Our Home

Howdy,

Its been awhile since we did a update.We sold our boat and purchased a house. We do miss the boat ..but most of all we miss the friends that we make along the way. We hope if they find them self in Florida that will stop in for a cold one.
It was just to long of a drive from the east coast to Mazatlan , Mexico. It was a 7 day trip with 600 mikes a day. So we decided to move to Florida to be where it's warm and be closer to family.
As for us we are doing great ..playing lots of golf and going to the beach. Steve and I both have joined the golf club here. We are playing in the golf league and have meet some really nice poeple. Looking forward to the new golf season....

Our New Home in Ocala , Florida

 
August 27,2012

As you may know by now that we have sold Gypseas Palace and purchased a home in Ocala, Florida. We purchased the home in December 2011. Moved in January 1st and have been enjoying the house. Catching up on lots of yard work.





The 3rd tee our back yard...

The house is on a 18 hole executive golf course.We live on the 3rd tee. We are enjoying living here. Our home back up to the national forest so we have lots of animals in our back yard. Deer & gray fox lots of birds.

Well when you live on a golf course you need a cart. Well we found this one and I had to have it . I like that it set up high ...love the wheels.

 

" June " In Rhode Island

Hola,

We are still in Rhode Island enjoying the summer and spending time with family.We just got back from a trip to Niagara Fall, Canada where we spent 4 day and enjoyed the company of Joan & Joe . Steve 's sister and brother in law had a wonderful time expect its really spendy there. We are so use to Mexico prices that when we came back to the states we had sticker shock. We are looking forward to driving back across country in January where we plan to visit family in Virginia for a few days.

We are planning a trip to Vermont in October for the change of the seasons for a few days. We have never been there and we are looking forward to seeing that part of the country.


Here you can see the American Falls and the Canadian Falls The American Falls are 176 ft and 75,000 gallons of water flow over the falls each second.

The Canadian Horseshoe Falls are 170 feet high with a crest estimated to be 2,200 feet wide and accounts for 90% of the combined water volume .









This is where you get the Maid of the Mist boat ride and this is a must.Take a historical ride aboard the worlds famous boat to truly experience the magic and the power of the falls. Be ready to get wet but its a great adventure.










This is the Whitewater Walk Adventure: Take a elevator to the bottom of the Gorge and enjoy the walk along the boardwalk adjacent to the mighty rapids of the falls.












This is the top of the Canadian Falls and to stand there and just listen to all the water that goes over the falls you just wonder where it all comes from.












This is Clifton Hill street at the falls with daytime fun for shopping and nighttime action with entertainment.This street is a main street from to falls to most hotels.

Rhode Island

Hola,

We are in Rhode Island where we have been for 3 weeks. The weather here is not a warm as Mazatlan. We had one day up to 94 and down as low as 40. But its spring and the trees are starting to bud out and all the spring flowers are in bloom and its just beautiful. We just purchased tomato plants for our garden and put about 10 packs of flower seeds in the ground for the summer. We have been cleaning the yard of leaves and tree branches its all good.


Things here are going better. Steve's dad has several doctor's appt's every week. We are glad that we are here to be able to drive him to those visits. He took a fall about 2 weeks ago and we had to call 911 he spent time in the hospital. But dad is doing lots better.

On April 1 Sophie turned 1 year old and of course she had a little party. Thanks to Linda from Andanzas she had birthday hat and candles for the cake that she picked up in the states for me when she went home. Linda bought here back a squeaky toy and that was like giving a kid a drum. She plays with the toy all the time we have to hide it from her. As you see a ball is also her favorite, she love toys. Sophie is such a joy!!



Sophie gets one of her favorite toy a balls !!













This is our new used van. Its a 2003 Dodge Ram Van with 36k miles . We are looking forward to driving it across country and back to Mexico for short time after Christmas.













It was really good shape when we found it on autotrader. We feel we got a good deal. It doesn't have power windows or seats but we can deal with that. And, you just have to remember you can't turn on a dime.












This is our little apartment for the next few months and its all we need for now. We are now referred to as the "cellar dwellers" Its just a place to have when we are home in Rhode Island. Its small for some but when you have lived on a boat for a long as we have it plenty of room for us. It serves its purpose and we have our own quite zone . Steve's sister Joan and her husband Joe put a lot of time into it to get it ready for us.

Mazatlan Carnival 2010

Hola.

We arrives back in Mazatlan the first week of February so we could go to the 2010 carnival with friends. This is our 2nd year of going and it's wonderful time. We had great seats along the parade route which we purchased from a hotel which came with a nice lunch buffet. We enjoyed the company of Bill & Diane from the sailing vessel Wirewaker . The parade started around sunset and as it got darker you start seeing the floats coming because they all lit up and were just beautiful.




As you can see lots people were out to enjoy the evening. This carnival is suppose to be the 3rd largest in the world. This year there wasn't as many people as we seen last year. Now you know why we wanted an elavated seat so we could set and over look the parade route.













They had 3 different parades but the on Sunday was the only one that is lit up. The city of Mazatlan puts so much work into floats and the beauty of their city. We love the city and the people here are just wonderful. We feel very fortunate that we get to enjoy this country.












This was a warm clear night and fun for everyone!!






























The Olympic Games just completed and we got to enjoy a hockey game between the USA & Canada for the gold. We were in a sports bar and the crowd was spit 50/50 between both countries. Lets just say that the Canadians love their hockey and they know how to have a great time. We really enjoyed the day everyone still remained good friends.


We are looking forward to having family visit in March. Steve's sister and her husband will be here for a week and we can't wait to show them around the city. Its always great to have friends and family visit. We like sharing the experiences that we have while cruising. Mazatlan has great restaurants that we enjoy going to and like taking family and friends.

We will be flying to Rhode Island on April 4th and will be there at least until Nov. We are fixing up a apartment in our families house, that way we can keep a eye on them when they got out of hand. We plan to purchase a conversion van and drive back across country in the fall and get to see the change in seasons.

We are enjoying our cruising life style and don't plan to change a thing. We like seeing old friends and making new ones. Next year we may head back up into the Sea of Cortez for a few months . There lots of unexplored anchorages for us that we want to spend some time in.


The boat will be here in Mazatlan in her slip for the hurricane season. We have a maintenance service looking after her. Our plans will remain open while we are in New England and not quite sure when we are returning. Our parents are not getting any younger so we want to spent some time with them.

Hope all is well with each and everyone of you and we would love to hear from you.

Steve & Teresa & Sophie

Rhythms of the Night

Las Caletas

Las Caletas was discovered by film director John Huston where we had a private home for years. La Caletas is surrounded by steep, jungle -clad mountains backdrop , making a secluded tropical sanctuary. We traveled by a party catamaran from Puerto Vallatra the trip took about 1 hour.
Rhythems of the Night !! is like dream reverie of mysticism and cultural anthropology.
As we arrived to the beach we were welcomed by flickering torches and soft music that compliments song of the jungle. A hearty mix of mysticism and romance. We dine by candle light beside a moon lit ocean with tropical palms swaying over head. Later after dinner we went to the torch-lit pyramid set among the towering palms for a evening of dance performance.






Dinner at Chocolate.
It has a different spelling in Spanish!!
The view from restaurant you can see Banderas Bay across to Puarto Vallarta.

We had dinner with old friends Paul & Allison Petraitis from Marina de Rey . They were here to do a delivery back to California. We were very surprised to see Allison when she showed up at our boat. We also had dinner with Judy & Don from Windwalker who in April will be heading on the puddle jump to the South Pacific.






La Cruz,


As you can see we had some bad weather in La Cruz. The funnel cloud that you see did not cause any problems except work on our nerves. We just heard from friend that are still in La Cruz and they had a storm that hit with 70 kts winds and boats went on the beach.







Jaltemba!!

We stopped here on our way back to Mazatlan and we are so glad that we did. Jaltemba is really 3 different communities with 3 different anchorages.We anchored in the first anchorage in about 15 ft of water. We will plan to go that there and stay for a while.We had a nice lunch on the beach and purchased items from the local vendors. We will be traveling south next year and that will be one of our stops for sure. Great taco's and cold beer.





We are getting ready for the Mazatlan Carnival and its the 3rd largest in the world. We will update on our next post.

Mazatlan to La Cruz

Hola,

Happy New Year!

Sorry its taken so long to get a update on the Adventures of Gypseas Palace. We have a new blog due to the reason some people were not able to open the old website. We hope you enjoy!!










San Blas

We left Mazatlan headed for La Cruz (Banderas Bay) for Christmas holidays and along the way we stopped in San Blas. The bay is very large and you can go forever in 15ft of water. But you want to anchor about 1 mile off the beach due to the fact that it can be very buggy!!!!
Ashore you will find cafes and palapa's on the beach that you can also tie you dinghy up to and take the bus into town.
The town square is beautiful and includes an old mission and just beside it a new one is being built. You can get just about get everything you may need in San Blas from hardware stories and plenty of fresh produce. If you have any questions you can get in touch with Norm Golding, he has been there to help cruisers and fisherman for 45 years. Next stop Chacala....

Chacala


Chacala is almost buried in the palm trees cloaking the rocky point. The bay is only .5 miles deep and 1.25 mile long running. This is one of our favorite places. A dozen palapa cafe's and cantinas sit in the shade of coconut palms.
Chacala is deserted most of the year witch makes its great place for cruisers except for Semana Santa (Easter week) then its packed with vacationers from Gaudalajara and Mexico City. Like wise down the coast as well. Next stop is Banderas Bay about a 3hr run. The bay is 20 miles N to S and 15 miles E to W. Its a wonderful place just to go out for a day sail. The Yacht have lots of racing.


La Cruz , de Huanacaxtle


This is the street that goes from the marina to the bakery and the food stories. This is a wonderful small town with lots of good music.









Philo's Band

Philo's bar is one of these places. You see spoon players to wash board players and its all great fun. Philo's is more then just a bar in La Crus, its a main staple of La Cruz. Philo (seated) does a lot for the community. This particular event gave out over 400 gifts to the children of La Crus. Teresa and friends helped out with the wrapping of these gifts. This is the first time I've seen Santa and his helpers shot tequila.






























The Bakery!!!



This bakery is outstanding. They make thing fresh everyday. From onion rolls to ham & cheese baked. The family that run this bakery is one of a kind. If you ask for something special they will try and make it for the cruisers. We go there at least once a week.




The Produce Store!!





This is just a wonderful little store. They carry everything from fresh produce to dog food. You can get all you paper goods here as well. They get fresh produce on Wed & Sat. We try to keep stocked up here and just go to the big markets like Mega once a month.



The Rosticeria!!




This place has great chickens but you have to get there before noon if you want one because they go fast. You get the chicken, rice or potato, sauce and tortillas for like $5.oo usa dollars. We do this on Sundays when we just want to hang and watch football or watch a movie.



Taco's in the Street!!




This is a resturante that adjourns someone house and they open it up on Wed, Fri-Sun and they only make taco's. They are the best in town and they are really cheap. They don't serve beer so you have to bring your own cooler. Also you best expect to wait for a table because it always full. On the day that they are not open you can pass by and its just a house and with huge patio.

Yalapa!



"A palapa in Yalapa is better than a condo in Redondo". We took a water taxi across the bay for the day because we were not sure about the mooring and anchoring situation . The town is just one of a kind. We had a wonderful lunch on the beach with friends Linda & Wally .




Walk to Water Fall!



This is a rock walk that goes thru town and up a hill to get to a beautiful waterfall. All along this walk you have people from town selling their goods. We found things from beautiful hand made wooden bowls to fine art, some if it is done on a dried tree bark.





The Waterfall !!!




This was a great walk to find this. They also had bar at the top where you could get a cold beer. Everything was green and lush and very tropical.







The Hotel!!




I"m not sure of the name of this place but its a small hotel with about 5 cottages that sits just off the beach. Its a place that I would like to spend a couple of nights.












Well, until the next posting (which won't be long) Let us know it this blog works better then the website we presently had. You can use the comment section.

Hasta Luego
Enjoying Retirement Life, Steve & Teresa & Sophie