A Trip of Firsts

We experienced many a first on our little jaunt to Punta de Mita. It was the first time we boated with baby, which was family fun times but also way more work for Vlad. We even beach landed the dinghy with Jari, and despite all my anxiety he did not get swept out to sea. It also showed us how much extra time it takes to do things with a baby. It took us two weeks to get ready to go to Punta de Mita, and that is a 9-mile trip! I'm hoping that it won't always be that bad, but gone are the days when we could get things stowed and provision in a day. Now, we are reduced to one person working rather than two, and somehow it really equals out to only half a person. Yeah, we are slow.

Also, it was the first time we've seen Mexican fishing bats. After Jari had blessedly gone to sleep one evening, Vlad and I were chilling out in the cockpit, and we noticed a quick flash of brown that kept zipping across the water. Was it a bird? No, it was a bat, and a rather large one at that. We could hear it's wings skim the surface like the rustling of leaves and thought that it might be eating fish rather than insects. As it turns out, there are two species of marine fishing bat -the fish-eating myotis and the greater bulldog bat, and though we couldn't tell which type these were in the dark I'm gunning for the fish-eating myotis. Mostly they live well into the Sea of Cortez, but they inhabit islands like the Marietas, which are just a few miles offshore. Also, they were oddly stinky. We could actually smell them as they flew past. The whole situation reminded me of when we were invaded by fruit bats in Panama, and Vlad thought that whatever brushed his leg in the night was just a giant moth. Nope, it was a fruit bat eating our bananas. Thankfully, these bats stuck to the water.

This next one is a downer. It was the first time Jari rolled off our bed onto the solid teak floor. I cried almost as much as he did, but he did not even have a bruise. It's definitely time for lee cloths. And, finally, it was our first anniversary! We didn't do anything special, unless you include family cuddle piles and Vlad cooking dinner special. I know I do.