Happy Saint Patrick's Day

A bunch of cruisers took a trip to a hot spring on the Moscota River, a short drive from the marina.  During the walk in we passed a field of 4 leaf clovers.  Not wanting to anger the Elf of Clovers, we did not pick or, God forbid, step on any.

We had to ride "Mexican style" the last couple of miles up the river in the back of a pick up, crossing the river several times.

The last couple of crossings were done on foot.

There were three pools between the spring and the river.  The first was quite warm, about 104 degrees, the next two were cooler.  People cycled thru them, or went direct from the hot pool to the river.

Our son Kevin passed on the hot tubs to take care of more important matters.

There have been races going on in the La Cruz area for the last couple of weeks involving all sizes of boats.  The largest raced down from San Diego.  The quickest was a trimaran that made it down in four days, averaging about 400 miles per day.

Eddie VanHouten

We had an unfortunate incident here last week.  The March 2, 2012 show of America's Most Wanted reported that Eddie VanHouten, a convicted pedophile, jumped parole in Arizona several years ago and is at large, possibly in Mexico.

Well, they are (or were) right about him being in Mexico.  He is the mechanic who helped me make repairs to my windless last year.

Someone who had watched the show saw Eddie, or Butch as he was known here, and mentioned this on the cruisers morning radio net.  Butch was on board one of the boats in the marina repairing its diesel engine.  He couldn't hear the radio from where he was, so the owner foolishly told Butch about it, and asked if this report was true.  Butch's response was to drop his tools and disappear, running full tilt down the dock, to the parking lot, into his truck.  The boat owner called the TV show, and was chastised by the host for giving Butch the heads up that allowed him to escape.  Needless to say Butch has not been seen and the boat owner is trying to find a new mechanic.

I was shocked when told about Butch, and it took a few moments to come to terms with the change in his status, from an amiable acquaintance to a sexual predator.  He was on the docks all the time doing boat jobs, and seemed to be easy going and cheerful.  I offered him a beer once while he was working for me.  He declined saying he had given up drinking as it made him "crazy".  I guess so.

A HIKE TO ALTAVISTA

We went for a hike to a Tecoxquin Indian holy site called AltaVista.  I don't know why its called AltaVista, as its located in a valley bottom shaded by dense rain forest.  Not a lot of alta or vista.  I'm not so sure about the "holy" either......at least in the way I normally define holy. 

It is a beautiful necklace of pools connected by low waterfalls, surrounded by columnar basalt.  The water in the pools is crystal clear and inviting after the sweaty hike up the very rocky creek bed.  But it is COLD.

The Tecoxquins lived here long before the Spanish showed up, and used this site for some of their religious ceremonies.  There are numerous designs carved into the hard rock.  Some of them have a vague Cross like resemblance, leading to the rumor that the Tecoxquin had some sort of proto Christian knowledge.

Kat and Bill (barely visible) scrambling

up the creek 

The approach to the site is up the very rocky creek bed.  There are lots of carvings along the way.

AltaVista

Kevin, top center of picture, is standing in a portal like depression in the basalt.

Kris and Liz from Espirtu debating about a swim.
They did.

Liz

AltaVista is still used by locals.  Somehow the old beliefs have survived centuries of Catholic assault.  Normally a fan a diversity, I would applaud this, but Tecoxquin means "Throatcutter".  This pretty much gets to the core of the ceremonies that took place here.

I haven't heard of any warriors gone missing, so I guess throat cutting has fallen out of favor.  But there are Gringos that might not be missed....Hey Newt, talking 'bout you.