Last note on Zehuatanejo
Last note on Zehuatanejo – Check the pictures of the live wild animals in Webshots.
We set out walking to find a large supermarket we were told about – a Costco type of store, which do seem to exist in most of the big towns we have been in. We like to walk, by doing so we see more of what it is like to live here in Mexico, plus it takes us away from being seen as the gringos who get off the massive cruise ships/marks to sell to.
So off we went with a vague idea where it was. We do ask for directions – i.e. quando es commercial/mexicana supermercado?, the question is easy - understanding the answer is not. After forty five minutes of walking in brain boiling heat and asking directions twice from very helpful locals we hadn’t got there yet. By this time we had refused about 10 invitations to ride buses from the boys who jump out of the bus in front of you to tell you where they are going, and about 20 invitations from cabs which only cost 20 pesos ($2). Oh no, we want the true Mexican experience (don’t see too many of them walking).
I started this last note on Zehuatanejo just to tell you what we saw on the way. We passed a site where a circus tent was being erected and were very surprised to see that they had real lions and tigers and camels and monkeys in cages. Plus some very tiny horses, one so small it stood under the trailer it was tied to, smarter that us out in the sun. I don’t think circuses in Canada and US are allowed to have those wild animal acts anymore – are they? Anyway we were surprised to see them. We liked Zehuatanejo very much; we felt welcome there, liked the anchorage, found it easy to take our dinghy ashore, and were very pleased to have the dinghy taken care of by a lovely Mexican called Nathanial, who referred to me as La Reigna (the Queen), as he helped Tony to pull the dinghy ashore, while I was allowed to sit tight until on dry sand. Luxury.
We stayed 4 days in Z – Town, as some people call it, leaving on December 19th heading for Huatulco. At this point we were talking about where we would want to be at Christmas – underway heading across the Tehuantepec? Or tucked into a marina in Huatulco with new friends Margarita and Ventura who were to be there with their friends Chris and Jerry on Misty Michael.
We opted for Huatulco which is where we have spent Christmas and will stay here until after Tony’s birthday on January 1st.
From Zehuatanejo to Huatulco
This trip was fairly uneventful, and did seem very long. We do 2 hour watches during the night, which we will consider changing to 3 hour watches, the 2 hours sleep doesn’t seem to work too well, but the 2 hours on watch does. We were motoring or motor sailing most of the way, and we did have a couple of days of perfect on the beam 10 – 15 kn winds where we could put up all of our sails including the stay sail and truck along on a fairly flat sea at 6 knot and more. Those times make up for the monotony of motoring.
Though – on the plus side of motoring, it seems we have far more dolphin company when we are motoring. In fact every night watch, every night we were surrounded by dolphins.
Imagine looking out in to dark water all around you, and imagine that under that water are hundreds of dophins with high powered flash lights strapped on their backs which come on and off intermittently, and then they light up their entire body as they charge the boat broadside and swim alongside the bow wave – not one dophin – lots of dolphins. That sure breaks up the monotony of motoring. They just seem to love to play with the boat – race with it.
During the day we also saw manta rays leaping and flipping out of the water, turtles mating – now that’s a clumsy affair, especially when the female notices the boat going by, and struggles like crazy to dive underwater. There are lots of turtles here in the water thanks to countries like Canada boycotting the use of turtle products.
This coastline around Huatulco is quite spectacular – in the background are the very tall Sierra Madre mountains, in front of those lower forested hills (deciduous trees and tall cacti) and in front of those at the water’s edge, high sand dunes which have broken away to form low cliffs. Then the cliffs are eroded away at intervals into deeply set-in bays with clean sandy beaches, coral forever and lovely clear water teaming with beautiful tropical fish.
When we came to a bay called Chachacual we pulled in – very carefully as the entrance is marked by pretty craggy rocks and reefs, further in was another little bay called Indio Bay – gorgeous. We stayed 2 nights because we liked it so much, occasionally small Mexican party boats came in, but they only added to mood, we were also joined by 3 other sailboats, who were all friends and had come there to celebrate Christmas.
We snorkeled, sunbathed and got lots of sleep.
We came into Chahue Marina, which is only a few years old, on the 23rd and were welcomed by our friends Margarita and Ventura, Chris and Jerry and Delphin and Fernando, who are docked next to us.
This is a very nice small marina with a few live-aboards; Doug and Suzie, who pulled in here 3 years ago for a couple of hours and never left. They are from Alaska, and Doug is now La Crucecita’s resident Santa – he’s got the right looks. Chuck and Diane who have lived here almost 2 years, and a couple of transient Canadian boats.
We spent Christmas Day evening at a fabulous dock party arranged by Doug and Suzie. They brought in a really good band who covered a lot of music we know, but the lead singer really excelled when she sang a couple of Mexican folk songs. We were all spell-bound. It was a great party, we all contributed to the meal and had tons to eat.
Now we’ve been here 4 days and we are almost locals. We’ll be here a few more and then head out to Costa Rica.
We’re intending to by-pass Nicaragua, El Salvadore and Guatemala, just as a time consideration. Its 9.45am and we’re heading off to town to do some shopping before the mid-day sun. Remember the song – Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun. Well this sun’s heat will turn Englishmen into mad dogs.
We set out walking to find a large supermarket we were told about – a Costco type of store, which do seem to exist in most of the big towns we have been in. We like to walk, by doing so we see more of what it is like to live here in Mexico, plus it takes us away from being seen as the gringos who get off the massive cruise ships/marks to sell to.
So off we went with a vague idea where it was. We do ask for directions – i.e. quando es commercial/mexicana supermercado?, the question is easy - understanding the answer is not. After forty five minutes of walking in brain boiling heat and asking directions twice from very helpful locals we hadn’t got there yet. By this time we had refused about 10 invitations to ride buses from the boys who jump out of the bus in front of you to tell you where they are going, and about 20 invitations from cabs which only cost 20 pesos ($2). Oh no, we want the true Mexican experience (don’t see too many of them walking).
I started this last note on Zehuatanejo just to tell you what we saw on the way. We passed a site where a circus tent was being erected and were very surprised to see that they had real lions and tigers and camels and monkeys in cages. Plus some very tiny horses, one so small it stood under the trailer it was tied to, smarter that us out in the sun. I don’t think circuses in Canada and US are allowed to have those wild animal acts anymore – are they? Anyway we were surprised to see them. We liked Zehuatanejo very much; we felt welcome there, liked the anchorage, found it easy to take our dinghy ashore, and were very pleased to have the dinghy taken care of by a lovely Mexican called Nathanial, who referred to me as La Reigna (the Queen), as he helped Tony to pull the dinghy ashore, while I was allowed to sit tight until on dry sand. Luxury.
We stayed 4 days in Z – Town, as some people call it, leaving on December 19th heading for Huatulco. At this point we were talking about where we would want to be at Christmas – underway heading across the Tehuantepec? Or tucked into a marina in Huatulco with new friends Margarita and Ventura who were to be there with their friends Chris and Jerry on Misty Michael.
We opted for Huatulco which is where we have spent Christmas and will stay here until after Tony’s birthday on January 1st.
From Zehuatanejo to Huatulco
This trip was fairly uneventful, and did seem very long. We do 2 hour watches during the night, which we will consider changing to 3 hour watches, the 2 hours sleep doesn’t seem to work too well, but the 2 hours on watch does. We were motoring or motor sailing most of the way, and we did have a couple of days of perfect on the beam 10 – 15 kn winds where we could put up all of our sails including the stay sail and truck along on a fairly flat sea at 6 knot and more. Those times make up for the monotony of motoring.
Though – on the plus side of motoring, it seems we have far more dolphin company when we are motoring. In fact every night watch, every night we were surrounded by dolphins.
Imagine looking out in to dark water all around you, and imagine that under that water are hundreds of dophins with high powered flash lights strapped on their backs which come on and off intermittently, and then they light up their entire body as they charge the boat broadside and swim alongside the bow wave – not one dophin – lots of dolphins. That sure breaks up the monotony of motoring. They just seem to love to play with the boat – race with it.
During the day we also saw manta rays leaping and flipping out of the water, turtles mating – now that’s a clumsy affair, especially when the female notices the boat going by, and struggles like crazy to dive underwater. There are lots of turtles here in the water thanks to countries like Canada boycotting the use of turtle products.
This coastline around Huatulco is quite spectacular – in the background are the very tall Sierra Madre mountains, in front of those lower forested hills (deciduous trees and tall cacti) and in front of those at the water’s edge, high sand dunes which have broken away to form low cliffs. Then the cliffs are eroded away at intervals into deeply set-in bays with clean sandy beaches, coral forever and lovely clear water teaming with beautiful tropical fish.
When we came to a bay called Chachacual we pulled in – very carefully as the entrance is marked by pretty craggy rocks and reefs, further in was another little bay called Indio Bay – gorgeous. We stayed 2 nights because we liked it so much, occasionally small Mexican party boats came in, but they only added to mood, we were also joined by 3 other sailboats, who were all friends and had come there to celebrate Christmas.
We snorkeled, sunbathed and got lots of sleep.
We came into Chahue Marina, which is only a few years old, on the 23rd and were welcomed by our friends Margarita and Ventura, Chris and Jerry and Delphin and Fernando, who are docked next to us.
This is a very nice small marina with a few live-aboards; Doug and Suzie, who pulled in here 3 years ago for a couple of hours and never left. They are from Alaska, and Doug is now La Crucecita’s resident Santa – he’s got the right looks. Chuck and Diane who have lived here almost 2 years, and a couple of transient Canadian boats.
We spent Christmas Day evening at a fabulous dock party arranged by Doug and Suzie. They brought in a really good band who covered a lot of music we know, but the lead singer really excelled when she sang a couple of Mexican folk songs. We were all spell-bound. It was a great party, we all contributed to the meal and had tons to eat.
Now we’ve been here 4 days and we are almost locals. We’ll be here a few more and then head out to Costa Rica.
We’re intending to by-pass Nicaragua, El Salvadore and Guatemala, just as a time consideration. Its 9.45am and we’re heading off to town to do some shopping before the mid-day sun. Remember the song – Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun. Well this sun’s heat will turn Englishmen into mad dogs.
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Adrian, Santa Lucia