Mazatlan to Chacala - the little anchorages
January 2008
Farewell to Mazatlan
We keep falling in love with these Mexican towns. Mazatlan has it all, a nice small city, with beautiful beaches, good marinas, restaurants, all the amenities and really nice people. But, we are drifters, followers of that wandering star…and so we move on.
Life in Little Anchorages
We left snug El Cid Marina in the late afternoon, with some goodbyes, and some ‘see you soons’ and set a course for Isla Isabella. We quickly found those things that had not been sufficiently stowed after weeks in a quiet marina, they have a way of announcing themselves as you rock this way and that. You hear them sliding, then clink, clank, and hopefully not…crash. We enjoyed a fairly gentle night at sea and arrived at the islands, which are a Mexican Wildlife Preserve and National Park. We launched the dink and took a good look around the islands and bays. New Friends on Chelsea Skye arrived later in the day and the next morning, together we went ashore to look at the nesting birds. It’s a lot like the Galapagos, with blue footed (& brown) boobies and male frigates with huge red necks all puffed up (apparently it drives the females crazzzzy) and other seabirds. The differences in the Galapagos are the numbers of these rare creatures, not that they do not exist anywhere else. It’s fantastic that Mexico and the Central American countries are all creating sanctuaries to protect these creatures. With a weather window to take advantage of we were heading for San Blas by midday.
We elected not to go into the estuary that takes you to the town of San Blas, but rather to anchor in nearby Matanchen Bay. Rumors of bugs, the “jejenes” and “Norm” warn you off that. The anchorage was great, little palapas line the beach and as it was the weekend the local families were out in numbers enjoying water sports and the “playa”. We love that the families all go out together on the weekends for good old fashioned fun, the women (especially older women…like me) are modest, so often they are in the water almost fully clothed, splashing and playing with the kids. Dad’s too, but usually with a cerveza in hand. Teenagers are there too, not too cool to be seen with their embarrassing families.
The town of San Blas, is about 5 miles away along a dusty narrow road from the anchorage, so we found a cab and explored the town. We located the lovely Hacienda Flamingos, where we saw a copy of Longfellow’s final poem, the “Bells of San Blas” which he wrote here just days before he died. We stumbled into a great place for lunch, “Mike’s Place”, and saw that several of the other cruisers in port were here too. In the square, still decorated for Christmas, there were little stands where we could buy small Huichol (Indian) beaded characters and other treasures. We hiked up to the nicely kept 18th century Spanish La Contaduria fort and church with a wonderful view of the city and sea. We nabbed a taxi for the ride back, and on the way had him stop for fresh langusto’s (lobsters) we saw cooking on the grill of a roadside tienda just on the edge of town.
Seeing as we’d “parked” our dinghy in front of the palapa with green poles, and he’d assured us he’d keep an eye on our dink all day, we stopped in to repay him by ordering beer, then salsa and guacamole…strictly as a repayment mind you! We were actually working up our strength to drag the now waaaay far from the water dinghy without wheels or rollers back into the surf. The saga of this dinghy continues. It’s just been one of those things that, while a good dink, with an awesome motor, have just been problematic. Today’s issue was the wheels. The guy who put on the plates to which they attach didn’t get it exactly right, the result is that the wheels won’t go down into place as they hit part of the RIB. We tried, hard, to figure some other way, and a local guy who was selling ice cream from his cart jumped into our dilemma with us, and with no English and our non-Spanish communicated a few ideas, and finally with a ‘lo siento’, showed us that he felt our pain. Nice guy. He was there again in the late afternoon as we starting lugging the 200# beast back thru soft sand, and he jumped in with his buddies and helped us carry her back down to the waters edge.
Rich and Sandy’s dink wheels work like a dream, so they picked us up the next day so we could experience the jungle cruise, we had no idea it was so organized and fun. It is right there in Matanchen and goes back for miles past the fresh water spring of La Tovara, pretty waterfalls, to the ‘cocodrilario’…crocodile nursery, and a pretty good restaurant where we enjoyed lunch. There are huge turtles and many species of exotic birds to see along the way, like spoonbills and flamingos, and these dark birds with huge wings that keep them extended like they were in flight as they rest - really different. Afterwards, we went back into town for some minor provisions, parts, and to enjoy a cold cerveza at the fantastically seedy looking San Blas Social Club, with equally looking seedy characters. We were seated next to a gentleman in a suit who told us he was the ‘el presidente’ (mayor) of the town. Maybe he was.
Our next stop was Chacala Bay. This marks the beginning of these smaller lovely coves with white sand beaches, lined with coco palms, palapas, and small hotels, the perfect looking anchorages. We couldn’t wait to go ashore and explore. At this point, we had abandoned our wheels and used extra bumpers, as D & K do, to roll the dinghy up the beach, and it was soooo easy. We were ashore in no time and taking a long walk down the beautiful beach, and thru the sleepy village. It ended at an eco-style resort, The Mar de Jade, so naturally we walked right in. When the sign-up sheets were for reiki, massage, yoga, meditations, etc., I was thrilled…woo woo’s right here. Yea! But, they were all sold out with a Sufi group from SFO, so all we were able to do was soak up the “vibes”, and find a rock to sit on and be in gratitude for this lovely peaceful place. On a return visit, we were shown a path that led up the hill thru the jungle, past another spiritual type ecolodge, the Majahua, and to the caldera and a fantastic view of the bay, and of course our beautiful boat at anchor. There are mountain goats all over, and evidence of the hillside being carved up for development - get here as fast as you can, it won’t be sleepy for long.
We stayed a few days, having adjusted to the rolly anchorage by putting out a stern anchor to keep us at least in concert with the surf as being sideways to it is NO fun for this Dramamine Queen. In these little villages, we have lunch ashore, walk it off, then get in the dink, and are back aboard before the ‘jejenes’ know where we went. We read, have a light supper, and then enjoy a movie before settling into our cozy beds and being rocked asleep. Hard duty.
Next stop…wicked, wonderful Banderas Bay, and the port of Puerto Vallarta.
