Mazatlan to Banderas Bay - starting the New Year!

We spent a glorious time in Mazatlan, exploring this wonderful, historical city on the water. Sculptures along the malecon (waterfront esplanade), taco stands on many city streets, 2x1 margaritas at many restaurants, complete with local music and homemade salsas.

We bought Christmas pinatas at the mercado (market) and did the pinata breaking of both star shaped pinatas on the bow of Canadian friends' boat Tahnoo, with 9 of us vying for the candy we'd loaded them with. Very fun! That was after our swim in the pool and soaking in the hot tub at the marina. Mike and I stayed at the "cheap marina" and dinghied over to our friends' place.

Nativity scene on the esplanade - this one in Puerto Vallarta - Christmas is huge in an overtly Catholic country!

We had a wonderful Christmas with Canadian friends (our traveling companions to Copper Canyon and Guadalajara). They organized a Blue Water Cruisers Association dinner and included us. We are not yet members of this Canadian group of boaters.

After a fun Christmas holiday season, we headed to Puerto Vallarta to arrive on New Years' Eve day to celebrate the new year with other friends we'd met along the way.

That 2 day boat trip south from Maz to Puerto Vallarta is the stuff of other blog posts yet to be written but I do have hand written notes from those late night shifts on the open water, petrified of fishing nets, floating whales and other unknowns...