CHRISTMAS IN LA CRUZ!!!

It’s a long way to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, just north of Puerto Vallarta, and part of the area known as Riveria Nayarit.  Much of it is a wide open highway (toll road) but within two hours of your destination are more hairpin curves than I ever experienced in the mountains of North Carolina.  Add a little, and I do mean a little, road construction and you have miles of backed up traffic.  By the time you get there, you’re not even sure you wanna be!  But then there are the views…so maybe every little thing’s gonna be alright.

Sunday market is well known in La Cruz.  The most impressive thing for me was the tree bark artisan from a mountain village in Puebla.  Fermin Santos Salvador showed me pictures of the process of preparing the paper (papel amate) from tree bark and creating the displayed designs.  He and the rest of the Trejo family work eight months a year crafting their art so that he can sell it in La Cruz on Sundays the rest of the year. They have won many awards in Mexico City and other parts of the world.  I felt bad for him as we were on a tight budget and there were very few people in town.  I wish the Trejo family well and hope I can support their beautiful work another time.

Temps were quite comfortable most of the time so we spent a good bit of time wandering around outside.  Ben’s sister, Melanie, and her husband Daniel flew down from Oregon to meet us.  They spent their first day on a whale watching tour while Ben and I caught up on some much needed rest.  The next journey for them, through Chuck’s Tours, was up into a jungle village where the villagers are a mix of Spanish and Mexican, self-sustaining, and gracious.

We spent a morning visiting Sayulita, a well known surfing town.  A tour guide had warned us not to be there at night due to drug traffic.  We were glad to leave right after lunch.  Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there!  Even though it made for some pretty good photographs.

Ben and I decided to go whale watching the day Melanie and Daniel went to the jungle village.  I gave up my fear of deep water with Melanie’s reassurance as we set off on a tiny little boat carrying 11 people into the Bahía de Banderas.  The silver, black, purple water and the rush of crossing the Bay was amazing.  And then there were whales!  Humpbacks.  We probably saw 9 or 10 though with few resulting photos.  I wasn’t quick enough for the ah-ha! moments and decided to let it go and just enjoy.  And enjoy it we did!

We had a nice Christmas Eve in a restaurant built into a rock with the cool name of Xoklo (choc-lo).  The food wasn’t great, but the service and the view were wonderful.

Bucerias was next.  A small popular area between Puerto Vallarta and La Cruz.  Crazy with restaurants screaming for your business, though some were closed for Christmas Day.  Vendors line the streets with slick lines and sometimes snotty attitudes trying to reel you in.  Wandering down an empty side street we came across a posted menu and an open door and were glad to step in for some solid food.  Sassy and Chris (!) made my day with their delightful smiles, sense of humor, and food obviously crafted with love.  Bucerias is known for its murals so after our meal we stumbled through the “Paseo del Beso” (literally Ride of the Kiss), trying to find them.

Somewhere along the way we realized that Ben was not recovering from his respiratory infection as quickly as he should be.  So off we went to the 24 hr Urgent Care where a friendly physician and nurse took us in, on their very busy Christmas Eve Day, as if we were family.  When we returned 2 more days in a row for his injections, it was like old home week.  Such sweet people.  (The clinic was one of the few places around with any Christmas decorations.)

Friday was our last day and a good time to hang out in the water a little bit.  We had tacos at the most popular place in town – Tacos on the Street – then wandered down to the marina hoping to see a show of boats decked out with Christmas lights.  For some reason it never happened but in our wanderings we came across a small, crowded amphitheater with an inaudible slideshow presentation going on.  What?  A young woman quietly walked up to me, put her hand on my shoulder, and informed me that she and her husband were hosting the speaker and she was sorry we couldn’t hear her very well.  It turned out to be Jeanne Socrates, the oldest person (@ 77) to circle the globe completely alone and nonstop in her 38′ boat.  She just returned in September.  A nice triumphant story to end our evening.

On Saturday it was back to the reality of the windy road after dropping Melanie and Daniel off at a restaurant for breakfast before their flight back to Oregon.  I realized as we left how very low key and quiet La Cruz is compared to the business of Ajijic.  (Restaurant owners complained of low business due to Airbnb, etc. making it possible for visitors to cook their own meals.  Truly most restaurants we went to had no more than 2 or 3 tables of customers.)  As for me, quiet little La Cruz was a hit.  Now I know where to go for a little R & R.