We recently returned from a visit to Yelapa and we’d go for the palapa any day! Maybe it was the great company, maybe it was all the cultural magic we saw, maybe it was the scenery, maybe just maybe, this might be my new favorite place! Speaking of great company, we hosted Chris and Beth from San Diego for a week. It was quite a treat for us because they’ve been in this area before. They gave us the scoop regarding places to check out and introduced us to some new friends.
We stayed in La Cruz for their first night so they could get settled into the boat. The next day the conditions were good enough for a day sail and our plan was to go where the wind carried us. Much to our delight it gently carried us to Yelapa! Yelapa is across Banderas Bay and is equipped with mooring balls to attach your boat to.
We haven’t heard the greatest things about the mooring balls but the terrain underwater drops off so quickly that it’s almost impossible to anchor there. We took our chances and hooked on to a ball with some instruction from a local. We gave him the fee to stay two nights and took him up on his recommendation for dinner at the Yelapa Yacht Club.
The yacht club was hosting a special fundraiser for the high school folkloric dance team. With each donation they will be closer to their trip to San Francisco where they will perform. Of the 35 total students, 16 of them are involved in the dance team, how cool is that?! We watched in awe as the girls twirled their colorful dresses and the boys stomped in unison to the music. Some dresses take up to 25 days to create and the finished product was absolutely gorgeous! Part of the fundraiser was a couple of raffles. You’ll never guess who won a bottle of tequila…Skipper Brad!
The next morning we had a simple breakfast on board and geared up to hike to the waterfall. The hike is about 3.5 miles each way and we were escorted by a couple of local dogs. We named them Paco, Maria and Jorge. 
The path led us out of town and up the river. Scattered along the path were houses, animals, vibrant flowers and jungle. Chris and Beth even found a cute fixer upper! 

At the end of the trail lies a very rewarding waterfall. By the end of the hike you cannot wait to jump in! Not to mention, it’s free fresh water to “bathe” in ha! We all enjoyed our time swimming, sunbathing, resting and then it was time to make our way back to town. We worked up quite the appetite!


I learned that Yelapa is a popular yoga retreat destination…
Our stay was 2 nights and it was definitely time to go when we pulled out. Yelapa tends to get a bit rolly and we had our fair share of being rocked. We definitely plan to go back to this beautiful place in the near future! Thank you to Chris and Beth for recommending and sharing such a wonderful place with us!
What else have we been up to? Well we’ve been seeing a ton of whales…
Enjoying lots of sunrises and sunsets…
Doing a lot of fishing and a little catching…
Sydney has been doing plenty of fetching and lounging…
Speaking of Sydney, she has some words to say…Dear readers, I had the best hike in Yelapa! 7 whole miles of things to sniff, horse poop to roll in AND eat! I made a few new friends but Paco wouldn’t leave me alone- but boy did I miss him on our way back to town. He was my bodyguard against the local dogs, would you believe I got nipped by an ankle biter?! I tried not to let it show but I enjoyed my time with Aunt Beth and Uncle Chris. I even cuddled with them! Other than that I’ve been mostly unimpressed as usual. 
We hope that each of you are happy, healthy and well! Cheers from the crew of SV Perspective! 🤗
La Cruz was a wonderful pit stop and we spent the day on the boat. We were lucky enough to hear that a whale calf and it’s family were making its way through the anchorage. We hopped on deck and enjoyed the show! The calf was breaching over and over again and it was truly a joy to see.
The next morning we were off to Chacala. It would be a 7 hour trip that kept us on our toes! We carefully navigated through Punta De Mita and the Tres Marietta’s avoiding the shallow area in the middle. And my favorite quote of the day was “It’s your job to make sure we don’t hit any whales!” The Bay is full of whales this time of year and the last thing we want to do is hit one! We saw so many spouts, backs and tails, it was incredible and incredibly nerve wracking. Realistically we were fine because we had our motor on and the whales would hear and avoid us.
Mahi fish tacos were on our plates in about 30 minutes and oh so tasty! The next couple of hours flew and before we knew it we were in Chacala. We set our bow anchor and Jim helped us with our stern anchor via the dinghy. We caught up on our boat and headed to shore to check it out. We made it just in time for a stunning sunset. 

Chacala is a small town that actually feels like Mexico. The streets are dirt and cobblestones with small restaurants and markets on either side. In the mornings you wake to the sunlight trickling through the port lights, the sound of crashing waves on shore and the roosters singing cockadoodledoo! It is perfect here!
At night there are tons of fish that enjoy our deck lights, it is quite a site to see!
Sydney’s Perspective: Finally we are at a place that has a beach for me to play and poop on! I even have a new trick, peeing in the water. It makes my humans laugh every time! Oh and my humans caught me a giant fish that I could care less about until they are hand feeding me the scraps. Things are finally looking up, although I do occasionally miss the ice cream. 

We plan on being in Chacala for a few days and heard there is a hiking trail with ancient petroglyphs. We also have plans to move to a new anchorage that is the most visually stunning place I’ve seen so far, and don’t worry, it has a beach for Sydney too.

We stopped at a restaurant called Casa Traditional which served excellent food and margaritas. Wow, was it tasty and the service was wonderful.
The time certainly flew with the Harley crew, but that means we had a great time together. I know we will cherish the time spent and are very thankful they came all this way to spend Christmas with us!








Punta Mita, so far…

Sydney’s Perspective…things have been mediocre these past few weeks. The resort doesn’t allow dogs, who do they think they are?! But you know what, I broke the rules and showed up on NYE, neener neener! I’ve been getting plenty of walks, a few bites of ice cream and just a smidgeon of beach time. You know that’s not my order of preference. I shall punish my humans with my death glares and pouty faces. Maybe that will teach them! 




The crocodile hunt was a family event, with Sydney on board. We had her tied into the dinghy so she was forced to behave and stay in the boat. Safety first! Both Brad and I were scanning the shores like hawks and we finally had our first encounter. Bummer for us, it was over before it really began. But it was enough to spark our excitement to keep looking. Brad spotted the next two, they were 2 little guys sun bathing on a concrete slab. Very cute!


Here are the creepy crabs!
Brad was steering the dinghy and it became somewhat like a video game. He was dealing with currents, obstacles, and trying not to run aground in the shallow areas. He did a great job and nobody got their eye poked out by low lying sticks. What more could you ask for?! By the time our trip up and down the estuary was over, we counted 9 crocodiles or cocodrilos as they call them here in Nuevo Vallarta. Each of them were very exciting and tricky to catch on camera as they were quick to scurry into the water once they saw us. 



Estuary views…





We are amazed that 50 days have happened in the blink of an eye and are both afraid our time on this adventure is going to zoom past us before we know it. Can’t wait to see what the next 50 days has in store for us, and can’t wait to share it with all of you!


As you look down the beach is covered in little coral pieces.
As you look forward there are fishing shacks and nets along the shore. We made our way to a trail that lead to an abandoned research facility. It was huge and unfinished, which is a bummer! We saw plenty of iguanas along the path, lizards, and of course birds!
This part of the Island is saturated with frigate birds and their nests. In the trees you’ll find females laying on their nests, juveniles hanging out in the branches and males with their throats puffed out for all to see that they are ready for love. I was so surprised to see that the frigates are not territorial and did not seem to mind humans coming so close. 
We back tracked and headed to the fishing huts to find the start of the next trail. This one would lead us to Lago Crater. As we made our way up the path we found plenty of holes in the ground which belonged to crabs. I felt creeped out, Brad was fascinated! One was a little irked as it came out to say hello. It reminded me of the crabs you see in cartoons. He came out with arms spread wide and ready to pinch!
The paths along the island are well maintained and marked which makes it easy to navigate. As you walk the path your ears are inundated with bird noises- it was pretty cool to stop and just listen. We went up a steep hill and came down the other side to the crater. It’s full of stagnant, rain water and from what we could tell, no wildlife present in the lake.
We followed the path further and were halted to a stop when we both heard a whistling noise. Was a researcher trying to get our attention? Nope, it was a blue footed boobie talking. We kept going down the path that ended at the ocean cliff. There were boobies everywhere! They were so cute with their bright blue feet as they waddled around. We saw a couple of the mamas laying on their nests while most of them were in the thick of courting season. A pair will do a little dance and I suppose the rest is history if the partner likes the dance moves. I spent way too much time geeking out with the camera and Brad caught some great footage with the iPhone. 


Perspective on anchor…

The gorgeous cliff views…


We peeled ourselves away and walked back to the fishing huts and decided to do another path that leads to a lighthouse on top of the hill. The hike was very steep, but not too far so it was manageable. We enjoyed the burn going up because we had been restless on the passage coming down. We needed the exercise! As we climbed higher and higher the views got better and better. 
At the top there were more boobies. We walked around while taking in the amazing views below us and made our way back down. 
Brad found one last area to explore, this was my least favorite. It was low tide and a portion of rocks were exposed. As we climbed up the rocks and peered down, we saw tons of crabs scurrying away! They reminded me of spiders! The crabs were a shiny black and a few were red. I’ve never seen black crabs before. Also located on this stretch of rocks are brown footed boobies. It was interesting that each bird was segregated to their own sections of the island.
This was by far my favorite place of the trip making any uneasy parts of the passage completely worth it. It’s times like this that need to be savored because there will be other tough times coming up.

Brad and I visited La Paz not long ago while looking at a potential boat to purchase. We fell in love with the city and were very excited to have our own boat here. The passage from Muertos to La Paz took the better part of a day and we were able to sail for a few hours before surrendering to our motor. The scenery along the way is untouched, rolling hills that dip into the ocean. 
We rounded the corner between Isla Espiritu Santo and El Tecolote and made our way to the La Paz channel.
We were nervous making the entrance because we have heard horror stories of boats running aground. As we made our way closer there were the trusty red and green channel markers showing us the way to go. As long as we kept the boat between the markers we would be fine. A couple of our friends were already anchored in La Paz and we were looking forward to reuniting with them. The odd thing about La Paz is that you can essentially anchor anywhere, as long as you aren’t in the channel. We chose a spot near our friends and quickly got down to the task of having dinner. We were starving! Sunset as we arrived…
The following day we met up with our friends Jim and Steve and explored the city a bit more. Jim located the mother of all ice cream shops, and even Sydney gets to enjoy the tasty delights that they sell.
We make a point to visit daily. It’s a decent walking distance from the dock so it kind of makes up for it. 😉 In other treat news, we were all spoiled when Jim came aboard and made us crepes, with all the fixings. Talk about amazing!
The next morning Steve returned the favor with a delicious breakfast, with fruit and orange juice to boot! As our turn arrived we made pancakes, bacon and eggs.
We spent a few days anchored in La Paz and decided to move to a new anchorage, one that we could enjoy a bit more. We wound up in Caleta Lobos. The first night there the winds were very strong, but the remaining nights were smooth as glass.
Roca Lobos is just outside the anchorage and is phenomenal for snorkeling or diving. Boy were we impressed! The water was clear, there were plenty of fish to see and to top it off we had a sea lion join our party. She was very sweet, curious and playful. We swam with her for a few minutes and made our way back to the dinghy for a break. We were all in awe of her playfulness and agreed it was a wonderful experience.

For once Sydney seemed to be impressed! Or maybe she was just happy to get off the boat and run around. 😉 We stayed at Caleta Lobos for 3 nights and turned around back to La Paz. We were having a serious case of ice cream withdrawals….ok I’m lying, just a little bit though. We had plans to grab a slip and one happened to be available.
We hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and happy holidays ahead! Cheers!!!
After the swim Brad was doing his best to cheer me up and suggested a nice dinner on shore. I’m not one to say no to food so we “dressed up” and headed to shore. There are two choices, a locals restaurant and the resort restaurant. Of course we chose the locals spot! We dinghy’d to shore and were greeted by a rally member named Steve. He gave us a hand with pulling the dinghy up the shore and he accepted our offer to join us for dinner. Turns out Steve has been single handing his 57 foot boat since Cabo. We got to chatting over dinner and really enjoyed getting to know him. It was a great distraction from the traumatic event of losing Zorra the day before.
The next day we went back to the same restaurant for lunch time. We sat outside with Sydney and we met another single handed cruiser, Jim, from Silk Purse. He joined our table and it turns out he also knew Steve. As luck would have it we’ve all become great friends since meeting in Muertos.
Locals side…
Our time was well spent in Muertos but at some point the anchorage went from a calm and pleasant place, to a rolly and frustrating place. If the boat is going to be rolly, I’d rather be on the move! Off to La Paz we went the following morning. 


As we pulled in we circled looking for a good place to drop the hook. There’s a submarine trench within the anchorage making things a bit tricky. Our guidebook suggested skipping the anchorage if there were more than 6 boats in it, there were close to 15 as we came in. We took our chances, anchored, and headed to shore with the girls. They deserved a break from the boat. Sydney fetched and dug to her hearts content while Zorra rested on shore. Her swollen belly made it hard for her to walk at this point.
We heard there was a hiking trail up the mountain so one morning we decided to take a look. Unfortunately we didn’t locate the trail, but we still had a fun time tromping around. The scenery was gorgeous! We also had the chance to meet and chat with fellow cruisers about their upcoming plans. As it turns out, most of us are heading to the same places at the same time. 
After Zorra passed we felt it was time to leave Los Frailes and head to our next destination. Los Muertos. Leaving was difficult for many reasons but we know Zorra is in a beautiful resting place!

Jessi (Jesper’s wife) joined us for a couple of days and it was awesome to have her aboard! We took the dinghy and explored Lover’s Cove.

Finish Line Party at Squid Row- the people watching there was phenomenal!
Awards Ceremony- the rally held an awards ceremony with gifts for each contestant.
Fueling up- we were reluctant to fuel up because of the horror stories we had heard regarding price gouging. We were pleasantly surprised this was not the case!
Farewell to Jessi and Jesper- I cried as we said goodbye to our friends, I wouldn’t consider this to be a highlight, but definitely notable! Brad and I would be on our own for awhile. Dun dun dunnnnnn! 😜