December 22th – La Cruz – Jim’s Blog #10

[Be sure to check out the newly-added movie clip of the dolphins on the previous blog - #9]

When last we reported our progress, we were planning a sailing trip out into Banderas Bay to see some whales and at the same time, make some more potable water with our water maker and dump out the holding tank way offshore – the latter two actions were needed because the marina doesn’t offer those services as yet. We did our best to find whales by going to the area where they were said to be, by following the whale-watching boats, and by observing bird activity (which follow the fish that follow the smaller fish that feed off the plankton that whales also eat) – all to no avail. Our four-hour excursion yielded no whales, although we did accomplish the other purposes for our trip. Then, after we had tied up to the dock, we heard that whales had been sighted just outside the marina while we were away looking for them. Isn’t there some rule about being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Thursday we attended a local Spanish class and were given a recommendation on a book we should get that the class will be using, Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish; so we hustled off by bus to Nuevo Vallarta to get the book and check out some more of the area. We missed the bus stop and found ourselves back in the same area we were in before, Puerto Vallarta. Turning lemons into lemonade, we took the opportunity to check out Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and a large new mall across from where the cruise ships tie up. Sam’s club on Thursday afternoon was similar to a Costco on Saturday, with very determined senoras jockeying their carts for positions in the checkout line. As we stood in line, we suddenly had two other shoppers insert their carts in front of us. Unsure of whether we had misunderstood the concept of first-come-first-served, or whether there was another concept we were unfamiliar with – such as locals-take-precedence-in-line – we abandoned our cart and tried Wal-Mart.

At Wal-Mart we got a few things we needed and thought we could carry with us on the bus – no cases of beer, no heavy items, and no bulky items – and had no difficulty with the checkout lines. As we were loading our packages into our backpacks, we ran into the owner of the boat next to us in the marina who owned a car. He already had a full load of cruisers (cruisers with cars often advertise on the morning radio net that they are going somewhere that day and offer to take other cruisers with them), but they offered to carry our packages with them. This allowed us to go into the mall without checking our packages at every store we came to, but the mall was definitely priced for the ocean liner passengers, so we bailed out and took the bus back. Now we have made most of the errors you can make when riding local buses, but this was a first for us. We got on a bus with minimal (if any) rear suspension and a bus driver who took the speed bumps as challenges to his forward speed. Naturally we took the only seats, which were in the back of the bus, and were entertained with a Disneyland-like E-Ticket ride for the next 30 minutes.

On Friday we decided to take a bus to a remote village north of Banderas Bay, called Sayulita, that was mentioned in the local marketing literature as a good surfing spot. Two other couples decided to come along; so we started off on a new bus adventure. I guess you could say that this blog is more or less a bus-riding blog. In this case we needed to take a bus in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go until we reached a fork in the road. There we got off the bus, ran across the freeway during a break in the traffic, and boarded the bus that would get us there. This bus driver must have been on probationary status for not being on time, because he seemed to take it as a personal affront every time he had to stop and pick up passengers – reminding one of the saying “wouldn’t business be great, if we didn’t have to deal with customers!” He also felt that he had to go as fast as his gears would allow him on a two-lane mountain road. Halfway there we slowed slightly for a car that had been demolished by a semi-truck alongside the road; so this E-Ticket ride suddenly got serious.

The beach at Sayulita

We made it okay and stepped out into a quaint village that reminded us of Carmel – a lot of pricey stores and restaurants, cleaner than any village so far, where the tourists outnumbered the locals by at least ten to one. In this case the shops seemed to be run by ex-patriots, while the locals hawked their wares on the beach or in small stalls at the other end of town – with notable differences in prices. With two major cruise ships in town, a large number of their passengers must have picked Sayulita to “get in touch with the real Mexico.” It was a bit disappointing to us, since the cost of a lounge chair on the beach was 150 pesos a day ($15) rather than the cost of a beer or two that we were used to paying in the real Mexican villages.

On the way back we found that luck (?) was with us, as we got the same driver as before for the return trip; so we got the added thrill of having him pass a semi-trailer rig going uphill on the same two-lane road where we had seen the accident before. In this case he crossed two solid yellow lines to do so – yes the dotted lines allow for passing here in Mexico, as they do in the U.S., not the solid yellow lines. We barely sneaked back in front of the semi before nearly wiping out the suddenly-appearing lead car in the oncoming traffic. Just a few kilometers later, we were stopped for about thirty minutes with a mile-long line of traffic, as some heavy-duty tow vehicles were attempting to pull the truck and car from the earlier collision back on the road. We have to admit that riding the buses here in Mexico has added a thrill to our lives that we had been missing all these years.

Finally on Saturday we took another bus ride into Nueva Vallarta and learned that the bus schedules are less frequent on weekends. As a result we ended up walking a couple of miles before we finally succumbed to a taxi to get where we were going. I’m sure we will finally figure out the system as soon as we are ready to leave.

The last two nights we have been treated to live music at two restaurants in the little town of La Cruz. The first was open-mike night at Philo’s Restaurant, which serves pizza and ribs on Thursday nights. In addition to excellent food and Margaritas, we got to hear Jimmy-Buffett-like live music for several hours, along with a stand-up comic from Great Britain, and a number of other musicians who did quite well as far as our limited ability to assess good music could judge. Friday we went to the only German restaurant in town, where we heard two very good Flamenco guitarists, a man and his wife, Latcho and Andrea, who make the rounds in Mexico. We realized as we left the restaurant that so far we have heard more live music in the nearly two months of our cruise than we had heard in the past 20 years or so.

Here's a good picture of the lovely Sheilagh at Sayulita

Christmas is fast upon us and we will not be following the family traditions we have been keeping for the last 30+ years. We will not be seeing any of our daughters and their families this Christmas, but are communicating regularly by Skype (a computer-driven phone service that costs about $.02 a minute). I plan to send a message to everyone with known email addresses on Christmas Day, letting everyone know what we are up to. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. More later . . .