Tenacatita-Las Hadas

We are sailing into Las Hadas retracing our trip we did with Barry and Diana 16 years ago when they were on their way to New Zealand and Ken and I joined them for three weeks in Barra de Navidad and sailed to Zihuataneo.
We left Tenacatita after having done most of the most urgent repairs and had a functioning water maker again. Nice to be able to use the washing machine and have showers again!! Said goodbye to Garret and Carlie on Light Wave; friends who we had been sailing with off and on since San Francisco. They are finally heading back north to the sea of Cortez. Many boaters are now heading back North and the number of boats who are continuing south is diminishing.
We met up with Judy and Jack Welch, our good friends from Calgary in Tenacatita. They are on their new fancy 55foot Tayana, Matsu and are on their way to the Panama Canal and back to the BVI’s. They had left San Diego recently and had brought our shopping list with them; it was like Xmas—until you are traveling in this way it is hard to imagine how difficult it is to find the smallest thing which you had never thought of till you needed it, it takes a whole day to locate even the smallest thing. One requirement on this voyage is to have friends and family joining you all coming laden with necessities.
We had yet another dingy trip up the jungle with them. It was great to see them again and fun to travel on and off with them.
Ken and I continued to Barra de Navidad to spend a few days. There is a very shallow entrance to the anchorage and we had to help two boats who had grounded in the channel of the sand. Matsu’s depth sounder is not functioning so they wisely decided not to come in.
Barra is a pretty little town and you can take in your dingy to the hotel and if you buy a beer can use their pool. This coincidently is the hotel Ken and I had stayed in 16 years ago. One of the treats was the visit each morning to all of the boats in the marina by “ze French Baker” who would have a supply of croissants and bread. How civilized!!
We left the boat there overnight and went to Colima and Comala with our friends Betsy and Richard who are sailing the same route as us on Kayak from Seattle. We caught the bus at 7am, it was the fanciest bus I have ever been on, reclining seats with a full leg rest, movies and a sandwich and drink. All for our 2 ½ hour bus ride. Colima is a pretty European like city and we enjoyed the museum and wandering the cobblestone streets and the many beautiful treed squares. The one lesson we haven’t totally grasped it that siesta time is from 2pm to 5pm between these times NOTHING is open and you may as well find a spot to sit and chill out. We found a great restaurant for dinner and I sampled the Mole sauce on chicken which I had read about. This is a specialty from Oaxaca and is a cocoa based spicy sauce, it is has quite an exotic taste.
The following morning we took a cab for the 7 miles to Comala. This is a pretty little town at the base of a 14,000 foot volcano which had apparently had snow on it a week or two ago, hard to imagine as most days are about 28C. Colmala was also very Spanish and as we wandered the streets came across a number of stores advertising (in Spanish so we were not sure what it was) Ponche. We deduced that one should drink it and then spent the next hour wandering tasting the fruit and cream liquors which are a specialty of the town. Fun even though it was only 10am!!
At 2pm in time for siesta we found a restaurant on the square and sat to have a beer. We found that as long as you ordered a beer various taco style appetizers would continue to appear. After having this lunch we caught the bus back to Barra and found that our boats were all secure—another consideration when one wants to go inland.
The next day we went to Santaigo, a day sail to meet up with Jack and Judy again. This is a lovely bay and we had a relaxing few days. We went to the Saturday morning market to buy some souvenirs and more fruit and vegetables. Jack and Judy were ready to leave but found that the oil Jack had just put in his engine had all leaked into the oil pan. He cleaned up and Judy, Ken and I went in search of more. After they refilled they left the next morning for Zihuataneo.
Ken and I went back to spend a few days at Las Hadas. This is the beach where those of you old enough to remember Bo Derek in the movie 10 was filmed. It is designed with a Moorish theme and is all white marble with lots of lush greenery and lots of bougainvillea growing everywhere. Unfortunately I developed a bad cough so did not enjoy the swimming pools. Ken did more boat projects—these are never ending!!!
We are now on our way to Zihuateneo which is a two day sail where we will meet up with Jack and Judy one last time before they will head off ahead of us. We are going to take another inland trip and await the arrival of Kristen and Adelyn on the 21st. we are looking forward to having them—and of course all of the things they have on their list to bring!!!! Another light wind/motor sail trip—oh where are all the big Pacific winds??!!
I guess we get no sympathy from those of you battling the Canadian winter, it is about 30C every day and so far the nights are pleasant and cool enough to sleep. We love the feeling that we don’t have to go home to work next week—the case for most of the tourists other than cruisers down here. Anyway I am sure it is warming in Calgary and the grass will turn green and we do miss seeing you all.
Till next time,
Wendy and Ken