Windarra has left La Cruz

Windarra finally escaped from La Cruz and we are now at Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta. We are enjoying a busy social life getting together with our friends Reg and Phoebe of SV Three Sheets and Bob and Sherry of SV Nirvana. Last night we all enjoyed dinner at Three Sheets and we probably kept the south end of the marina awake with our talking and laughing until almost midnight.

Don't get us wrong, we enjoyed the town of La Cruz. But the 110 days from when the old engine quit to when we had a new engine running was a long time.

Hooray, the new engine starts!

Today, May 7, 2012 at 3:15pm the new Yanmar 4JH4-TE mounted in Windarra started for the first time. It has been 110 days since our old engine quit.

This morning Fernando arrived and completed the installation. Friday he had put in the transmission fluid and engine oil and did some of the connections. Today he connected the engine to our heat exchanger associated with the hot water which required a special fitting, connected the power cables to the starter and put in fresh water and antifreeze. There was a little hiccup in the power from the engine control breaker to the fuel lift pump due to a relic of the old engine control system, so Rich ran a new wire from the breaker to the terminal strip for the fuel lift pump. When we ran the lift pump to bleed the fuel lines, Fernando realized that the plug for the new Racor fuel / water separator was missing, so we paused for a bit so he could get a plug. When he returned and bled the fuel lines, Rich went into the cockpit and turned the engine on.

It was a delightful sound.

We still have some more checkout to do which we plan to do on Tuesday and a sea trial early Wednesday morning.

We are so excited. Woohoo !!!!

La Cruz - sleeply little Mexican town ?

I am not sure why the moniker, "sleeply little Mexican town" was given to many places in Mexico, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle included. At times walking through the town especially during the day, it seems appropriate when it is hot and the inhabitants are taking a siesta or sitting in chairs on their front stoops in the shade.

Since we have been at La Cruz, the town has hosted the Copa Mexico races, MEXORC races, El Presidente, Coctel Tianguis Turistico 2012, Easter celebration as well as a 9-day celebration for the founding of the local church. The last event just ended at 5 am on Friday morning. Of course all of the above activities went on while they were repaving the roads, putting in new plumbing, and new sidewalks in town.

For the founding celebration there was a carnival of rides including a merry-go-round, bumper cars, twisting, turning, spinning rides for kids that set up in the vacant lot between the marina and the church. In the main town plaza were more rides for small children as well as a mechanical bull. Some townsfolks as well as others set up gaming as well as food booths. They would set off fireworks and it seemed to us at random times day and night. Blanca, who runs the marina office, explained that they set off the fireworks in the morning and evening to remind everyone to go to church. I am not sure what service was being held at 2:00 am but there were fireworks and the rides were going and you could hear music playing.

Booths along the main plaza

Main plaza

On Thursday they had a parade of the charros or horsemen. I was walking up to town to buy some vegetables and was able to take a few pictures of the parade. I am not sure where all of the charros came from but they filled the whole length of the main street and down the hill to the plaza. No parade is complete without a brass band and in this case a horse princess, selected from the fair maids of La Cruz.

The cross of La Cruz

The parade coming down Avenue de la Langosta (Avenue of Locusts)

The brass band in the parade and they played all night long

The horse princess in her tiara

This horse would paw the ground on one side and then the other on command

Charros come in all ages. This young fellow was the pride of his family

Today is Cinco de Mayo and we thought it was yet another holiday celebrated by the town but alas, this is more of an American holiday. To quote an article by Michael Martinez, CNN:

"Cinco de Mayo does indeed mark a Mexican military victory over the invading French army on May 5, 1862, but it's celebrated more in the United States because in 1862, U.S. Latinos of Mexican heritage parlayed the victory as a rallying cry that the Union could also win the Civil War."

Over time Cinco de Mayo became an unofficial American holiday similar to St. Patrick's Day fueled by salsa, guacamole, tacos, Corona and Dos Equis. It is not something special here in Mexico except for places encouraging business with tourists.

I think we will enjoy a little peace and quiet.

A quick visit and shopping trip

The first night in Tacoma, I had stayed at the guest house at Franke Tobey Jones but I did not feel comfortable staying there as it had many doors opening to storage areas and I was convinced (an irrational fear), that something was going to come out of one of the doors while I slept. I am not sure if I slept any better after I positioned something such as chairs, luggage, furniture in front of each door, just in case.

Our friends, Dan and Madeline Sego, had been graciously letting us stay at their house and were a great support to me.

My mother passed away on Sunday, April 15th, and Rich had already purchased a ticket to fly up on Monday. He was staying on the boat, monitoring the engine installation.

When my father passed away in 2009 we planned ahead and made all of the burial arrangements for my mother in the event we were out of touch and that the kids had to take care of it. So it did not take me long to get everything arranged. While waiting for Rich to arrive I started making the calls notifying Social Security, the banks, etc of her passing and collecting the necessary paperwork.

The graveside service was on Wednesday and the cantor of Temple Beth El, Leah Holland, performed a wonderful service. She also sang the first verse of "You Are My Sunshine", my mother's favorite song. Jesse, Rae, and Sarah came up on the train to join us. We thank our friends and family who were able to join us and the very kind and special words we received from all. We had a chance to visit with friends and family after the service at the reception.

The rest of the time we spent trying to settle my mother's affairs, buying stuff for the boat, including two inflatable kayaks with paddles, and visiting friends.

We are sorry we could not visit with everyone but we were anxious to return to Windarra and getting the engine installation completed. Wednesday, April 25th we were on a plane back to Mexico, La Cruz and Windarra.

The Long Goodbye

The reason I went back to the US, was to go to Tacoma and spend some time with my mother before she passed away. She has been in nursing care at the Franke Tobey Jones in Tacoma since 2008. We did not realize before we left in 2001 that she had dementia, as she was very adept at hiding it not only from me, but also from her doctor. One of the reason we returned with Windarra in 2004, was that both of my parents were having issues.

Dementia and Alzheimer's are difficult diseases not just for the individual but for their family members as well. It was hard to not to get mad or angry when my father accused me of stealing my mother's jewelry. I tried not to say something flippant when my mother turned to me and asked how my mother was doing and I said, "She is doing okay but is having problems with her memory." My mother turned to me and replied, "Oh, that is too bad, it must be hard." It was all I could do not to cry. These diseases rob you of the person you knew. They look the same, their voices are the same but the person inside that you knew is slowly fading away and they forget who you are. My mother would look at me blankly like she had never seen me before. She would remember some things, like the words to many of the verses of "You Are My Sunshine" or "Que Sera Sera", but she did not know who I was or that I was married and had two children of my own, her grandchildren, that she and my father babysat many times as they were growing up.

It was a long goodbye. Watching the personality of my mother fade away and in the end watching as her body diminished. She had stopped eating and drinking as many dementia patients do, no longer knowing or wanting to swallow. I was thankful for the wonderful care she received from the staff at Franke Tobey Jones and Franciscan Hospice.

Leah Goertz Cashar died at 3:30 am on Sunday, April 15, 2012.

Goodbye mom. I love you.

Getting our FM3

At the end of March we decided it was time to get our FM3s as our tourist visas lapse at the end of April. FM3 is a special type of Mexican visa that allows us to stay in the country up to a year without having to leave. You need to provide copies of your last 3 months of bank statements to show you have sufficient income to support yourself, or at least $1250 US per month.

We asked Maria Joaquna Sierra Chavez to act as our agent to help us with the process. Maria works out of Philo's in La Cruz which is convenient for us. When we started the process, we had her draft a letter to accompany our application indicating that my mother was under hospice care and that we would appreciate expediting the process which could take any where from 10 days to 3 weeks.

On April 7, I decided that I needed to fly back to see my mother. I called Maria and she suggested that I purchase my airplane ticket and bring a copy to the immigration office in Bucerias on Monday.

Monday morning at 8:30 am with a copy of my ticket in hand I went with Maria's assistant, Elena to the immigration office. Elena's two young daughters joined us as they were on vacation from school. Rich would remain at the boat in case the mechanic arrived but he would meet me in Bucerias with my suitcase later and we would go to the airport for my 4:15 pm flight to Portland.

The immigration office is open from 9 am to 1 pm. We arrived a little early. The office was guarded by 3 federales with automatic weapons and body armor. The office is protected by a locked gate and a roll up metal garage type door. We signed in and waited. The office staff arrived and were escorted in by the federales. After they arrived and were settled, the gate was unlocked and the garage door opened to the office for folks waiting in line. We got our number, 5, and waited. More and more people, mostly gringos arrived and took a number.

Our number was called and Elena spoke in rapid fire Spanish to explain that I had turned in my FM3 application but that I had a ticket and I need to return to the US and could I get my FM3. The man behind the counter explained that he had to speak to his supervisor. So we waited some more. About 1/2 an hour later he said that they would only in this case and that I should return at noon for my fingerprinting and to pick up the FM3 card. It was a little before 10 am at this point so I decided that staying was a better course of action.

Elena had other applications to work so I tried to keep her two daughters entertained. As they spoke only Spanish and my Spanish is very limited, I switched on the IPhone. The game of Sudoku was perfect. I could practice my numbers in Spanish and the girls practiced numbers in English. After a while we switched to Unblock Me. I also walked down to the Oxxo for some much needed water for the four of us.

Close to 12:30 pm, Rich arrived in the taxi with my suitcase. Elena tried to explain to me that they wanted my receipt for my tourist visa. Hmm. We had completed the check in to Mexico at Bahia Santa Maria during the Baja Ha-Ha and I did not get a receipt. I agreed to pay $294 pesos for a new receipt. Elena to my pesos to the bank and returned with the receipt.

I asked Elena to check on Rich's FM3 application. Again, there needed to be a discussion with the supervisor. Luckily there was agreement but again there was no receipt. So we gave Elena another $294 pesos and she made another trip to the bank.

At 1:30 pm, I had my FM3. Rich told the taxi driver, who was still waiting, that he would give him $100 pesos to pay for his wait. The taxi driver was happy, we continued to wait now for Rich's FM3.

By 2:30 pm we were back in the taxi and on our way to the airport. We made it in time to check in, grab a bite to eat and then walk to the gate.

Mission Accomplished. Thank you Maria and Elena!

Sent from SV Windarra iPad

The music scene in La Cruz

During our time here at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Rich and I have listened to more live music than we have in the last four years. Here are some examples.

On my birthday, Rich and I went for dinner at Marsala, a Mediterranean restaurant here in La Cruz. That evening the group Tatewari was playing. In the tradition of the Huichol indians, Tatewari is the oldest Huichol god, also known as Hikuri, the Peyote-god. He is personified with Peyote plants on his hands and feet, and he interprets all the deities to the modern shamans. Tatewari is the source for the name of this group of three talented musicians from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. Esau Galván Saltos (rhythm & lead guitar), Daniel Marquez (bass guitar) and Cruz Alberto Perez (backup guitar) are high school buddies, who have been performing for over five years in a variety of establishments in the region of Banderas Bay. Their eclectic and distinctive sounds of rumba flamenca, fusion, and world music captivated the audiences. We have heard them play not only at Marsala but also at Lupe’s Los Arroyes de Verdes during the Pacific Puddle Jump Reunion and at the Los Amigos de La Cruz event at the marina. We bought one of their CD’s. This is a video of Tatewari from You Tube

Another popular group in La Cruz is Latcho and Andrea. They are German artists that perform gypsy rumba and flamenco guitar music similar to The Gypsy Kings. Last Friday, 3/30, we joined the crews of Nirvana and C'est La Vie at the Black Forest Restaurant for dinner and the their last performance of the season. They were joined by Geo Uhrich of Vancouver Island, a violinist who is also very popular in town. Their dance floor was the size of a postage stamp but that did not stop anyone from dancing, including Keith and Susan.

Geo, Andrea and Latcho

No visit to La Cruz would be complete without a night at Philo’s bar. Philo Hayward was a studio musician in Los Angeles before settling here in La Cruz and opening a restaurant & bar. He is also a cruiser and sailed across the Pacific when we did in 2002. We have been there many nights, including one night during the Puddle Jump reunion when Sarah watched Rich and I shuffle on the dance floor with a lot of other 'Q-tips'. On Thursday night, 4/5, we had dinner at Philo’s with Keith and Susan of C’est La Vie, Susan’s daughter, Stacey, and granddaughter, Casey, who were visiting and vacationing for a week with Keith and Susan. Keith has been attending guitar lessons at Philo’s for the past view months and his guitar class performed that evening. Bob of SV Nirvana who plays the mandolin, joined the performance. It was a fun evening. They have a live webcam for the performances which you can check out at the website.

Music is a part of La Cruz. There is always a group playing at the Sunday Markets or Jam nights at Philo's or La Cafe de Huanacaxtle or Ana Banana's or Octopussy's Garden, etc. The examples above are just a few of the groups we have seen.

Our visit here has been more than replacing the engine and boat chores.