La Cruz de Huanacaxtle 2.16.10

Ahhh.... :-) When we woke up from our little 3 hour nap after anchoring in the dark we came up on deck and found we were waaayyyyyy out in the back 40 of the anchorage. We had given ourselves a wide berth from everyone else and, well, that’s exactly where we were! Haha… We upped anchor and found a new spot much closer to civilization in the middle of the anchorage. We weren’t in any real hurry to do anything so we just hung around the boat doing our projects and reading during the day, cooked up some good dinner and went to bed early trying to recover from the all night trip.

The next day was much more productive! We were in desperate need of groceries! We’ve been doing soooo good at eating up everything on the boat, trying to use up all of the provisions we’ve carried with us for years and we’re doing a pretty good job of it! It’s been fun to find recipes for ingredients we’ve carried with us for years – canned pumpkin, Sun-dried tomatoes, canned fruits, etc. But we were out of everything, and I do mean EVERYthing fresh. We were out of staples that no one should be without – garlic, potatoes, limes, fruit, etc. So we organized a group to go to the Mega store – a huge grocery store about 30 minutes from here! Now if we had a car the trip may take an hour or so. But because we’re walking and bussing it to and from….it takes a little longer! On every morning except for Sunday, there is a VHF radio ‘net’ where everyone checks in, listens to any announcements, and finds out about the comings and goings of everyone. And, in general, nothing happens until ‘after the net’ which starts at 8:30 and usually lasts until 9:00 or longer. So we planned to meet everyone ‘after the net’ in the marina. Michael and I are in the anchorage so we jump into the dinghy with our backpacks filled with bags to carry our stuff back with us in tow, dinghy into the marina and swing by Slacker who is in the marina to pick them up and take them over to the dinghy dock, which is closer to town than their slip. After everyone is assembled we walk up through town to the bus stop, wait for and find our bus which has its destination painted on the front window, jump on (8 pesos each), and settle in for the 30 minute or so ride, though if we have a Mario Andretti wanna-be driver it may take only 15 minutes! Haha… Then we are let off on the side of the road at a three-way intersection and risk life & limb to cross the 6 lane road with its crazy lights and finally make it safe & sound in the parking lot! Woohoo!

Now comes the fun stuff – finding everything on our list and lots of things that magically appear in the cart! The three couples split up and then meet back up at the front of the store where we load everything into our backpacks and carrying bags to get it back to the boat! Most times we’re good with calculating how much weight we have but this time….we just went for it….and ended up with back-breaking backpacks on both our backs! Oh well, it was much needed! We met Mike & Julie and Joe & Deb at the front of the store and stopped to get a much needed bite to eat, after all it was around 1pm! We went around the corner to a much-hyped taco stand and as everyone was figuring out what to eat, Deb notices a Chinese food place right next door! Mmmm…..chinese food!! Come to mexico – eat Chinese!! It was yummy….and it hit the spot!

Back outside the store, 50lb backpacks each, we found our bus back to La Cruz and got back to the marina with no issues – not even a broken egg. Michael left me at the marina so I could do some internetting while he went out to the boat to drop off the groceries and we met back up on Outrider with Anne & Jeff hosting the afternoon happy hour.

Our days since have been filled with weather-watching, weather discussing, hanging out, enjoying the mostly sunny days and otherwise keeping busy! We’re waiting on that ever elusive weather window to continue up the coast to Mazatlan! One of these days…. Haha!!

More to follow…
Rene