Zihuatanejo, Mexico

After Ixtapa we moved a whole 8 miles down the coast to Z-town. This place is a jem for cruisers. Many people come down here in the fall and stay all season. It's definitely one of my favorite little cities out of our whole trip so far. The bay is large so there is plenty of room to anchor. It's also been pretty calm while we were here. With the exception of the floating disco (thank goodness it does not groove every night) it's a great place to be. Most of the time there is a guard at the dinghy beach. Believe me this is a big deal. Dinghy and outboard theft is a real problem for cruisers. Heck, people even get their nasty flip-flops ripped off right out of the dinghy. I have heard of this a few times, and these were shoes even the owners spouse would not touch. The other wonderful thing about Zihua is the food. Right off the beach there are dozens of bars with 10 peso cervezas andit seems that every block has a place serving mahi-mahi that the owners brother just pulled out of the ocean. The weather...well it's hot. I know some of you are still freezing as winter has not thawwed out yet, but seriously 90 degrees and 90% humidity is a bit much. We literally have to get up with the sun to get errands done before we are both dissolving in puddles of sweat. So it's up early, move slow and take a siesta. Everything moves slow around here. I don't think the buses have schedules, you just wait until you see one and then flag it down. People who work in the shops would not think of multi-tasking. It's common to have one small tienda with 5 people all working and each person is task specific. At the fabric store the one woman could only help us with fringe and zippers. I guess this is how everyone stays employed. I am not judging, just observations from someone who lived in fast-paced city of 4 million people. Our time in Zihua is up though. We are anxious to get going as we have a lot of traveling to do before we settle into our next country. We leave for Acapulco on Sunday and after an undetermined amount time there we will countinue south and start making our graceful exit out of Mexico.
Stay tuned....xo Liz
p.s. I know many of you are only in it for the pictures but there are none now as the signal is not strong enough to add them. I'll post some soon.
p.s.s. Happy Birthday Dad!!!! It's my dad 's b-day today so if you know him don't forget to wish him well or give him a birthday spanking.

Crocodile Rock

Yes that is a crocodile! Yes that is our boat! On the way to Ixtapa I read in one of our cruising books that the marina is no good for swimming (but really no one would swim in a marina on purpose anyway) because of the crocs. We arrived on Monday and spent 5 days skeptically looking for these creatures. Friday afternoon I was in the galley when I heard Mark yelling from the dock.....the following is part of his log for the day.

March 17th ,St Paddys Day
Did I say that the crocodiles were elusive? They may have been.. up until today. The first two we saw on the bike ride through the reserve were behind fences and docile to the point of booooooring.
The third one was tantalizingly close off the docks here in the marina and there was nothing between him and I save for ten feet of water. He was a stout 8 or 9 footer and so incredibly primevil and frightening. We ,that is, the neighbors on White Swan, Liz and I threw some meat chunks at him as he was 3 feet away off the stern of our boat. These he snapped at but didn't seem to grasp. As I shook the head of the deck brush in the water nearby, however , he turned and purposely pursued a straight erie deadly line of attack. He was big and fat and his Stegosaurus like blades and appendages were other worldly. When I touched him on the tail as he was floating away he turned again and went straight for our auxiliary rudder and rammed it with an insolent thud before backing away and looking for more tasty morsels.. Unforgettable...

Gold Coast of Mexico

It's called the Gold Coast because it includes some of the most peaceful and picturesque anchorages between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. Our favorite was Careyes.
A three lobed bay, Careyes is a tropical paradise complete with clear water, sunshine and a beautiful cruiser friendly resort. The only drawback was the swell in the anchorage. It was small and surrounded by rocks. After a little test for Liz and Mark in setting two anchors we were sitting pretty and gazing at the beaches which were mostly deserted. We ended up staying a few days but we never did sleep too well seeing waves breaking over the nearby rocks. This place was wonderful though and worth the extra anchor and little anxiety. The first lobe of the bay is an old abandoned Club Med. It is very dilapidated and we renamed it Club Dead. A sandy unspoiled beach that I am sure saw some wild parties in its day! The middle lobe where we were anchored was Playa Rosa another pristine beach with one lovely palapa restaurant. An amazing path up the cliff led us to the third lobe and the Careyes Resort. The resort is a hotel and condos but the best part is the path. As you start up the hill you are suddenly in an Italian Village surrounded by flowers and trees winding your way through villas painted every bright color. The resort itself was serene but expensive. $17.00 for a hamburger... but even if you did not partake in their expensive menu they welcomed us to sit and enjoy. The pool was refreshing and the view was luscious. The cliffs surrounding all of these beaches are covered with huge mansions many of them for rent. In his fluent Spanish, Mark sweet -talked one caretaker to give us a tour. Above are some pictures from this place. Spectacular. The other big fun in Careyes was the polo match. It seems that this part of Mexico is home to many Italians and one man in particular who owns the hotel decided to build a polo field in the middle of nowhere. We thought we could not pass up this opportunity. One night we hired a driver who drove us to the polo match where we were educated all about polo by the owner of the field. Really cool and then to top it all off there was an Italian restaurant by the polo field where we had dinner with a couple from Minneapolis of all places, that we had met at the match.
There are tons of picures above.

Manzanillo

First of all we just want to say thank you for all the comments everyone. It's so fun to hear from you and we are so glad you find us interesting enough to check in!! If you want a reply please leave your email address and we will try and get back to you in a timely manner. This could be weeks as we never know where our next internet connection is coming from.

We are currently in Manzanillo, Colima Mexico and we have spent the last week anchored in the very calm Los Hadas Bay complete with balmy, hot afternoons and early evenings followed by beautiful cool mornings. Mark has been dragging me out of bed early to go walking which I don't really appreciate until at least 45 mins after I get up. Those of you who know me well, know what a morning person I am not!!! I just take a long time to wake up. But I do love the cool air and it is HOT here after 10am. Phoenix is a dry heat...and yes that is different than 90 degrees and 100% humidity. Above are some pictures of the bay where Scholarship is anchored. We have no immediate plans to leave but our next ports will be the cities of Ixtapa and Zihjuantnejo (glad I don't have to spell correctly to travel there...around here they call it Z-town).
Hasta Luego...xo Liz & Mark

Family Visit..part 1

Can you believe how lucky we were to have everyone here. I feel truly blessed. My Dad and Stepmom, my uncle and their friends. Even my brother flew in from LA for the weekend.
Sailing and partying. Thanks to all of you. Again to those reading this...when are YOU coming to visit?

Family Visit....part 2

These blogs are going to be out of order but I must do them seperately because there are so many photos to share. Puerto Vallarta...wow. We are leaving in the morning after 3 weeks and I wish I had time to tell every great story but I guess it can be told by all the fun pictures. 3 weeks with a large portion of my family and lots of fun friends. And not one spare moment. I can't even remember what book I am reading. The above pictures are of my Mom and my Stepdad. The last one is of my Mom and her cousins who just happen to be in Puerto Vallarta too. How come you weren't?

Guadalajara

Guadalajara .. Colonial Downtown , Revolution and insurgency in the squares. Tequilla in our veins... A new experience for Liz and a revisitation for me who lived a year on these paseos 26years ago!!! Oh how she has grown and changed over the years and yet .. why is it that the downtown cathedrals and palaces , the squares and plazas , seem always to be frozen in time in antiquity....Mark

Since practically my whole family was on their way to Puerto Vallarta to visit , Mark and I arrived in Marina Vallarta and only two days later hopped on a 5 hour bus ride to Guadalajara. Amazingly enough the bus was plush with reclining seats and movie in English with Spanish subtitles, so not only could I understand but I was learning as well. The trip went quick and before we knew it we were smack dab in the middle of the huge bustling city. The downtown was beautiful if not a bit loud and polluted. We found an really cool old hotel that had just been redone. Hotel Morales was at least 100 years old and used to be thee hotel for famous bullfighters and Mexican and Spanish movie stars of yesteryear. After our night in the city we jumped on the city bus to Telacapaque for two night at two different bed and breakfasts. They were wonderful. You walk up to a cement wall and behind it is a little wonderland with beautiful gardens and colorful art. We loved it. Because we live on a boat we did not take much advantage of all there was to buy but it sure was fun looking!! 3 days later we were back on the bus to Puerto Vallarta. I am way behind in the blog but I will get to those pictures soon. liz