San Blas to La Cruz

But first, Mazatlán photos we forgot… Top, left to right: a castle in a residential neighborhood that can be booked for events; the forms for the big concrete breakwater pieces; looking up the hill from the malecón. Middle row, left to right: a colorful house; water fill covers on the sidewalk in front of an apartment building; the malecón.
Bottom: sidewalk on the malecón.

On to San Blas…

A big croc enjoying the sun.

Several folks we talked to told us that when you are in San Blas, take the jungle tour. We anchored in Ensenada de Mantanchén, the bay near San Blas, rowed the dinghy in and headed in to town to find out about the tour and visit the port captain. Mantanchén was our first major encounter with little biting bugs. Jejenes are everywhere and they are about the size of a flea. They are nasty little critters. Not too many boats anchored here because of it. Bug spray or lotion is a must and we still came out looking like a new measles outbreak.

We did the jungle tour with Tom and Katie from Absolute, and had an amazing panga ride through the mangroves up to a crocodile refuge. Katie speaks Spanish and translated as we went along so that was really helpful. How else would we have found out that crocodiles have no tongues? Lots of birds, turtles, and crocodiles along the way.

The panga heading into the mangroves. There are two species of mangroves here and you go through each kind before leaving the mangroves behind.
Heron – great blue?
Ornate slider turtle sunning itself.
Iguana in a tree.
A couple of boat-billed herons.
A snail kite on a mangrove snag that has orchids growing on it.
Yellow-crowned night herons. We also saw a green heron, but we didn’t get a photo of it.
Orchids growing in a mangrove tree.
A small crocodile on the bank.
Crocs at the refuge. They have crocodiles in all sizes, from young ones to adults. It takes years for them to get big.
Inside of a croc’s mouth – no tongue. Crocs don’t use their teeth for chewing, just grabbing and tearing up their food. And they grow a new set of teeth every year. We were very happy to be on the other side of the fence as this toothsome friend was at least ten feet long.

After the crocs, Chacala was the next stop. It’s a resort/rental town with a beautiful long arc of a beach. Along the beach are palapas, or palm thatched restaurants. We had a nice lunch at one of them. We had a good view of the breaking surf on the crowded beach. The waves were good for swimming but not so good for dinghy landing. Luckily, there was a nice little cove near the Capitania de Puerto that was an easy landing. What was interesting about the Port Captain in Chacala was that he spoke English and completed our entry and exit form on his computer. We need to check in at every town we stop at and take in our boat papers. In Mazatlan, we had to check in and out separately, two trips to the office. The same form was used for both, and each had to be officially stamped. On the exit papers, Bill had finished filling it out when the staff person realized that the port captain was on vacation and we couldn’t use the form with his name at the bottom, so he got another form with the correct temporary name, and Bill redid the form. At each port we have to show our boat documentation, the form from the last port, sometimes our TIP (temporary import permit), proof of boat insurance, and passports. In San Blas, they asked for our boater cards, a first. It’s not a consistent set of documents, so Bill walks in with an accordion folder full of boat documentation so we can have what ever they need on hand. They make copies and hand everything back. Paper is alive and well in Mexico. When we go into marinas, the marina office takes care of the port captain’s duties, so we don’t have a potentially long walk to find the oficina.

Four humpback whales on the way to Chacala. They weren’t moving very fast so we got to watch them for quite a while.

We had a couple of minor sailing adventures while in Chacala. The guide book recommends a stern anchor as the anchorage is pretty rolly, which is how they get those nice waves on the beach. Our stern anchor came unset in the middle of the night, so the next morning we had to row it out in the dinghy and reset it. We had drifted close to a neighboring boat, but thankfully didn’t hit anyone as our primary anchor held. Our second adventure was when were were trying to hoist the dinghy to store it on deck. As we started to hoist, the pin holding the upper block to the snap shackle exploded and left the halyard up the mast. Luckily the dinghy was not too far out of the water so it didn’t drop more that a couple of inches. We got out the bosun’s chair and Nina went aloft to retrieve the rope. Tied everything together with a soft shackle and got everything hoisted and stowed. Off we headed for La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, a big cruiser hangout.

6 thoughts on “San Blas to La Cruz”

  3. Another fun read. Glad you got to do that boat tour through the mangroves, it’s fantastic; am looking to do a repeat in a couple of weeks…… About that Question mark heron—yep, Great Blue. The bird up on the snag is an adult Osprey rather than a snail kite (their range is quite a ways se/e of y’all)….sorry if you have to knock that one of your life list. Any other pics of the night herons?

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    1. Well, darn on the osprey! The tour guide said it was a snail eagle and the snail kite does show up in Viva Natura – Guía de Campo de Anfibios, Reptiles, Aves y Mamíferos de México Occidental (Petr Myska), the only birds of Mexico book I’ve found so far (finding a good book store is also a challenge down here). I’ll keep trying… There’s a night heron hanging around the marina in La Cruz. If I get a photo that turns out, I’ll post it or send it to you. Nina

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