Just Another Day at the Beach

Tenacatita, Jalisco, Mexico

February 24, 2010

I can’t say that it is a tough life, just different.  We have been staying in this very protected bay near Tenacatita. (The resort here is called Blue Bay, but everyone just calls this place Tenacatita or the inside anchorage – the town is around the corner or up the river on the other side of the mangroves.)  Since, this place is ideal, there are quite a few boats here and a loose community.  The beach is almost always accessible by dinghy and there is a palapa restaurant with cheap drinks and food right here.  With all those factors going for it, it is only natural that pretty much every afternoon, a large percentage of the fleet ends up on the beach.

There is a little bit of organization.  At 1:30, there is a woman who swims to shore and invites anyone and everyone to join her for the swim and then a quick walk to the resort at the other end of the beach.  At 2:00, the Bocce ball gets going.  Bryce has played a couple of times with the fellows who are easily 40 years his senior, but welcome him to play nonetheless.   When the group returns from their walk, there is a game of Mexican train (dominoes) in the palapa.  This is my event!  Around 3:00, Brad and our friend, Brian have been partaking of the volleyball game.  Meanwhile, there is playing in the water and on the beach for kids who have finished their schoolwork in the morning.  As you can see, Tenacatita has been keeping us busy.

Yesterday was a little different.  A boat called “Third Day”, who spent time with our friends, “Totem” in the Sea of Cortez, arrived here with a torn main sail.  The good news was that they have their own sewing machine aboard.  Even better news for them was that Brad hasn’t had to do any sail repair in awhile and helping them out was kinda fun for him.  They were able to set up their sewing machine to run off of their portable generator in the shade of one corner of the palapa.  After two days of sewing, they pretty much have a “new” 30 year old sail. 

 

This morning, after getting the sewing well on its way toward completion, Brad and I were able to squeeze in a snorkel with Brian and Erin before the afternoon activities got going.  I had scoped out a spot in the kayak yesterday morning and it turned out to be a great place.  Brian and Erin had tried it out on the way south in December, but the visibility had not been as good as it was today.  We saw lots of fish, a couple of different eels and a bunch of string rays.

 

We only have one more day here before the weather turns favorable on the outside for our final push back to Banderas Bay.  Tomorrow, we are planning on a trip to the town of La Manzinilla across the bay.  On Friday, we will head north, stopping at Chamela again and practicing sunken panga avoidance.  Then, we should be into La Cruz late Saturday.  The last two months of exploring Mexico’s Gold Coast have really been a great experience, full of variety!