New cruising season starting! - Off to Zihuatanejo, Acapulco and Huatulco etc.! - 2013

Beginning of November 2013 - Currently in Paradise Village Marina in Banderas Bay Mexico
So I am sitting in the stateroom with the Mermaid Marine Air, A/C (HVAC) on and am typing away. It is Sunday and our day off from boat projects.  I have a groin pull so I am trying to take it easy.

 It is November now and the marina rates are up for the high season. We are also itching to get off the dock and head to anchorage. We are thinking a week in La Cruz anchorage then off to Yelapa to catch a mooring ball for a day or so and then round Cabo Corientess.  Then we will cruise down the Mexican Riviera till we get to Huatulco, Mexico.  We will be making many stops (some familiar from last season, some new ones) and anchoring at them along the way.

 Another super yacht arrived at Paradise Village Marina today and there are 50 or so more coming in November, so we hear from the dock workers. Also the new batch of Baja Ha Ha boats will be a coming down also. This means that the marina life will change. We have enjoyed having the place pretty much to ourselves. Not any more, kids, dogs and lots of stereos and partying will be going on soon. Been there, done that and we do not need it on a daily basis.  Being here in the off season has had its advantages. First off the prices are a lot less. Now even the street side roasted chickens have gone up in price three times already! We have also met some locals and made some friends with them…some gringos and natives too. We have learned our way around and even gotten a little Spanish down, or Debbie has any way, me not so much but I am working on it. We have gotten a lot of projects finished off that we left un-done from before the Ha Ha sent us off. We think now our boat is more comfortable and we have done the upgrades we found we wanted from last cruising season.

 We have decided we really like the Paradise Village Marina and will be summering over here next year. We have lived in real comfort here this summer. We like the four big pools and the beautiful fully equipped beach. That means it supplies all the chairs, lounges, tables, matts, shade palapas and even surf and boogie boards for free. We just bring our Kindles and some snacks (or could buy from Paradise but we save the dime).

There are plenty of comfortable A/C places to be for free with free Wi-Fi and the bathrooms are all nice and clean and with A/C. On and on it goes. We are a quick 20 min bus ride to downtown PV and we have gone there quite often. Also to Bucerias, Aramara, Pitillal, and Mezcales- real authentic Mexican towns a close bus ride away. Pitillal has been a favorite Friday night place.

We go to the movies and there are lots of English- speaking movies with Spanish subtitles here. Really nice theaters too.

We also like the fact that once you leave the dock there is shade everywhere. You step on land and you are under palm trees or some other shade.

Also there are to chandleries here at the Paradise Village marina making the project a lot easier. They can also order items from the US.

 So now we are getting ready to let go of the endless hot water and long beautiful showers here. Having ice cream on the boat will be a thing of the past till next summer. We can now buy it here and carry it to the boat where our freezer keeps it nice and frozen. The freezer would still freeze it but it will no longer make it to the boat frozen 😟 So life changes but it will also have lots of things we like. We like the wild life at anchor - the sound of the waves on the beach, the cool little towns all along the Riviera with the nice people. The new and current cruisers that we will meet and some we will see again. New places we will go like Acapulco and Zihuatanejo and Huatulco etc.!

 So in a week or so we set sail for the anchorage and we hope to be at anchor 9 days out of every 10. That is about how it worked last season. Almost 6 months on the hook and loving it!

 We love the beaches here in the Riviera, they are clean and offer plenty of a pure Mexican delight of fresh fish at the palapa beach side restaurants with the coconut drinks and the friendly town squares. This season we hope to do more local land base trips in each anchorage, exploring the country side. We are excited and ready to sail soon!

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