Here's some pictures of the town.  The story is a few posts "back"

One last trip with our boat buddies.  These are the pictures from our Yelapa adventure detailed below

We've had some good times with a lot of friends that we've met along the way so far.  Camanoe and Dos Leos are two boats who have now left.  Camonoe has gone South and Dos Leos has gone North.  We of course, are soon to be heading West.

We're mostly supposed to be working on finishing projects for the boat and provisioning in expectation of leaving for the South Seas on April 1ish, but when the opportunity to go across the bay to Yelapa (about 16 miles), with two of our favorite boat buddies Camanoe (with Dave and Stephanie) and Dos Leos (with Bob and Deanne) we jumped. We were only going to go for an overnight, but once here, we decided to make it a two night event.

Yelapa is a small bay, maybe ¼ mile across, which is mostly isolated from the rest of the world. The only way to get here is by boat or an arduous four wheel drive journey on unimproved roads. From the anchorage it looks a little like a Mediterranean coastal town built up into the cliffs above the bay. Both lovely and somewhat primitive and broken down. There are really two towns here. The main part of town goes straight up the cliffs. The houses are built somewhat precariously on the rock and you make your way through town (really up town) by a winding series of steps and paths. They use a combination of walking, horses and donkeys to carry stuff and the occasional ATV. The paths are not big enough for cars and there are no cars here anyway. We hiked up through town marveling at the architecture as well as the faith in the foundations which for the most part look a little "iffy". They wouldn't last a minute in earthquake country is all I can say to describe them. On the way up, you are following a stream that tumbles down through town and when you get to the top, there's a 75 to 100 foot waterfall that cascades into a little pool. This is where the town gets its water, which is then gravity fed down the hill into the houses.

The other part of Yelapa is the beach part of town that follows a river up a shallow valley. This part of Yelapa is mostly thatched roof houses, although some were more substantial. It makes an interesting juxtaposition between the cliff side look and the more tropical jungle look. There is both here.

Our first day here, we moored just off the beach on a mooring that the locals rent out. This is a deep bay and difficult to anchor in so enterprising locals have created a mooring field for boats. They get rent (about $16 US per night) and more boats come since many don't like to anchor in the first place. Once secured, we took a water taxi ashore through small breakers and jumped off into the surf and up the beach to a nice thatched roof restaurant where we rubbed our feet in the sand while enjoying cervezas and fish tacos.

After lunch, we decided we would take the hike up river to a different waterfall from the one in town. The hike itself was worth the day as we got to see architecture that you just don't see in California. A combination of thatched huts and adobe cottages. Some were in better shape than others. Most had a combination of chickens, chicks, dogs, horses and cows tied up or laying out in the yards. We walked through "town" on a small cobble path that just had room for either two walking abreast or a horse, which meant we moved to the side when a horse came through. Jungle was interspersed with the homes, so there were banana trees (with real bananas hanging just out of reach), coconuts and lots of other fruits that we don't know the names of or whether they are safe to eat. We were told the walk up the waterfall would be about an hour and a half. "You go up this path, then take the bridge across the river, go up and cross through the water two times then through the gate…" were the best directions we had.

Two hours later and after walking through the river four times, we realized we had probably missed a turn somewhere. Time to go back. On the way back, about a half mile down from where we stopped, we saw a broken down gate with the word: "waterfall" scratched onto it-probably with a nail. OK, now we knew where to go, but it was getting late. Maybe tomorrow.

Round trip, approximately 8 miles, including river fording a little climbing and a mostly unimproved trail. We got back to the beach at 6 PM. We were very lucky that one of the panga drivers was still around to ferry us back to our boats. All of us collapsed onto the boats. By all accounts the next day, each of us in our three boats were mostly asleep by 8PM.

Flash forward to the next day. Hailed a fisherman for a ride to the beach. We paid $1.80 per couple for the ride. The fishermen had a load of lobsters in the boat. Had it had been later in the day we would have bought a few and had a bbq. However, it was early morning and we had a mission: Find the waterfall!

Once dropped ashore, we heading back up into the hills along the trail through the town, across the bridge and we forded two rivers. We were looking for the sign, but there was a strange noise coming down the trail. Thump, thud, kerthump! We all jumped aside just in time as a small horse came down dragging a dozen cut trees. About six per side. Just the right size to build a little palapa or hut to live in. Then as we were discussing this, another horse dragging more timber and another followed finally by a caballero. You definitely feel like you've gone back in time here.

Anyway, back to the waterfall, we found the gate, went another half mile, climbed some rocks and there it was, just as promised. A nice waterfall with a pond about 30 yards across. Hot feet, sweaty bodies. Shoes and shirts came flying off and we were all in the water. It was glorious. And the best part, there was not another soul in our part of the waterfall. We all swam some, then just sat on a little beach in the middle of the pool in about two feet of water and enjoyed another beautiful day in paradise. The evening ended with a fun game of "Catch Phrase" (which the girls won 2 out of 3 rounds) with Camanoe and Dos Leos. This is a departure point as Camanoe continues on south to Manzanillo and will not be around before we depart. We will greatly miss these guys and wish Dave, Stephanie who is flying home in May, a safe voyage as Dave continues on single-handing to Hawaii. We are certain we will see these fine sailors again and look forward to reading their blog at camanoe.wordpress.com. I will miss having someone to go play with (who will "ash me" next year) and Bob will miss long conversations all about boats. We will both miss enjoying the local culture with both of them. Thanks for the fun times! As for Dos Leos: More fun yet to come until we depart later this month. Someone hide the Tequilla please.

By the way, the Mexicans don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day so no green cervezas. P.S. Thank you Jerry for pointing out that we have been slacking in our blogging duties :

We're in California for a week doing our taxes (ugh). Nice to see friends and family (like the lovely dinner last night with Pat and Jerry), but wanting to get back to La Cruz to finish the boat prep for the big jump. Target date: April 1. That's when we'll be ready, then we'll wait for a weather window.

Yesterday was the Puddle Jump kickoff meeting.  We were interviewed by Lattitude 38 magazine and received our official Puddle Jump burgee.  It's now flying at the spreaders right below our Mexican courtesy flag.  One month and counting...

A few miscellaneous pictures to get caught up with life here in Mexico.

We're just chilling right now as we prepare for the jump to the South Seas in April. La Cruz is a wonderful spot. We're anchored about a hundred yards off the beach. Weather's great and there are lots of other cruisers to socialize with. Great music every night in town (really not more than a village) and delicious, inexpensive food including a fresh fish market and twice per week farmer's market. We're thinking about going across the bay to Yelapa tomorrow, weather permitting. The town is only accessible by boat or horse and there's a hike to a couple of waterfalls that looks like fun.

This morning I took the bus into Nuevo Vallarta to take the Ham radio exam. Success! I am now legal in the Technician class. Not too useful, but the necessary step to the Genereal license which I will take in a couple weeks.

On Wednesday, there's a "Puddle Jump" seminar on "Surviving A Whale Strike" followed by a Lat 38 party. Both at are at Vallarta Yacht Club, so more crazy bus rides in our future, since it costs about $1.50 for the bus versus $18 for a cab (each way). Part of the adventure of the bus is that you take two to get there. Coming back, you get off the first one, then have to run across the freeway (no crosswalk or overpass, just dodge the cars that going 60) to get the other one. No real stop, just read the hand lettering painted on the front windshield and if it's going the right way, hold up your hand. Even though it's on the freeway, it will stop for you.

That's all from La Cruz, Banderas Bay

Just catching up here:

Back in Chacala, sitting in our hammocks at sunset, we saw our first green flash of the trip. It was very bright green and distinct. Hopefully the first of many more now that we're firmly in tropical latitudes.

In Jaltemba, we were anchored right off the beach in just 12 feet of water for our last night there when we had the dubious experience of a thunderstorm about midnight.

Everything looked calm and nice when we went to sleep, but a strong gust through the cabin around 2300 announced that all that had changed. I was just starting to wonder what had woke me up when I saw the first flash of lightning. I got up fast and looked out. Ah oh! Our previously safe anchorage had turned into a lee shore and wind and waves were building. We got into our life jackets and prepared for the worst, lashing down what we could and checking to make sure no lines were in the water to foul in the prop should we have to quickly depart. I also set a waypoint on the radar (the GPS is way off here) that would get us out safely past a small island that's about a mile away, in case visibility dropped from rain squalls. Now it started raining pretty hard and we could see lightning bolts hitting the water just to the Northwest. But we sat tight and fortunately this storm passes mostly north of us, heading Eastward in over the land. I stayed up until about 0300 just to make sure it was over and past, then went back to bed.

A tropical storm. Another reminder that we are in the tropics. This one was a good reminder that we should (and have) put together a checklist for when a storm hits at anchor to make sure that when in a sleepy haze, we don't forget something important.

We got in two days ago and are anchored just off the town. This is really a cool place. Small, very old world kind of town (read somewhat broken down, but quaint with stone streets) with really friendly people. Last night we had a fantastic dinner ashore with Dave and Stephanie from Camanoe. Also live music. Mostly Mexican and Bolivian, i.e. Conga drums, pan flute mandolin with a great beat that got us all up and dancing.

It's also the kind of place where we had to take a bus to the next town to find a bank where we could get money from the ATM, since it's a cash only world here. We actually walked an hour down the beach to the town, then took the bus back.

We have spent most of today at the most fantastic crafts fair that happens every Sunday on the breakwater at the marina. Food, entertainment and really excellent artisan quality craftworks. Lots of fun.