Wednesday, December 11, 2024 — Before we get into the day, we want to give a couple of quick backgrounds. Our beloved Gig Harbor hard sailing/rowing dinghy, Kosmopolitan, which circumnavigated the globe with us, was seriously damaged while we were in Baja. We managed to keep her floating with duct tape until we got back to San Diego. Upon return to San Diego, we replaced her with an OC Tender, which is also named Kosmopolitan. Here’s a photo of our new dinghy taken in San Diego.
When we were in the hurricane in Baja, the boat next to us in the storm was named Lusty. The people aboard Lusty were named Karen and Max, and they may be the funnest people we’ve ever met. We had an incredible time in the Bahia de Los Angeles area, largely because Max and Karen arranged a party every night — and Karen would cater it with incredible food. Christi was amazed at what Karen could make aboard a tiny boat kitchen.
On to our day… In the morning, Eric washed the boat, then walked over to the Port Captain’s office to check in. Meanwhile, Christi and Keith worked on school and did some cleaning inside.
As we were leaving to go to lunch, we bumped into our neighbors and noticed they had a dinghy identical to the original Kosmopolitan. Then we noticed the name on the back was Sprezzatura, and asked if they had gotten it from our friend on the Nordhavn 40 named Sprezzatura. They confirmed it was the same dinghy, though it had changed hands a couple of times between our friend and our new neighbors. What a small world!
Our destination for lunch was a restaurant called El Ring, which was around the corner from Ballena Blanca. We noticed that the restaurant on the corner was named Lusty on Land. We knew it had to be Max and Karen’s. Especially when we saw they didn’t open until 1600 and had music every night.
Lunch was great. The waiter told us that the table was made of a slab from a Huanacaxtle tree, the giant trees that the town is named after.
Once we finished, we strolled around town. As we passed Lusty on Land, we saw Max standing in the doorway, receiving a shipment of beverages. We chatted with him briefly, then continued exploring the town.
La Cruz de Huanacaxtle was a very typical Mexican town, with a mix of sturdy looking buildings and buildings that looked like they might fall down at any second, and many buildings in the middle of perpetual construction. Many of the buildings were painted in cheerful, bright colors, and some had beautiful murals painted on them. The streets were cobblestone and/or brick, indicating this town had been around for over 100 years. There were chickens and dogs running around.
The park near the entrance of the marina had several giant Huanacaxtle trees. We saw a huge iguana run from the ground, up the trunk and into a high branch.
We saw that several streets had been blocked off for a market.
We didn’t do a whole lot of walking, as we were still “off kilter” from the passage and still not adjusted to the heat and humidity. We went back to the boat and did chores. We are sad to report that this marina does not have potable water, so Eric ran the DC watermaker. It worked fine, so maybe the issue we’d had on the passage had to do with the motion?
In the evening, the marina hosted a bonfire cruiser party on the beach. They served incredible tacos al pastor. We had a nice time and met some interesting people.
