrase:

"How much to get to La Cruz?"

"Four hundred pesos."

Jeff shook his head and started to walk away. The man countered with, "Three hundred pesos." (That's about 30 dollars American)

This time Jeff asked, "How much to go to the Wal-mart?" (That's where we figured to catch the bus to La Cruz).

The driver agreed to take us there for sixty pesos, so we got in the taxi. Once we were one the way, the driver called on the radio and told us the last bus had already left. It was after 11:00 by that time and he once again offered to take us to La Cruz for 300 pesos. Jeff takes great pride in being about as cheap as they come, but he does know when to cry 'Uncle'. We were out of options, so we agreed to his terms. There wasn't one bus to be seen during the whole drive back to La Cruz, so we're sure he was telling the truth about the buses having closed down for the night. We arrived back at the marina just before midnight and I was very glad we didn't have to grab a dinghy and motor out to the anchorage in order to climb aboard Journey.

The jury is still out on whether the parts we got will work as far as repairing the watermaker, but we sure got an adventure out of the deal.

We're back in the anchorage again and planning to do a few daysails this week to explore a little more of Banderas Bay before we head south.

Nobody can say it hasn't been exciting. Dori