Hasta Luego

The Flotilla of Four Gang

Last night we enjoyed a final happy hour at the wonderful La Marina Restaurant across from the San Jose del Cabo (SJD) marina we are anchored in front of with new and old friends. We shared a plate of fish tacos that were delicious and fortunately they let you share the 2 for 1 margaritas because they are strong! All of the staff at the restaurant are super friendly and one of them even sang with the live band for a few songs! Afterwards, we said hasta luego to the last of our Mag Bay “Flotilla of Four” friends Kim and Arnie from Puna (thanks for the beef!). It’s been about two weeks since we waved to Del Viento sailing away while we savored their parting gift of brownie cupcakes (thank you!) and just over a week since we enjoyed a final evening on Marida (thanks for the phone calls to our folks!) before they left San Carlos for Panama. We hope to see all of these wonderful, talented, generous people again along the way.

 

SJD Town Square

As usual, we have stayed longer in SJD than we intended and enjoyed it more and for different reasons than we expected. Along with meeting new people, we enjoyed the Old Town area and saw some great art (a real treat – been a long time since we’ve been anywhere with art galleries). Darren had been here years ago and it has changed dramatically. On the sad side there are huge developments gouging and gobbling up the hillsides and a mall with McD’s and other such imports. The prices are fairly high. 

 

SJD Organic Saturday Market

 On the up side, there is a cute downtown area with pretty streetlamps, benches and trees, great little places with local food, a French bakery (real bread and chocolatines!!), art (both in the galleries and on the street), an organic farmer’s market (vine ripened tomatoes and mango mint ceviche!! Heaven, I’m in heaven…), arts and crafts and an affordable bus system. The locals were friendly and kindly forgiving of our amateur attempts at speaking Spanish.

San Jose del Cabo murals

We have been tempted to change course and head up the other side of the Baja to see friends in Los Barriles, La Ventana and La Paz but learned that it was 43 – Fahrenheit!!,brrr! – in La Paz yesterday morning so we are headed next for the mainland via Isla Isabel. We hope to make the San Blas area of the mainland near Puerta Vallarta by Jodi’s birthday this Saturday and meet up with friends in Banderas Bay after that. We miss you and wish you were here.

Love,

Jodi and Darren

s/v Gratitouille

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Dia de Los Santos Reyes!

A quick note to say we miss you all so much and hope all is well with you! Our kind neighbors in the anchorage have been trying to get a signal for over a week now so we can send you a message. It is short and without pix as Puna is generously letting us use their signal.

The good news is that we are healthy and happy despite having a completely different Christmas than we had planned. Our plans and dreams of being further south in a town where we could write and Skype you (and perhaps meet you!) were thwarted by lack of wind that started less than 2 days out of Turtle Bay. We are currently anchored off a tiny fishing village (most of whom left for Christmas but many have returned now) called Puerto Magdelena in Man of War Cove on the Pacific coast of the Baja peninsula.

Despite our disappointment at not being able to contact you, we had a wonderful Christmas afternoon with our new friends from Marida, Del Viento and Puna, eating Christmas cookies and enjoying the good company of such fabulous people. We are very grateful to them for embracing us and easing the pain of our first Christmas away from home.

It looks like there will be wind tomorrow but we have all been invited to the New Year’s Eve fiesta in the village, after helping to fix the town generator day before yesterday, so we want to stay to enjoy that opportunity. Hopefully there will be wind after to take us down the coast where we can find an internet café and tell you more.

2 Jan. – Update – Feliz Ano!! Thanks to Del Viento for letting us use their signal to try and get this on the blog since it wouldn’t go the other day and we had to settle for posting to Facebook (took over an hour and that’s with no pix and text ready to cut and paste!).  The New Year’s Eve fiesta was amazing and we will post more about it later. We are back to waiting for wind again and when it does, we will probably head for San Jose del Cabo for food then over to Isla Isabel and San Blas.

Hope your holidays (as all your days) are healthy and happy!
Much love,
Jodi and Darren

s/v Gratitouille