Kievit remains rocking at anchor in Bandaras Bay, just off of the small town of La Cruz. There are 50-60 mostly sailboats in the anchorage at any one time and maybe another 100 boats in the marina. La Cruz is known as a cruisers town. The crew has been enjoying life in La Cruz. There is an excellent fish market that is open every day until about 3 pm. The fishermen bring in big catches every morning and there are 6-8 vendors who sell the fresh fish, shrimp, squid, etc. Fish range from sardine size to 150 lb tuna. You don't have to buy the whole tuna, they will cut nice steaks from it to suit your order. Also, there is a nice market that brings in fresh vegi's and fruits every Tue and Fri. It really is fresh, the cost is low and the selection is wide. So, we don't suffer for good things to eat.
La Cruz is known for its good live music which takes place nightly in one or more of the numerous café/pub/restaurants in town. We have been to four such performances so far.
Also, La Cruz is a good walking town. You can get anyplace in town in a 10-20 min walk, and if you wish you could walk the beach all the way to Oldtown Puerto Vallata which is 15 mi to the south. We have taken several walks of 8-10 mi in that direction since arriving here a week ago.
Yesterday (Wednesday) we took a guided trip to several small towns on the south side of Bandaras Bay. The trip entailed driving about an hour until the road ended at Boca De Tomatlan. Then we hiked about 5 mi along an improved trail with the Bay on one side and the mountainous jungle on the other. We went to the small towns of Los Animas and Quimixto. These towns are accessible only by walking or water. A water taxi took us back to Boca in 20 min. It was a great outing and April of Wave House was a great tour guide.

We have booked a second trip with April to the Botanical Gardens for Friday. And, if that isn't enough getting off the boat we have booked a trip to the small mountain town of San Sabastian for over Sunday night. We are going on a bus with about 80 other people. One of the most established bands (Philo) here is arranging the trip. It includes the two hour bus trip up and back, hotel room for the night, dinner Sun evening, concert, all night bonfire and party if you can take it, and brunch the next morning. Hope we survive.
We keep finding new birds almost every time we go seriously looking. Lately we have found the Elegant Quail, White-tipped Dove, Streak-backed Oriole, Grayish Saltator, Purplish-backed Jay, Northern Jacana, Orange-chinned Parrot, and Squirrel Cuckoo. Hopefully, the trip to the Botanical Garden on Friday will give us some good views of the many species of hummingbirds that dart around here.