Finally, a Whale’s Tale

We finally got some good whale pics. The Humpbacks can be pretty grumpy, especially when J-Boats are around. Here’s a Humpback communicating the only way they know how, ‘Fluke You’.

We left San Blas after doing our dutiful checkout with the Capitinia de Puerto over the radio. This time we were at least 80% sure that his response was affirmative, we could exit the port. Just to be sure, I closed with Gracias. We left on a tide a little lower than when we entered. It was a rising tide, so even if we did run aground, we get off quickly. The fuel dock was just over 7 feet and passing the bar we hit some 8.5ft sections. A little on the shallow side, but the swells were small, so no big deal.

We headed down to Chacala for the night and then onto Punta Mita in Bahia de Banderas (Bay of the Flags). Since arriving from the Baja side to Isla Isabel, we’ve seen whales daily. But Banderas Bay is something special, the whole area has hundreds of whales (humpbacks primarily-- we’ve had a few pass by close enough that we could hear them singing). Every time you look out into the bay you see at least a few sightings. It’s just amazing.

Punta Mita sunset from the anchorage

We decided to head into the town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle for a little New Years celebration. We took a slip for the night in the fancy marina there. La Cruz is the music headquarters for Banderas Bay and Puerto Vallarta. We grabbed a traditional Mexican pizza at Philo’s and listened to Philo and his band. Then caught up with another band at the Britannica Pub, where we toasted in 2011. It was good that we had forgotten to change our watches  to Central time (Puerto Vallarta time) when we arrived, so we were both able to make it past midnight.

The hillside approaching La Cruz.

Chris is leaving in a few days to head to work in Africa, so we wanted to get in one last dive before she left. We headed out to Las Tres Maritas islands, about 6 miles from Punta Mita. The diving wasn’t spectacular. We did see a few octopus'es, or is it octopi?

This guy got pissed off at us and inked me because I got too close with the camera.

Tres Mariatas also has some cool caves for dinghy exploring. And boobies, but we’ll spare you more photos of them.

Best wishes for a New Year that brings you and yours much joy. Feliz Año Nuevo! (As our friend Bill pointed out, the tilda over the n is very important here…)
Paul & Chris