Lunch in Bucerias

1-25-13 - Bucerias, Nayarit, MX

About 1/2 way to Bucerias

We have been slowly trying to readjust to the cruiser life now that the parents have left us, but Paradise Village still hasn't let us go.  We spent a day doing boat stuff and a little bit of nothing and then found ourselves with an open day with no plans; something we used to be accustomed to, but with visitors around for the last two weeks we have been busy enjoying their company.  What to do with a free day?  How about a nice walk on the beach?  The beach from Paradise Village stretches for about eight miles, unbroken, to La Cruz.  So we headed to La Cruz figuring we could always take a bus back to Paradise Village once we got there.  Why not?  There wasn't anything else pressing to do and it sounded like a good way to relax.  It looks so close when you are standing on the beach,but trust me, eight miles is still eight miles even if it is along a beautiful beach.  We set out at about 10:30 to see how far we would get.  It's really hard to beat just walking down the beach; especially a beach that just never ends.  Six miles later we made it to Bucerias which is the next town along the beach from Nuevo Vallata where Paradise Village is.  Oddly enough it's probably a 30 minute drive or more, and a two bus excursion to get there by public transportation; but you can just walk there if you have enough time.  So we did.  We eventually stopped at the far end of Bucerias at Breakers restaurant for some so-so fajitas and the obligatory beach cerveza.  Then for the best surprise of the day, we walked back thru Bucerias on the streets just up from the beach and found a great little town.  We hadn't experienced this part of Bucerias before, and while it certainly had its share of Americans and Canadians, it wasn't overrun with tourism in these areas and had some great little shops to explore and many restaurants I wish we could have traded our lunch at Breakers for.

About 1/2 way back to Paradise Village

As mentioned, it's a little bit of a pain to get back to Paradise Village from Bucerias via bus.  But if you just walk back to the first hotel in Nuevo Vallarta it's a one bus affair.  That sounded good to us so we started the walk back thinking it would only be a little further.  Well one thing let to another and once we made it back to the Nuevo Vallarta territory it occurred to us that there was a cool looking beach bar about two more miles back, but still 2 miles from the boat.  Figuring the exercise was good for us we started walking.  Etc... (that's the name of the bar) was as anticipated.  Even if it was a little pricey.  Once again it's hard to beat looking out at the Pacific Ocean under an umbrella with a big margarita in your hand.  I felt like I was is in one if those Corona commercials; thankfully without the Corona.

Elizabeth enjoying a break (and a margarita)

Now we were down to two miles, it was getting on towards evening, and we remembered that there was a baby tortuga (turtle if you couldn't figure that one out) release just down the beach at 6:30.  The previous night we had made the trek to release baby turtles and none had hatched that day so the lady proudly said that she was certain there would be some the next day; just as she was announcing all of this about 50 little tortugas came crawling out of the hatchery, instinctively scurrying towards the ocean.  Apparently drawn by the setting sun.  She promptly collected them all up and put them away until a more opportune time to be released, I guess.  So we thought there must be some tonight, since last night we saw about 50 of these little things get put in a bucket for future release.  What do you know, no turtles available tonight?  Something seemed fishy (or turtley) but we weren't about to argue with the turtle experts.

Escaped baby tortuga - from the previous night

Now we were down to one mile left so we made one last push for the boat and made it before sunset.  In the end we went for a 12 mile walk to get some mediocre lunch in Bucerias.  Once back we felt we deserved a good dinner at the yacht club after all that work.  (yes Yacht Club!) Doesn't everyone belong to a yacht club in Mexico?  Actually, you get a fifteen day trial when you stay a the marina, and we tried to take full advantage of it.  Dinner was excellent and I even put on a shirt with a collar, which equals dressed up in our world.

Now we feel like were back in the world of cruising again.  We really didn't do or accomplish anything today, but somehow had a full day, explored some new places in Mexico, had some good food and had some fun.

Hard to beat that!

(Oh yeah, and before any of this we took the bus to the port captain to check out, checked out, rode the bus back and distributed all of the required paperwork to the marina and port captain.  I guess we did accomplish something today.)

Don't forget the legal stuff