03/25/2009
It's been nearly three weeks, so I guess it's time for an update. After spending a night anchored off Chamela, we had a nice sail in light wind to Tenacatita. The anchorage in Tenacatita is big and well protected, so it was not surprising to find over 30 boats anchored there.
We took a scenic, hour-long dinghy trip up a river near the anchorage. The trip was quite leisurely and not too hot as we spent most of it in the shade of the many mangrove trees that dominate the river landscape. Unlike others who have made this trip, we did not see any jaguars or crocodiles, but we did see some spider crabs scurrying about in the mangroves. At the other end of the river is a place to leave your dinghy. From there we walked across a short spit of sand to a hotel and palapa-lined beach where we tried a popular local dish for lunch--rollo del mar. It's a filet of fish stuffed with shrimp, rolled, fried and topped in an almond cream sauce--delicious.
While in Tenacatita, we caught up with our Spanish school classmates Colin and Sharon who were making their way back north to Puerto Vallarta on their sailboat Mamabird. Also aboard were Colin's parents who were wrapping up a month-long visit. Colin is a wonderful cook, and we enjoyed a great dinner of portobello mushroom pizza aboard Mamabird. We had such a good time that we decided to have dinner together again the next night, only this time Shawn made Indian food and Sharon made a wonderful lime meringue pie for dessert.
The next morning we said goodbye to Mamabird as they headed for Chamela and we made the short trip to Barra de Navidad (affectionately referred to as Barra by cruisers) where we anchored in the very comfortable but shallow lagoon. Despite the many stories we heard of people going aground trying to navigate the narrow channel into the lagoon, we did not have any trouble. Barra is a nice llittle town, but after a day we felt like we'd seen pretty much all there was to see, so we made for Manzanillo where we anchored off the Las Hadas resort.
Las Hadas is best known as the resort where they filmed the movie 10, and the Spanish Moorish architecture is quite beautiful so long as you don't look to closely. The place is over 30 years old and is starting to look a bit rough around the edges. Manzanillo itself, about a 15 minute cab ride from Las Hadas, did not have a lot to recommend it. It's a commercial port city with lots of people and a few rundown, mostly empty restaurants. About 30 minutes after a cab dropped us in Manzanillo, we caught another taxi back to the town near Las Hadas which had a lot more charm and many more restaurant options.
From Las Hadas it was an overnight trip to Zihuatanejo. We arrived on St. Patrick's Day and after John checked the local VHF cruiser's net for restaurant recommendations, we made plans to meet up with a bunch of other cruisers at a beachfront restaurant that was serving corned beef and cabbage for St. Paddy's Day. The restaurant staff was clearly not expecting the turnout they received, and it took nearly an hour and a half for our waiter to start bringing our drinks. When he did, he announced there was no more ice. That sealed it for us. We all left and went down the street to a really good pizza place. One benefit of the long wait was that we got to spend a lot of time sharing stories with our fellow cruisers and picking the brains of those who had experience sailing to Central and South America.
Along with La Paz, John and I both agreed that Zihuatanejo is our favorite place in Mexico. It's very scenic with lots of good, cheap restaurants and a small enough number of tourists that it still feels like and authentic Mexican town.
We had some great meals while we were in Zihuatanejo, but the highlight had to be our trip to the Santa Presca Pozoleria. For those that don't know, Pozole is a mexican hominy stew made with either pork or chicken. Pozole originated in the state of Guerrero, where Zihuatanejo is located, so they take their pozole very seriously. The Santa Presca Pozoleria, as tradition dictates, is only open on Thursdays. Traditionally, pigs were slaughtered every Wednesday and the fresh pork was used to make pozole every Thursday. Santa Presca is located in a sort of open air basement surrounded by ferreterias (hardware stores). When we arrived at 3pm, the place was already packed and the live music was blasting. One of the musicians, who was also one of the restaurant's proprietors, was a wonderful singer and guitarist. John and I agreed that he was better than a lot of well-paid professional musicians we'd heard in the US. When he was not strumming his acoustic guitar or belting out a traditional Mexican ballad, he was assisting the wait staff and working the room with charm and enthusiasm.
John and I both had the green style pork pozole. The pozole comes with botanis gratis (free snacks) and lots of delicious condiments such as chopped jalapenos and onions and fresh lime. The meal did not disappoint, and it was well worth the $10US for the two of us.
We ended up spending 6 days in Zihuatanejo, and we would've stayed longer if we did not have a schedule to keep. If we had it to do over again, we definitely would have shortened our stays in places like Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan and spent more time in Zihuatanejo.
We arrived in Acapulco yesterday and took a slip at the nice but expensive Club de Yates de Acapulco. The facilities are great and the showers are the best and cleanest we've seen in Mexico. We'll spend a couple days here before another long overnight trip to Puerto Escondido. We should be in Huatulco in less than a week, just in time for our week-long trip inland to see the Aztec and Mayan ruins.
|
Comments [0]
03/07/2009, Bahia de Chamela
We made and overnight passage from La Cruz to Bahia Chamela which should be out last overnighter for a while.
Anchored off the beach in the North cove.
|
02/23/2009, Anchored at Isla Isabella
We arrived here at Isla Isabella late yesterday afternoon. This morning we inflated the dingy and motored over to the beach near the ranger station.
Isla Isabella is a national park and a rookery for Frigate birds and blue footed and yellow footed boobies.
This is the nesting season for all of these birds and the island is loaded with nests and fledglings. The Frigate birds nest at eye level in trees near sea level and the boobies nest on the higher ground and their nests consist of hollowed out areas in the dirt.
We got a lot of good photos that we will upload to the blog when we get to Puerto Vallarta and have internet access.
There is also a fishing camp on the beach with about 15 pangas. It must be a fairly productive fishing area to support all the bird life and keep that many fishermen busy.
There are also whales around the anchorage. Thy are probably humpback whales but I have not had a good enough look at one to be sure.
After lunch we are heading to the reef near where we are anchored to do a little snorkling.
|
