mexico primer

WHAT TO DO IN MEXICO AFTER THE HA-HA

Some skippers will be a little overwhelmed when the Ha-Ha ends in Cabo on November 11. Blame it on an excess of cruising possibilities. We're here to try and help sort them out. There are roughly three kinds of 'cruisers' — Commuter Cruisers, OneSeason Cruisers, and Long Distance Cruisers. We have different recommendations for each.

Commuter Cruisers The most important thing commuter cruisers need to do is secure a berth in Mexico so they can fly home without having to worry about their boat. Since the Ha-Ha is two weeks long, and most folks usually need a week or two to get ready for it, many commuter cruisers with jobs or businesses need to return home as quickly as they can. We don't recommend trying to leave your boat in Cabo for two reasons: 1) Much of it has become a cheesy tourist hellhole, and 2) You probably can't afford the berth fees. Luckily, there are three good and relatively close alternatives:

La Paz, 150 sailing miles to the north, is an excellent option because the recent dramatic increase in the number of berths means you'll almost certainly be able to find a slip there. The primary marinas are the classic Marina de La Paz, Marina Palmira, and the grand new Marina Costa Baja — and Singlar's new Fidepaz Marina is expected to open soon. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend making reservations right away to ensure that you get a slip in the marina of your choice. All the marinas are fine, but they are different. For example, if you want to be close to downtown and where there is a very vibrant cruiser community, you'd prefer to be at Marina de La Paz, while if you're looking for a quieter and more upscale marina closer to the islands, Marina Costa Baja would be your choice. (The phone numbers and email addresses of all marinas in Mexico are published in Latitude's First-Timers Guide To Cruising Mexico, which was sent out to all Ha-Ha entries.) With great anchorages as close as a few miles and some spectacular islands as close as 15 miles, La Paz makes a great place to visit for a week or two — or even just a very long weekend. Be aware, however, that the winter weather in La Paz can be unpredictable. Averaged over a period of years, it's sunny and warm about half the time, and windy and cold the other half. The problem is that the weather can be streaky, being either good or bad for days, weeks, or even months at a time. And as Neil Shroyer points out, some winters are much better than others. Fortunately, weather forecasters are getting much better at seven-day forecasts, so you'll often be able to decide whether you want to head south one week or wait for more promising weather the following week. A good source is www.buoyweather.com. There is wonderful warm-water swimming in the La Paz area and north until about the middle of December. But once the water cools off, you're going to need a wetsuit — perish the thought! — until at least the middle of March, and maybe even later. When Aero California Airlines was shut down for safety violations this year, La Paz was left with hardly any flights to and from the States. Fortunately, Alaska Airlines has stepped in and taken up a little bit of the slack. However, the number of flights out of La Paz is very limited when compared with the 150 flights a day out of San Jose del Cabo. The good news is that it's only about a 3-hour, $16 bus ride between San Jose del Cabo and La Paz, and much of the drive is through lovely desert scenery. Thanks to the rain dumped by Hurricane John, the drive will be particularly beautiful through about the end of this year. Mazatlan, about 210 miles across the Sea of Cortez, is another excellent place to leave a boat after Cabo. Often folks will head up to the anchorage at Los Frailes to get a better angle for sailing across the Sea. While Mazatlan's El Cid Marina typically fills quickly with Ha-Ha boats, Antonio Cevallos, the Harbormaster at Marina Mazatlan — and brother of El Cid Harbormaster Geronimo Cevallos — tells us he will be able to accommodate everyone who wants a slip. Although their rates will be going up, Marina Mazatlan has always had some of the least expensive slips in Mexico. While the Mazatlan area doesn't have quite as many great cruising opportunities as La Paz, many cruisers fall hard for the city because it's so authentically Mexican. The marinas have active cruiser communities, and there's good surfing just a bus ride away from the marinas. While Mazatlan is sometimes affected by Northers, it usually doesn't get hit as hard or as often as La Paz. Mazatlan has numerous flights to and from the United States.

Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta, about 315 miles from Cabo, are perhaps the most popular commuter cruiser destinations in Mexico — which is why berths can be so difficult to get. If you're interested in getting one, we'd drop the

The heck with a "cold November rain," give us a swim in the 82° blue water halfway between Cabo and Puerto Vallarta.

October is great in the Sea of Cortez, and normally November is terrifi c, too. But by the middle of December, the season is usually over.

When it comes to the luscious pleasure sailing conditions on Banderas Bay in the winter, one photos says it all. Fund-raisers, such as the Vallarta YC's Chili Cookoff, are a gas — and bring out the best in cruisers.

Drop the magazine this instant! And pick up the phone if you hope to have any chance of getting a slip at Paradise Marina.

magazine, run to the phone, and dial Marina Vallarta and/or Paradise Marina immediately to try to reserve a berth. The former is 'in town', where the pace of life has amped up dramatically in the last couple of years, but it's also close to shopping, restaurants, Sam's Club and the airport. Nuevo Vallarta is about a 20-minute bus ride out of town, quieter, and has much better beaches and pools. Puerto Vallarta is part real Mexico, part tourist town, and really coming up in the world. For commuter cruisers who love to sail, Banderas Bay offers the most consistent breezes and flatwater sailing in Mexico. And although it's about a half hour longer plane flight than La Paz and Mazatlan, it's still only a little over three hours from San Francisco. As such, if you catch a really early flight out of San Francisco, you can sail out to Punta Mita or Yelapa by the time the sun goes down. And if you catch the 5 p.m. Alaska flight back to San Francisco, you can surf without a wetsuit in the morning at Punta Mita, have a wonderful spinnaker run in the afternoon back to Vallarta — and still stop by your office in wet and gray San Francisco by 8 p.m. that night. A two-hour time difference helps make this possible. The Vallarta area has grown tremendously in the last few years, so there are plenty of flights to just about everywhere in the States. There is a much-needed major new marina under construction at La Cruz, about 10 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. It won't be completed until at least next winter — and judging by the current pace of construction, maybe another year after that. There are a number of other places for Commuter Cruisers to leave their boats, from Puerto Escondido up in the Sea of Cortez, to Ixtapa down near Zihuatanejo. But the three cities mentioned above have the closest facilities to the Ha-Ha finish in Cabo San Lucas. Two notes on commuter cruising. First, have that passport! Although they won't officially be required for getting back from Mexico until January 1, even now airlines won't let you fly down there without proof of citizenship — which means either an original birth certificate or a passport. Second, Mexico is an extremely popular winter vacation destination, and becoming more popular all the time. As such, you must make your plane reservations early to get a good deal — or even a seat! The major holidays and spring break are the busiest of all.

An Overview Of Cruising In Mexico There are two distinctly different places to cruise in Mexico — the Sea of Cortez and the mainland. The Sea of Cortez offers fantastic cruising for those who love the desert environment — and except for an oasis or two, it's all desert. The mainland offers more traditional tropical cruising, with lots of jungle or jungle-like environments. Cruising in Mexico is seasonal. While a few people cruise the Sea of Cortez throughout the year, it's not something that we'd recommend to average cruisers. The problem is that it's too cold for comfortable swimming from mid-December through the end of March. We wouldn't recommend that most people cruise the Sea of Cortez from July to September either, because it gets ferociously hot — as in day after day of 100+ temperatures. There are, however, some cruisers who thrive in the heat, extreme tranquility, and great diving. In fact, some cruisers say a summer aboard in the Sea of Cortez is an almost mystical experience. Nonetheless, for most cruisers October through early December, as well as the middle of March through the

WHAT TO DO IN MEXICO AFTER THE HA-HA

A traditional fi sh fry on the Zihua waterfront, using the traditional wood grill. The shot was taken about 9 p.m., and it was 85 degrees.

end of June, are the prime times. And with good reason, as the Sea is something really special in the spring and fall. Hurricanes are a consideration in the Sea from June through the end of October, with September traditionally being the most dangerous month. The lower half of the Sea gets hit by a hurricane on the average of about every other year, but historically boating interests haven't been hit too hard. At least they hadn't until about the last four years, when La Paz and Puerto Escondido took some pretty strong punches. The further north you are in the Sea, the less your chance of getting hit hard or at all. The cruising season is different on the mainland, where the weather is spectacular from November through May. The air and water are always warm, there is very rarely any significantly bad weather, and life is about as simple, sweet, and tranquil as you could imagine. June through the end of October, however, is hurricane season on the mainland. It's also very warm and humid, and except for this year, there is lots of rain and lightning storms. As such, there is almost no cruising whatsoever done on the mainland during the summer. And places such as Zihuatanejo and Tenacatita Bay, which might have 50 to 100 cruising boats in the winter, become boat ghost towns. One-Season Cruisers Many participants in the Ha-Ha will be doing a one-year cruise, after which they will be returning to the States. For such folks, La Paz, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta all offer excellent next destinations. However, if Don on Summer Passage, www.buoyweather.com, and other reliable weather sources report that the general conditions are favorable for Northers, we'd skip the Sea of Cortez and head right over to the mainland. After all, if you've got a full season in Mexico, you'll have plenty of time in the Sea in April, May, June when it's equally spectacular. Where to go on the mainland first? It depends on what you're looking for. If you want to continue on with friends you met on the Ha-Ha — which is usually true for boats with kids — you should probably sail over to Mazatlan and then work your way south. When you get down to Zihua — maybe by late January — you'll have a couple of weeks before it will be time to start making your way north again. The thing to remember is that there's no point working your way over to the Sea until early April. If you're looking to be a little more alone, you sail directly from Cabo to Zihua. This will mean that you'll get there before almost everybody else, and enjoy it in relative peace and quiet. Once you've had enough, probably early January, you can begin to mosey back north against the grain of the crowd. If you've got a whole season, of course, you've got plenty of time to do whatever strikes your fancy. This means you might want to take the opportunity to become part of one or more of the anchored cruising communities that form each year at places such as La Cruz, Tenacatita Bay, the lagoon at Barra, and Zihua Bay. Some of them become quite organized, which some cruisers love and others detest. To each their own. No matter where you go, there will be plenty of holiday activities. Mazatlan is where the Cruiser Thanksiving Feasts started, but now they can also be found in La Paz, Nuevo Vallarta, and Puerto Vallarta — and wherever else cruisers gather. Some cruisers return home for the Christmas and New Year's holidays, but there are also big celebrations at all of the main ports and anchorages. The other big dates for cruisers are the big Vallarta YC Chili Cook-Off in Paradise Marina on December 1, the Zihua SailFest (www. zihuasailfest.com) cruiser fund-raiser for the schools in the Zihua area on January 31-February 4, the Banderas Bay Regatta out of Marina Paradise on March 22-25, and Loreto Fest in Puerto Escondido May 3-6. Normally the Pirates for Pupils Spinnaker Run from Punta Mita to Marina Paradise is held two days before the start of the Banderas Bay Regatta, but this year is having to be rescheduled for another time. We'll let you know when. There are certainly many other events, and we'll try to keep you posted throughout the winter. There are considerable temperature differences on mainland Mexico. During the winter, you sometimes need sweaters at night in Mazatlan, while you only need them on the coolest nights in Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. When you get to Zihua, the danger is that it can sometimes be too warm and humid — even late at night. Usually Zihua weather is about perfect, but we've been there a few times in January when it was too hot to sleep at 2 a.m. There are similar differences in water temperature from north to south. The

Oddly enough, one of the main cruiser landmarks in Zihuatanejo is the basketball court — right next to the beach.