Chamela
24 January 2020
by Terry Spencer
When one imagines one’s self out cruising, the fantasy usually includes having your boat anchored off a beautiful sandy beach…..and sitting on said beach, cool drink in hand, admiring the view. Chamela was exactly that dream fulfilled.
We put some money and clothing in dry bags (which we discovered were not really completely waterproof). Pushing these ahead of us, we all swam into the beach. There we walked to a palapa restaurant for a lunch and view of the bay.
It was Sunday, and the beach had many families playing. Very small children with flotation devices were trying to body surf. A large group of all ages was kicking around a soccer ball in front of us. Vendors would come by offering everything from beach cover ups and bracelets to desserts and oysters. It amazes me that you can be sitting in a restaurant in México and someone from outside is trying to sell you food. A large colorful cart was piled high with inflatable toys for sale. Pangas were running back and forth to the islands in the bay.
It was all very festive. We lingered at the palapa, taking it all in, before walking through the town that parallels the beach. There we explored some tiendas but made no purchases. Then we walked back on the beach.
There, we hitched a ride on one of the pangas that runs people back and forth to the islands in the middle of the bay. The panganjero dropped us off at our boats.
Another day, we all went on Altere and motored out to anchor off of Isla Pajarera. There was a nice spot in the lee of the island protected from the northwest swell. We donned fins, masks and snorkels and then jumped in.
The water was exceptionally clear. Swimming away from the boat, I could see my anchor chain lying on the bottom in a heap. Despite a 3 knot breeze, the weight of some chain was holding the boat in place. There was not enough breeze to cause the anchor to dig in or even stretch out the chain.
A swim of about a quarter mile got us to a rocky outcropping. Swimming around this and into the next little cove, we found a myriad of colorful fish. Brightly colored sea stars lay on the bottom. Fat blue fish with white lips sauntered by. Occasionally I would find myself above a school of thousands of tiny silvery fish, glinting in the sun. Fish of many sizes and shapes lived together on the reef swimming around brown and green coral heads.
At night, anchored near Pérula, the three of us were sitting in the cockpit eating spaghetti and sipping a nice Carmenere. We had our little solar powered lights on to see our dinner. Kersplash! Something hit the water next to the boat at considerable velocity. We all startled. Then later, another splash near the boat. A few seconds later a giant pelican surfaced so close I could almost have reached out and touched him. We deduced that the lights were attracting fish, and the fish were attracting the pelicans.
I was worried about having enough water in my tanks and was anxious to keep moving south and eastward towards Central America. So we parted company with Marshall. We tried to get him to come with us, but he wanted to spend more time in Chamela and another bay.
So off we went to Barra de Navidad.
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