Tenacatita

Tenacatita Sunset

Bahia Tenacatita is the most beautiful place the Honcho has visited so far on this voyage. After we arrived here we just sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the magnificent views of the golden sand beaches to our north and east, the craggy rocks to our west and southwest, and the pretty little town of La Manzanilla across the bay to our south, then were treated to a beautiful sunset. We've been here three days, doing very little except enjoying the scenery and visiting with friends. Wednesday we took the dinghy up the small estuary where there are supposed to be crocodiles but we didn't see any. That was fine by me, as we did see lots of other wildlfe as we motored slowly through the mangroves. In spite of the beauty of the place, there has been trouble here recently. A developer showed up a few months ago with armed guards and bulldozers and chased everyone off the beach in one part of the bay where there had been some palapa restaurants that locals and yatistas liked to hang out, claiming that he owned the land that others thought they owned. Apparently the developer won this argument because we were met with some of the guards a mile or so up the estuary, and that's as far as we got to go.

We were also visited by the Mexican Navy here. Early on the first morning we were anchored in the bay, a boatload of sailors, all armed with automatic weapons approached and boarded the Honcho. They asked for our papers, took pictures of our communications gear and filled out some forms before bidding us a good day. They were friendly and didn't intentionally point their guns at us, but with five of them crowded into the cockpit, it was impossible not to find myself looking down the barrel of one or the other now and then.

Another Approach to Cruising
We've seen this Nordhavn 63 in various places along the Mexican coast.

The day before we left Tenacatita we took the dinghy across the bay to La Manzanilla, a quaint fishing and tourist village, where we stocked up on fresh vegetables. Located on the southeast side of the bay, it is exposed to the open ocean so going ashore means landing the dinghy through the surf. We stayed dry going in but got a bit damp going out, as the wind and waves had built during the afternoon. If you're looking for a quiet seaside vacation, far from the crowds, but still with a little spice, you might like La Manzanilla. To me, it appears to be Mexican with a Mediterranean twist.