We left for cruising we said that we will not hang around marinas, but we sure couldn’t pass this one up, it’s such a nice marina and such a deal. What we spend in one month, hotel guests spend in one night and we get the same use of the facility as they do. We really don’t care for Marinas very much, but now and then we need to use one, for some boat repairs, a good wash down, provisioning, or to meet up with friends from the States. So far we’ve stayed at Marina Coral in Ensenada, very expensive Cabo San Lucas, cruiser friendly Marina de la Paz and Mazatlan, Santa Rosalia and now Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta. But let me tell you about Paradise Village.Paradise Village Marina beats them all, (not to be confused with the Nuevo Vallarta Marina, which is just across the harbor and in my opinion is unsafe in many ways. The docks are built out of plastic and nuts and bolts are sticking out of the concrete and some people fell through the docks, etc.). We spent already two months here in February and March, for the LA to PV and Banderas Bay Regatta and enjoyed it so immensely, we decided to stay here for hurricane season.
Cruisers, this is the place to go, even if you don’t like to stay in Marinas very much!
Paradise Village is a unique combination of a luxury European Spa and a beautiful ocean front Resort with the friendliest marina. The scenery is just breathtaking, on the fringes of a lush jungle, where the majestic mountains meet the shores of the blue Pacific.
The Resort offers so much not just to the hotel guests, but also to us boaters, including towel service, for no extra charge. You get spoiled rotten here. Best of all, it doesn’t feel like being in a Marina, which had at the moment 50 brand new slips with electricity, drinkable water, cable TV and big dock boxes. 50 more are being added and will be ready for the coming cruising season. Get this, every morning the dock boxes are wiped down and the docks are hosed off!
Wilma, Dick and Manuel were doing an incredible job in keeping us all happy and especially making us feel at home. If you need your FM3 renewed, or a new fishing license, Wilma will do it for a small fee. Dick is in charge of the water sport activities, such as 1400 feet high parasail flight, jet skies, water skiing, fishing (where you can catch Tuna just a few miles of shore), banana boat rides, aqua bikes, a steamboat jungle tour, sea lion safari, wind riders, a sunset tour/boom netting trip on the Spirit of Chemainus (gaff rigged square rigger). And for no charge we can use, Kayaks, paddle boats, boogie boards, bocchiball, shuffle board, Ping-Pong, tennis, basketball, volleyball.
There are two incredible pools with waterslides. One is more the activity pool, with two waterslides, and lots of entertainment. For the ones who like it a bit more quite, the other pool is more suited, with a tranquil waterfall and a cave Jacuzzi. This pool has a beautiful aqua green color with a rocklike looking bottom, it reminds me of some of the anchorage’s we’ve been to. There also is a lap pool. Then of course a beautiful beach with plenty of palapas for shade.
I don’t do well being on a schedule, but here I rather enjoy it. The activity team keeps us busy all day long with tennis lessons, water aerobics, water and beach volleyball, trivia’s, margarita walks, Ping-Pong tournament, golf putting contest into the pool, Bingo, dancing lessons. In the evening we meet at the discotheque for either Casino or Comedy night, 50’s and 70’s party, karaoke night, boxing night with giant, giant gloves and every Sunday evening the welcoming party for new arrivals, with a native dancing show. (That’s where you find the most cruisers, for the free drinks and snacks.) I’m sure there was a lot more going on as well, but I didn’t have enough time to fit all in. This place really keeps you busy.
One of my favorites is the Zoo, with a crocodile, toucans, flamingo, black swans and geese, ostriches with babies, different exotic birds, a beautiful tiger, cuadi-mundis, free running peacocks with chicks, spider monkeys, four free flying, annoying but fun parrots, deer (the female just had two beautiful babies) and my all time favorites, Manico and Felipe the well trained sea lions. Around the pool are several iguanas, occasionally jumping into the pool to cool off. (You should hear the ladies scream!)
This place is not just for adults, children are very welcome as well and are provided with a babysitter club and playhouse, parents just love it.
Several Restaurants provide excellent snacks, lunches and dinner. For $ 12.00 you can enjoy an incredible Sunday-Champagne-Brunch on the Patio. The same restaurant serves very nice lunches and dinner buffets, as well as all kind of other international dishes, for a reasonable price. The Maya Pan Restaurant is more for elegant dining. My favorite again is the Beach Palapa, which during the day serves juicy Hamburgers and Sandwiches, and for dinner a romantic sunset dinner with champagne and delicious Lobster or any other wonderful seafood. You should see some of the wonderful and refreshing tropical drinks served in coconuts or pineapples.
Monday nights is the Mexican Fiesta, which offers an all you can eat and drink dinner and get entertained with an incredible native Indian dance show. Wednesday nights, the Italian Fiesta, an also all you can eat buffet and the Western night all you can eat meat buffet with a bull riding and beer drinking contest.
One of our daily activity is the 8 ounce curl at the lobby bar at 5, where we enjoy a two for one happy hour. They make by far the best Margaritas and it is a great cruiser’s hangout.
Getting into Puerto Vallarta from here is pretty easy. The hotel provides its own taxi service. We prefer the public bus transportation, which runs every 20 minutes for the costs of 9 pesos (90 cents) and takes approximately 30 minutes into town. (All other busses in town are 25 cents).
The most luxury here is the Spa. Everything from sauna, private Jacuzzi, workout center, aerobics, yoga, beauty parlor (I’ve had the best manicure/pedicure ever, with aroma therapy) and all kind of different massages and aroma therapies, that include aromatherapy hydro massage, back massage, sea fango massage, holistic relaxation massage, anti-cellulite massage, acupressure shiatsu, alpha massage, reflexology etc. Then of course all the wraps (herbal, volcanic mud, seaweed, silk body etc.), and the newest technique the LaStone massage, which I couldn’t pass up.
The LaStone massage involves the use of basalt-river-bed-stones, acupressure, shiatsu and aromatherapy. The stones, of different shapes and sizes are warmed and chilled from 0 degrees to 140 degrees and used for this very unique massage. Within just minutes of applying the first stone your body falls into an instant and deep relaxation.
Some stones are placed on either side of the spine, others on top of the forehead, down the middle of the chest and stomach, under the palm of the hand, knees, ankles and between each toe (“Hee”, “Hee”, “Hee”). Then the massage starts with the smooth, sleekness of the warmed stones gliding across the body, providing a feeling of soothing comfort and relaxation. Then hot and cold stones, are intermixed, which is very stimulating. You would think that the very cold stones would be a shock to your body. In the contrary, it feels like the very first satisfying sip of ice-cold water, when really thirsty. Then toward the end both, hot and cold, are use together, which is the highlight of the treatment. The sensation of hot and cold is hard to differentiate and even though it’s very stimulating, the body is deeply relaxed. This method of therapy seems deeper stress-relieving then other massages, maybe because of the instant relaxation. You definitely leave the bed stoned. This massage also kept me relaxed for several days after. The only negative thing about it was, I could have taken this wonderful massage for many more hours. Yes I got stoned in Paradise! I would take the LaStone method again, over any other massage. I’m not much for spa stuff, but I have been to a few. This place takes the cake. This was the best treat for my body and mind, so to me getting stoned has a new meaning.
You don’t just get spoiled rotten here, you get pampered as well.
Paradise Village really is a wonderful place to spend the hurricane season and best of all, this Resort and Marina is very affordable for us cruisers that can budget it. It’s worth the stop even if you can’t.
Well, that is a little description of our summer home. We sure kept very busy here. I have been taking tennis lessons daily, which two of the days are single and double tournaments. For a while I took dance lessons three times a day in Morenge, Swing and Salsa. Then of course around two in the afternoon, it’s pool time, where we meet with other cruisers. Wednesdays at 6 we had hors-d’oeuvre potlucks on the dock, which always was a lot of fun, unless it rains.
The humidity has been very high, so we now are the proud owner of an air-conditioner. Boy, it makes life so much easier and we didn’t have to fight mildew at all.
On June 12th we had a great fishing day on the Roo. We caught about 28 Skipjacks, not good eaters, but very good fighters, almost like tuna. Unfortunately we didn’t catch anything else. Saw plenty of marlin but didn’t have the right bait to catch them. The highlight of the trip was, a huge shadow along side the boat. A closer look revealed a giant manta ray about 15 feet across. What a beautiful animal, I never thought I’d actually see one this big other then on the discovery channel. At the same time we had an almost encounter with the Mexican Military panga, we were sure they were going to board us, when they hit the wake of the Roo in high speed and almost dumped the panga. You should have seen the fear on their faces. We were pretty sure too that their pants weren’t white anymore. We didn’t think they would make it either and already pictured them sticking through the port side of the Roo. It was a very close call and I think they were a bit embarrassed as well and didn’t board us after all.
A few days later the Roo and us went into town by bus and we got stuck in this huge traffic jam, due to an accident. Unfortunately two young siblings got killed. Traffic was shut down, the only option was to take side roads, which aren’t paved anymore. Off we went over rocks, bumps and potholes. Of course all the other cars and buses followed. As we drove down a narrow path, we saw some traffic heading towards us. The first car, was small enough to pass barely by us. The next vehicle was a big gas truck and should have realized that there was no way he could make it after seeing that little car barely making it. He pulled into the path anyway and headed towards us and of course the bus driver kept going as well. There they were, nose to nose, just inches apart from each other, having a staring match. Who’s going to move first? That lasted several minutes. In the meantime, several more cars, trucks and buses lined up behind the gas truck and behind us as well. Then the bus driver left the bus to assess the situation, which he had to squeeze himself along the barbwire fence, leaving us trapped in the bus. After negotiating for a while, the oncoming traffic decided to back up. The gas truck had to jockey back and fourth to be able to back up over some big rocks, the bus driver didn’t give him and inch, so that took another 15 minutes. Eventually we got out of that mess and into town, but we had the opportunity to watch a “Mexican Standoff”!
Since this marina is in a river, there is a lot of wildlife around us, including crocodiles. But Reliance seemed to get them on the boat all the time. In the Sea of Cortez we once disturbed them trying to chase a little bird out of the boat. That’s when they told us the story about the Dorado that jumped through the window into their bedroom in the middle of the night. Somehow their boat attracts any kind of animals, they found the second Iguana on their boat already. Lyn said, that she sees them jumping off boats at night all the time.
There was never a dull moment, especially on my shopping trips to the nearby Tienda. The 5 free flying beautiful Macaws (parrots) are really annoying but very funny. The cart I was pulling was loaded with bags of ice for the fishing trip. One parrot saw me approaching and called the others. One of his buddies showed up and the two of them ganged up on me. No matter where I turned, they cut me off. I moved the cart to the right, one of the parrot ran over there to cut me off again and to bite the tire. Then he headed for my toes. So I move to the left, but the other parrots ran over there, cut me off as well, bit the tire and went for my toes. This went on and on. In the mean time we attracted half of the hotel, now all standing around us laughing. It was very funny! Eventually I got the ice still frozen back to the boat. When we play tennis, they go through our stuff. They find anything, especially unattended water bottles. They brake the lid and of course toss the bottle over and drink the water themselves. Then they get on the tennis court and are giving us a hard time. Virginia left her bike unattended for just a few minutes, the parrots tore the seat completely apart. Now she has to stand up while riding her bike!
June 15th is the official start of the raining season, and did it rain ever since, including thunder and lightening. I can’t remember when we saw rain the last time. Sid says he can count the rain we’ve had in the last 1 ½ years on one hand. It is really neat to watch snow white thunder clouds grow to giant mushrooms in just hours, before they explode into an incredible lightning show.
June 30th, 15 days after rainy season had started we had rain on a daily basis, mainly at night, and received so far 8.5 inches of rain, which already was double the amount from the previous year. Two days later 2 inches fell in just 4 hours. July 13th we had the first brake from the rain for three full days, but the humidity was very high. Then the rain started again on a daily basis, so this is what the weather is like in the tropics.
I got a little suspicious when Sid all of a sudden liked to go shopping and found out why soon. After a couple of shopping trips with Norm, Sid came shopping with me and took me to the “BUS STATION”, which Norm had shown him. Across the street from the bus station is a bar, we went in and Sid ordered: “Dos margaritas, para ivar!” Of course Sid never spoke Spanish before then either!!! The bartender said: “Claro quesi!” and a few minute later we walked out with a margarita to go in our hands, which we enjoyed on our bus trip back to Paradise. Norm was teaching my husband bad, bad, bad, bad things!!! But of course from then on we couldn’t just hop on the bus with out a refreshing. It turned into a ritual for the cruisers.
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! For today’s celebration I organized a trip on the “Spirit of Chameinus” a gaff rigged square rigger of about 72 feet. Everybody brought an hors-d’oeuvres and the “Spirit” provided all the booze. We had a lot of fun, especially with the boom net, dipping us in and out of the very warm water while under sail.
July 8th a new holiday was created, it’s called ‘FREE THE IGUANA DAY’! Bart and Gretchen on BLU SKY took us for a ride to Chico’s Paradise. On the way there, we stopped to enjoy the beautiful view over Banderas Bay. We weren’t the only people there. A group of Mexicans were enjoying their lunch break. One of them saw us, discussed something with his friends, reached into a shoe box and approached us with something very green in his hand. He placed this very cute baby Iguana into my hand. It wasn’t even sitting in there for 10 seconds it decided to go for a hike. One leap and it was gone. Down the steep hill with a screaming Mexican behind it. Needless to say the Iguana won his freedom back. I didn’t feel too bad about it, since they had plenty more boxes filled with baby iguanas, which they try to sell to tourists. They belong in the wild and not placed into a shoe box for tourist entertainment. Yes, I freed an iguana, yeah!!!
July 20th I lost my beautiful triangle diamond earring. I was so very upset, I looked everywhere for it, in the hotel bathrooms, all the way to the boat and inside the boat, but no earring. I even took my mask and snorkel into the pool, but nothing. The next morning, Sid stepped on something and muttered something with his ouch. He pulled his foot up and there was my earring stuck in his big toe poor guy. Thanks for finding my earring.
Peroquito the coughing parrot was quite testy sometimes and even Autumn the sea lion trainer had a hard time getting him out of his cage. That’s when they ask for my help to get him either in or out of his cage. Well, Autumn was sick for two days and her helper couldn’t deal with the parrot. He stopped me and asked me if I could help him out. No problem at all, so I helped and we ended up talking for a while, while watching the two seals play. Then it came to feeding time, but he couldn’t get Rena the lab dog who is involved in the seal lion training out of the bigger pool area to get the seal lions over the feeding area. Rena likes me I took her to the beach for walks and plays, so she follows me everywhere. She listened to me right away and chased the seals over to us and my reward was to feed Felipe one of the sea lions, what fun.
August 1st, Sid and Norm flew to Los Angeles to do some boat part shopping, The main reason was to bring Norms van back to PV. Now and then it’s great to have the boat to myself as I go through lockers to sort them out. This is the best time not to be in anybodies way. Besides I wanted to make room for all the goodies Sid was going to bring home. I also reupholstered the salon with some really nice fabric I had found in one of the stores here. I was amazed that I only paid 42 dollars for all the fabric. Sid was surprised and loved the new interior.
August 4th, we received bad news on the net. One of the boats in our Marina, went on a rock at the Islands and sank within 45 minutes. The owner took the sailboat out to do some fishing by himself. After he hit he started heading towards Opecimar, the boatyard, but in between there and PV the boat sank. His first call was around 18:30. But he said nobody heard him. As he went into the dingy, he was burning a flair and burned a whole into one of the dingy tubes. Later, four guys from our marina went to look for him, but couldn't find him. The coast guard finally found him a bit later. He was doing OK, was a little bruised up and of course in shock. He didn’t know either where the boat sank, so there is no way of trying to salvage it. Some cruisers are now worried that it may be a potential hazard for other boaters.
Some weeks later, some rumors started, when his wife left to visit family in the US (which was one month before the accident), she was seen at the airport with 6 suitcases, bags and boxes. He was planning to leave one month after her. He told us that while he was sailing along, he went down below to make himself a sandwich when he hit the rock. In his story he claimed that he was headed for Opecimar, which can’t be seen from the island and in order to do that he had to use his GPS, minding you that his boat was well equipped. But when he made his emergency calls he couldn’t give a position, neither where the boat sank. Doesn’t that strike you odd?! The same time his wife left for the States his very expensive three fishing rods were stolen off his boat ($2000 worth), but the old one was left behind. Nobody ever saw him keeping his fishing pools on deck either. Then we heard that he had an offer on his boat, which he declined and that he had been looking at powerboats. Then he told cruisers up in the States, that he’ll be back in October with his new Trawler! Every time he went fishing he took somebody along with him, as his wife told me that he never takes the boat out by himself. Then another thing to mention is, he had all his close at the cleaner. Well, this story sound too fishy to me and nobody else believed him either.
August 8th, I have never seen such a down pour of rain as today. It actually sprayed through the sunshade and the dodger, splashing over everything. We had some very close lightning hits as well and the thunder was crackling right over us. During the heavy rain, a female voice on the radio asked if anyone had seen a red flare in the direction of Busserias. Bart on Blue Sky answered, having seen it as well about 20 minutes prior to her call and that he listened to Channel 16 following the flare, but had not heard any help calls, so he didn’t think anything about it. The lady then asked him to call the port captain to tell him that he’d seen it as well, he wanted to know. So he changes to channel 16 and called the Capitan Del Puerto. Now the Capitan had to get an interpreter, which turned out to be the same lady again who had talked to Bart. So she translated Bart’s story to the Capitan, which he then responded, that he is sorry, he cant’ do anything about it in this weather he can not go out there and he can’t leave the office right now, because he was by himself!!!!! So Lady, why did you have Bart call him in the first place when you could have told the Capitan yourself. Doesn’t that make you wonder, how and if they would respond to a real emergency call!? Kind of scary isn’t it.
August 10th we still had daily lightning storms which seemed to get fiercer each time. Tonight’s was at 23:00 hour and really scary. Lightning struck all around us and at least 12 were close hits, including the two I watched hitting the hotel’s roof. You could hear the thunder almost before you could see the lightning. After the two hitting the hotel roof I though it would be safer to go down below and did so. The storm lasted over an hour. Just across from our slip (about 50 feet) is a crane on pontoons in the water, which is being used to build new docks. I was just walking to the aft cabin when I saw it getting hit’ sparks where flying and the thunder shook everything. The scary part about this one was, that I could absolutely feel the static, I felt my hair stick up and then my skin was tingling, I actually could feel the electricity, hear the static crackling and then felt a little zap. That was a little too close for my liking and didn’t just scare me but the cats too. I've never experienced such a powerful thunder storm ever. The rain was coming down in buckets. We lost power several times and then the power kept going on and off and on and off. So I turned the fan and air-conditioner off. Yup, it got pretty warm in here. Poor cats were scared to death and just when we started to relax at little, some more lightning flared up, 3 more bolts hit, right here again. Sid was missing it all! And I really, really missed him!!!
A few days later Lyn and I finally got the OK that the boys were coming home, so we took the bus up to Mazatlan to meet them. We decided to go one day ahead of them, so we would have time to do some shopping. Our bus didn’t leave until 9:15 PM and we arrived in Mazatlan at 5 AM. As we arrived at the hotel, we noticed Norm’s van. The guys made it to Mazatlan in two days! Since the office was closed it took as a bit to finally find out where their room was and crashed for a couple hours of sleep.
We spent another day and night in Mazatlan and did all the shopping we had planned to do. The hotel was OK, can’t complain too much about the uncomfortable bed and the tiny shower (don’t drop the soap and try to pick it up, you’ll get stuck doing so) for 15 bucks a night.
Our next stop was San Blas, where we met Norm Goldie and his wife Jan. Norm runs the San Blas Cruisers net on Single Side Band and is a real help to all the cruisers arriving in San Blas. He called one of the local hotels and told the guys, that we were his cousins and convicts and that we were looking for two rooms. The convict must have scared him, because he offered us a house far away from the hotel. It was a two bedroom house for 35 bucks a night, what a deal. He also let us use the pool at the hotel, which was unbelievably cold and refreshing. We spent two fun days in San Blas and visited the ruins of the fort.
The next stop was Tepic, which is the Capital of the state of Nayarit. Many cruisers had told us what a cute little town it was. That’s not what we thought. It was very busy and very dirty, not at all what we expected. Lyn and I did all our Huichol Indian Art shopping in about one hour, then we filled our hungry tummies with great tacos and left town and headed to Sayulita, which is only 30 kilometers away from our homes in Nuevo. What a beautiful and pristine place that. A very little remote village, with the most beautiful beach. We liked it so much, that we spent two whole days there. All in all the drive was very beautiful as it is very green at this time of the year. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking.
Back in the marina we found out that a 20 minutes walk along the beach, takes you to a turtle sanctuary. It is run by volunteers checking the beach for turtle prints every morning, removing the eggs and placing them in a safe caged area. When the baby turtles hatch, they then place them into a round pool and at 10 PM every night, they release them into the sea. That’s when everybody else can help and so we did. We learned that they release about 70 000 turtles in one year and unfortunately only 2 % survive. We also learned that the turtles have to be released on the beach, so that they can smell and taste the sand and through that will find the way back to the same beach again to lay eggs themselves. If they are place into the water immediately they will not make it.
Ever since we got back from Mazatlan, Sid worked his butt off. For numerous hours he was hanging in the rigging painting the mast. He did such a great job too until the second coat when he ran out of paint. Now try to find the right paint in a strange country, we ran all over town and finally found a place with the same paint. Well, we found the same color but in enamel. Back to painting he was almost done with the job, had just one foot left when it started to rain! The paint wrinkled up and well, he had to paint part of the mast again, poor thing. I have to mention too that his paint job got interrupted by our first hurricane drill, which we had to remove the plastic, all the paint stuff and of course sails and anything else that could get blown away. There was a depression about 40 miles west from us, which could turn into a tropical storm (“Greg”) and did. Better to be safe then sorry, we took everything down. We didn’t think it would be too bad, since it was due west of us and not south. Heavy rain was expected but all we received was some moderate rain for 4 days and barley any wind. So our 9th Anniversary got rained out. We had a great time anyway and went to a Brazilian Restaurant with three other couples. It was wonderful. There must have been at least 6 waiters walking around with long spears full of BBQ meet from filet mignon, NY, top sirloin, sausages, bacon wrapped turkey, chicken, ribs and more and was accompanied with wonderful salads. One of the main subjects we talked about was about the sailboat that found a dead body floating in the bay. They called the Port to inform him and for him to pick up the corps. But the Capitan just told them to tie the body behind the boat and tow him to the Capitan del Puerto Office. Can you imagine that, he wouldn’t even go out there himself. So we were joking about it, glad it was the Capitan from Nuevo and not PV. Because if it was the PV one, the poor sailboat would have to report to Immigration, Portcaptain etc. and then they probably would ask for a crew list and fine them for not having the dead body on the crew list and on and on. Actually we were a bit cruel on that.
September 11th I left for a five week trip to Switzerland and LA. It was great to see all our friends and family. Sid’s mom happened to be in town as well and so we had a chance to meet. Switzerland changed. Boy, oh, boy, did it. Welcome to beautiful and friendly Switzerland!!!!!!!!!
This place is getting worse by the minute. Imagine, me as a Swiss citizen, being refused to renew my passport in Switzerland! I'm told that I have to go to were I'm registered, which is Atlanta, they could not do it in Zürich, my hometown, where I was born. “This is Switzerland isn't it” I asked, but no I could not renew my passport. I really have to laugh about how stupid and stubborn the Swiss Government is.
Everything else is the same, neighbors are picking on each other -- as soon as it rains the dark clothes come out of the closet and the smiles are being placed into the closed instead -- when getting into a bus you shake hands with everybody, saying GRUEZI and when leaving shaking hands again and saying ADIE -- no taking baths after 10 PM, because your neighbor will hear the water run through the pipes -- can't talk loud in your apartment, because it will disturb your neighbor too -- if you go to the bank and get money from the friendly person behind the counter, it will cost you extra, you HAVE to use the ATM machine -- don't use the phone, it's too expensive, but everybody is using a cell phone -- you buy everything which is on sale, even though you don’t need it, because you safe money -- you have the laundry room one day a month for only one day, then don’t hang your undis out or your neighbors will judge on you -- you have to wear the right clothes or what would your neighbor think of you -- Police officers are not needed anymore for traffic control, instead a life size dummy waving a flag is used -- you drive faster then the speed limit, but if someone passes you, call him an idiot for speeding -- when approaching a speed sign, don’t slow down too early, wait until you get to the sign and slam the brakes as hard as you can to mach the speed to the sign -- if you own property you have to ask for permission first from your neighbor, then by the county or city, if the fence you just built is disturbing them and if you could keep it –- if you own property, you have to pay a rain tax, because the rain will go through your property into the gutter –- you can not wash the car out doors, because the dirt will go into the gutter as well, but then when it rains you don’t have to take the car inside so that the dirt doesn’t run into the gutter, because it is an act of God –- your neighbor always knows more about you then you do –- when you go shopping you don’t have to stand in any line, you just squeeze in –- you are not allowed to work in your own garden cutting roses on a Sunday, it’s to noisy, but it is allowed to go and shoot your gun at 7 AM on Sundays at the outdoor shooting range with your military machine gun– before you do something, always think first what neighbors might think of you – tell you neighbors how they should raise their children – I could go on and on and on. What got me the most was, nobody seems to speak Swiss anymore. All which is spoken now is Yugoslavian, Turkish, Indian and African. There are a lot of Africans there and it is actually quite funny if a black person speaks in Swiss. And no, no Swiss Ebonics here as of yet!)
I though I still knew all the stuff my mom has in every closet, boy, there is soooo much more stuff to see. I got the royal closet tour again! And still everyday new things were popping up, where does she hide all that stuff?! She had a giant box ready for me to take to the boat, with a, pillows, kitchen stuff, books, etc., etc. and she can’t understand that there is no room on the boat for all of this.
Ja, ja, Switzerland isch schön (is beautiful, grin). I was having a good time though, actually I was having a hilarious time, every thing is so amusing. I think I should write a book about it.
While there I received good and bad news from Sid. They had a big storm come by and one of the boats got hit by lightning. Sid was at that time sitting in the cockpit enjoying a cocktail when he watched the boat getting hit. He immediately went over there to see if they were alright. They didn’t even feel the boat getting hit and where surprised. The real surprise came the next day, when they discovered that they had lost all the electronics. Sid said the weird thing was that the lightning hit the VHF radio, all the electronics were destroyed except for the VHF radio. They weren’t the only ones, most of the boats lost inverters, one computer and a GPS. We were spared, and the only thing was the battery charger got knocked out, but was running fine, but later in the States we had to replace that one too.
Sid has been working his little butt off while I was gone. He re-did the varnish in and out, waxed the boat and had to paint the mast three times. Paradise has never looked better, she sparkles in and out. Great job Sid!
Aunt Alice arrived in Puerto Vallarta the same day as I did from Switzerland and stayed 12 fun filled days with us. We enjoyed all the goodies Paradise Village has to offer. We also rented a car and had many fun adventures to beautiful beaches or in the lush jungle sliding down the rocks over waterfalls, or just shopping.
I think we wore poor Alice out, we kept so busy during her stay. There is so much to do here, no matter how long you stay, there is just not enough time for everything.
Two days after Aunty left, Dave and Kristiina (PMYC) arrived for a fun weekend. Dave told us in two separate emails that they will arrive at 1:30 PM, so we sat in the hotel lobby from 2 PM, waiting, but no Dave or Kristiina arrived. We waited in the Lobby until 5.30 until we realized he must have given us the time his plane took off in LA and sure enough. They didn’t arrive until 6.25 PM. We can’t complain about the wait because we watched all the stars check in for the Celebrity Week. It was quite entertaining. Pat Maurita (Karate Kid) was walking by us, making eye contacted, so I smiled at him and Sid said: “Hi mister Maurita”. He smiles back at Sid, and responded: “Oh, hi, nice to see you again”. He’s probably still wondering, who Sid was. There were so many celebrities, I can’t even remember all of them, would take too long. Well, maybe Jean Claude Van Damm, the Nanny, Ted Dansen, The Hawaiian Tropic girls (Sid and Dave’s favorites), Bob Golic (Raider’s), the principal from “Saved by the Bell”. Robin Leach (The Rich and Famous) with his girlfriend, (could have been his grand daughter. The first night they were seen at the disco, her dancing with another guy and later making out with him in front of Robin Leach and everybody else. Needless to say, he dumped her). Pat Maurita was seen at the disco with his pants down. Norm from Cheer’s, (what an asshole), the same for Allen Thick (Growing Pains). There were so many more, but I don’t want to bore you with that.
Dave and Kristiina arrived with some of the celebrities and met Brian a camera man. I don’t know how Dave did it, but we were invited to the celebrity functions, which were by invitation only. We had fun mingling with the stars, but we also kept busy with shopping, sightseeing and just relaxing. For some reason it seemed like we were eating all the time. We visited some great restaurants, and one evening I prepared an always delicious Fondue Bourginonne, which we enjoyed on the patio of Dave’s Penthouse on the seventh floor by sunset. We kept very busy in those few days, I think Dave and Kristiina had to go home and recuperate. Funny is, Kristiina liked one of the sauces I made for the Fondue, so I gave her a few packages to take home. I guess one busted in the suitcase, Dave almost had a heart attack when he saw what looked like weed! (You have to know he’s an attorney.)
Just as we thought we said goodbye to our last visitors for a while, a knock on the hull and Gregg Bilson from PMYC surprised us. He was visiting Paradise Village for two days. We had a great dinner in town and a fun karaoke night at the disco. The very next day, I went to the spa and met this friendly lady in the sauna. After a short chat, we discovered that we both belong to PMYC. A bit later Yolanda and Dimitri Vitkoff were aboard Paradise for a Margarita. How small can the world be?? It gets even smaller, two days later we were shopping at Sam’s Club and Gordon ran into us (we raced with him on Superstar in Marina del Rey).
There also is a new addition to the zoo, a 3 months old Raccoon named Zorro, too cute. Autumn had her hands full with the sea lions, Rena and the two horses, so I helped her out with Zorro. Took him for walks. Actually in one hand the leash with Zorro and on the other arm Solo the parrot, which was the greatest way to meet all the celebrities. Autumn also needed me now and then to help her with the sea lion training. Manico learned to put his cold and wet flipper around my shoulder and gave me a wet and fishy kiss on my cheek. Yuck!
Then it was time again to get ready for the next cruising adventure. Puerto Vallarta was very good to us, we felt very welcome here and it was a comfortable home for 6 months. We will miss this small, charming and very friendly tourist town. Somehow amazing, with all the tourists visiting Puerto Vallarta, it maintains its Mexican charm. The people are very friendly and always helpful and if you know how to get around in town, you don’t even notice the tourists at all. Puerto Vallarta offers so much, a beautiful charming town, with wonderful shopping and restaurants, beautiful beaches and adventurous, fun places in the jungle. There is no way to get bored here. (PS: We’ve sailed 2725 miles so far!)
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