Who knew that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Bells of San Blas” was about the bells from THIS San Blas? We didn’t, but we do now.
We skipped San Blas on the way south… too many reports of troubles with Jejenes; too many questions regarding crossing the bar safely; and if Matanchen Bay was unsafe…. so too was San Blas just by association… or so we thought. Well, the Jejenes aren’t bad (if you get your nets and screens up before they come out at dusk… and leave them up until after the sun warms the air in the morning; the bar crossing went well, although we did check in with the Capitana de Puerto (Port Captain) to seek his assurance it was safe to cross and enter. The Marina Fonatur is as clean and safe as the rest of them, although this one appears to be suffering from lack of funding as evidenced by the empty swimming pool and no longer present store, laundry and restaurant. But… there is TP in the washrooms and that’s better than most.
Once arrived, and after the dust had settled, we began to look around and explore the parts of town we could reach on foot. It’s definitely Mexican and not very affluent, but the folks we’ve met are still smiling and most helpful answering our questions. There’s a morning market of sorts along the main street each morning and there are several ferreterias (hardware stores) within a few blocks of the marina. How good is that?? This is a port, one of the (if not the) oldest ports on the Pacific coast of Mexico. This place used to be the naval port for New Spain with a population of over 30,000 people. Today, it is much less populated and much less busy, and much less of a port. But there are still fishing boats coming and going as well as recreational boats stopping on their way north or south. There is also a Naval Base here which is helping to keep the organized criminals at bay, or so we’ve been told (that the organized crime syndicates have by-passed this place). There is also a long and beautiful beach running south from the bar entrance and supporting several palapa restaurants as well as a growing community of surfing folks. We had planned on visiting here for a few days only and leaving on Tuesday morning, but Mother Nature has stepped in and tossed some extra wind and waves in our direction so we may dally a day or two longer. We’ve participated in a few things whilst getting to know the town and, as reputations and addresses in Mexico change faster than the winds, I thought I’d pass on a few tidbits for the use of cruisers who follow.
La Tovara (Tobara) Jungle Tour:
We’d read of this tour and then been told by other cruisers how good it was; a “not to be missed” kind of an experience. We’d also been told to go early, ask the panga driver to go slowly and tip well; so we did and it was fabulous. We connected with a guide named Afro. He spoke English fairly well and he agreed to an early start. Four of us met him at 0700 hrs. and took off into the chilly morning (bring a sweater) for a terrific tour. Afro did go slowly, and he stopped and backed up sometimes to help us get better photos of the birds and crocodiles we saw. He also knew the names of most if not all of the birds we saw and helped us to find even the most camoflauged. He was great. We took the longer choice of two tours (the one that goes all the way up to the crocodile Zoo – a bit depressing but interesting none the less – and then, on the way back, stops at La Tobara Spring for some very tasty food at the restaurant and a dip in the nicely warm water (bring your bathing suits and a towel). We picked up speed on the way back, to make up for the time we’d taken hunting with our cameras.. but even then Afro stopped and backed up for us to take photos of a pair of huge crocs on the river bank. We were so glad we went early and were the first panga on the route. Those that followed (just coming up as we were returning) were roaring up the waterways, jammed full of people. I doubt anyone had time to see anything; anything left that is after the roar of their outboards and major wakes shook the birds away and the crocodiles into hiding. Our “3 hour tour” lasted for 4 1/2 hours and we’re still sorting through hundreds of photos of birds, crocodiles, iguanas, turtles and fish…. oh, and of Kathy swinging off a trapeze into the water at the spring (brave girl!). (Cost? for the boat and the long tour, $560 pesos, divided between the four of us).
Taxi ride and tour of San Blas:
We called upon Jose (Jose Roberto Carbajal), a fellow recommended to us by another cruiser. His English is quite good and he was willing to spend a couple of hours showing us around town. He drove us through areas explaining what they were as we went and then he drove us up to the hilltop fort at La Contaduria. It was interesting and had a view of all of San Blas and well out to sea. Then we drove down to the ‘surfing beach’ which runs south from the bar entrance, and had a great lunch at the palapa restaurant called Alicia’s. Kathy and Jose had the tostada’s - one pescado (fish) ceviche and one camarone (prawn) ceviche – while I had my ensalada naturelle camarones (peeled prawns with slices of cucumber and tomato). They were all good. On the way back to the boat we asked Jose to stop at a good place to buy one of the grilled chickens. He took us to Roman’s Pollo Asados. The chickens looked and smelled declicous and for 80 pesos we got the whole cooked chicken along with rice, corn tortillas and a sauce. That’ll be dinner – after the 4 o’clock get together on the dock with the two other cruising boats tied up beside us.
Should you wish to set up a tour - Jose, our taxi driver and impromptu tour guide, can be reached at (c) 323-106-4703.
Surfing:
I’ve mentioned that the beach is popular with local surfers. Good news for the rest of you surfers is that Jose and his brother (who is already running a surfing school in Chacala) are planning to open a surfing school here in San Blas. Their new website is www.surfsanblas.com and is under construction.
Restaurants:
While there are many restaurants in San Blas, a very nice shop keeper advised us that the two best (and cleanest ) in town were La Isla (an excellent seafood restaurant that has been in business for years and has a very interesting display of seashells, artistically set up and displayed by the Chef and owner Tony; and McDonald’s (not the arches), a family run restaurant and bar with good clean food. We’ve tried La Isla and it was great. Kathy had Tony’s special pescado and said it was the best she’d ever had.
Weather watching… is an imperfect art. There are dozens of various ‘sources’ we cruisers check every day, sometimes twice or more times a day. None are perfect and most are just ‘best guesses’ by persons who have studied the science for many years and/or unedited results of computer models. We’ve been relying a fair amount on a site called BouyWeather and it’s done us quite well. Today, however, as we were getting ready to leave tomorrow morning (due to a calm winds and low seas kind of a weather window forecast by BouyWeather) Kathy happened to notice a bulletin tacked to the Security office door. It was in Spanish but she recognized enough words to realize it was a weather warning and she purloined a copy of it and brought it to our computer’s translator. Seems all is not what it appears to be and Mother Nature is throwing a bit more stuff our way… at least for the next two days anyway. 8 foot seas and winds up to 27 knots (all against us if we were to head north) are just not that comfortable on the good ship Shannon and so we shall take a bit more time getting up close and friendly with San Blas. As they always say… the best cruising plans are written with a stick in the sand… just below high water mark.
The source of this recent weather forecast is the Maritime Meteorlogical Bulletins for the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts of Mexico (www.sct.gob.mx/index.php?id=209 ) It is posted every day (365) at 1000 and 1600 hrs. We used www.translate.google.com to translate the information into English.
Guess that’s enough information for now. We are well, missing our friends, and looking forward to continuing our journey when the winds and seas allow us. Until then we shall enjoy the local seafood, chip away at some boat chores, and sip tequila in a most lady-like fashion :0-)
Adios amigas y amigos… CJ
