Tenacatita to Hualtuco - Cassidy

We spent about 5 days in Tenacatita.  There was so much to do there.  There was great snorkeling, endless mangroves, warm water, a long, beautiful beach for walks, and a lagoon for the kids to splash around in. Tenacatita is easily my favorite surf spot.  The water was clean and clear, very inviting.  And it was shallow and warm, no fear of crashing.  The lagoon was definitely the kids’ favorite. It wasn’t entirely a lagoon, it was more of a wide, yet shallow, body of water at the mangrove entrance with a steep drop off and a pretty decent current. The kids loved to jump into the deep then float with the current down to the shallow end.  The mangroves were bigger, thicker, and greener than the ones in Mag Bay. We took the dinghy and motored up for a while till it got too narrow, but we had still gone at least two miles before we reached that point.

     

       After Tenacatita we went to headed to Barra de Navidad and ended up anchoring in Melaque.  The next day we stayed in the lagoon and went to tour the town.  We stayed in Barra for a little over a week after we checked into the marina.  Being in the marina meant that we had access to the resort pools, beaches, volleyball, and tennis courts, and harbor master office which included internet and showers.  We spent the week exploring town, swimming (in pool and ocean), taking hikes around the mountains, visiting the rosy spoon bills in the lagoon, meeting other cruisers, and (my personal favorite) enjoying the showers.

On the last few days at Barra my mom left for the states and our uncle came into town.  Once he arrived, we headed for Zihuatanajo (aka Z-town).  Under way we saw more turtles than I have probably ever seen in my life.  They were so calm that many of them would stay surfaced with a bird on its shell.  A few of them even stayed up while we drove over them, literally (the turtles went between the hulls). As soon as we arrived, the first thing we did was head to town. 

   

         Z-town was easily my favorite town.  On a block in about the center of town was a market.  In the market there was a section with all the fresh fruit (mango, banana, papaya, watermelon, etc), veggies (carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, beets, peppers, etc), fresh herbs (parsley, oregano, basil, and lots of others I didn’t recognize), and a small variety of nuts.  The bananas were always perfectly ripe and hanging from string off of the ceiling.  Behind the market was the bakery.  They had a wide variety of different shaped and sized sugary treats that the kids loved.  Any time we’d pass through, we would grab about 20 of the bread rolls to use for sandwiches or just to snack on.  The roles were always fresh and crispy.  On the south side of the block was the meat butcher.  Honestly, not my favorite place.  As much as I miss real meat, the sight of dried up, fly infested, fatty slabs of beef that had been hanging out for days did not seem very appetizing.  There were also feather plucked chickens laying dead on counter tops with their throats cut out.  Some people would even cut up the chicken separating the feet, head, and wings from the body and sell them separately.  In the hallway that leads out of the meat shop to the street outside are a few shoe stores that are lined to the roof with flip-flops.  Throughout the block (mostly between the fruit and meat) were a few little knick-knack shops.  Each little shop seemed to be selling the same things (hats, shirts, flash lights, maybe some kitchen supply, and dollar store toys). 

  

          On one of the last days that we stayed in Z-town, we took a cab to Ixtapa to see the iguanas, spoon bills and crocs.   We had a great picnic of bakery goods, watermelon, peanuts and a coconut that we grabbed from a tree.  We then went to the market and filled up the cab with lots of good food.  We eventually had to take two dinghy trips to get all the food and people back to the boat. 

Then the next morning we headed to Acapulco.  After seeing that Acapulco didn’t really have much to offer to a cruising family, we went to the next bay over, Bahia de la Marquez.  While we motored along the shore looking for a good place to drop anchor, I saw that there were about 4 dozen palapa restaraunts along this large washed out beach. About two thirds of the way over there was a concrete peir and behind that was the making of a small marina. There was a really cute little beach (on the far end of the marina) that we would go to in the early morning hours. We caught up with another pair of cruisers that were across the bay, Blue Jacket and Wild Rose. After picking up mom and restocking at Walmart, we decided to give Acapulco another try.  Much to our disappointment, the waves were big, beaches crowded, and water polluted.  Although it was Cinco de Mayo and I guess I couldn’t expect much else.  I did get to scout out one of the little islands in the bay though which had stairs to the top and a nice view. 

            The past few days we have been in a little bay about ten miles north of Huatulco.  It was really flat with minimal wind, clear water, awesome snorkeling, and white sandy beaches.  When we were at the beach at night (for a s’mores bonfire) the ground seems to be moving because of all the hermit crabs that are scurrying up to the bushes. One day we could clearly see the 15 foot bottom so I decided to try out the hookah rig and (with a heavy led weight) I was able to lay on the bottom and look up at the boat.  Unfortunately, the next day we were driven out of that bay because of a baby jellyfish infestation.  The jellyfish flushed us out of the next bay too.