March 23 - 24, 2020
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| Empty Pickleball Courts |
Monday morning, I went for
my walk in the marina, as usual. The charter boats were all sitting
empty in the marina. No one was unloading food and ice as I passed
by. It was strangely quiet. The Sea Shepherd boat, Brigitte Bardot,
was tied up in the marina until the stay at home order was lifted.
The pickleball courts were empty and the fish market was quiet.
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| The Excursion Boats Were All Quiet |
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| The Brigitte Bardot |
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| Empty Fish Market |
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| Empty Plaza |
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| Empty Highway |
I walked home through town.
A stay at home order had been issued and the beaches were closed.
There were no taxis at the marina taxi stand and the plaza was empty.
There was so little traffic on the highway that I was able to stop
in the middle to take a photograph.
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| Wrapped Baked Goods |
Later, I went into Bucerias
to go to Chedraui for groceries. Shelves were still stocked, but all
the bulk foods were then packaged in containers and the bakery goods
were either wrapped or under covers. The salad bar was empty. An
employee was stationed at the doors with hand sanitizer and was
wiping down the carts and baskets. I bought a bag of cat food to
bring to the feral cats in the marina, hoping to befriend them. I
longed for a pet to keep me company.
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| Road Through the Hills |
Tuesday, I went for a run up
the road leading into the hills behind La Cruz. After passing
through the colonia, the road continued through pastures where cows
grazed and then climbed up into the jungle. There weren't many
expansive views due to the tree cover, but there were lots of
colorful flowers.
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| Morning Glories |
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| Pasture Behind a Gate |
Cherie and John left to sail
to points south on Tuesday, leaving me alone in the house. As soon
as they left, I began the process of thoroughly cleaning and
sanitizing the house. It wasn't so much that I was worried about the
virus, but the house hadn't been thoroughly cleaned in over a month
and it gave me something to do. It took me three days to thoroughly
clean every nook and cranny of the downstairs.
March 25-27, 2020
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| The Cat Colony on the Breakwater |
The feral cats were glad to
see me on my morning walk in the marina. Daylight Savings Time was
almost upon us and it had become difficult to walk before it got
light. Sunrise is a two-part event in La Cruz. The sun rises above
the horizon somewhere behind the mountains and stains the sky and/or
clouds with color. An hour or so later, the sun rises above the
mountains and bursts across the water in second colorful show. Dawn
was may favorite time of day and I hated to miss it.
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| Sunrise Over the La Cruz Anchorage |
I spent the rest of the day
practicing the guitar and cleaning the living room. I moved and
cleaned behind all the furniture and emptied all the shelves to dust
them thoroughly. The house had never been so clean and smelled of
Pinesol.
Taking advantage of the
empty highway, I ran a few miles up the old road to Punta Mita on
Thursday morning. The only vehicles I saw were ATM buses bringing
employees to the resorts in Punta Mita. They passed every ten
minutes like clockwork. The beaches were deserted. The resorts in
La Manzanilla were quiet and the entrances blocked off. No one was
getting in.
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| View Towards Nuevo Vallarta |
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| La Manzanilla Deserted |
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| A Little Jungle Greenery |
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| Entrance Blocked Off |
Cheko Ruiz, a local musician
whose concerts had all been canceled, live streamed a concert on
Thursday night. Two members of his band surprised us by joining him.
I watched with a friend back in Alameda while we chatted online. It
was almost like we were together.
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| Sunrise on the Malecon |
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| View Across the Parking Lot |
Friday began with another
walk in the marina. The carnival rides for Semana Santa were parked
on a side street. Someone, at least, still thought that Semana Santa
would proceed as normal. I hoped that saner heads would prevail.
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| Rides for the Semana Santa Carnival |
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| Empty Dock Carts |
Many cruisers had returned
to their home countries. For the first time ever, I saw a group of
empty dock carts sitting beside the entrance to Docks 10 and 11.
Even the boat workers seemed to be staying home. By the end of the
week, restaurants were no longer allowed to seat customers and food
was available for takeout or delivery only. Many closed altogether.
La Cruz began to resemble a ghost town.
I decided to use the
downtime to paint the wrought iron fence around our house, something
I had been meaning to do for years. Fortunately, we lived only a
block from the paint store. I went out to buy a gallon of oil based
paint and some thinner. The store employees were all wearing masks,
the first ones I had seen in La Cruz. There was no fancy,
computerized machine to tint the paint. I selected the color green
closest to the existing paint and the clerk mixed it quite
accurately by hand. I was impressed.
The fence was dirty and I
spent the day cleaning it, rather than painting.
March 28 – 29, 2020
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| B Nayar at Dawn |
I was getting sick of
staring at the four walls of my house and walking in the marina.
Saturday morning, I ran up Highway 200 for a few miles towards
Sayulita. I took the opportunity to explore the graveyard that I had
previously only seen from the highway. The roadside fruit stands
were quiet and there was very little traffic.
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| The Local Cemetery |
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| Roadside Fruit Stand |
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| Highway to Sayulita |
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| Front Gate Before Paint |
The rest of the day was
spent practicing the guitar and scrubbing the fence. It was a bigger
job than expected.
Sunday being my rest day, I
slept in as much as possible. I took a break from the fence and
spent the day documenting all the songs I knew well enough to
perform. Cheko's live stream had inspired me and I considered doing
one of my own. I recorded each song to determine how long they were.
It quickly became apparent that it was going to be difficult to
whittle them down to a single hour.
