Six AM. On the move to Barra de Navidad! The cute little town we spent five weeks in last May, in the beautiful Grand Bay Hotel marina. We are so excited to see our old friends there! Here is another place where we were able to find an English speaking church in the town of Melaque, making lifelong friends; Wynn, Lou, and Rouette.
After leaving Puerto Vallarta we had about a 24 hour trip to the anchorage of Tenacatita. We have been here as well before, this being the great spot where we took our dinghy on the ‘jungle cruise” (see video on facebook, Lisa Anderson), as well as had daily visits by Nick and his gang, the friendly dolphins that come and scratch their backs on our anchor chain. Sure enough they were here again. The cool thing was, that this time we were able to kayak and paddle board around them. They keep their distance, but it still is a surreal experience. The night before we left Tenacatita, the 3 of us spent a quiet evening watching the documentary movie “The Cove”. It is not easy to watch, but is a must see. It is about a small town in Japan that from Sept. thru March every year they round up dolphins into a cove, hand pick the ones they want to ship to various dolphin swim parks around the world (selling at $150K a piece) and hacking and slaughtering the rest to eat. It is a bloody scene. Watching this on film is difficult, but listening to the dolphins squealing and clicking in horror is almost too much to bare. Depressed yet full of activist fire, we made our way up on deck afterwards to check out the night sky, and what do you know, there they were, our friendly dolphins, swimming around our boat, scratching their back on the chain! Earlier that day, Ben actually hopped in the water with them. Now, that is the kind of “dolphin experience” we want to have.
The next morning we moved our boats a couple of miles to anchor in front of the small village of La Manzanillo. Cute and quaint, not only is this village full of artisans and friendly people, but enormous caymans as well. Ben and Jack got to feed them fish and we all watched in awe as these prehistoric creatures lolled about. We were so fortunate to hook up with a panga driver who picked us up from our boats, escorted us through town, and then took us by water to the spectacular resort called Tamarindo. As we walked the path along the beach of the resort it reminded me of a place you would see on the TV show “The Bachelor” or something. (Yes, I’ve been known to watch that show a time or two!) A niche of paradise, in a gorgeous location, decorated beautifully, down to the shell of a sea star in the sand ashtrays. We had a wonderful lunch by the pool, including their famous Tamarindo margaritas. We had been lucky enough to meet the owners last summer on their yacht and have wanted to come ever since. Definitely a place not to miss if you are ever in the area. Or, if you are ever looking for a quiet, beautiful, warm get away, (there is an award winning golf course as well), this would be the place.