Banderas Bay



La Cruz

The Fish Market - La Cruz

Marina de La Cruz

Big Hotels - Banderas Bay

The Channel into Paradise Village

We departed San Blas on December 27^th and headed for Banderas Bay, one of the largest natural deep water bays in Mexico popular for whale watching.  Indeed, we saw several Humpback whales slapping their flippers on the water creating quite a commotion; one guy launched straight out of the water, twisting around and coming down on his back with a huge splash.  Of course the camera is never ready at the appropriate time but perhaps I’ll have another chance.  Banderas Bay is also popular for its beaches, large seaside hotels, and golf courses.  Located within Banderas Bay are the communities of La Cruz, Bucerias, Nuevo Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, and several villages situated on the south end of the Bay.  After nine hours of motoring from San Blas, we arrived at La Cruz around 5pm, or should I say 6pm?  A time zone change occurs between Nuevo Vallarta and Puerto Vallarta causing some confusion.  After checking in at Marina de La Cruz, we discovered that the marina uses Puerto Vallarta time even though the marina is not officially in that time zone.  We weren’t sure if the town of La Cruz followed the same practice but we set our clocks one hour ahead anyway.  It didn’t seem to matter since we would soon be in the new time zone and who cares when you’re on vacation! We walked into town and stopped at a cute coffee shop, the community park, and the open-air fish market near the marina.  The small town of La Cruz consists mostly of stone streets with a few modern buildings tucked among the older establishments.  After a couple nights stay, we were off to Nuevo Vallarta to meet our friends and cousin Susan and Chris, along with their friends Tammy and Gary.  They all arrived by air from the Pacific Northwest ready for some warm weather relaxation.  By coincidence, they were staying at Paradise Village, the same hotel and marina complex where we were staying.  The Village is located right next to the beach with plenty of recliner chairs for sunbathing and relaxing, or you can use the swimming pools, one of which has slides shaped like alligators, a favorite among the children.  The more adventurous can have a turn at parasailing high above the ocean or go scuba diving below.  Since we had arrived on the same day as our friends, we decided to get together for dinner that evening.  We so much enjoyed their company and hearing about their latest travels and adventures.  The following day was our chore day:  washing the boat, doing laundry, and buying groceries via the city bus.


Beach at Paradise Village - Nuevo Vallarta

Getting Ready to Parasail

Fun Alligator Slides

Paradise Village Pool and Hotel - Nuevo Vallarta

Feliz Navidad



Beach Palapa

Palapa Restaurants serve Great Food

Huts for the Surfers

A Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family back home and to family overseas.  No doubt 2012 will be remembered as “the electronic Christmas.”  It was great to see and talk to our family from various locations through a SKYPE computer connection and to see all our grandchildren - the best kind of gift to receive!  On Christmas Day we rode our bicycles to the beach for a walk in the sand, a nice change from the snows up north.  What a busy place at the beach!  It seemed like everyone from the community had gathered there.  The beach side palapa restaurants were filled to capacity, teenage boys were surfing the big waves, and children were playing at the beach with their families.  A local vaquero (cowboy) was offering horseback rides as a special treat for a small fee.  During the 1960’s, Hollywood movie stars had a brief interest in this beach when actor Lee Marvin discovered the area for fishing and had stayed at the once elegant Playa Hermosa hotel built in 1951.  The hotel is no longer, but today the beach is lined with a number of palapa restaurants and is a popular place for surfing.  “Beach boys” from California come here to vacation and the local Surf Club rents huts located right on the beach for overnight stays.  After walking through the soft sand, we headed back to the boat to cook dinner, stopping at a panaderia for some freshly baked Christmas bread.  We had purchased a partially cooked, stuffed turkey from Sam’s Club (similar to Costco) when in Mazatlan so we had the makings of a real Christmas dinner including potatoes, gravy, and cranberries.  The day finished with a beautiful sunset!


Horseback Rides at the Beach

Father and Son at the Beach

Willet

Bougainvillea Flowers

A stop at the Panaderia



A Beautiful Sunset

A Jungle Tour



Tour Pangas

Estuary of San Cristobal

A Crocodile Encounter

Egret

San Blas has a truly unique tropical setting tucked among the estuaries of Estero del Pozo and Estero de San Cristobal, home to over 300 species of birds with a rich ecosystem of fish, wild crocodiles, turtles, and iguanas that live and nest throughout the lush mangroves.  On the day before Christmas, we took a taxi to the tiny village of Mantanchen near San Blas – tour pangas depart from the village taking visitors through the narrow, winding estuary of San Cristobal.  It looked a lot like the jungle tour in Disneyland, except the ride was much longer and the birds and animals were for real!  Numerous crocodiles and turtles were sunning themselves on the rocks and in the underbrush, while iguanas and birds scurried through the tree tops overhead.  Our panga driver stopped several times so we could get a good look at the wildlife - we were careful to keep our appendages inside the boat!    Half way into the trip we came upon three huts built on stilts, it was a movie set made for the 1991 Cabeza de Vaca movie.  The film is about the adventures of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1490-1557), an early Spanish explorer, one of four survivors of the Narvaez expedition and shipwreck.  He became known as a shaman among the Native American tribes who had helped him survive.  His journey began in 1528 and after his return to Spain he published his journal in 1542 – the screenplay is based on the journal.  We continued our trip up the estuary swerving around interesting mangrove root systems growing out of the water, while making sure to duck underneath the overhanging branches so as not to lose our heads!  Our next stop was at the wildlife refuge and crocodile breeding center.  Here we saw enormous crocodiles behind fences with their own private swimming pools; another section housed tiny little baby crocodiles that sat under heat lamps to keep warm.  We spent about 20 minutes admiring these prehistoric looking creatures and then it was back in the panga for a ride to La Tovara, a fresh water spring and swimming hole.  No worries, it’s fenced off so the crocodiles can’t get in.  “La Tovara” is an Indian word for “sweet water” and the springs are still used today as a source of water for the local communities.  There’s a cute jungle café situated next to the swimming hole so we ordered some shrimp tacos, salad, and a refreshing Pina Colada.  We spent about an hour at La Tovara watching people swim in the beautiful clear water; there’s even a rope swing and diving platform where kids can play Tarzan.  The panga ride back to the village of Mantanchen was equally exciting.  Instead of the earlier more leisurely pace, our driver sped through the estuary like a thrilling amusement ride with the boat tilting around the corners!  He seemed to know how to avoid any head-on collisions with pangas coming the other direction; guess Mexico doesn't worry too much about liability issues.  Just the same, the tour was great fun and definitely worth the excursion fee.



A Movie Set

Anhinga

A Butterfly Says Hello

Turtle Friends

 A Giant Crocodile at the Refuge Center  

The Swimming Hole

A Cafe in the Jungle

The Historic Role of San Blas

 



Ruins - Templo de la Virgen del Rosario Church



Ruins del Rosario Church

Ruins del Rosario Church

Templo de la Virgen del Rosario Church

Fort Museum atop Cerro de San Basilio

Fort Ruins

One of Several Cannons that Protected the Town and Valley Below

After a short rest from our long cruise from Mazatlan to San Blas as noted in the previous blog, we found the energy to tour the town including the historic site on top of Cerro de San Basilio about a mile from the center of town.  It was from atop this hill that the original accounting office and fort was built in 1770, named La Contaduria.  Also at this site are the ruins of the Templo de la Virgen del Rosario Church built in 1769, which remained active until 1872.  When the aging bronze bells were removed from the belfry, this sad event is said to have inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to write the poem, “The Bells of San Blas.”  The founding of San Blas began in 1530 when Nuio de Guzman and his Spanish conquistadors landed on the mangrove lined shores; however, the official date of founding is 1768 when Don Manuel Rivera and 116 families arrived on the order of the Viceroy of New Span.  The fort atop the hill served as a defense for the town’s extensive sea trade with the Philippines and provided logistical support for the Franciscan missions of Alta California.  San Blas also became the base for Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest.  From 1789-1795 San Blas was responsible for establishing and maintaining the Spanish post of Fort San Miguel at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound and the Nootka Sound settlement of Santa Cruz de Nuca, the first colony in British Columbia.  At its height, San Blas had 30,000 inhabitants and was one of the busiest ports and shipbuilding centers on the American Pacific Coast rivaling Acapulco.  Today, the small fishing town of San Blas has 12,000 people with a new focus on tourism.  After the Spanish-American War, the once busy port went into decline, plagued by many of the same challenges it faces today, the shifting sand bar, silting from nearby Rio Grande de Santiago, and a humid tropical climate with mangrove swamps that surround the town producing annoying insects.  The location of San Blas was useful and logical, however, because it minimized travel time from Guadalajara and Mexico City without increasing the total distance to the California’s.  The area also had a plentiful supply of hardwoods for ship building and repair plus a year-round supply of fresh water from a spring.  In spite of the changes over time, San Blas retains the heart and soul of a self-reliant, friendly people who enjoy the simple things in life.

Fort Museum

Fort Defenses

San Blas – Quintessential Mexico

 

 

 



The Old Customs House

One of Several Stone Roadways

 

Underground Utilities Being Installed

San Blas perhaps best expresses the heart and soul of the Mexican people and is the quintessential Mexican town made up of historic buildings, stone streets, and modest homes.  The regional government of Nayarit recently allocated 135 million pesos for improvements in San Blas including underground wires, renovation of the historic district, and improvements to the port to accommodate small cruise ships.  As we walked through town, we found evidence that work has begun; a major street was torn up for the placement of underground utilities and dirt was piled along the storefronts.  The mess didn’t keep people from going about their business however as the town was alive with folks shopping by foot, bicycle, and moped.  Trucks were busy making deliveries and families arrived in town by car for some last minute holiday shopping.  Of course we sought out the Mercado and Panaderia which are always among our favorite stops followed by a visit to the central plaza and church.  We also visited the old customs building, which now serves as the town’s cultural center.  The first maritime customs house on the Pacific for New Spain was established at San Blas to control shipping of merchandise through the port.  San Blas indeed has an interesting history and there is much to see and do, making it a likely candidate for small cruise boats in the near future.  Hopefully there will be better charts for navigation which seem to be lacking as we discovered!  After 20-hours of motoring from Mazatlan to San Blas, we were faced with several challenges, the first of which was avoiding the many fishing nets hidden below the water strung from numerous pangas.  After skirting around the field of panga boats, we discovered that the charts for the entrance into the estuary (Estero El Pozo) to be incomplete or inaccurate.  We normally use two sets of charts, one set on our Personal Computer and another set on the boat’s Raymarine electronic system.  The chart on our PC lacked detail to be helpful and our Raymarine chart plotter had detail but was offset by nearly two miles, making our GPS worthless.  We ended up using visual cues and a paper chart found in one of our guidebooks.  Thanks to the reference material in “Pacific Mexico,” a cruising guide written by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer, we were able to sort it all out.  We arrived at San Blas in the morning as planned and were glad we did; we surely would not have found the entrance in the dark!


At the Market

At the Central Market

Central Plaza - San Blas

Old Church (on left), New Church (on right)

Pretty Church Interior

A Town of Contrasts



Children's Choir - a photo with Santa

Cute Children Clapping and Singing

Christmas Lights in Town Square

Families enjoying dinner in Old Town Mazatlan

We enjoyed some pre-holiday celebrations before departing Mazatlan, including a Christmas Sing-a-Long for gringos in “Old Town.”  It seemed strange singing “Frosty the Snowman” and “White Christmas” while wearing shorts and T-shirts.  Santa was there too, he was wearing sunglasses, sporting his usual red suite which no doubt kept him uncomfortably warm even during the evening hours. The town square was decorated with Christmas lights and children from the local orphanage sang Christmas carols in front of the lovely colonial-style Art Museum.  Arts and crafts were available for purchase along with food vendors.  Proceeds went towards benefiting the children’s choir so we purchased a homemade apple pie and some yummy Jalapeno preserves.  The children in the choir were absolutely adorable, clapping their hands and singing carols, looking longingly into the crowd for someone to call their own. – I wanted to take them all home with me.  My thoughts for them stood in contrast to those more fortunate who live in lovely homes along the canals of Mazatlan.  We had taken our dinghy down the channel from Marina El Cid and discovered a labyrinth of canals similar to Newport Shores in Bellevue, Washington.  The estuary and man-made canals are lined with beautiful homes and condominiums.  Areas left in their natural state attract various species of birds and we saw iguanas hiding in the trees and sunning themselves on the rocks.  On our last day in Mazatlan, I was invited to a lady’s tea party aboard one of the neighboring sailboats.  It was a nice gathering of women from all over the U.S., Canada, and even Australia – a fun old-fashioned cookies and tea tradition with shared memories of home and family.





Canals of Mazatlan

 Beautiful Homes on the Canals

Iguana Hiding in the Tree

Two Female Iguanas



Male with Two Female Iguanas