For the past month or so, we've been hopping around the Costalegre region from Chamela to Manzanillo, with stops in Tenacatita, Cuastecomate, Barra de Navidad, Melaque, Carrizal, Santiago, & Los Hadas. Finding it hard to pull ourselves away from this beautiful area, we decided to skip the long trek to Zijuatanajo this year, giving us freedom to really take it all in.

We've enjoyed all of these uniquely different stopovers, but we have our favorites. The very top on our list of course is Carrizal. We will forever compare all future snorkeling excursions to this. We were also pleasantly suprised by how much we enjoyed Santiago Bay. We had skipped this stopover when we were in the Manzanillo area last month due to the nasty red tide. It's located only 4 miles from Carrizal so we decided to break away for a few days and anchor around the corner in the bay. This gave us an opportunity to provision up, enjoy a long walk on the beautiful beach, and sample some quacamole at one of the palapa style restaurants. It was a picturesque setting and perfect location to help our friend Terry celebrate his 60th birthday...in the rain! Yes, winter reared it's ugly head and settled in upon us on the 6th of February, bringing with it torrential downpours and much cooler temperatures. It was only in the 70's during the day, getting down to the upper 60's in the evening! We almost had to put blankets back on our beds! I had almost forgotten how constant grey skies can zap my energy. I have to admit, the cooler temps were a nice change, but we were so relieved to see the grueling 10 days of winter finally pass!

We hung out in Carrizal and Santiago for a few weeks before heading back to Barra. I do believe someone had ticked off Neptune, because he did not make the 20 mile passage from Carrizal a pleasant one! High seas and a consistant 25knot wind at our nose caught us totally off guard as everything down below ended up on the floor when it was all said and done. We had gotten too complacent having had consistantly benign seas since leaving La Paz! It took us a bit longer than anticipated but we arrived Barra a bit tousled & exausted but quite safe.

Aside from being a cool little town, Barra is a somewhat central location making it a natural hub for most of lifes necessities.....decent provisioning, funky tiendas, laundry service that will pick up and drop off at your boat, diesel and propane, awesome cafes, icecream (Sydney), and THE BEST Carniceria (meat market) we've found. If we're lucky, I reconnect with the rest of the world via the somewhat reliable internet service at the cruiser friendly Sands Hotel while the kids swim in their pool. Oh, and the French Baker! Yes, we have our own resident french man who tours the marina and lagoon every morning in his panga making us all fat with his freshly baked pastries and baguettes! My personal favorite is his blasted almond croissants! Can't resist!

Keeping with the topic of tasty food, usually when we come to Barra after being in a more remote anchorage such as Carrizal, we're grateful and somewhat desperate to go in to town and let someone else do the cooking and dish washing. We've enjoyed some great eats at Mexico Lindo, Pepi's, Bananas, La Officina, Fortinos, and that cool tree house restaurant that I can never remember the name! They all have something a bit different to offer in menu and ambiance, but all are worth going back to. Pepi's is a sidewalk cafe with only 3 or 4 tables offering deliciously cheap 25 peso burritos; follow that up with a stop at the icecream store around the corner and everyone is happy! La Officina is a favorite for great burgers and margaritas, owned by a young gringo and his wife along with their friendly brindle boxer dog, Homer. Fortinos restaurant, located on the beach in Colimilla, is easily accessed by dinghy from the lagoon. They have the best fish tacos and coconut shrimp we have found with a charming setting and great service! It is not uncommon in Mexico for meals to be prepared and served one or two at a time, with several minutes in between. But at Fortinos, our meals were served fresh, hot, and arrived at the same time. Lifes simple pleasures!

This was our 4th and final stop here in Barra. We're heading back north to Bandaras Bay in a few days, with stops in Tenacatita, Paraiso, and Chamela before arriving La Cruz the first or second week of March. We're looking forward to returning to La Cruz and we anxiously await the arrival of our close friends from home, the Buck family!!! James misses his buddies and talks about them constantly, and I'm giddy with the thought of spending a week with my Rhonda!

We probably won't have internet until we're back in Banderas Bay, but look for a long overdue blog post from James sometime in March, and maybe, just maybe one from our captain as well! He keeps promising and we'll hold him to it! Until next time....