Although we loved Banderas Bay, we were anxious to make our way further south, after reading about crystal clear warm waters and miles long white sand beaches. This stretch of almost 400 miles was ripe with pristine beaches, nearly uninhabited islands, and delicious beach palapa restaurants. It also known as Costalegre, the “Cheerful Coast” and in face we met many cheerful people along the way.
After leaving our friends in Punta Mita, our next real stop was Chamela, with a brief overnight stop in Ipala to rest up. Chemala is an up and coming beach resort town – they’ve built a nice concrete Malecon but no restaurants or development to go with it quite yet. There are a few small hotels, and a nice beach, and I suspect 10 years from now this might be a bustling resort area. As we pulled into the anchorage, we saw our first example of “red tide,” a toxic algae bloom that appears in still areas and make swimming dangerous and can even kill fish. Fortunately, the red tide is very easy to see and well defined, so you can go outside of it pretty easily.
From Chemela, we made our way toward the cruiser’s paradise of Tenacatita. We had heard so much about this area, kind of a cruiser’s legend with boats staying for months at a time. We weren’t sure what to expect – but what we found was nearly 50 friendly boats anchored off a pristine mile long beach. Every afternoon there was a bocce ball tournament, sometimes a jam session at the palapa restaurant, and beautiful water for swimming and snorkeling. Also a 3 mile long mangrove lined estuary which you could take your dingy up. It was incredible, at times the mangroves completely covered the waterway overhead, and we saw crabs, birds, and even a small crododile.
There were actually 3 main areas to explore – the first was called the “Aquarium” because of all the fish life you could see while snorkeling. Very few boats anchored in this area because it was a bit rolly and not well protected, but we enjoyed it with our flopper stopper taking care of us. The second was the main anchorage, the social scene, with 50 boats and a morning VHF radio net to talk about the days festivities. And finally, about 3 miles across the bay the town of La Manzanilla beckoned with its Friday farmer’s market, amazing coffee bars and delicious restaurants. And, perhaps most importantly, they had an ATM! (which we finally found working on our third trip over). Much of the commerce in this area is solo effectivo (cash only) and we were down to our final few pesos!
Although there was plenty of fun stuff to do in Tenacatita, Kay found time to complete our new cockpit cushion covers with lovely royal blue piping, using our Sailrite sewing machine we had shipped to Dave and Denise in San Diego. Our next project is making dingy chaps (or sun covers) to protect our dinghy from the harsh tropical sun.
Only 20 miles from Tentacatita is Barra de Navidad, another famous cruiser’s town. It has a large lagoon for anchoring, but it’s very shallow and as a consequence the water is quite murky (crocodiles?). We didn’t swim, and the air was so still at night we were oppressively hot.
The next day, we decided to move to the marina, but on the way we cut the sandbar a little close and went aground! Softly, luckily, but we were stuck. Within minutes, S/V Alegria saw our plight and sped out in their dinghy to help us. They were familiar with the underwater contours of the area, told us where to aim, then used their dingy to push the nose of Beagle Spirit clear of the sandbar. So amazing the help we have gotten from so many people.
The marina at Barra is next level. Besides the normal shore power to run our air conditioning, they had an incredible 3 level pool (which we went to every day we were there.). Many boaters hanging out in the afternoon, sipping margaritas from the swim up bar, and sharing stories of where they’ve been and where they’re heading next. We got to hang out with the parents of our friend Jordan on Torridon, it was great meeting his parents (who had just traveled back from Peru and the Galapagos). The town has a lot of great restaurants of which we sampled many, the best churros we have ever had at a street vendor. and also took a great hike over to the “secret beach.” The entire area was clearly part of a very grand development vision, which never quite came to fruition. Someday it might (similar to Idaho’s Tamarack ski resort).
A short 25 mile run with the spinnaker brought us to Carrizel Cove near the seaport of Manzanillo. Although close the busy port, this bay was pristine and completely undeveloped, and had some of the best snorkeling we’ve had in Mexico so far. Brett also took the opportunity to replace the sacrificial zinc anode protecting our prop from galvanic corrosion. We found an 8 pound dumbbell tied around the waist was effective in helping his stay down there longer to very carefully take out the screws (without dropping!!). There was a swell coming into the anchorage, and we haven’t quite mastered the art of landing our dingy through the waves, so we didn’t go ashore. It’s a skill we need to practice and master.
Just around the corner from Carrizel is the beach town of Santiago. Yet another miles long sandy beach, with a smattering of palapa restaurants along the way. Here a river spilled into the ocean, making it possible to land the dingy by driving it over the bar. There was a steep hike to an abandoned mansion, legend has it belonging to El Chapo. In any case, the graffiti adorning it was almost as impressive as the stunning views from the patios.
Just a few miles closer to Manzanillo, the resort of Las Hadas has a small protected anchorage. This is where the Bo Derek movie “10” was filmed, so we rented the movie to see what it was all about. We also rejoined our friends Richard and Tracy on Delphina to play some pickleball. They have a Canadian streaming service called Dazn that was able to receive the Super Bowl, so we brought over some crackers and salad, and had a great Super Bowl party on Delphina (although the game itself was not terribly thrilling).
After leaving Manzanilla, it’s over 180 miles to the next good anchorage, so we debated whether to sail overnight or stop along the way at some questionable spots. In the end, we decided it was safer to stop and avoid the hazards of unlit fishing boats and longlines at night. We had rolly night at Cabeza Negra, and a decent night Caleta de Campos. On balance, it was probably the safer option, and we arrived ready for a swim in the crystal clear waters of Isla Grande (also called Isla Ixtapa on some maps).
Here we swam off the boat several times per day (water temp 80 degrees F), had lobster tacos on the beach, saw the resident herd of deer, and snorkeled on the south side of the island. We also met an intrepid foursome sailing the former racing trimaran Tritium. The boat sails at twice the true windspeed, but lacks creature comforts like showers and air conditioning.
After spending a very enjoyable 3 nights on the island, we checked into Marina Ixtapa so we could take a trip up to Mexico City for a week of cool temperatures and historical exploration. The town of Ixtapa is connected to Zihuatenejo by extremely nice bike paths, we were thrilled to be able to get our Bromptons out again and get some great rides in.
Next up, we’ll be making our passage to Costa Rica.
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