Susan, Sequoia, and Todd go sailing

We anchored in the Barra de Navidad lagoon for a little over a week. We had a great time hanging out at the cruiser-friendly Sands Hotel, walking on the beach, and visiting the nearby town of Melaque, all in the company of other “kid boats”. It’s great when Koiya has other kids to play with, and fun for us all to have excursion buddies.

One quaint aspect of Barra is the French Baker, who tours the marina and lagoon in a panga (small boat) every morning, delivering freshly-made croissants, pies and baguettes. He gets on the radio and announces, his location in his fabulous French accent, “‘Ello, dis is your Frrench Bake-ah, entering de lah-goon”. Though spendy, we couldn’t resist treating ourselves once!

Almost every afternoon, we ended up at the Sands Hotel. The kids loved it for the pool, playing Marco Polo and just messing around. The adults loved the cheap wireless internet ($2/day) and the bar (2-for-1 drinks). The 2-for-1 drinks encouraged socializing, as we always wanted to find someone to split with… that is, until Capn Coupon’s Spanish miraculously improved, and he convinced the bartender to let him pay for two Pacificos, take one cold, and get a slip of paper to redeem for the second (so it wouldn’t get warm while he drank the first one). (more…)

I was a bit put out when we got to Mexico and realized how many Canadians are running around down here. After all, Mexico is our neighbor, not theirs! Who invited them to the party? But, being the tolerant, loving person that I am, I was satisfied with just occasionally throwing empty beer cans and other assorted trash into their dinghies.

Then, when my brother’s family was visiting in Nuevo Vallarta, my sports-crazed nephews were channel-surfing. You’ll never guess what they decided to watch. Not soccer, not Sabado Gigante, but… Women’s Curling! Alberta vs. Manitoba! What the hell was going on?! Had we stumbled onto the dark tendrils of an evil Canadian plot? While America was out protecting democracy in the world, was Canada scheming right under our noses, hoping to turn our amigos against us? Maybe the real threat was not “al Qaida”, but “al Canaida”? (more…)

OK, we admit that we were a bit disappointed when we first pulled into Bahia Tenacatita. Sure, it’s pretty, but we’ve seen a lot of palm trees and sandy beaches in Mexico. The problem was, our friends on Imagine had been in Tenacatita in January, and they reported that the sea was “like bath water”. We were ready for that! So when we dropped anchor and tested the water, finding it to be about 68 degrees F, well… I think my exact words were, “What the hell kind of baths are they taking on Imagine? Are we talking ice baths?”

On top of that, the nearest place to buy groceries was a long dinghy ride away. Sure, it was through some cool mangroves, with beautiful herons and jumping fish, but we didn’t even see any crocs on the way. Sheesh! And the lack of internet access? Don’t even get me started!

I think we first started to warm up to the place when we parked ourselves in the palapa and discovered they had 12 peso beers, which you could sip while you took in the view of the anchorage. Plus, the swell was up, so watching people land their dinghies in the surf was very entertaining! We decided that maybe we could stay a few days… (more…)