Back to Banderas Bay…and off to Mexico City!

Once again it’s been a looooong while since a blog post; it is time to catch up.  I have no excuse now too because we are hanging out in La Cruz for way longer than we expected.  Lots has happened since we left off on the Gold Coast.  

After about two months bouncing between Tenecatita and Barra de Navidad, we started to make our way north in early March.  First we went to Bahia Chamela, which turned out to be a lovely anchorage and maybe my favorite beach on the whole trip.  It seemed to be the least gringo-fied area we had encountered, and the white sand beach went on for miles.  It was a bit of a rolly anchorage at first due to a southerly swell, but that calmed down after a day or so.  We also spent an afternoon snorkeling and playing on the beach in the islands within Bahia Chamela with our friends on SV Tiamat, which was lovely.  Gorgeous scenery too!  Really rugged islands with cactus poking out on all sides.  Very pirate-y.    I wish we could have spent a bit more time there.  

After about three days in Chamela, it was time to head north, back around the dreaded Cabo Corrientes (Cape of Currents).  We had no real experience bashing back into northerly wind and swell – and it was a bit of a baptism by fire shall we say.  We left at about 9pm, and while the wind had died down, the swell certainly had not.  We were motoring along at about 6 knots, but we probably should have been going less than 5.  We were bucking up and down like a rodeo bronco.  Before long, the kayak and paddleboard went over the side.  Fortunately they were still attached to the boat, so we managed to secure them.  Jeff and I decided we would both stay in the cockpit, rather than take our turns going down below to sleep as we normally do during night passages.  It just seemed too rocky and rolly.

We were making decent headway motoring directly into the wind until about 5am, just about 15 miles south of Banderas Bay, when our engine shut off.  We got the sails up and then tried to start the engine again.  It started, but then died.  And again – and again.  Argh!   From 5am to about 11am we crawled around Cabo Corrientes, until the wind picked up and we were able to motor at about 3 knots, pinching the wind.  Looking back, we think that we had some gunk that got stuck in our fuel line that was stirred up due to the severe rocking of the boat.  We haven’t had any other issues with the engine since we have returned, but we have installed new fuel filters to be on the safe side.  

Once we finally rounded the cape, we were becalmed for about two or three hours near Yelapa. Yay! For a while I thought we would be bobbing around Banderas Bay all night.  But finally, we found some wind and we sailed into the La Cruz anchorage at a good clip.  We arrived around 5pm, and immediately went out to tacos with all of our friends.  I was very, very tired, but also very, very happy to have that crazy passage over with. 

We spent a few days in La Cruz catching up with our friends who were getting ready to set off to the South Pacific (and who are already there as I write this – woohoo!).  Then we flew to Mexico City, which was definitely a highlight of our entire trip.  What a fantastic city!  I just can’t say enough about what an interesting, artistic, clean, affordable, cosmopolitan city it is.  We had a great AirBnB in Zona Rosa, which allowed us to walk to many places, and was surprisingly, a great place for Korean BBQ, which was absolutely our first dinner out – lol.

 Our first full day we went to Centro and explored the Templo Mayor, which seems to be ground zero for Mexico.  It is a major archeological site right in the heart of the city.  We also saw the enormous Zocalo with its gigantic Mexican flag.  From there we walked to the Alameda Park and the Diego Rivera Mural Museum.  Just lovely. 

The next day we headed to Teotihuacan, the ancient pyramids about an hour’s bus ride out of the city.  The bus ride itself was interesting as we saw just how vast the urban sprawl is around the city, colorful buildings climbing up mountains and through valleys for miles.   Teotihuacan was fascinating, and enormous.   We walked by the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Pyramid of the Sun, and the Pyramid of the Moon.  Definitely an awe-inspiring, beautiful place.  

The next few days we enjoyed some time just being in a city and some non-boat life.  I took MANY hot showers and enjoyed more than a little time reading in a big bed.  Jeff and Josie rented a scooter and went to a library cafe.  Josie did a great job researching interesting art galleries and cafes and we went to quite a few – this was an unexpected highlight of the trip!  We were a little disappointed that we couldn’t get tickets for the Frida Kahlo Museum (hot tip – you need to buy them several days in advance!),  but we did go to the Modern Art Museum in Bosque Chapultepec ], which was lovely and has the famous “Two Fridas” painting.  

Another day we went to the largest mall in Mexico, Centro Santa Fe, which had a skating rink (!).  So yes, we all went ice skating in  Mexico City.  What a world!  After the mall we headed to Xochilmilco, which is a very unique spot and slightly hard to explain.  It is basically a series of ancient canals where you can hire brightly colored boats to take you and friends for a picnic on the water and listen to some mariachi…  It was super fun, but we were probably squeezing too much into an already busy day … after all, we had already been ice skating 😉 

The next day, we toured the Museo de Antropologia, the massive history museum, also in Bosque Chapultepec.  Another incredible experience!  The building itself is spectacular, with its enormous courtyard and towering fountain.  Each hall covers an aspect of Mexico’s history, weaving inside and outside exhibits.  Having visited Teotihuacan just days earlier made it especially interesting as well, as they had an entire hall dedicated to it.  I was really amazed at how both Josie and LouLou spent five hours captivated by the entire museum.  

The next day it was time to head back to the airport to fly to Houston!  Why Houston, you might ask?  Well we technically needed to leave the country to reinstate our 180-day tourist visa, but unfortunately, when we returned to Mexico two days later, no one even looked at our passports.  Apparently they don’t do the paper visas anymore, and everything is tracked digitally via the passports…  I’m not so sure!  Anyhow, Houston was the closest (and cheapest) city to fly to renew – AND we got to check out the awesome Houston Space Center while we were there.  We also stocked up on snacks from Trader Joe’s.  Maybe not equally important ventures, but both were quite satisfying 🙂  

We returned to La Cruz later in March intending to head north within a week of our return, but we are slow.  We have been working on a few boat projects, plus we have been waiting for a decent weather window that will allow us to visit Isla Isabella on our way north.  We’ve also done some deep provisioning so we are ready for two months up in the Sea of Cortez.  And some friends we hadn’t seen finally arrived…and it’s almost Easter…

Next stop – the Sea of Cortez!  I can’t wait to get there.