Puerto Vallarta

January 26, 2005

Hello from Paradise Village Marina in Puerto Vallarta. We have been here since December 6, 2004 and have enjoyed ourselves very much. We can see why many cruisers stop here permanently. It is sub-tropical and the 20-mile wide Banderas Bay is beautiful.
We sailed out to the Tres Mariettas islands, some 20 miles from Puerto Vallarta, where we had good snorkeling. We enjoyed the Vallarta Yacht Club at Paradise Village and all of its many activities. We anchored out at various anchorages near Puerto Vallarta and enjoyed the villages nearby. We explored downtown Puerto Vallarta and liked the Zona Romantico area. We dined at wonderful restaurants and found a few good Japanese restaurants. We played lots of tennis at Paradise Village where they have an active tennis program. We bicycled to local villages and really got to know the area. Our friend, Jim, from Detroit visited us before Christmas and was very entertaining. We spent the holidays with family: Portia’s son, Mako, was here for her birthday and Christmas. Steve and Mako rented those horribly noisy jet skis and had a ball. Portia’s brother, Geff, and fiancé Debbie were here for a few weeks during New Year’s during which we did the thrilling zip line tour through the canopy of trees in the jungle. We have made many friends here in the cruising world and will miss them, but as it usually happens, we will see a great many of them again down the path.
We took the ham radio exam last week. Portia now has her Technician license with Morse Code and Steve has his General license. We will soon be able to send and receive short email messages on our single sideband radio from our boat. We should have this set up by March.
We are provisioned and ready to move South with a full tank of water, diesel, and propane. Tonight we will anchor out and at 3:00 am head South around Cabo Corrientes to Chamela, a 100-mile trip. We will make our way down this “Gold Coast” area to Barra de Navidad and Manzanillo. We will be in Zihuatenejo by late February as we are scheduled to fly out of nearby Ixtapa on February 26, to spend a few weeks at home.
In April we will continue South to Huatulco where we will wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Tuanapec to El Salvador. We plan on leaving the boat in El Salvador or Nicaragua for the summer when we return home to cooler weather.
All for now,
Portia & Steve