We left Barra and went 20 miles to Ensenada Carrizal, a narrow inlet just around the corner from Manzanillo. Made water the whole way and shortly after we got there it clogged up with salp jellies. I don’t think they’re actually a kind of jellyfish, but they’re roughly 1 inch² clear organisms that string themselves together into very large groups and this bay was chock-full of them. When I dumped out the water filter I failed to realize that I also threw out the O-ring! OMG, another water maker problem! After some trial and error, talking to another cruiser and going into town the following day (fun three wheel taxi ride), we have made do with one that doesn’t quite fit and leaks just a little bit… Yeah, I’m really over water maker issues but this one was self-inflicted.
The following day we went four miles to Bahia Manzanillo and spent two nights anchored in front of the Las Hadas resort. Really a series of resorts, but very attractive places and we had a lovely Italian dinner on the malecon.
We then motorsailed 49 miles to Punta Cabeza Negra but found that the anchorage on both the north and south sides of this point of land were untenable so we continued on another 134 miles overnight to Isla Ixtapa. This island is only a mile offshore and around the corner from the mega resort of Ixtapa. Spent two nights here over Easter weekend with an extraordinary spectacle of people watching and eight hours of complete chaos each day in the anchorage with all the JetSki’s, daytrippers, and the hundreds of rides given from the beach on towed water toys. Surprisingly, we did not see any bloodshed. Had a nice snorkel and the place goes absolutely silent in the late afternoon as everyone leaves. The basket sea urchin picture is not mine but we saw a bunch of them. Beautiful and new to us.
We dinghy’d over to the mainland to check out the crocodile sanctuary. It is well fenced on the main sides but becomes a 1 foot high chain-link with strings of barbed wire on top on the other two sides – not even remotely sufficient to keep in these monsters, but then I guess they’ve got to eat too… Saw lots of wood storks on their nests with babies and also roseate spoonbill‘s. People were feeding the iguanas mangoes and, of course, the crocodiles were simply enormous. Just to the right of the picture with the two crocs is a resort tennis court…
We are now 8 miles farther south in the actual town of Zihuatanejo. This is as far as most west coast cruisers ever get, apparently. Most turn around and go back up to the Sea of Cortez or cross the Pacific to French Polynesia. The guys cleaning oysters have no glove and are using table knives. The dude on the machine gun was defending Veracruz against the Americans in 1914. (I had no idea how many times we have invaded Mexico.)
