About As Good As It Gets
05 March 2008 | Barra de Navidad
Warm, sunny, pleasantly breezy
We've arrived in the Lagoon at Barra de Navidad, and of course the crew of both "Bliss" and "Sol Mate" immediately debarked to explore. The captains decided to stay with the boats, making sure their anchors would hold.
Barra, by the way, has two wifi systems, both requiring purchase of an internet card, and the one we chose cost 450 pesos for seven days. The other option is to go into town and visit, for example, the Sands Hotel, where they charge non-guests 20 pesos (about $2) for pretty much unlimited time online.
The Lagoon is very large and widespread, and there are some 50 boats in here. We are fortunate to have a reliable water taxi service for 25 pesos round-trip, on-call on channel 23. This is a break because the winds in the afternoon here can get up to 20 knots, making any dinghy trip into town a very wet one.
There's Emerick, the French baker who brings his fresh-baked goods out to the boats in the mornings. True, baked-goods delivery seems a frivolous reason to love an anchorage, but everyone who talks about the Barra Lagoon raves about him. And the croissants are excellent.
Maria's, a restaurant at the entrance to the Lagoon, does a thriving business picking up and delivering fresh drinking water and propane to the anchor-outs, also by panga. She was dropping off water when we were wandering through the lagoon looking for a likely spot to anchor, a process that took almost an hour, since the lagoon is packed with boats, and there are areas that get extremely shallow at low tide, say around three feet.
Another plus is a fuel dock right in the bay. And of course if you can afford $400 a night, you can park your hyper mega yacht at the Grand Hotel and enjoy all the amenities: pool, gourmet dining, tennis, etc. etc. The rest of us go to the Sands Hotel, where we can swim, shower and meet the other yachtie riffraff from the Laguna. We can stroll Calle Vera Cruz and dine at the SeaMaster or Mexico Lindo, for three or four bucks. We aren't missing a thing.
If access to the amenities or services of a city are required, Manzanillo is less than an hour away by bus. And the town of San Patricio de Melaque is just across the bay, with a hospital, clinics, lots more stores and services.
Barra's a pretty town, cleaner than most and with an almost European atmosphere. The Capt and the boat know it well, having spent the better part of three years here when the engine needed rebuilding. After all that time, it's still high on his list of favorites.