Puerto Vallarta

February 17 – March 1, 2023

We left the La Cruz anchorage in the early afternoon headed to Puerto Vallarta to meet up with family. It was a quick 15 mile sail with beautiful conditions and whales along the way. We got checked in to Marina Vallarta, the closest marina to downtown Puerto Vallarta, and took a day to check in with the port captain and run errands around town.

Marina Vallarta is a large and busy marina, complete with a resident crocodile. There are many restaurants, hotels and condos surrounding the marina and within walking distance there are large super markets and marine supply stores. My dad flew from New York and my cousin Michael and his wife Nancy flew down from Texas to visit. They rented a large condo within the marina making it incredibly easy to meet up, hang out, and visit for the week. While they were here, our days were packed. We visited the botanical gardens, explored Puerto Vallarta, checked out the nearby town of Sayulita, and more or less ate our way through the city. The highlight had to have been our extraordinary dinner at Cafe des Artistes. We went sailing one of the afternoons and a whale breached so close to us that the spray from his spout fogged our glasses. Very cool.

After Michael and Nancy left, my dad stayed a few more days and we did a hop on/ hop off bus tour of the city. Not so much hop on/hop off as a guided bus tour but we took the opportunity to explore more of the town. On our last night, we had a wonderful dinner at La Palapa on the beach in the Zona Romantica.

We had a great time catching up with family. After my dad left, we packed up Tasi and headed back to the anchorage in La Cruz where we plan to meet up with friends who recently arrived from the Sea of Cortez.