Tenacatita

We arrived in this huge, glorious bay on 12/22. From the number of boats here, it is a popular stop. It has small towns, several resorts, great snorkeling, and, calm water. That's why it is so popular! We found out that there are many boaters who winter on this coast - they keep their boats in Puerto Vallarta or cruise the Sea of Cortez the rest of the year. While here they travel from bay to bay and back again. Several of them have known others for years. Contact is made with each other via VHF radio. Organized morning chats take place at 8:00 a.m. After the chat on Christmas Day, an announcement was made that all the cruisers at anchor were invited to Beach Access (a catamaran from California) for a dessert party. This gave us the opportunity to meet up with others. Boats from the Pacific Northwest were the greatest percentage in this bay. We have seen lots of boats from Seattle, Gig Harbor, Portland and many other ports. As we checked the Puget Sound weather on the internet, we REALLY do understand why. At any rate, we have now met several other boaters who are bound for Panama this season.

This was one of our neighbors. It is from La
Connor, which we found out from the owners when they kayaked by in the nicest kayaks I have ever seen! The boat is registered in the Cayman Islands, but expect it back in the Pacific Northwest later this year. It is named Evviva and is about 120' with a full crew of about seven (can you see the helicopter?).

We dinghied across the bay to La Manzanilla. This town has a nice zocalo with the most interesting pillars on the gazebo. The artist dedicated it to his father. There is also a beach front park here, which I have not seen in other places. They were setting up for a carnival right in the town square. Workers were assembling rides and candy booths. They also have quite a market of small vendors who display their goods on the town square. There are a fair amount of tourists here and the place seems a busier than many of the other spots we have seen. Many little stores made it easy to get what was on our shopping lists here. Even the eggs survived the dinghy ride back to the boat.

We took a jungle dinghy tour one day. The water was so clear, the reflection was perfect. Can anyone spot the bird in the bushes?

At the end of the lagoon tributary we found Tenacatita Village and beach. After a great walk on the beach, we went into town and noticed that Corona has the market on restaurant signs here.

On the beach, there is a protected sea turtle egg area. There are dates the eggs were discovered/laid and dates they were released. We could see them release some on Christmas Day.

The following week, we swam and snorkeled.

Jim and Diane on Adirondak, a trawler from Gig Harbor, hosted a New Year's Eve get together with us, folks from Tamara and Jammin, both out of Portland. That was the Pacific Northwest contingent and we had a lovely time. We were back on our boat in time to see the fireworks set off at nearby Blue Bay Hotel.

On 1/2/09, on our way out of the Bay, a boat's dinghy was loose and drifting toward our boat. Ralph rowed out and delivered it to its owner.

He had to row and not motor because you have to take the motor off the dinghy and raise the dinghy before setting sail. This was made more difficult because the tide did not favor the direction Ralph had to go. But, mission was accomplished.