Puerto Vallarta in Mexico! I didn’t know much about this place until we arrived. During non-COVID times, many cruise ships stopped here. There are beautiful condo buildings and houses all over. The area looks similar to the best parts of South Florida, a combined retiree town of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. Most commercial places have three flags flying at the entrance: Mexican, USA, and Canadian flags. It made me realize Mexico is a part of the North American Continent. The marina resort area is very clean and looks like a tiny Disney world with sculptured gardens and beautiful flowers. Lots of different restaurants to visit! No trash to be found. Believe it or not, according to Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_countries_by_population) and World Atlas (https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/how-many-countries-are-there-in-north-america.html), there are 23 countries in North America.
It was a long way to come here by a sailboat from Panama. The 2,000 mile distance is about the same distance as crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Motoring and occasionally sailing from Panama to here, we burned about 400 gallons of diesel or about 13 times more than crossing the Atlantic Ocean. There were no trade winds that let us go free. Our cats were not happy whenever we ran the motor. They were inactive, staying in a corner. When we sail a nice Calm Sea, their curiosity reaches out on the deck. I had to guard them to stay inside the boat. Otherwise, they sneakily come out and explore. We are thinking about getting pet safety nets on the boat.
At sea, we saw so many turtles on this way. Turtles are solo travelers but not this time. Reading travel books, lots of turtles hatch in Mexico in June. Turtles like to eat jelly fish so we saw lots of jellyfish also. Nevertheless, it is common to see dolphins. Dolphins are usually together. We also saw a huge pod of spinner dolphins. These are the most acrobatic of the dolphin family and leap completely out of the water, landing on their backs, their sides, their stomachs etc. So entertaining to watch. I was sad to see them leave.
I also noticed that the tide schedule is weird in some areas. In most places, there are two low tides and two highs in a day. However, in some areas like Zihuatanejo (short for Zihua, pronounced like “See-wow”), there is only one high tide and one low tide on certain days. Acapulco and Zihuatanejo are next to each other. However, the tide time is really off between these places.
We are close to the Sea of Cortez. I am looking forward to discovering the Sea of Cortez during the season. Until then, we will haul out the boat and do some work on some issues and improvements. I am hoping my sweat makes the boat and me stronger…
