Paradise Village Marina - Nuevo Vallarta

24-Mar-2015

Paradise Village Marina, Nuevo Vallarta

This is an interesting harbour to enter. Winds were light so no swells at the breakwater which was good because it is fairly tight with mangrove shallows. The Port Captain and Nuevo Vallarta Marina are on the starboard side and Paradise Village Marina follows the estuary up the port side, north. The deepest water is close to the long dock that follows the estuary with an inviting looking, but very shallow, mangrove lined shore on the east side.

Back on shore power, got Mags going on some more hot weather preparation sewing projects. Hatch cover mosquito netting, deck awnings and a yellow quarantine entry flag for countries south, as well as some bimini repairs.

We have had two big shopping trips to Costco and Chedraui. The marina, in recognition of the huge provisioning that the boats headed to the Marquesas are doing, has provided a twice a week van to Costco that we managed to use and there is a bus stop in front of the Marina that a Collectivo uses that stops near the Chedraui grocery store, so provisioning has been relatively easy. Collectivos are vans that run almost defined routes that people just jump on and off paying for the distance travelled. They do require some level of Spanish but they are almost as cheap as the local buses and run constantly so are a great way to get around.

We managed a 5 km dinghy trip in the meandering channels of the estuary. Some beautiful big homes in secluded parts of the mangrove swamps. Lots of areas with no houses, just lots of different bird species, iguanas and signs warning of crocodilos. We had the camera with us so, of course, no logs with eyes were spotted.

 

No logs with eyes spotted!

The estuary does not have the sea breezes that we enjoyed at the La Cruz anchorage but creating shade on the boat is helping.  We are planning for a tomorrow departure for the 24 hour trip to Tenacatita with a possible stop at Paraiso.