How much fuel does a Yaris hold?

2-6-13 - La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

La Cruz still has a grip on us.  Not that it's a bad thing, we just haven't wandered too far in the last week.  It has been nice to just hang out in the anchorage and take advantage of the nice cruiser amenities at the La Cruz marina, which makes being on the hook much easier. 

Elizabeth has finally procured a water toy to match my stand-up paddle board.  We announced on the morning net that we were looking for an inflatable kayak and once the net was over we received a call from a guy in the anchorage with us, with the exact kayak we had been looking at and for a good price.  It seemed like fate, so we just bought it.  Like all good cruiser transactions, he let us take it back and try it out for a while before paying.  So now Elizabeth has a water toy and maybe we will not need to launch the dinghy when we are at certain anchorages.  We'll just paddle our toys into shore.  All we need to do now is figure out what needs to be disposed of to make room for it. 

Elizabeth's new water toy

 We watched the Super Bowl from the top floor of the La Cruz Yacht Club.  Probably the best place I have ever watched a Super Bowl from.  No offense to all those friends I've spent Super Bowl with in the past.  But it's hard to beat watching the Super Bowl, outside in 84 degree sunshine; looking over Banderas Bay and the La Cruz Anchorage with your boat sitting at anchor in the distance.  The game was almost secondary to the view and the good time talking with old friends.  The great thing is that with the all included drinks ticket we bought, that power outage wasn't so bad for us!

Not a bad place to watch the Super Bowl from

Elizabeth learned to make sushi the next day.  Somehow there wasn't enough to bring home, makes me suspicious.  I spent the time having a couple of tacos and buying fresh shrimp from the fish market.  I know, it's a hard life. 

Elizabeth making sushi

It's all the same

The last two days have been consumed with sharing a car with our friends on s/v Wizard, John and Sue.  We did the big box store tour yesterday with a quick stop for tequila tasting and lunch on the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta.  We stopped at Home Depot (yes, it's pretty much the same thing as in the states) except there is a guy in the parking lot who will wash your car while you are inside if you like; for a couple of pesos of course.  Then Zaragosa marine across from the cruise ship dock in Puerto Vallarta, which is essentially a large West Marine, complete with the high prices but lots of stuff.  Only difference here is that they sold wave runners and had HUGE three strand line probably for a shrimp boat or something. 

Gaby's for lunch in Puerto Vallarta

Then for a rest.  Lunch at Gaby's; as recommended by out tequila tasting guy.  The vendors on the Malecon (beach front walkway) see us gringos and salivate at the idea of selling us something on our 1 week vacation.  They lure you in with free tequila tasting; some of which is actually really good, especially once you know a little about tequila; then they either sell you tequila, timeshare presentations or give you recommendations to restaurants where they get a kick back.  We told our guy at the outset that we had already made it thru the gauntlet of Cabo so this was a walk in the park, and we had been in Mexico for a couple of months already so basically, cut the crap, we aren't just off the cruise ship.  He understood and was honest, we think, so John and Sue wound up buying a bottle of tequila and we went to the restaurant he recommended, because he told us for every ten people he refers, he gets a free dinner and he wanted to take his girl there.  Not to mention he gave us a free margarita each as well.  It ended up being a good restaurant.  Maybe the guy got a free date out of the deal.

John has found the meca of US overconsumption here in Mexico

On to Costco.  Yes, you saw that right.  They even have Costco in Mexico and your US membership works.  Complete with chicken bakes and pizza at the food court and a tire center as you leave the building and the 2-6 packs of bagels deal.  Costco is a little bit of a challenge when your freezer is 6" x 10" x 12".  It makes buying those 64 pack of frozen egg rolls a little more difficult.  Basically, we couldn't buy anything fresh as we would have nowhere to store it.  So we just bought some dry goods and debated the ten pack of toothpaste, but even that we didn't feel we had enough room to store on the boat.  And really, we only have a few months left.  The final, bigger than it really needs to be, store we stopped at was Mega.  Yes, even in Mexico they think that super big is better.  Mega is a super Wal-Mart, only better in my opinion.  Besides the usual stuff they also have banks, chiropractors, and other services there.  Just like Wal-Mart they also have an in house tortillaria; that's something different from the States.  We went in for one thing and came out with a cart load.  By the time we made it back to the marina we had filled our little Toyota Yaris to the brim.  That, along with the Mexican love of speed bumps and cobble streets, would explain the zip tied on hub caps.  It was a long day and the Mexican economy is better off now that we spent our money.

Budget rent a car's answer to bumpy roads

Mega, it's just big

Government approved diesel cans

In order to get maximum usage from the car we woke up early the next day to make a fuel run.  Fuel in Mexico is a government run business, so the price is the same everywhere; except at a marina where they can charge a marina fee.  The marina fee is logical, they do have to maintain a dock and even in Mexico probably deal with some environmental agency; but we are cheap and we had a car so why not go to the Pemex station direct.  We loaded our 6 - 5 gallon plus diesel cans and 2 - 5 gallon plus gas cans into the trunk of the Yaris and headed out.  In the States we would probably be considered terrorists and put on some list.  In Mexico no one even seemed to notice.  My diesel cans have a panga fisherman approved seal, of a plastic baggie twisted under the cap to keep it from spilling and no vent.  It works great but probably isn't quite up to specifications.  The little Yaris did us proud as we came home with 48 gallons of differing fuel stuffed into the trunk, 10 gallons of water and three adults in it.  Didn't even lose a hubcap.  Oh yea that's right they were zip tied on for a reason!  The funniest thing of the whole rental car operation is that between the four of us there at check out time,only one person even had any type of auto insurance to their name as everyone else had sold their cars and canceled their insurance.  Going on 7 months for me since my last car driving experience. 

View from the boat in La Cruz anchorage