Surfing, crocodiles and palapas OH MY......

Hello Everyone!  

We had a great time the last few days exploring Chamela, Tenecatita and Melaque.  With Paddle board surfing, boogie boarding, long walks on the beach and sitting under some palapas with an ice cold corona... the cruising life is so hard :@)  (right now at least)  

Dad and his 18 lb Dorado

We left Chamela and headed toward The Aquarium in Tenecatita.  This is a well known snorkeling site and it didn’t let us down.  We had a great time taking the dinghy out and dropping the anchor and having the kids swim a muck about all the reefs.  Snorkeling here along the Pacific Coast of Mexico has been somewhat hit and miss so it was a welcome site to see all the fish about us.  It is really fun to hear all the muffled screams and talking through the snorkel by Amaia and Alina.  Looking forward to the snorkeling in the French Polynesia.  We decided to go to the beach and hang out for awhile.  Our cruising guide paints a very tropical picture with a lot of fun little restaurants and shops along the beach to hang out in.   Well when we got there we saw a vacant beach.  It looked like a ghost town and completely deserted.  All of the buildings are completely empty and rotting.  In the cruising book it also mentions an excellent surfing beach just across the spit so I sent Mykaela and Tristan to go check it out and let us know if we should make the trek over.  It looked to be only about 500 yards away.  After a short time I decided to go over and see if I could see them coming back.  I was approached by a guy on the beach just wanting to inform me that nobody is allowed off the beach, that it is now private property and guarded by armed guards.  This really rich guy had supposedly bought or claimed this land and kicked everyone off and is battling the Mexican Government to keep it private.  So now my first thought is OH CRAP... I sent Tristan and Mykaela up there wondering.... So I used my loud whistle a few times to try to get them back.  I looked up the road to see them walking back being escorted by an armed guard with guns and 2 Huge Machetes.... When I saw that Tristan had a smile on his face and was talking to the guy, I felt a huge relief.  He had just explained to the kids that they weren’t allowed to go wondering off the beach and he was bringing them back.  When I whistled the guy didn’t know what was going on and the kids had to explain it was just “Mi Mama”  and then when I had whistled a second time they were laughing.  Again, it is really nice to see the kids having fun with the locals.  It also showed us how quickly things can change in our cruising guides and to never really PLAN on things being the way we expect.  It is really teaching the kids flexibility and to make the best out of every stop we make.  

The next day we left for Manzanilla and had a great time at the Cocodrillo sanctuary.  It was 15 pesos for adults and 10 pesos for kids to enter... If you can imagine seeing a bunch of 10ft - 15ft crocodiles swimming under your foot of this raised walkway over a swamp that is made of rusty cabling, broken boards and chain link fence that swung when you walked on it.  The kids were having a great time and then we came to a bridge.   This bridge really swayed when you walked on it so you didn’t want to put to much weight on the bridge at once so we spaced ourselves apart to go across.  There was a huge crocodile swimming underneath it going to the other side.  This is where I guess the sanctuary ends and the crocodiles are free.  He swam to the road and there were people just walking along.  One of the locals let the gringos know that there was a crocodile there and to walk on the other side of the road.  I guess that is good enough to get away from them.  

We are now anchored at Melaque.  We have met up with Pelagic, another cruising family that we have become great friends with.  They have 2 boys Tristan and Lexi’s age and a little girl that is a great friend with Alina.  Amy and Mike, Xander, Porter and AnnaKenna are planning on going through the Panama Canal, over to Florida, Across the Atlantic, around Europe, then back across the Atlantic, through the canal, over to the Marquesas and then back up to Portland.  My hats are off to them!  The kids are having a great time playing on the beach, jumping off the top of our boat and being towed by the dinghies on the boogie boards and paddle boards... We are waiting here for another boat that is coming up the coast on their way back to PV.  We have become great friends with Apropos and they will be doing the Puddle Jump with us this year.  Karen, Jim and Jacintha should be here today and Amaia and Jacintha have become BFF’s and she is very excited to see her.

This is Bucket.. He reminds me so much of my Kava!

We will be heading down to Las Hadas for a few nights and then heading down to Las Hadas next where for 200 pesos we get to enjoy all the resort has to offer.  Namely the pool for the kids.  It is a nice break to get out of the salt water once in awhile.  I am looking forward to the wifi and uploading all of my pictures.  It is always a fear of mine that I will loose these pictures that we have taken.  Like I have said in the past-everything on the boat is always in a state of getting wet or drying from getting wet and then wet again.  We store all of our hard drives in zip lock bags and hope that the moisture doesn’t get into them.  I am just waiting for the big crash and trying to do the best I can to have an alternate storage recovery option.

Hope all is well with everyone back home.

Hugs to all,

Heather and family