This is a great calm bay with lots of community. There is a river trip to another beach where we saw lots of mangroves, crabs, birds, one iguana and some jumping fish. On the other beach, there is a pretty good snorkeling beach that they call The Aquarium. Well worth the trip, tons of fish and eels to see.

We took another day and sailed around the point to anchor closer to the aquarium. It wasn’t as great as our first trip but we got some new underwater pictures. The ‘Mayor’ (designated yachtie who likes to organize ‘fun’) has a raft up every Friday and you are to bring food to share. We raft up in a circle and the food starts being passed. We had over 20 dinghies rafted so there was tons of food! The mayor asked us to think of two truths and one lie to say to all. The boat to the right must figure out the lie. That was fun.
Most days there is a ‘swim to shore’ at 2pm, Bocce Ball game at 2:30, 3pm. Numerous times we at least shared a drink with the group at the beachside palapa restaurant. There is a resort at the far corner of the beach, and although it is off limits for the yachties since it is an exclusive resort, it makes a good walk to and from the resort along the beach.

Scott, Celeste and I and 3 other couples took two taxis into La Manzanilla ($$250-300 pesos one way) and saw the Crocodile Sanctuary ($$30 pesos per person-well worth it) and ate at a restaurant right on the beach. The sanctuary has a mile of walking on elevated boardwalks and even a swinging bridge to cross. They give you a laminated handout of all the possible birds you’ll see. Plenty of turtles to watch also. Near the end they have a nursery with the different ages baby crocodiles and turtles split up and you can even hold a 2-year-old who is about 18 inches long so of course Celeste held that. I hear there is a nice hike to a waterfall from the city also. The picture shows one of the crocodiles just under the boardwalk. We got to see one attacking something under a mangrove but didn’t see him eating anything, but it sure made us jump.
Some people will dinghy the 3 miles over to La Manzanilla, but we hear it is a pretty wet beach landing. Or you can anchor near the town for the day and dinghy in. Wednesday was fresh veggies day! The anchorage is more exposed so usually people come back to anchor in Tenacatita afterwards.