San Blas and Chacala

San Blas became one of our favorite stops – a sweet town, small friendly marina, and a fabulous “jungle tour” up an estuary. 

Things got off to a slightly odd start, however – after checking with the harbormaster (who generously sent a panga to escort us in past shallows and breaking waves), we were contacted on the VHF by someone who warned us to install all our screens, put on lots of bug spray, and of course long sleeves and pants to counter the dreaded “jejenes”, or no-see-ums.  Five minutes into the conversation I politely enquired which boat he was on, and the guy replied that “I no longer have a boat, but I’ve been helping cruisers for 45 years, if you need anything just let me know. My name is Norm.”  A lightbulb immediately went on in Jan’s brain – this is the (in)famous Norm Goldie, who has indeed been helping(?) cruisers for decades, but who seems to becoming more of a curmudgeon or just plain busy-body as the years roll on.  We later learned that he turned three cruisers from Alaska in to immigration for supposedly working in Mexico without a valid visa, and his morning “cruisers net” consisted of a diatribe against evil illegal workers and holding tank dumpers, with no boat (including us) checking in for fear of reprisals.

However, we were determined to have a good time and just stay out of Norm’s way, and that is what we did.  It helped that we were greeted at the dock by four boys who had apparently also monitored the radio traffic, and they just wanted to bring T&V into their video game wars in the spartan cruisers’ lounge.  We walked into town to get the lay of the land and eat ice-cream, and discovered that most of the place was under construction. There was a funny scene when I took this photo – the onlookers thought I was trying to capture the trabajadors hardly working so they were almost giggling, but in fact they were the object of my attention.

On Saturday we headed off by taxi at 6:45 to take the Tovara Jungle Tour. We hooked up with a couple from Moshulu and another from Ally Mar, which helped reduce the cost.  Our tour guide was very good – he knew just about all the birds we saw, and was willing to hang out or back up so we could get a better look any time – and he spoke good English.

So here is a sampling of the avian and reptilian denizens of Tovara estuary: boat-billed heron (above),

tiger heron,          

 

 

 

 

 

hook-billed hawk,

 

 

 

 

 

 

green heron, as well as kingfishers, egrets, unusual cormorants, a purple gallinule, a west Mexican Chachalaca, and even our complete allotment of LBJ’s.

The first part of the tour was full of birds; as we got upriver our attention turned to box turtles and crocodiles. And then we came to a small zoo and croc hatchery.  Animals were all in small cages which was sad, but at least  we got to see some crocs up close, and most amazingly were able to pet a jaguar!  We made sure to stroke her only behind the chest, but she was actually purring for us!  I challenge anyone to do this in an American zoo.

There was also a restaurant close by with a swimming hole (cordoned off from the crocs), where T&V swung and swam with abandon and everybody had a great, if over-priced lunch.  On the way back we saw a lot more turtles, and checked out the set of Night of the Iguana. Here are some more pics from the zoo, restaurant, and boat ride:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the tour we stocked up on necessities and then rested up for the PARTY that night.  This was a fund-raiser for a local school for challenged kids, and rumor had it all the tickets were sold before the event.  So a few of the cruisers went out for dinner, figuring they could always get a drink at a fiesta.

But turned out there were tix available after all (we bought two), and the food was excellent and of course plentiful. We hobnobbed with locals and the few cruisers who made it to the party, then listened to a band with an awful banjo player work through their short playlist – three times, before we even went to bed, and then on into the night.

Somehow Norm was introduced as being from the American Embassy during the proceedings, but nobody really cared because we were all having such a great time.  The latecomers even managed to make a donation to the cause, though it took some doing, nobody wanted to accept their money at first!  And next morning Norm announced on the net that the Mexican government had agreed to match all donations made at the party, so all seemed right with the world.

We didn’t get to know San Blas well, but there was a lot to love about the place, it seemed especially friendly.  For instance, we had planned to move to the anchorage (above) 200 yards from the marina to save money, but the harbormaster invited us to stay the extra night for free.  Of course this way he got a fuller-looking marina, and more cruisers to come to the party, but still.  And then on the way back from the tour we were looking for a bakery so a man on a bicycle showed us the way but warned us that we can’t be too allergic or afraid of bees.  Apparently they like the sticky buns almost as much as the patrons do – this was a bit too much, gotta get there early.  Likewise with the commercial dock – it’s unclear whether these hulks got this way via hurricane or neglect, but they sure are using up a lot of valuable dock space.

Next stop was a quintessential Mexican anchorage, Chacala.  It had a sweet and protected area to drop the hook, a great beach with an assortment of palapa restaurants, a quaint town with some lovely small homes and a good fish market, great swimming and body-surfing for the boys, friendly folks everywhere – and best of all, the Pineapple lady!

She carves out a pineapple and chunks it up, then adds jicama, watermelon, cucumber, salt and spices for a great treat – and only two bucks!

We spent a very mellow three days here, then moved on just 8 miles to Jaltemba, which had brilliantly-colored buildings (and pangas) but was otherwise too touristy for us. Soon after leaving that anchorage we had an amazing experience which seemed a good omen – within two minutes we saw a pair of whales, then a pod of dolphins, and finally a sea turtle swam around us.  Magical.

And thence on to La Cruz in the famous Banderas Bay, the subject of our next post.