Yelapa, Whales and Christmas

Hola,
We decided to take a tour of Banderas Bay, stopping in at Yelapa, the Tres Marietas, and on back to La Cruz from Puerto Vallarta.  We heard great things about Yelapa, so we were looking forward to seeing it.  It's a small inlet on the south side of Banderas Bay, apparently discovered by hippies many moons ago.  Now, it's still a quaint village, no roads go there so only boats take tourists to visit.  It is quite beautiful, yet the Mexicans who live there are dependent on the tourist dollars and it is aimed in that direction.  As in many towns here, there are folks selling jewelry, hats, food, horseback rides, fishing trips, and much more.  We enjoyed our time here, yet the 100 peso cost for a one way 50 yd. trip to our boat was a bit unsettling.  So, after one night, we decided to go visit the Tres Marietas, a national reserve of several small islands off of Punta Mita. 
  There is no access to these islands, you can snorkel, dive, kayak and sight see, but no landing.  They remind me of Santa Barbara island off California.  We motored around them, seeing many whales, some breaching and others with their tails so high out of the water it seemed odd.  Very fun to see though. 
   We ended up back in La Cruz marina, with many new arrivals.  It's like old home week, many folks from Long Beach, LA, and Seal Beach.  Today we took a bus to Sayulita, a surf beach on the ocean side nearby.  It was another fun excursion, yet filled with tourists, hippies, and locals selling their wares to anyone and everyone.  I am a bit tired of trying to eat and saying no gracias every 2 minutes.  Blankets, tee shirts, bracelets, silver jewelry, hats, fortune tellers, surf lessons, fishing tours, stuffed animals, dresses, scarves... ok you get the picture.  I feel rude, yet you can't look at them or they'll come over to you.  The economy is not great here, but they're doing ok for the most part.  Lots of new cars, laundrys, shopping malls, and many Yanks to help out with donations for the needy.


For 40 pesos even you can have a new friend!




Lovely sunset... getting redundant




Quite different from La Cruz, only a two hour sail away.

    Tonight, we saw a movie in our marina with other cruisers, "The Santa Clause", sure we've seen it many times before yet here it brought the Christmas spirit home a bit.  It was fun to see it in an outdoor amphitheatre with popcorn, snacks, wine and beer.  Not like the states there...  We all brought our boat cushions, fleeces and pesos for the popcorn.  Leif and I are not doing too much for Christmas this year, as this trip is our present to each other.  There are several events around the area to join in with, we'll see what we feel like doing.  Feliz Navidad