Category Archives: Pacific

The Vallarta Botanical Garden, Part 1

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Dawn on Sunday December 15:

We skipped our normal routine of morning schoolwork and chores, and instead hopped in the car and headed south. As mentioned yesterday, the flat, wide multi-laned (6 – 8 lanes for most of the way) highway between La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Puerto Vallarta paralleled Bandaras Bay. On the bay side, there were many high-rise tower hotel/condo complexes, a huge resort complex with a water slide park and air tram, a couple of military bases, the airport, and a cruise ship terminal. In between, were assorted commercial buildings. The construction was dense and there were few glimpses of the ocean. The other side of the street was also lined the entire way with buildings, though this side had more industrial-type businesses, car dealerships, and strip malls. Except for the median, there was little greenery. Since it was early on a Sunday, there wasn’t much traffic and we made it to downtown Puerto Vallarta in an hour. 

As we also mentioned yesterday, shortly after passing the cruise ship terminal, the road suddenly changed to narrow, one-way cobblestone roads upon entering the historic downtown area. The downtown area also had little greenery. Only a few blocks beyond where we’d parked yesterday, there was another stark line indicating that we’d crossed the threshold from downtown to the part of town called Zona Sur. 

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Day Trip to Puerto Vallarta — Part 2: Naval Museum and Casa Kimberly

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Continued from yesterday… after we toured the chocolate museum and tasted the free samples, we stocked up on chocolate (chocolate is an important passage food, especially in rough seas).

We headed south to the Our Lady of Guadelupe Parish, which was a block inland. It was built in the 1930s, and probably the most unique thing about this church is that there is a crown on top of the middle tower instead of a cross. However, there are crosses on the smaller two towers that flank it on each side.

Since we had some time to kill before La Iguana opened for dinner, we decided to check out the new Naval Museum on the malecon. The admission fee was $3.00 for adults and $2.50 for students.

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Day Trip to Puerto Vallarta — Part 1: The Malecon & ChocoMueso

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Sunrise on Saturday, December 14:

We started the day off with morning chores. Eric was convinced that there was still kelp or a line caught in the propellor, but none of us were particularly eager to get in the water to look.

Eric attached an underwater video camera on a boat hook and stuck it in the water. Eric was vindicated when the footage showed that there was something tangled in the propellor!

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Days 3 and 4 in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle 

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Sunrise on Thursday, December 12 (taken from aboard Kosmos):

Eric changed the engine oil first thing in the morning, before it got hot. He also tightened a hose connection for the engine’s oil drain, where a slight oil leak had developed. Then we took Kosmos over to the fuel dock to top off the fuel tanks. 

After returning to our slip, we decided to get lunch at the Iguana’s Garden Sanctuary, as the name piqued our interest. It was located near the port captain’s office. Much to our disappointment, when we arrived at the address, we saw it was a condo complex with no sign of any kind of garden or restaurant. 

The closest restaurant was on the waterfront at the north end of the boardwalk that surrounded the protected basin, so we ate there.

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Exploring La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

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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. 

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