Friday, February 03, 2006

San Blas Nayarit

Tovara Springs swimming hole





Well we made it to Puerto Vallarta. I will get to that, but first I must retrace our steps and write a little about our first experiences in the jungle. After Isla Isabela we went to San Blas ,a small town where the jungle meets the ocean. Known for it's bugs and it's birds, both were plentiful. The first thing of note was anchoring in a river surrounded by mangroves. Pretty exotic for Scholarship since she has been a California girl for many years. The city is known for the famous poem "the bells of San Blas" by Longfellow (check out Mark's rebuttle to Longfellow below) and so we did visit the old fort and the old cathedral affording us an amazing vista of the whole city, the river and the ocean. The other don't miss part of San Blas is the Tovara Springs panga tour. We spent 3 hours going up the river through crocodiles, iguanas and hundreds of different birds. If you are a birder, this place is paradise. At the end of the river there is a crystal clear swimming hole complete with a trapeze to swing on. What about the crocs? Well I can tell you I did not linger long in the water!! And if that doesn't sound like enough fun we also enjoyed the many new cruisers we met in San Blas. The stay was topped off by a huge party complete with Alaskan salmon and Mark teaching people in their fifties and sixties to do tequila body shots. I will spare you the pictures but after all this is Mexico.


The Bells Of San Blas


The Bells of San Blas upon the steep
Hills above the town asleep
Ring no more , no time to keep
For the Men-o-War of the Spanish fleet
With hearts of oak and decks of teak
Thy Spanish blood proud hearts did beat
For the armadas of her majesty
In search of cities of golden streets
In search of heathen souls to teach
The words of God , the true belief
But the ignorance of the century
Gave us untold loss to humanity
by her cancerous spread of Christianity
When rightious men become the beast
who torture and kill insensibly
Those who didn't share their creed
The Bells of San Blas upon the steep
Hills above the town asleep
Ring no more , they're history
I hope we never think to repeat...


January 16th 2006

M.V. Haley

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Counting the days till we see you in PV. Is the captain sporting a little facial hair now? How bout you, Lizzie, are YOU still shaving?
YLM

Anonymous said...

Happy ground hog day M&L You guys look like you are settling in to the cruising life just great, it must be nice to have warm water and rain. Rev. Hailey Had better not attract to much attention beating on the church or he might get devested.
Missing you
Glyn, Hels, Zoe & Milly XXX

Anonymous said...

The Bells of San Scholarship
all rusted and quiet,
for centuries now
For the Armada came upon a pirate so fierce, so unbelieving,
Never had they encountered such a Heathen..
Capt Mark was his name, who took the Lord's name in vain, over and over and over again.
He was roasted and ate by the fire of prayers...
And we pray for his heathen soul in Arizona, (ha, ha, love ya)