After about a five minute discussion and finally turning on the computer I found out it is January 31 the end of the month. That makes it almost 3 weeks since I have updated our blog and written most of our friends. After leaving Chacala we headed to La Cruz. On the way we stop for overnight at Punta Mita. It was a very open anchorage with not much going on for us to even take the dingy down. The town itself is most a resort and a golf course. It was an 8 mile run to La Cruz the next day. La Cruz is a great little town with all the ambience that Mexico can offer. The streets are paved with round stone. They all have a pattern that we have become accustom to. Being made with round rock and not flat cobblestone it is very difficult to walk for any distance with out hurting some part of your foot. The stones are simply laid in sand and dirt. The homes in the town range from million dollar beach front homes to shambles that look similar to deer camp on a bad day. The most troublesome part of all of this old world town is that a brand new large marina is being built right on old beach front land. Docks and shops now stand where once beautiful beaches once settled behind some million dollar homes. No longer are they beach front properties, and their only view is parking lots and store fronts. What a shame because I can only imagine the whole town will slowly change from a small Mexican community to a commercial tourist town. Starting at the waterfront then moving back towards the hills surrounding this nice Mexican town. The highlights of La Cruz for us during our stay was open mic at both Philo's and Britiania, and a 6 hour Mexican Train domino game aboard Rosebud from Portland. Philo's is the local cruisers hangout with $2 beers and $7.50 hamburgers. Not exactly old world Mexico food or pricing. The local talent in La Cruz was well worth the price. After 6 days we got tired of the rolly anchorage so we followed Hiatus over to Nuevo Vallarta. Nothing was available at the docks so we tied between two old dock pilings for $9.00 a night. It wasn't great but at least we weren't rolling, and Helen appreciated the showers. We spent 5 nights tied to the pilings mostly just exploring Puerto Vallarta and re provisioning. We didn't make it to old town but everything else we saw was just big city tourist town. I was glad to leave, but we had one last fantastic adventure that we did no expect. On our last night we snuck onto the beach in front of some very exclusive resorts. Walked about 200yrds down the beach and had a very moving experience. We were able to take part in the release of about 250 one day old indangered sea turtles. The eggs had been collect about 45 to 60 days prior and buried in a protected makeshift nest. They had just hatched that morning and were waiting for us to help coax them towards the sea. They didn't need any coaxing the turned straight for the sea and made their move. Our job was to help those wayward turtles that either were taking a side trip or just needed a little extra push so they could make it to the water with still enough energy to maybe survive the first couple of hours let alone days. They estimate that only one in a hundred survive to come back and either breed or lay eggs. It was totally cool. I have some great pictures and film footage to put on the blog when I get a chance.
The next day we left headed for Chamela after a short rest stop in La Cruz. The trip to Chamela was an all night trip and because of strong currents and sloppy waves it took us 21 hrs to travel the 100 miles. The trip was filled with whale sittings, dolphins playing at our bow, but no fish took my hook. We are finally in tropical weather. 85' and water temperature of 80. WOW
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