Merry Christmas

We wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and let all of our friends and family that we love them and miss them very much.
Merry Christmas!

.....so this is mainland Mexico

We really have been enjoying ourselves here in Mazatlan. Anchored in the old harbor we are located away from the tourist spots and marinas of Mazatlan. We have been taking the bus, shopping in the open air market and eating with the locals which is without a doubt a much richer experience than being with all the other gringos in the resort areas of Mexico. Once away from the tourist spots you stop looking like a walking, talking money tree and the locals start treating you like a person...not really unlike being in any tourist spot in the U.S. I suppose.

The food here is quite a bit cheaper than on the Baja side of Mexico and the fresh fruit and vegetables are amazing. Since Mazatlan has the largest shrimping fleet in the world we have taken it upon ourselves to gorge ourselves on fresh shrimp almost daily....it is a tough life but hey someone has to do it :). We have gotten pretty good at cooking both coconut and garlic butter shrimp.

Before leaving the states we were warned over and over about how dangerous and violent Mexico was but I have to say after visiting various ports over the past few months I believe that this is the biggest misstatement of facts that I have heard in a very long time. Most of the people we have run into here are unbelievably warm and friendly and there dedication to family is touching. Religion plays a big part in the culture here and is evident in about every place you go in Mexico. It really is a wonderful culture and it seems ashame that there is such a misguided view of how things are in Mexico by many in the U.S.

Baja Mexico to Mainland Mexico

After taking care of our business we left LaPaz last week and headed over to Isla Espiritu Santos and Isla Partida for a few days of R&R. The islands in the Sea of Cortez are amazing! The water is so clear it is like a hugh aquarium and the terrain is stunning. The photos we took really do not do it justice but we thought we would post a few anyway.

Leaving the islands we headed south to Muertos once again to make our crossing from the Baja side of Mexico to mainland Mexico. We were able to buddy boat with our friends Ken and Lori from the beautiful sailboat Trim. The crossing was approx. 200 miles across the sea of cortez. The weather was great....10-15 knots from the north/northwest and swells of 2-4 from the north at approx. 6 seconds. It was the best sailing we had since leaving San Diego. We even had a little bit of excitement when Mark hooked a 5 foot marlin, with all the sails up it turned out to be quite a fight pulling it in. We arrived in Mazatlan 26 hours after leaving Muertos a bit tired from the crossing but none the worse for wear.

Currently we are anchored in the municipal anchorage located in old town Mazatlan. We will post more about this lovely town as we get to know more about it.

La Paz.....part two

It has been awhile since I updated the blog. We spent the Thanksgiving holiday with other cruisers here in La Paz. It was very nice but we really missed our friends and family.

We are still in Marina Palmira in La Paz. We had planned to head over to Isle Espirito Santos and Isle Partida right after Thanksgiving but due to a mess up with Mark's government pension we were forced to stay here a little longer to try to resolve the problem. As some of you know making phone calls to the states from Skype can be a frustrating thing and trying to talk to a government agency over Skype is as you can imagine almost impossible. We should have word by tomorrow if everything is resolved and if so we will be leaving in the morning.

Our past few weeks here have been spent getting to know La Paz and the people. We even made it over to the Anthropology Museum (something Amanda had on the top of her to do list while we are here.