LandfallVoyages

I might not have found the Octopus’ Garden Cafe (El Jardín del Pulpo) in La Cruz De Huanacaxtle if it weren’t for the anemones in Monterey, Ca.

I know that that’s a crazy statement but it’s true. In Monterey one morning, Eli and I were laying on our stomachs on the dock with our heads over the side looking at the sea life attached to the floats. Two girls walked by and asked “What are you doing?” A reasonable question. Allie and her friend, whose name escapes me, had just sailed in the night before and they joined us for a bit of dock diving (it’s like scuba diving except you don’t get wet) and we talked for awhile.

They sailed out the next morning.

A year and two months later we were sitting at the fish restaurant in La Cruz and Allie and three of her friends sat down at a nearby table and I struck up a conversation. After a minute Allie recognized us as the weirdos from Monterey.

She talked about her sail down to here and her house and her job at the cafe. The next day I had to check it out, you know me.

What I found was the very finest cafe that I’ve ever had the pleasure to patronize. But it’s so much more than just a cafe. The cafe is a beautiful walled garden with an art gallery on one side and a kitchen on another, a stage, and other areas above and around.

There’s a screen printing shop (those are the octopuses), a bar, a big dance floor, and a coffee roasting area, and a residence.

Downstairs there’s an excellent Huichol art gallery featuring many types of Native bead and yarn art and T-shirts with Huichol prints. There’s a T-shirt concession complete with a  really cool Seimens coffee grinder and the cafe.

The cafe is owned by an English couple who built their own catamaran in the late 70’s and early 80’s and they sailed from England, across the Atlantic, around Central America, through the canal and up here to the Banderas Bay. If you’re lucky they’ll let you look through their boat photo album detailing the building process and some of their subsequent adventures.

Every Saturday morning they serve brunch and have free live music and all of the music is great, what I’ve seen has been Spanish style guitar fused with some more urban sounds, just my style.

All that and the very best espresso drinks that I’ve ever had. I stop at every Starbucks (except in LA where they actually have Starbucks locations across the street from one another) and every local cafe I can find. I’ve hit every one within walking distance the whole way down California and Mexico to here. I know that I have a problem but if it weren’t for this then I’d be perfect and I’d make all of you look bad, so I’m doing this for you.

They buy all Mexican beans and hand roast them in small batches right on site, nearly every week. That’s great but that’s not everything that you need. For perfection, you also need Allie. Allie is a Pacific Northwest girl and a trained Barista. She takes coffee very seriously, lucky for me. A lot goes into a perfect espresso and Allie knows more about it than anyone that I’ve ever met.