Meeting up with the Colwell's!

Our wonderful neighbors from Union, Oregon (high school days - oh my), just happened to be passing through Mazatlan today. How amazing is that? Something even more amazing - we were actually able to find each other. They were on a Princess Cruise, so it involved emails, a phone call, plus a call to the Captain of the Cruise but it all worked out!

We had a short, but very nice visit with Jackie and Bruce. It is always wonderful to share stories about all of the kids, grand kids, and great grand kids. Looking forward to catching up with them again this summer!

Mazatlan Carnaval - Day 6

We survived our first Carnaval and had a wonderful time! If you ever get a chance, check it out for yourselves. The photos of the last parade don't do it justice, but you get the idea...

Mazatlan Carnaval - Day 5

We skipped! We were supposed to go watch the fireworks, but played around the Marina instead.

A round of volleyball at the swim up pool bar. It is harder than looks, but we met some nice folks.

Blackjack at the La Marina bar. Doug actually made it to the finals and won a T-shirt and a bottle of Jose Cuervo (his favorite)!

Three little piggies went to Market...

Pretty bad, huh? But I couldn't resist! We love the Centro Mercado here in Mazatlan.

It is packed full of meats, fish, vegetables, plus clothes, shoes, and anything else you might want or need. We are definitely going back to re-provision the boat. Especially those big shrimp - yummy.

Catedral Basilica de la Purisima Concepcion in Old Town - beautiful!

Mazatlan Carnaval - Day 4

The First Carnival Parade was spectacular - as you can see! Of course, our pictures just couldn't capture it all.

We splurged and purchased seats ($100 pesos) on a stage that was just built that day. Built to code? I don't think so, but they held up all night!

We wandered around for a bit, found a good place to have dinner, and then settled in for the show.

The Malecon was packed with floats, bands, people, and vendors. First was all of the vendor floats and bands - Corona, Pacifico, etc - all with pretty girls. After a very long break, the beautiful lighted floats began. The Malecon is so big, it took awhile for the floats to get to us, but it was worth the wait!

Kids (and adults) love to throw the confetti. My young friend had a big bag of the stuff. By the end of the night, I was covered. I think we will be finding confetti on the boat for a very long time - who knew it could get stuck in all sorts of places!

Mazatlan Carnaval - Day 3

Was muy malo (very bad) - just because of me! I had a flu bug (or something) and missed all of the fun! What we would have seen -

Quema del Mal Humor (Burning of Bad Humor) where a person who is disliked by the general public is built in effigy and burned so that the Bad Humor is chased from the festivities -- at least for a few days.

Combate Naval (Fireworks Battle) a fireworks show that represents the ship-to-shore battle that happened in 1864 when the locals successfully defended the port from the French.

Guess we are going to have to come back next year!

Mazatlan Carnaval - Day 2

We found where Carnaval was happening tonight - a bit of a challenge! This is the Malecon in the Old Historic District - the old Port. They blocked it off and Policia guarded the entrances. There were so many stages and bands setup along the way, we couldn't even count them all.

Busy night ahead - banos (toilets) photographed from the Hotel Freeman Terrace Bar. Caballeros section is wide open; Damas section private toilets!

The Malecon was lined with locals selling all kinds of good things to eat and drink. We chose Al Pastor tacos carved from a spit - great presentation!



We made it until 11pm and the place was just starting to rock. Our favorite spot - an old sporting club where we danced to a couple of local bands - lots of fun!

Mazatlan Carnaval - Day 1

Carnaval started with a free concert in Old Town. Banda El Recodo is a local band that has toured all over making the regional music of Sinaloa famous.

Families and lovers danced, sang, and had a wonderful time. I think we were the only ones that didn't know the songs!

As in carnavals all around the world, lots of food and drink were available and we had our share!

Not all fun and games...

We are actually getting some work done! My chore for the day, scraping the barnacles and other disgusting stuff off the bottom of the dinghy - stinky work!

Judy, this is definitely a BLUE chore - nothing PINK about it!

Doug is messing up the cabin trying to track down a leak he discovered - hope he finds it. We are also having some canvas repairs done and other exciting stuff.

Get our chores done, we get to go play tourist. Wish you here to help!

¡Mazatlan - en el último!

We made it! It took a night in Caleta Lobos, a night in Bahia de Muertos, plus 34 hours to cross the Sea of Cortez but we did it. We had good winds and were able to sail/motor sail for most of the crossing, but had some pretty rough waves for the first half. So, not much sleeping - except for naps in the cockpit.

We saw some beautiful sunsets and sunrises, plus sea lions, whales, and dolphins. The most amazing sight - sailing along at night watching the dolphins lit up by the phosphorescence. They looked ghostly as they dove and jumped around the boat - wish we could have got pictures!

We were pretty pooped when we pulled into Mazatlan, but settled in very quickly. Mazatlan is so different than the Baha - very tropical. Plus, we are staying in the El Cid Marina - a very nice resort. There are two pools (including the swim up bar), a huge hot tub, volleyball, bars, cafes, plus lots more amenities. I think we will be very comfortable here.

We hit two happy hours, the hot tub, and were in bed before 9pm - oh my.

Carnival starts Thursday - yahoo!

See what you miss...

When you sleep in and don't see the sunrise? This beautiful shot of Moondance was taken from a neighbors boat, Indigo, in the Isla San Francisco anchorage with the red cliffs of the island, plus the Sierra de la Giganta's on the Baja Peninsula.

I am sure we were sound asleep in our bunk. Guess we are going to have to catch more sunrises!

Next post will be from Mazatlan. We leave La Paz today and will spend a couple more nights in anchorages along the Baja positioning ourselves for the trip across the Sea of Cortez - 190 nautical miles or 219 land miles.

Adios Amigos!

Back to La Paz!

We had a wonderful time exploring the islands in the Sea of Cortez. The beautiful scenery, clear green water, white beaches, and so much more. This picture sums up our adventure - sitting on a beautiful beach, relaxed, watching the pelicanos, sipping wine... you get the idea. So this is what the cruising life is all about, huh? I think we are going to like it!

Below are several posts with highlights from our trip - check'em out. If you want to see more photos, check out the Scoots Slideshow. Of course, it looks like all we did was goof off, but we actually got some projects done too - big surprise!

We wanted to keep exploring the islands, but had to get back to La Paz to re-provision and wait for a weather window. There is a big Norther heading in this week and we are waiting for a break in the action so that we can head over to mainland Mexico - Mazatlan - just in time for Carnival. At least that is the current plan It is approximately a 36 hour trip, so we want to make sure we don't make it too exciting!

We will be blogging again once we hit Mazatlan - hopefully soon!

San Evaristo

Again, we followed Dot and Brian over to San Evaristo, which is a small fishing village on the Baja Peninsula - another short trip!

This is the first time in 2 weeks that we had been to town. We went wild! Doug found out how to catch fish - with $100 pesos - the easy way. Plus, they even cleaned and filleted it. What a deal!

We also stopped by the tienda (store) to purchase some fresh produce and other necessities. We were impressed by the quality and quantity of produce. Seems we came just after the delivery truck. Couldn't believe they didn't have any beer in town though - how strange is that?

We hiked outside of town to check out the salt ponds - big business around here. As you can see, dodging cows, bulls, and donkeys along the way. The local folks just stare at us as we take photos of the strangest things - silly Americanos!

It has been great buddy boating with Dot and Brian, but tomorrow we are splitting up. They are heading north; we are heading south. We have had a great time and are really going to miss them - lots of memories, food, drink, and 42.

We promised to meet again soon - even if we have to go to Squim, Washington!

Isla San Jose - Punta Salinas

We tagged along with Dot and Brian from Rainshadow and motored over to Isla San Jose and anchored at Punta Salinas - a very short trip. It is a big bay with ruins from an old salt mining operation. Looks like they left in a hurry - lots of good junk left behind!

During the day, we all loaded up the dinghy's and went for a long ride over to the lagoons at Bahia Amortajada - what an adventure it was. It was low tide, so we had to get very creative. As you can see, I was on the luxury cruise - Doug did all of the hard work!

Once we got passed the entrance, the lagoon opened up and we had a great time exploring the lagoon and the beaches.

The lagoon had lots of wildlife and lots of bugs. The rock beach had lots of shells and bugs, plus it had evidence of past hurricanes (or something violent) washing coral, lobsters, crabs, and other interesting stuff ashore. Wish we could have found the lobster hole - yum!

Just on the other side of the lagoon was beautiful clear water. Without getting wet, we could watch the starfish, an eel, and other cool stuff float by.

The dingy ride back was a little wet and choppy, the bugs left their marks, but it was all worth the trip!

PS: Did I mention the bugs? We got eaten up by the no-seeums (jejenes) itch, itch, itch!

Superbowl - Go Steelers!

As you can see, Doug was really enjoying the Superbowl game and having fun torturing the Cardinal fans! Rainshadow invited a bunch of the gang at Isla San Francisco over to "listen" to the game on Sirius radio. Pretty amazing - no civilization for miles, but we got the Game!

We really had to pay attention to this one - the announcers were bad, plus we didn't have the replays. I don't think we ever listened to a whole game before!

It was also a wonderful way to meet more fellow sailors - as you can see!

Most challenging part - finding a place to tie up your dinghy!