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We continued on after the Haha to a bay between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz called Bahia Los Frailes (Friars Bay). There is a natural coral reef located just north of there. It is a natural park - Cabo Pulmo Reef. We took the boat over and anchored just off the reef and went snorkeling.

We left Los Frailes and went across the Sea of Cortez. The shortest crossing is 160 miles straight over to Mazatlan. We were originally going to skip Mazatlan and go straight down to Puerto Vallarta, but the propeller on our dingy needed to be repaired, so we had to detour to Mazatlan.

We again saw many pods of dolphins, some of which came to play with our boat. Sometimes it seems as if they are showing off, cutting right in front of the bow, hitting it if they are off. Some also put on aerobatics shows, jumps, flips, and turns. After 10 to 45 minutes, they take off and continue on their original course. 

We ended up staying in Mazatlan almost a week, discovering that it wasn't as difficult as we had thought to get the propeller repaired, we probably could have done it in any major town.

When you arrive in a new town in Mexico by boat, you must check into the harbor. This involves between a half and a full day of Mexican Bureaucracy. You must check in with the Port Captain. He gives you a bill that you must take to the bank BanaMex. You pay at the bank and they give you a receipt. You then take the receipt back to the Port Captain who then stamps your papers. Then you have to go the Immigration office and check in.

When you want to leave town, you must repeat the procedure, with the addition in some ports of API, the harbor master. You must also go check out with API and pay their fees.

Besides the expense ($30 - $50 per town), this is such a hassle, and so time consuming, that it makes us skip some towns that we normally would have stopped in for a day or two.

We left Mazatlan and rushed to Puerto Vallarta for Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Paradise Resort and Marina with some friends and the local cruiser community.

 
Larry got up on stage before dinner.

Puerto Vallarta is located in Banderas Bay, which also has many smaller towns and villages located along its shores. We went with our friend Greg on his boat to Yelapa, a remote village on the south shore. We were going to go for lunch, but we were late and there was no wind, so we made it in time for dinner. The local water taxis stopped running by the time we were done, so we had to swim back out to the boat.

I went snorkeling with some friends at a beach about 6 miles south of town called Los Arcos (the arches). We took the dinghy there and snorkeled through and around the arches and rocks. We then went into Mismaloya for a late lunch. Mismaloya is where the film Night of the Iguanas was filmed. John Huston, Richard Burton, and Ava Gardener, are all important figures here.

Another trip was to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. We took Greg and Maria (soon to be starring on stage in Dublin as Mrs. Twitt) on our boat. This time we towed a dingy so we wouldn't need to swim back. La Cruz is a nice little town, a cruisers hangout of sorts. We found the local hot spot for open mike night, listening to the local musicians play until almost 11 pm. We then had a moonlight sail home.

Puerto Vallarta and the mountains

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Synergizer does the Haha