Quimixto

We hoisted the sails and took off across the bay in search of new scenery. The last time we were
on the south side of Banderas Bay we visited Las Animas. David and I suffered through mariachi music from dusk until dawn. I shudder when remembering the horror. We hoped that this would not prove to be the same situation. The sailing was excellent. We were on a close reach for the whole trip and there was no tacking involved so the crew got a bit of a rest. We made our destination around 3:00pm. We dropped the anchor and enjoyed the lush, tropical goodness of Quimixto. David made the error to feed one gull and soon every gull in the neighborhood was at our boat. They came in a blizzard of white feathers and squawking. Maui wasn't sure what to think...dinner or run for cover? It turned out to be an educational feeding though. They were a different type of gull than we had seen before. With three pieces of bread and two bird field guides we were able to find out they were Laughing Gulls.

The pangas were constantly speeding by in every direction shuttling people to and from the little bay. All of the commotion made it a bit choppy. After setting a stern anchor, a delicious dinner and a movie we called it a night.

In the morning we kayaked to the little beach so we could have a look around town. While we
walked along the water we saw the adorable black-necked stilts, snowy egrets, gulls, terns,
pelicans and even a little blue heron. Lilac crowned parrots chattered while flying overhead and
landed in trees perfectly matched to their shade of green. This was a birders paradise, but we
were here for more than birds. We walked down the main drag, the only street, to find two cars and stands
selling coconuts, chips and Mexican M&Ms. We walked on until we reached the end of the road and saw horses. Lost of horses. More horses than people in the town. They rent the horses out to the tourists that come over in what we refer to as "Cattle Cats". Basically your standard booze
cruise on big motoring catamarans a.k.a. motormarans. We ended up renting a couple horses,
accompanied with a guard dog, and made our way back to the waterfall. David's horse was very well behaved. It didn't even try to scrape him off using a low branch like David's previous riding
experiences. My horse didn't seem so happy. She had her ears back the whole time which made me slightly nervous that she might get feisty with me, but they got us to the waterfall with minimal
problems.

The waterfall was beautiful. Though a more beautiful sight was the palapa selling cold beers
right by the waterfall. We settled in the palapa for an overpriced cold one with, as David said
so perfectly, "surely service". We hopped back on our horses and made our way back to the
starting point. It really was a touristy thing to do, but I am really glad we did it. That was
our first journey inshore in two years of cruising.

We decided to get moving back to La Cruz a.k.a. internet withdrawls. While lifting the anchor I
saw that we had caught ourselves a little octopus. It was tiny, but an exact replica of its much
larger relatives. I was going to catch it, but it made a leap for water. Too bad because and
octopus pet would have been cool. Once we got the anchor lashed to the deck and the sails up we
had another pleasant day of sailing.