San Blas is a really nice Mexican town of about 15,000. We spent our first day, here, exploring and getting the lay of the land. The center of town is a very short walk from the marina, only about 4 blocks. There are no large supermarkets, only small tiendas, (almost one on every block it seems), a very old cathedral, of course the town plaza and many, many restaurants to choose from. There is one bank and one gas station. There are several hardware stores and many other small stores that specialize in cutting hair, electronics, jewelry, clothing and repair shops for cars and bicycles. Like many of the other towns we have visited, the streets are all cobbled, actually round stones about the size of large grapefruit sunk in the ground and quite a bit of dust. It's still the dry season and it hasn't rained in several months so everything is coated in dust. San Blas is a very busy town...the downtown area is always hopping...people are everywhere, taking care of their daily business. This town also has a larger number of people on bicycles and motorcycles than we have seen in other towns this size.

Day 2 in San Blas saw us head out early to take advantage of the popular jungle tour up the San Cristobal river. We had heard that early in the morning would provide us with more opportunities to view wildlife. We walked into town and found a taxi to take us to the tour operator, about 10 minutes away by taxi. When we arrived, we could tell we were the first customers of the day...and the only customers at the time so we had an entire panga to ourselves for the tour and we were guided by our driver, Alex. Alex is 21 years old and has been taking people up the river for a year. The ride up the river was really interesting...Alex pointed out many species of birds and reptiles, including several crocodiles, large and small. We also saw turtles as well. At the "end of the river" there is a fresh water spring, La Tovara that has been fenced off so that a pool has been formed to allow customers to take a swim if they want. It was a little too early for me and Lorrie did not fancy getting into the water in which she had just seen crocodiles anyway. There is also a restaurant there, too. During the busy season of December and January, bus loads of tour groups are ferried up the river and each of the pangas is filled with as many as 20 people. I was glad that we had the whole place to ourselves, but just as we were leaving for the ride back, another panga arrived with a Mexican family. The ride back was quicker, but we did see the largest crocodile of the day. This one was swimming in the water and Alex brought the boat right up along side. The croc didn't seem to mind at all that we were next to him and taking pictures. We made sure we kept our hands out of the water! After we arrived back at the tour start, we took a walk out to Matenchen Bay where we anchored 27 years ago. At that time, there was nothing but a very long and beautiful beach. Now the beach is completely lined with palapa restaurants. Progress, I guess. There were two boats anchored in the bay. We walked back to the main road to wait for a bus or to flag down a taxi if one came by. Over the course of the 30 minutes that we waited, no less than 5 taxis went by going the other way (with passengers)...they all saw us wave and we thought that at least one of them would be back to pick us up after dropping off their passengers. No taxis were going our way but the bus showed up and we caught a ride back into town.

On Day 3, we took a hike (about 14 blocks) to the old fort up on the hill. Cerro de la Contaduria was built on a very high promitory above the town and has a commanding view over the town and out to the ocean. The Spaniards would have been able to see any ships coming form a long way out. There is also the ruins of an old church on the grounds and it was fun to walk around and think about what it was like back in the 18th century when these structures were built. After we arrived back in town, we had dinner at a nice seafood place just off the plaza. After dinner, we took a walk around the plaza and did some people watching. Being Saturday night, everyone was out having a good time and the plaza was crowded with people having dinner, enjoying some ice cream and meeting with friends. We plan to leave in the morning for a moderate length passage to Isla Isabel, about 45 miles north of here and about 20 miles off shore.