Jungle tour and dinner with SV Three Sheets

Saturday, 1/14, Rich cleaned the corrosion on the contact for the engine ground, which is located just behind the starter motor. He started the engine as he has been doing every morning and lo and behold the engine started right up. We think we have found the source of the problem. In the afternoon we rode the bus to the chandlery by Marina Vallarta only to find out that it was closed already. So we came back and that night we went to Tacos El Muelle for dinner.

On Sunday afternoon we got into the dingy and joined Reg and Phoebe of SV Three Sheets for a ride up the river. The marina at Paradise Village is located where the river enters Bahia de Banderas and on the dock there is a sign warning not to feed the crocodiles. Well, we thought we would explore up the river and just see. The river is bordered by mangroves and in the branches you can see brightly colored iguanas, some as long as 3 1/2 feet. The males have orange crests with orange stripes on their tails. We also so several varieties of herons. In places the mangrove has been cleared and there are large homes on the banks, some with docks or a ramp for launching a boat. One home had replicas of the Chinese warriors holding tiki torches on the deck, very cross-cultural. Reg and Phoebe motored their dingy over to get a closer look at an iguana and suddenly there was a loud splash coming directly at them. A crocodile! We were all too startled to see how large it was but it sure did surprise us. As we wound around the mangrove we just saw the tail on another crocodile run off a boat ramp into the water. Hmmm. We came around a bend and Rich saw yet another crocodile sunning itself on the bank. We motored by quietly but we could only see the back and the tail but not the head. That was close enough. That evening we had dinner on SV Three Sheets and recounted our adventure into the wild.

Reg and Phoebe going up the river

Rich and Elaine on our dingy, Boomerage *

Watch out for crocodiles! *

Heron takes flight *

Colorful iguana watching us carefully *

Crocodile sunning on the river bank *

Viva Mexico

* Photos from Phoebe of SV Three Sheets