Hello everybody,
This morning was one of those cruisers mornings when we really didn't know what the day was going to bring. Around 10am we had had breakfast and put the dink in the water and headed off for the marina about 1/4 mile from where we are anchored. We knew that we wanted to at least do a little exploring of Puerto Vallarta, we haven't been there since 2008, and we also have been thinking about a trip to the Botanical Gardens several miles south of PV, but we weren't sure if things would work out. So, we took the dink in to the dock and walked the 1/2 mile or so to the bus stop where we met some fellow cruisers who gave us the low down on the bus connections.

La Cruz is about 20 miles north of PV and to get there we had to take two buses. Buses are a great way to people watch and to enter into the every day Mexican culture. We shared the bus today with tourists, hotel workers, mothers with children and babies, and all sorts of every day people. At the end of the line of the 2nd bus we were in downtown PV. Fellow cruisers had told us not to miss the artist community on the island in the middle of Rio Cuale so we strolled thru the various gift shops, walked across the river on a suspension bridge and found a great little deli for lunch. After lunch we made our way to where we caught the bus for the botanical gardens. The bus followed a winding route south of town thru several small villages along the shore of Bandaras Bay. (This is where the movie the Night of the Iguana with Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor was made.) All the while the bus was climbing a steep grade. At about 1250' we saw the sign for the gardens and exited the bus.

At the entrance to the garden we bought our tickets and a bottle of bug spray. As we were gooping up near the beginning of the trail thru the gardens we were passed by a guided tour led by a botanist who invited us to tag along. This made our visit to the gardens much more enjoyable as she pointed out several things that we would have otherwise missed. One of the highlights was the strangling fig tree that grows in two directions, both up and down around the trunk of an existing tree. We also learned about why farmers only let papaya trees grow to be five years old before cutting them down. We saw coffee trees, and the tourist tree that turns red and peels it's skin. We stayed in the gardens for a couple of hours, caught the bus back to PV, walked the Malacon, avoided the hucksters, poked into a few gifts shops (especially the Huichol beaded art) and took our first bus back home.

The end of the line for the first bus is Walmart, famous for the cheapest prices of tequila and rum in the area. We managed to fill a backpack and three cloth shopping bags full of stuff including fruit cocktail (fresh cubed watermelon, papaya, mango, etc). You mix it all up and squeeze lime and shake hot pepper flakes on it. By the time we boarded the final bus for home we were racing the sun. It was going down and we had not anticipated being so late and so had not lit our anchor light or the cockpit strobe light or brought a flashlight in the dink. It's about 1/2 mile from the bus to the dinghy dock and we were carrying a backpack full of booze and three bags of groceries. We hustled along the cobblestone streets and scurried down the old stone steps to the dinghy landing as fast as we could. By the time we got to the dink, loaded her up with our bags and quickly dawned our Frog Tog rain gear it was getting pretty dark. It had been a windy afternoon and even though the wind had died there was still a bit of residual lump in the bay. We got a little wet, but not bad, and found Adagio just where we left her waiting for our return.

We hope this finds you all healthy and happy. We're not sure what tomorrow will bring - maybe a day sail in Bandaras Bay.