Gary and Lois in Casa de Colores

New Web Address

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:28:19 +0000

Because the website was hacked and we are no longer on Texan, we have moved the site to this home www.copalamexico.com

Please allow us a few weeks to get things back in order.

Ahhh, Copala…….

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:02:33 +0000

2007-07-31 03:55:20
HOLA!!! It’s 5:00 A.M. One would think it’s a bit early to rise for the day, but try to tell that to the dozens of roosters that are beckoning the sun to peak over the hills surrounding us here in Copala, Mexico. The “cock-a-doodling” grows into a crescendo as each rooster tries to outdo the other in volume as if trying to reach a long lost relative on the other side of the small valley, only about a mile across, that our village is resting in. Each and every morning, once the roosters get things going, the other animals come to life to add to the sounds of morning. One can hear the cows begin their mournful mooing as the donkeys cut through the morning mist with hee-hawing of one promoting others to join in chorus. Mother pigs, with their piglets, forage the roadsides looking for those morsels of breakfast. The multitude of bird life has obviously been awakened by the now rising sun and sounds of the other animals. They join in the harmonic symphony of music with their own unique calling. A flock of Military Macaws fly overhead with the screeching that goes along with them. At 6:50 A.M., after the coffee pot has dripped a cup of flavorful brew to enjoy on our patio, I hear the distant blaring of the horn of the bus that is making its way down the mountain from the east, indicating that it will be at the Copala turn off in 10 minutes. If you had plans on taking the bus to either Concordia, a 30 minute ride down the mountain, or Mazatlan, a one and a half hour $4.00 ride to the shore, you’d best scurry on up to the road or you’ll miss your ride. Mornings are a beautiful time of day, and here in Copala, it’s easy to watch the day unfold from the comfort of the hammock on the patio of our house. We are situated on the hillside of one of valleys walls, overlooking the central part of the village of about 500 people. The historic church is situated on the far end of the town square, which we overlook, and when the massive doors are fully open, we are able to see directly into the nave, where the walls are covered with ornately decorated religious artifacts. The bells echo throughout the valley, announcing the different services throughout the week. I can see a flock of pigeons circling the steeple in preparation to land and rest on its highest points. I notice our village street cleaner at work already. Six days a week, this 76 year old man walks the streets of Copala with a broom and dust pan, keeping our cobblestone streets free from litter. In front of our house I notice that the cobblestones have collected a layer of silt as the runoff of the hillsides during these first few weeks of the rainy season has washed away the dust that accumulated during the winter. We get rain nearly every day now in the afternoons or evenings that may last an hour to six hours. Sometimes it is quite torrential and sitting out watching the pouring rain, lighting and rumbling thunder through the mountain canyons is a pastime we truly enjoy. The towering cumulus thunderheads build up to 40,000 feet most every afternoon over the Sierra Madre mountain range during these summer months and our rains will continue until about the first of November when it will stop and we won’t see a drop of rain until the following late June. One of our first projects after buying our house was to hire local craftsmen to construct a natural rock wall that extends across the back of our property and down both sides to divert the waters and mud from the hillside around our property. This major project took about three months. After the wall was finished we removed six dump truck loads of soil that had once been part of the hillside in back of our house but had settled around the house. What a difference it has made. Shanghai, our Shih Tzu, has just run the length of the front of our lot that is elevated about 6 feet over the cobblestone street as he still is not comfortable with the flow of equestrian traffic as men and boys head out to the hills to tend to the farming on the hillsides surrounding our village. They just look at him and laugh as they give me a wave from the backs of their horses, mules or donkeys. This mode of transportation is more common than not as most of our neighbors do not own cars, an expense they cannot afford. Most of the people we have met in the village are families who have spent generations here in the valley. They are descendents of miners or farmers that have inhabited the valley since 1565. Our friend, Antonio, is now 96 years old and every day he walks the mile, round trip, to the local cemetery where his wife lays in peace. He certainly has much to tell of the history of Copala as he claims he has outlived everyone, including all of his children. Mining is just now starting to again get some attention as new technologies are available to more efficiently extract the gold and silver from the earth. The village is sitting within and on a virtual honeycomb of old abandoned mining tunnels. The new interest in mining in this region has been confined to areas surrounding the village leaving the old tunnels to sleep. It’s hard to imagine that at one time nearly 10,000 people had lived in and around Copala during the mining heyday. The roosters crowing has subsided now and I can now hear music coming from somewhere in the distance. The birds continue their singing as they will throughout the day and people are beginning to move through the tiendas, a morning ritual to pick up food for the days meals. I can hear the slow approach of the unique music of the truck delivering bottled water for our drinking. ($1.00 per 5 gallon bottle) Our town pressurized water supply, as with electricity, has only been in Copala since about 1980 and it is piped in from about 20 kilometers up the mountain. ($52.00 US per year) We use it for cooking, bathing, cleaning etc. but continue to use bottled water for consumption. Vegetable trucks will also be coming in to town and parking near the town square as they do every day. Tortillas are delivered every morning as well buy either the water truck or a man on a motorcycle. We enjoy three small tiendas in town where you can get sodas, bread, eggs and a variety of many other items. Propane is used for our stove and hot water and delivered 2-3 times a week, although one bottle lasts us about 4 months. ($27.00 US) We even have a Good Humor ice cream truck come through town about 3 times a week…..remember them? No beer is sold in town except at the 4 restaurants so you must drive out to the main road heading for Mazatlan to a Corona deposito to purchase it there. No hard liquor within a 30 minute drive down towards Mazatlan in Concordia. There is a family raising cattle nearby that slaughters a cow every Friday and delivers to your door on Saturday morning what you have ordered. The same is true for another family that raises pigs. Fish and poultry are again brought in on the vegetable trucks or twice a week on pickup trucks with ice chests. As you can see, life in Copala isn’t quite like visiting a Safeway superstore. About once or twice a month, we head down to Mazatlan to check on the boat and at that time will hit the major stores to pick up the few items we can’t get locally from Wal-Mart, Sam’s and Home Depot. We just can’t shake those urges for bagels, English muffins and pizza. The peacefulness of our community is the perfect environment for extensive reading, which I do constantly. My 4 books a week are kept fresh as I visit a couple of different book exchanges in Mazatlan every time we visit there. We’re also still doing the remodel on the house which we’ve had to slow down on until our resources catch up with what we have been spending. That’s OK, we need the break after the extensive work we did for 4 months straight. I have also just set up a photo studio in one of our rooms where I can use the professional quality equipment to begin providing the community with excellent quality family and school photos as well as working with the local wood carvers in making custom frames for local photographs tourists will enjoy. Copala is on the list of places to visit in all the hotels, cruise ships and tour guides in Mazatlan. Daily, we receive 10-100 tourists a day to come to our typical Mexican village to look at our birdlife, architecture, cobblestone streets, historical church and generally get the flavor of our village. We enjoy chatting with them as they wander by. I hope my writing has given you a brief idea of the life Lois and I have chosen to live at this time. It’s a wonderful life, laid back, no hustle or bustle of life in the city. We have time to talk to each other and with our neighbors…..although our Spanish is still not worth a hoot. But, our new neighbors are patient with us and are giving us time to learn the language, as there are only about 6 people in town that speak English. Please send us an email and let us know what is going on in your lives. We miss all of you and hope that some time you can come down to visit with us. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that we do not have phone or internet service in Copala, so we must wait until going to either Concordia or Mazatlan to go to an internet café for mail and phone service………oh, yes, and for those who asked, we don’t have an address here in Copala either. I will at a later date send you a kind of address where you could send a letter to if you cared. It is to the town actually and ends up at one tienda, just like our electric bill. Then again, Mexican mail service isn’t the most dependable so I really don’t recommend it. Somehow things end up in a black hole and at best it takes about 3 weeks for delivery. Enjoy the summertime weather and be sure to take good care of each other.
Love,
Gary, Lois and Shanghai

Overdue-update again

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:01:05 +0000

2007-07-13 22:28:44

Hola family and amigos,
Talk about allot happening these past months!!! Our world has been turned upside down. After living aboard TEXAN since 2000, cruising the Pacific and Sea of Cortez, we decided to find ourselves a land base and plant our feet for a while. Don’t get me wrong, we have totally loved our cruising life over these years. We have had so many truly remarkable experiences and have met some extraordinary people and developed a good number of close relationships with many. We feel truly blessed in being able to experience these past 7 years and wouldn’t have missed it for the world. But now…..another experience.

After visiting the small village of Copala, Sinaloa, Mexico….population 500….we fell in love with the place. It is about 74 kilometers SE of Mazatlan in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range that runs the length of Mexico. At about 2,500 feet elevation, we have a wonderful climate, both in the winter and summer. We are only one of three “gringos” living in the community but have been accepted easily by the long time resident population. Copala dates back to 1565 and was once a thriving gold and silver mining town of about 10,000 people in it’s prime days before the Spanish arrived. Today, it’s just a sleepy village with most all families scraping a living with what little tourist traffic comes through town and tending to their cattle, pigs, corn growing etc. We are blessed to have dependable electricity, water and daily delivery of all things one needs to live…..veggies, meat, shrimp, bottled water, propane gas, glass, shoes, fruit etc. Our hillside location of our “new to us” small casa, overlooks the town, church and community square where dances are held every other Saturday night until the wee hours of the morning. Our days are commonly spent on the veranda, in the hammock with a good book. (Of course after our daily chores are done)

We have put TEXAN into a slip at Isla Mazatlan, which is a 1 1/2 hour drive from the house. Our visits have been infrequent these past 6 months as we have been spending our time on remodeling the house and property in preparation for the summer rainy season. We plan on heading back out on TEXAN for a 3 month sail back up in the Sea of Cortez come this February/March. It certainly was one of the highlights of our cruising a few years ago, with the past two sailing seasons spent on the Mexican Riviera. (Mazatlan to Acapulco)

So, we’re now again proud owners of a car, a truck and a house…..in addition to our sailboat. Gee, seems like full circle. And what a grand life it is!!!!!!! Our only regrets are the miles between our family and friends in the United States. We sure want to be certain you are welcome at our casa any time at all. The jets fly both ways between the states and Mazatlan airport. In fact, Lois and I are heading back to California to visit with my (Gary’s) Mom in California for a couple of weeks when our daughter, Rene’ will be coming out from Austin to visit with us there. Do put Mexico on your “to do” list. We’d love being your hosts.

We hope all is well in your families and thanks for the patience in our not communicating very well lately. (By the way, there is no phone or internet service in Copala so it’s only when we travel to a town 30 minutes away when we can access the internet) Perhaps someday we’ll put in a dish for airborne service. Take care of yourselves and each other. Life is great!!!

Love,
Gary, Lois and now Shanghai the Shih Tzu too

P.S. Click on the Casa de Colores Link to take a look at our new digs. (And turn up your volume too)

Tucked away in a slip

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:00:38 +0000

2006-07-12 14:30:29
Boy, talk about lazy……..It’s hard to believe the last time I posted an update on this site we were in Santiago Bay down in Manzanillo area. Here were are, in Mazatlan for the summer. Our plans changed from spending the summer in the Sea of Cortez again as I will explain. Our trip north, from Santiago Bay, was as expected. The weather held with the only problem being that the wind always came from the direction we were headed. (North) So, as is so common here on the Mexican Riviera, we motored most of our way up to Mazatlan. We first went back to Barra de Navidad and did some reprovisoning before making our stops in Tenecatita, Chemela, Punta Mita/Banderas Bay, San Blas and then Mazatlan. Tenecatia was the normal wonderful, peaceful anchorage were we spent time relaxing with books, a good place to clean the bottom of the boat and just prepare for the longer days while underway. While in Chemela we met a Polish guy who is running a beachside palapa restaurant. What a character he is. Well, after a while chatting with him we convinced him into making the Slavik dish of progies for 8 of us the next day. We felt as if we were really blessed. Here we are in the middle of nowhere, in a Mexican community void of American tourists and this guy is going to spend the next day preparing the dish for our dinner tomorrow night. What a treat!!! They were wonderful! Stuffed with potato and cheese and service with sour cream. Most of our friends had never had them before and they we delighted with the meal. We thanked him over and over again before leaving at dusk to return to our boats anchored off the beach. We stopped again in San Blas on the way up the coast. Friends of our had never been on the tour of the estuary, which is really quite remarkable. Bird watchers come from all over the world to visit this area as there are hundreds of different kinds of birds making this their winter home. In addition to that, the crocodile population is high with big boys over 15 feet long. There is also a crocodile farm at the head of the estuary where there are hundreds of baby crocs just waiting to grow big enough to be released. Very fun. The town was fun to visit once again. Our trip from San Blas was a pretty expensive overnighter. While underway, I shut down the engine to check the oil level. Upon restarting, the current draw on the failing starter motor did some mysterious voltage thing to the system and immediately took out the auto pilot. So, now we were faced with hand steering the entire passage to Mazatlan as it was now dark and repair of the electronic unit would be very difficult. So that is what we did. Lois and I changed over watches and steered the boat, following the navigation lights of our “buddy boater” Traveler. I also realized the voltage drop had also taken out the electronic control box for the rear/freezer. Oh boy……great! No spares on board (or in Mexico) for that. About 3:00 AM, I (Gary) was asleep in the cockpit and a jump up in a start when I hear Lois yelling into the darkness. I said, “What”? She pointed to the top of the mast and I saw a HUGE frigate bird perched on the wind direction indicator. This critter had a wing span of at least 6 feet and was certainly going to ruin our indicator. Well, as it happened……we finally were able to get him off by shaking the shrouds holding up the mast and blowing horns and yelling. Must to our dismay, upon inspection of the top of the mast the wind indicator was completely gone…..bummer. So, all in all, that leg of the trip cost us about $800 in repairs and replacement. We arrived the next morning in Mazatlan with unusual foggy conditions where we had to navigate by radar alone to an anchorage and await the fog to lift before shooting the entrance into the marina. In four days after arriving in Mazatlan we buttoned up the boat and hopped on a bus to San Diego where our son Ryan met us at the border and drove us up to my Mom’s house in Southern California where we would be visiting with her while she was going through cataract surgery…..which ended up fine. While there, we bought a car as we had many people and places we wanted to visit during our time in the states. We ended up visiting with friends and family in Long Beach, San Diego, Prescott AZ and then to Mena, Arkansas. While there we met some new friends Cheryl and Bart, originally from So California too. As we were leaving town we ironically ended up bringing with us a 12 week old Shih Tzu puppy. We had been at the vet with our old dog Sebastian, now living with our friends there and happened to run into a lady with this pup for sale. Boy, talk about a weak moment. He is wonderful though. We were then on a pretty fast track back to Mazatlan (after 6 weeks) as we had a dear friend (Bill Maslink) arriving for 10 days of visiting aboard Texan. So we scooted around Dallas (stopping to meet with friend Mark Fortney) (thanks again for the BBQ lunch) and on to Austin where our daughter Rene” lives. We spent my birthday with her and then drove over the Sierra Madre Mountains back to Mazatlan. What a great experience that was. We actually were driving through snow at the top of the pass. An interesting note: we entered Mexico at the tip of Texas at Mc Allen. From there to Mazatlan we took the Mexican toll roads where possible because they are so good. Costs for the tolls was $90.00 U.S. We’re sure sorry we didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to on our trip back to the states but there just wasn’t enough time for it all. Hopefully, we’ll see all of you on our next visit…..or better yet, come visit with us along this beautiful coast of Mexico. Right now, we’re in the process of working on the boat and getting it back into shape for our next winter sailing season. So far we have the starter repaired and replaced. The auto pilot is back in business. The refer/freezer is freezing. So those repairs are finished and now it’s all the other things on our list. Everyone have a great summer…..enjoy your warm sailing season in the states and please stay in touch. We love to hear how you are all doing.
Adios for now,
Gary, Lois and Shanghai the Shih Tzu
S/V TEXAN Lying: Marina Mazatlan, Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

Headed North

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:59:54 +0000

2006-03-12 16:04:16

Hello Friends and Family, I guess I had better sit down and get off a note to all of you to let you know both Lois and I are alive and well in our Mexican paradise. I checked my past emails and realize two months have passed since we sent out an update. Boy, time flies when you are having fun. Ironically, the past two months have seen us visiting the same ports as I wrote about on our last update. Only this time we have been in the company of friends who just returned from the states on the boat Traveler. Dennis and Joan go back to their home in Santa Rosa to work for the summer months and return during the winter to cruise. This is a pretty common practice of many cruisers we know here. Summer can get pretty warm, and if you are from Toronto or Seattle can be quite challenging. We’re presently in Santiago Bay, at Manzanillo, precisely where we were on the10th of January. But since that time, we had returned to Barra de Navidad, where we spent about a month to really get to know the town. It is a wonderful little beach side resort community that has many fun restaurants and pubs. Wanting to encourage cruisers to stay, there is a hotel called The Sands that is on the water and has a dinghy landing where we can leave our dinghies when we come in off the boat. They also encourage us to use their swimming pool and palapa pool side bar and restaurant. It makes the town real handy for us. There is a local French bakery whose owner comes out into the lagoon, where we anchor, and into the marina by boat to deliver his fresh baked baguettes, pies, muffins and whatever on a daily early morning run. Boy, one could gain weight real fast enjoying all those treats. A woman by the name of Maria, of course, owns a tienda that caters to the cruisers as well. It seems to be stocked with all the things us gringo’s want to eat and drink. She also provides boat side service for the delivery of these grocery items as well as propane, ice, bottled water and whatever you order from her. She makes a run up to Guadalajara to where is located a Price Club, and can get many of the items that are sold in the states. Pretty convenient for us. Besides all that, she is a very sweet lady and simply works herself 7 days a week to keep us happy. She does this on her own as her husband has landed a good job here in Mexico, building a marina in the fishing community of San Blas, a few hundred miles from here and only comes home once or twice a month to visit with his wife and children. This three year project will keep him employed with a good firm to provide for his family. So, overall, it became pretty darned easy to slip in to staying in Barra for a month. While there both Lois and I saw a doctor to take care of a problem with Lois and also do a check up with some blood work for cholesterol. Now that was a delight, expense wise. The doctor visit for two appointments for both Lois and I was $25.00. The blood work at the lab was $8.00 for each of us, give the blood in the AM and pick up the results in the PM. Boy, do we like the medical community here. No insurance to deal with, no primary care physicians, no co-pay, simply good, inexpensive care. We were in Barra for the Super Bowl so about 80 of us found a restaurant that was going to show it on their televisions, so we more or less took the place over for the day. We ate, drank, (ran them out of Corona’s) yelled for our favorite team (we were among the few, 10, for the Stealer’s) and had a great time with our cruising community of friends. The next big holiday in Mexico is St. Patrick’s Day and we will be in the town of Melaque, where St. Patrick is the patron saint of the town so the celebration has already started and peaking on the 17th with a variety of events including parades, fireworks, bullfighting and not one of favorites, cock fighting. Anyway, there seems to be something for everyone to participate in the celebration. We’d best get moving and get up there. It’s only about 26 miles up the coast from here…..it’s just hard to leave this great anchorage here in Santiago Bay. But leave we must! We have charted out our voyage back north and have allocated about 35 days to go the 450 miles up the Mexican Riviera to Mazatlan to arrive there about the 15 th of April. Now if we had a motor home in the states, that would be nearly five weeks to get from L.A. to San Francisco at a fuel cost, even in these high gas price days of about $175.00. Now I’ll bet most of you spend that monthly just doing you regular running around to work, play and shop. We’ll put TEXAN into the marina there while we make a short trip up to So California to visit with my Mom and other family and friends. We’ll be “buddy boating” with our friends Dennis and Joan on Traveler, as they have the same itinerary in mind. That will be fun. On the way back north…..which is necessary for us to do because of the approaching hurricane season…..we will stop at some of the anchorages we bypassed along the way down and also make a quick stop in Puerto Vallarta to have a follow up with the eye surgeon who did my eyes last summer. We’ll also be able to pick up some sausage and smoked brisket at a favorite meat market near there. Have to keep eating well, you know. Upon returning from California we will sail back across the Sea of Cortez to the Baja Peninsula and haul the boat out in La Paz to do a bottom painting job. It is quite necessary every couple of years to paint on fresh anti-fouling paint to keep the critters from attaching to the bottom of TEXAN and develop their own new eco-system and community. It really can slow down the boat if that happens. Hence, the monthly diving of the bottom to clean off the things that still decide to live there. When we splash back in after a week, we will then be in the midst of our summer destination of again cruising the islands of the Sea of Cortez from La Paz north. We haven’t done that since the summer of 2003and are looking forward to the abundant diving, snorkeling and hunting of sea life. We just hope not to experience a similar hurricane experience as we did in 2003. Anyway, we’re looking forward to returning. Well, that about catches us up on what we have been up to. I suppose I could goon about our daily experiences with the sea life around the boat, the breaching whales, the various birds that like to visit and even the occasional bats that fly through the cockpit at sunset….but I believe I may begin to sound redundant as these experiences are our daily part of life on TEXAN. Everyone please take care and we sure hope 2006 is treating you and your families with kindness and love. Fair winds and smooth seas,
Gary and Lois
S/V TEXAN
Lying: Santiago Bay, Manzanillo, Mexico

On the move

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:59:28 +0000

2006-01-17 19:45:04

Hola Amigos, The time just flies by while enjoying the Mexican Riviera. Since our last update about a month ago, Lois and I had the fortune to spend the Holidays with our cruising family in a couple of different places. For Christmas, we checked into the Grand Bay Hotel marina in Barra de Navidad. What a plush experience that was. We only stayed for four days as the slip rent is quite steep ($74.00per day) and that can quickly take a big bite out of the cruising kitty. But we sure did enjoy the hotel pools and restaurants. Gosh, we felt like we were on vacation. At that same time we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas pot luck dinner with about 50 or so other cruising friends at a hotel in Barra that let us use their pool side facilities. As usual the food was terrific as well as the chitchat among new and old friends. After leaving the marina, we motored into what is known as the lagoon at Barra. It’s simply that, one huge lagoon where average depth is only about 8-10feet. One has to be very cautious of where you go in the lagoon to keep from going aground. We timed our arrival and departure from the lagoon at high slack tide and didn’t have any problems. Not so fortunate for some of our friends who had to be helped off the bar. It’s a quite peaceful anchorage, protected from the ocean swells and waves. We did get some snooping done in the small town of Barra, but need to go back to do some more investigating when we head back north. For New Years Eve, we decided to revisit the beautiful hotel/resort of Las Hadas. It was a short 4 1/2 hour sail from Barra. We heard the fireworks display there and around the bay we pretty nice and we sure weren’t disappointed. At midnight they were exploding above us in the bay and we could also see displays along the entire coastline over to Manzanillo. It was just perfect. A great place to spend the opening of the New Year. As a side note here, on our trip from Barra to Las Hadas, we were trolling a line in the water in hopes of catching a Dorado to make some sushi and grilled steaks. Well, about half way to Las Hadas the line started peeling off with the screeching of the reel almost deafening. The zinging went on and on and I was having difficulty getting the rod out of the holder. We looked out over the stern and all of the sudden this huge sailfish jumped out of the water and was dancing on it’s tail across the surface. Its dorsal fin was fully opened and it’s colors bright with the fight. I looked at Lois and simply said Holy #@&%!!!. I was finally able to remove the pole from it’s holder on the arch and began the thirty minute fight to win back some of my line. By this time we had stopped the boat and the sailfish was successfully pulling our stern back and forth as it’s powerful swimming had the stout fishing pole bent over 90 degrees. Finally, I was able to get it within 10 feet of the boat, although it didn’t care much for being so close and again broke the surface of the water with a jump that fully exposed itself as it tried to shake loose its hold by the hook. Again, I looked at Lois in awe and asked her for the knife and proceeded to cut it loose to go back to the sea and grow from it’s 8 foot length to full adulthood. What an experience. By that point my hands and arms were shaking from fatigue and adrenalin and I found it hard to get the smile off my face. That was by far the biggest catch I have ever had and what a thrill. The sad news is that we didn’t have any sushi to share with our friends that night. A few days ago, we left the Las Hadas Resort/Hotel, and the pool side fountains and tropical drinks to move into the beautiful anchorage of Santiago Bay, a very short distance from the hotel but a long ways away in terms of surroundings and culture. We were the only boat here when we put our anchor down but as of last night there are 8 of us. The water is clear enough for me to see our anchor dig into the sand at 25 feet and it’s nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of water skiers and jet skiers of Las Hadas. This part of the bay has wonderful snorkeling with many different kinds of colorful coral and sea life. The sandy beach is dotted with palapa restaurants and places to sit and enjoy a cold beer. I’ll be cleaning the bottom of the boat here as the water conditions are perfect for that kind of maintenance. Already, we’ve finished reading a couple of books since we arrived here. Very peaceful….. I imagine in about a week we will move first to another cove around the corner to do some hunting and then head back up to Barra to refuel and reprovision some food and drinks. We also have a couple of other towns we need to take a bus to…just to check them out. We’re really enjoying the relaxing of this trip this season. We have decided to forego the festivities of SailFest this year in Zihuatanejo, and will call this our furthest southerly destination before we start heading back up into the Sea of Cortez for the summer. It was the summer of 2003 we were last there and we really want to do more exploring of the islands along the Baja side of the sea. We want to wish you all a great new year for 2006 and hope your dreams all come true. Take care of yourselves and please keep us in mind with a note once in a while to let us know of your adventures and how you are all doing. Fairwinds.
Love, Gary and Lois
S/V TEXAN
Lying: Bahia de Santiago, Mexico

Only 10 shopping days left until Christmas

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:58:53 +0000

2005-12-15 17:27:55

Hola Amigos, Only 10 shopping days left until Christmas. Fortunately, Lois and I are in a place where that really doesn’t matter much as there aren’t any places to spend our Cruising Kitty. Right now, we are anchored in a beautiful bay in Chemela. We are here with about 6 other cruising boats as we all work ourselves further south for the winter. Our Christmas destination, Barra de Navidad, is only about another 45 miles south of here. We will make another stopover before hitting there about the 23rd and stay through the 26th before moving to Santiago Bay/Las Hadas for New Year’s. Last night, entertained the other cruisers and beach side residents with the first night of lighting up the bay with Christmas lights strung to the top of mast to resemble a Christmas tree. We’re able to accomplish is small task with the help of running our portable Honda generator to provide the amount of electricity to power them. It was just beautiful out here on this darkened anchorage. There were two other boats that also contributed to the color with strings of lights in their cockpits. It tis the holiday season. We sure hope your’s is going well for you. After spending so many months in the Paradise Marina in Puerto Vallarta, it is truly wonderful to be back out traveling the sea and enjoying all of the interesting places along the way as well as the abundance of sea life that is around us all the time. Now, we’re not complaining about the marina accommodations in Paradise Village, don’t get me wrong. It’s really very nice. With the beautifully maintained marina, choice of three spas and either beachside or lagoon swimming pools, yacht club facilities for eating, drinking or just chit-chatting with fellow cruisers, on site zoo where the female leopard gave birth to three cubs over the summertime (which Lois got to hold and give love to), the choice of about a dozen restaurants within walking distance from the slip, shopping mall within 100 yards of the boat, etc., etc., etc., how can one really complain? Oh yes, it did take a bite out of our cruising kitty, but it sure was a treat after spending most of the previous three years on the hook. (Meaning at anchor) But this also gave us the opportunity to do some boat and body rehab and a chance to do some inland travel into other parts of Mexico. Since leaving Paradise, our trip down the coast has been pretty much a breeze….or should I say a bit less breeze than we really like for sailing. After rounding Cabo Corientes (the Point Conception of Mexico known for it’s high winds and torrential seas, but pretty tame that day) we had a beautiful 7 plus knot sail to our first overnight destination of Ipala. Immediately, we were surrounded with the great sights of sea life around us and like the previous year were welcomed to the small cove and village of Ipala with the sighting of a huge whale off our port beam. Must have been about 40-50 feet long and seeming to be having just a great time as it spouted, surfaced and dove repeatedly as we moved along the coast together. Sea turtles were out in abundance as we pulled into the cove where we spent the next few days. We met a fellow, delivering a boat to Barra de Navidad, and we all had dinner together at a beach side restaurant we had eaten at the previous year. The shrimp Diablo was simply wonderful as always. After enjoying our time in the tiny village of Ipala we made a ten hour passage to our present location of Chemela. Now this anchorage is much different as it is a huge bay about 4-5 miles across, with white sand beaches and many “local tourist” hotels and beach side restaurants. The water is clear and clean and we will remain here to do some bottom cleaning on the boat, a little provisioning of fresh veggies and fruit before we continue on. Throughout the day here we have visits by porpoises, curious as they are, as they jump and play around the boat and seem to be scratching them selves on our anchor chain. The anchorage has been calm except for last night when for some reason the rocking of the boat was a reminder we are no longer tied to a dock. A BIG boat came in and anchored next to us after dark and I was able to notice that it had a helicopter on it’s rear deck. Although it appears like a working vessel, I’ve yet to determine if it is a private yacht or not. Sure is big though, compared to our little sail boat. That is about all the news for now. The sun is rising and it’s about time for us to get on the morning single sideband marine radio net. It sure is a great way of keeping in touch with all of our friends throughout Mexico and down into Costa Rica. Lois and I both wish you all a very merry holiday season and hope the new year will bring you all that you dream for. Take care of yourselves, your families and friends, and thank you for those of you that continue to stay in touch and keep us up to date on what is going on in your lives. Adios for now.
Feliz Navidad,
Gary and Lois
S/V TEXAN
Currently lying in Chemela Bay, Mexico

Head out of beautiful Paradise

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:56:01 +0000

2005-11-21 00:47:19
Hola Amigos, It FINALLY looks like we’re about ready to head out of beautiful Paradise Village, Puerto Vallarta, Banderas Bay, Mexico for the new Winter sailing season. Our stay here turned out as we expected, with hot and humid days, rainy nights, and more expensive than any place we have stayed in Mexico over the past three years. Of course one major accomplishment was the cataract eye surgery I (Gary) had accomplished at the beautiful medical facilities in Guadalajara. The other accomplishment was the replacement of the sorely leaking rear main oil seal on the Perkins main engine on TEXAN. Thanks to a short visit from our Son Ryan, we issued that repair without incident. Other boat projects were completed but our list still remains long, just as it did the day we left Long Beach, California 3 and 1/2 years ago. I suppose the list never truly is wiped clean. Our summer was topped off by visitors the past two months. These included a visit from our Daughter, Rene’ from Austin and her friend Lisa from Dallas, our long time friends from Houston business days Joyce and her husband David, our dear past cruising friends John and Christy now living in Prescott, Arizona, our wonderful friend and now two time visitor to Mexico Denise, also a sailor as well as a pilot, and finally ex dock mate and friend from Shoreline Village Marina in Long Beach, Chad, now beginning a 3-4 year sabbatical of backpacking different countries of the world (www.chadslost.com). Some stayed only a few days and others stayed a few weeks. We enjoyed every minute of their visit and it was wonderful to have them all come and share with us the beauty and tranquility of Paradise. We were truly blessed with the kindness we received from all of them during their stay here. Thanks guys!! One of the benefits of staying in Banderas Bay during the summer was to moor the boat in the protection of the bay to the threat of hurricanes during the hurricane season that runs from June until November. Fortunately, hurricanes in the Eastern Pacific we quite benign compared to what went on in the Atlantic and Caribbean this year. We truly feel sorry for the people who were adversely affected by the wrath of the storms this summer. We are particularly sorry for our friend Bob, on the sailing vessel “Viva”, who unfortunately lost his boat onto the beach on the island of Isla Providencia, off the coast of Nicaragua on the Caribbean side of Central America. Thankfully, Bob is fine but his loss of boat and contents are now gone. I was fortunate enough to sail down from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas in 2000 with him on Viva as he began his cruising lifestyle. He single handedly skippered her South as far as Ecuador, transited the Panama Canal to Columbia, and was buddy boating with another single hander on “Witch of Endor” as they made their way up Central America, heading for Florida. Since the late in season freak storm took his boat and belongings, he is presently aboard “Witch of Endor” until he decides what he will be doing in the future. Our heart goes out to him. We know quite well what he must be feeling as we too put ourselves in those same type of situations as we travel upon the seas. Our tentative plans for the winter (of course all our plans are written in the sand at low tide) is to leave Paradise right after spending Thanksgiving with about 90 other cruisers at Philo’s restaurant/bar in La Cruz, also in Banderas Bay, where we had the pot luck Thanksgiving dinner last year. After checking all water makers, engine, electrical and rigging systems while still in the bay, we will head back South to spend Christmas in Barra de Navidad, Sail Fest in Zihuatanejo again this February 1 to earn money for the local indigenous schools and maybe down as far as Acapulco and Hualtuco. Hard to say for sure right now. We’ll be sure to keep posting to the web site our travels and experiences as we follow the warmer seas and climate as Winter approaches. We sure hope your summer was full of wonderful times and you and your family have a blessed holiday season. Fair winds and following seas to everyone.
Gary and Lois S/V TEXAN

Good Morning from Puerto San Everisto

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:55:29 +0000

2003-06-18 03:59:05
Yesterday, we got up and left the anchorage at 8:00 AM. The winds were hooting from the South and I wanted to take advantage of that. So we stuck our nose out into the channel and found winds in the 15-20 knot range and wave action was about 4 feet closely stacked. We put the wind at about 120 degrees, off our port stern quarter and released the roller jib alone. Bam!! 7 knots. Perfect. We only had 28 miles until our next stop but I just didn’t want to motor. So… we sailed the entire way for the next five hours as the winds continually dropped. At a point where Texans speed was down to 3 knots. I rolled up the jib and hoisted the spinnaker. Perfect, back up to 5 knots. We left it there until the wind died completely and had to motor the final thirty minutes into the bay. It was a great trip. Our friends on Spirit Healer, being the late risers that they are, left two hours after us, arrived one hour after us, but motor sailed the entire way. Ugh. That is exactly what I didn’t want to do. I must say that I believe the spinnaker is going to get allot of use this summer with what I project as going to be many days of very light winds to sail with. So, here we sit, in this small cove with four other boats looking at the fishermen leaving in their pangas for another hard day at trying to make a living. There are about 15 houses here, salt flats for harvesting salt sold in La Paz, and there is suppose to be a small tienda that sells food products after they stock on Tuesday nights. We’ll stay here until Wednesday just to see what the tienda really has to offer. I heard we may be able to pick up some potatoes. That’s it for now. Life is good.
S/V TEXAN

Ensenada Grande

texan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:54:42 +0000

2003-06-15 03:58:09
Hi Everyone, Well, we’re finally out of La Paz…..with enough provisions aboard to last us months. (Except perishables of course.) I am just amazed how much we can pack into our little home. We are on Isla Partida, just 28 miles North of La Paz. We are awaiting some other friends to arrive in a day or two and we will then head about 28 more miles north to the Baja side at San Evaristo. We haven’t been there before so that should be fun. The weather is warming up enough so that all of our boat cleaning and projects must be accomplished before noon, when it just is too “sweaty” to have any fun at it. Skies are clear and there seems to be a consistent breeze from the South due to heating up of the land masses during the day. As I look into the anchorage this morning the water clarity isn’t near what it was the last time we were here. That’s too bad as snorkeling won’t be near as nice. Perhaps we’ll just hop in the dinghy and see if we can do a little fishing. There must be some sort of early summer “bloom” in the water as it warms up. Speaking of warming up, the waters heat up to about 95 degrees to where we are headed at the height of summer. Wow, that’s like a bath. That’s it for now. We just wanted to let you know we are under sail on our Northerly pilgrimage with other cruisers. Many of our cruiser friends are headed to San Carlos/Guymas on the mainland side of the Sea of Cortez to leave their boats there while the head back into the states for the hot summer weather here. A few are taking road trips, some visiting (and living) with families and others are going back to work to make a few bucks to replenish their cruising kitty. But like us, there are also those brave souls going to negotiate the heat and the empty anchorages until fall, when everyone returns. Have a great weekend!!
Love, Gary and Lois
S/V TEXAN
Lying: Ensenada Grande, Isla Partida