After ten months exploring the shores of Baja California and three months in La Paz, we leave for the mainland of Mexico. Our first landfall is Bahia Matanchen with the cute little town of San Blas.
Hasta luego, La Paz!
The beautiful and very convenient anchorage in La Paz harbor allowed us to visit family and friends, on site, and by travelling back to California, Croatia, and Germany. We made our last provisioning runs and prepared the boat for three to four days of sailing. We left La Paz during a somewhat unusual weather window for this time of year with the wind coming from the southwest and pushing us out of La Paz Bay. Usually the weather in winter and spring is dominated by strong north winds. We decided to stop at Bahia de los Muertos for a few nights before we left with good winds pushing us from the west.
After three and a half days of sailing and motoring on the last day we finally reached Bahia Matanchen just southeast of San Blas.
Tropical paradise and its little inconveniences
Bahia Matanchen and San Blas are known for their crocodiles and insects. We learned this the hard way on our second night. Despite being anchored over 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from shore winged little monsters in the shape of ants swarmed our boat after sunset. We survived the night by turning all lights off and keeping the window screens tightly in place. The morning after the boat deck looked like a battle field. Wings everywhere!
After cleaning up the wings strewn on deck, we went looking for a collectivo. A collectivo is a small van that is the Mexican version of public transit. Super cheap and the people are always very nice and helpful. The little van raced through the jungle roads towards San Blas. There we managed to stock up on some much needed groceries.
This area is well known for its plantations full of bananas. On the side of the road towards the beach vendors were selling many delicious varieties. Naturally we had to stock up on delicious banana bread. On our way walking back to the beach we spotted a crocodile. It was basking in the morning sun in the small swamp areas right next to the road outside of town.
Our next stop was Chacala. Lots of small hotels with spas and beautiful little tropical gardens. The roads here are steep and rough but the charm of this little fishing port is inspiring. Lots of cats and dogs roam the streets along with the noisy black birds that sound like parrots.
As we work our way south to Puerto Vallarta to pick up our friends, we continue to explore the small ports along Nayarit’s beautiful coastline.