Our week in Barra de Navidad

             Barra de Navidad is a large lagoon.  As you come in, the right side of the harbor entrance is a large hotel and marina.  To the left is a cute little town on a peninsula.  The lagoon has a beautiful anchorage, glassy calm water, but you do have to be very careful not to run aground.  The first night we anchored in the bay in front of a town called Melaque in order to come in at high tide.  That went very smooth for us.
       We met a boat named “Eyes of the World” who were heading back up from Panama and told us some wonderful stories about the nice people and country.  They also gave us some nice advice about provisioning at a “Mega” store, if you spend $300, they will deliver it to the dock and even help you load it into your dinghy.  That’s huge when you have no vehicle and are shopping for 10 people for weeks at a time. 

                     In this estuary is where the spoonbill birds breed.  Courage and I headed out in a kayak to explore the estuary.  We had a great downwind paddle, got out and hiked in ankle deep soft mud to get closer to the birds.  We got some pictures, then headed on our way.  The winds had picked up to 20-25 miles per hour.  We tried to paddle up wind and against the current.  We were taking on a fair amount of water, but we were making ground.  It was a relief though to see the dinghy with Loyal coming to our rescue.

                  We then explored the shore and gathered up coconuts that had fallen from the plentiful coconut palms.  We chose a couple with juice in them and worked for a while to get them broken open.  The first was a bit rotten, which was a disappointment after all the work we’d put into breaking it open.  The second was great, with good milk and meat. 

In the lagoon also were oyster farms.  The town was cute and moderately sized.  Their ocean side had some evident ruins.  Apparently in around 1999 a tsunami did a fair amount of damage to the shore.  In 2011, a hurricane hit.  I asked why they hadn’t rebuilt or if they planned to, they said no,

that most owners were waiting for another hurricane to clear the rubble.  There is no government support for natural disasters and no such thing as a construction loan.  There was a hotel there that after the tsunami bought both neighboring lots.  It’s got a gorgeous lobby and pool overlooking the ocean, but apparently it’s been under construction now for 14 years.  They have rentable rooms, and only do the heavy construction when no one is there.  We also met a shop owner who said that tourist season is mostly Feb. – Easter.  In July/August you get a little bit of Mexican tourists who come to the beach.  We were her first sale of the day at 4 pm.  After checking out prices and other shops and items, I went back to her because I liked her and wanted to bring some trinkets back for friends in CA.

              Since we were in need of fresh water for drinking and washing the salt off of our stainless, we headed into the marina.  What a beautiful place!  And we were in off season, so rates were very reasonable!  We had access to all the hotel amenities.  We stayed there for a week.  The kids and I spent almost all day every day at the pool.  There were 3 pools connected by 2 water slides and even a lazy river section.  There was also a Jacuzzi for the cooler mornings.  It was beach front, so we went and swung on the hammocks by the beach as well as dug in the sand sometimes.  There was a mini-golf course, but it was just a lawn with holes, so we didn’t do it.  Cassidy and I took an afternoon to play some tennis.  On a couple of occasions we played volleyball in the pool as a family.  We also had ping pong by the pool.  As you can see, we were OK!!  They also had internet at the marina office, but I rarely used it until after the kids were in bed, there were just so many GREAT activities to do during the day. 

We were impressed with the amount of wildlife in the marina.  There were pufferfish almost all the time.  There was also a large red snapper that we saw a couple of times.  Also, we saw three beautiful fish that were swimming around in the marina with huge blue tails like streamers.  A local told us it was a “gallo” (guy-oh) fish.  The little fish had a hard time swimming with those cumbersome long streamers, but they sure were pretty.  They must lure in prey with them or something because they aren’t fast.

       Loved, loved Barra and we were late season so they had great rates, in off season, starting May 1^st, they go down to $.25/linear foot for a marina slip.  Incredible vacation resort that we can pack into our little repertoire for another time if and when.

From Barra, Valiant and I headed back to California to tend to some affairs.  A  6 hour bus ride to Puerto Vallarta, shoulder to shoulder every seat filled plane ride, then Liberty picked us up at LAX.  Great to see a familiar and friendly face after that trip.  Full day of travel, but he did great!