SPRING BREAK FOR SENIORS

April 2008

When we were home, we were asked what cruising Mexico is like and I told friends that it was sort of like Spring Break for 50 year olds! It’s fun, it’s social and silly, and you know it’s a special time in your life…

It was great getting back to Barra as so many neat people were still there on their boats, and more still arriving. Fellow Selener’s Les and Rose on our Buddy Boat Voyager arrived just a few hours after we did from a few weeks in Cozumel (their vacation from this endless vacation!). And the YB’s, John & Kathy finally caught up, we’d not seen them since the end of the FUBAR in November. They had a welcome home dinner for all of us on their beautiful Mystic Moon. We swapped tales and heard about the fun we were going to have over the next three weeks cruising with them. They will be going north and spending the summer in the Sea of Cortez, so conceivably, this is the last time we three Selene’s would be able to cruise together. We had to make the most of it!

Kathy had made big plans for a memorable St. Patrick’s Day in nearby, almost Irish Melaque (it’s original name was San Patricio after all). It was one of the wackiest we’ve had in a long time… After an extended happy hour on Panchita with lots of cruisers, we made our way to Melaque and enjoyed dinner at a new restaurant overlooking the square, then went to the bull ring to watch rather bizarre rodeo events, not bull fights, and back to the zocolo, the town square where a large crowd had gathered to watch the fireworks. Then, at about 11PM we heard screams of “RUN” (universal language) and saw a young man, with a bull like headdress and upper body frame with spinning, lit fireworks nailed on, run thru the crowd in a charging bull stance…these fireworks were spinning off and flying into the crowd. We were in the crowd…oh dear; this is what they meant by the “running with the bulls” on St. Patty’s day. Run! Heck yeah, run - where are the California lawyers when you need them? It was scary and really really funny! We kept trying to leave, there must have been a dozen of these “bulls” that would charge from every direction and we found ourselves ducking for cover behind stone benches, cars, other people…we were shameless in our cowardice! Small kids, no problem, we can hide behind them!

Manzanillo, which is Barra/Santiago/Las Hadas, is the southern-most turn around points for many…and late March is the end of the season. The rest of the week was happy-sad as we bid farewell to people we’ve been seeing off and on all winter. Rich and Sandy and Sam and Daryl were going back to a Catalina summer with Corsair YC, many others like Mystic Moon and Jammin would spend the summer in the Sea of Cortez, Kalinga back to Mazatlan, and John and Vicki of Lo Maintenance with their dream house right in Barra (Colimilla) would be settling into a much quieter off-season in paradise!

We went to anchor out in Santiago to see Kalinga for a final farewell. It’s Easter week(s) and the nationals, as Mexican tourists are called, are out in force - everyone comes to the coast for vacation during these two weeks. George and Joanne showed us all around “their” town and we had a delightful day. We then spent a few nights anchored off the Las Hadas resort, and found that it was an easy walk into town and Wal-Mart for provisioning. Easter morning started with Mimosa’s on WS and then into the restaurants at Las Hadas. John and Vicki were in town shopping for new kitchen appliances for their Barra casa, and were able to join us for Easter breakfast.

We took advantage of a good weather window and made our way down to Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. We stopped at Grand Isle, but the seas were unusually large and the anchorages rolly, and crowded with sports fishers, jet skis, etc. so we stayed only one night and made for the marina at Ixtapa. We’d been warned that there was a dangerous break at the entrance but after a nice conversation with the Marina Mistress were assured that if we were there by noon, we’d have no problem with the entrance. Whoa. It is quite intimidating, and the surf was way up. We watched the waves crashing and timed them to the best of our ability and then went for it… our pals said they saw us surf our way in, and I was freakin out when I watched the depth sounder show 2 FEET (we draw 5) as we were careening in - it made Malibu Rapids in BC seem like child’s play. One by one, we made our way into the marina - I greeted the others with shots of tequila to celebrate our machismo in making such a brave crossing!!! Rose then surprised us with these cool fluffy flip flops that she made - cute sandals that she decorated with colorful bits of fabric, she calls them our “passage sandals”, she is very dear and clever that farm girl from Wisconsin.

There were several great cruising families at Marina Ixtapa and a dock party was deemed a necessity to get to see everyone. We were told of a rather large crocodile that liked to cruise the area and it was suggested that perhaps we’d like to have the dock party on the lawn. What? On the lawn, no way can you have a dock party on the lawn. Probably still filled with the adrenalin from our courageous entrance we decided the party would be held at the stern of our boats on the dock. We aren’t afraid of no stinkin crocodillia…

Right at the appointed hour as savory and aroma-iforous hors d’ouvres were being set out, a HUGE Crocodile appeared just behind our boat…I mean he was as long as we were wide. Turns out, I am afraid of stinkin crocodillia! Locals would come by and tell tales of him jumping up on the docks and grabbing dogs off their leashes. I kept my eye on him and ordered friends of Hiatus, who were visiting with a one year old, onto our boat. If he likes puppies, he might like babies too. He just sort of floated from stern to stern, and after awhile everyone seemed to forget that this is not a zoo or Disneyland and had another drink, but not me until that giant was several docks away, and I still jumped at shadows all night. It was quite a crocktail party! Ouch.

The Ixtapa Marina has several really good restaurants and an extraordinary new wine shoppe at the end of the row of stores. They had an impressive selection of well-priced excellent wines and assortment of liquor, by far the best since San Diego, so we stocked up. Ixtapa proper is about a mile away (an easy walk) and it’s really a tourist town with lots of high rise hotels dotted along the beach and a small town center with little markets, large restaurants and shops. The real town in this region is Zihuatanejo, or Z-what as everyone calls it. It’s very Mexican, yet it has a more cosmopolitan feel than some of the other beach towns we’ve visited. We left the marina for Z-what after a few days. The seas were still quite large and therefore the anchorage was rolly, so we moved away from the sailboats towards the middle of the bay and set stern anchors that kept us nose into the waves.

Z-what is a wonderful walking town and we often found ourselves ashore and enjoying the myriad of little tiendas with beach clothing, and lots of handicrafts, a farmers market that extended several blocks, neighborhood “pubs”, palapa restaurants, etc. Everyday was busy and eventful. Two restaurants with fantastic views we especially enjoyed were “Il Mare” on the hill overlooking the anchorage, and “Villa de la Selva”, the former home of Presidente Luis Echeverria, on the ocean side cliffs nearer Ixtapa. Of course, we still liked the simple places like the Sunset Bar on the beach that served great quesadilla’s and cold cerveza’s, and Rick’s Bar where we enjoyed the music of Jimmy Mamu and the pizza the boys went out on the streets to find (a whole ‘nuther story).

That wild night led to yet another adventure, the one featuring Ade’s lost cell phone. Don’t you hate waking up realizing that something is wrong and the details of the night are well, fuzzy? Mid morning he realized he did not have his phone, so I called it thinking he misplaced it and a little voice answered, “Bueno” - oh oh, not lost on the boat, just lost! Suffice to say, this presented us with a wonderful opportunity to meet the locals, work on our Spanglish, find streets and neighborhood we’d never otherwise see, and be rewarded with not only the return of Ade’s indispensable cell phone, but a mile wide smile on the face of the ten year old girl who found it when we offered her a reward. All and all, a win win!

Z-what is a great place to buy Mexican handicrafts, gift items for loved ones, and cool objects d’arte for the boat. Sandy of Chelsea Skye had showed me the hand painted wooden bowls that she found there during Z-fest, and so the hunt was on. We worked our way through dozens and dozens of tienda’s each looking for the perfect piece! We found several! There were good buys on lightweight clothing that have become essential in the heat and humidity and each night we girls would show off a new outfit. All too soon, it was time for the YB’s to head north and for us to get south before the weather turned. It was especially hard for Les and Rose to say goodbye, as they have all been close friends and cruising buddies from the PacNW for years. John and Les are like two little boys who would never have been allowed to sit near one another in grade school - they bring that out in each other, which is what makes them such delicious playmates for all of us!

So, Spring Break is over, for now, and we ready ourselves for the high adventure of moving further south and east into more exotic and remote cruising destinations.