First part of January 2013 - Anchored in Chamela (Perula Bay)
Chamela (Perula Bay) is a small bay and at the spot we are at is the fishing town of Perula with a nice beach and good access to the islands which are state parks. The town consists of a pharmacy, a hardware store and small fish market which is a couple of rooms and a tortilla factory which is a room with a tortilla making machine. These are all located around the town square. There is one paved road and it runs through the center of town. There are a couple few small hotels for the mostly Mexican tourists who come from places like Guadalajara and go out to the islands in pangas. They arrive by bus.
There are no more than two dozen gringos at any given time at the most. There is a small RV park where the one half comes from and there are the cruisers (like us) where the half comes from. We have not mingled much. There are few sidewalks and no police we have ever seen. The place is completely safe and everyone is having fun all the time.
There are a few small grocery-type markets in town and the vegetable truck comes each Saturday.
There is a jazz café which has a band that plays Gypsy Jazz and Dixie jazz on Friday nights, some of the time.
There are a couple Wi-Fi spots but none in the anchorage unless you pay for the Wi-Fi by the day and anchor right off the hotel and only then if your antennae will pick it up.
So there you have it. The food is good and reasonable and the people are great.
So as a matter of fact we have not had Wi-Fi for at least ten days before we went into town and searched it out…then only for a few hours.
We have not had cell phones or any kind of phone for at least three months now.
We have no fax.
No TV cable or dish or any other means of getting TV. We do have and watch movies occasionally on our 27 inch LED TV through our PC.
We do have Sail Mail to communicate with limited email service.
We have no cars, no home but the boat and no positions but for what's on the boat.
I get up and put on board shorts and a t-shirt. Sometimes, I take off the shirt and swim at any time because the water is great - clear, warm and inviting. We see a million stars at night and have each other all the time.
Debbie is beating me in rummy at this time. We're even at backgammon!
We just do not see how anyone can get bored doing this. There is just so much to do. If it should rain like it did then there is a whole different set of circumstances to deal with. Every day or so a new cruiser comes or goes - it's fun when it's someone we know from the Baja Ha Ha. There are just a zillion boat things that need looking after. There is swimming and kayaking and beach walks and star gazing and we cannot get enough time for it all!???
I am currently reading "The Log from the Sea of Cortez" by John Steinbeck and it is a paper back. Need a book for my tablet but with our crazy dingy landing we have not brought it.
Back to the post, there are no street signs, no stop lights or even stop signs in our current town of Perula. Just some speed bumps in the middle of Perula. Another place in Mexico where there are limited rules. Five to a motor scooter and no helmets type of thing. People in the back of pickups is the rule and most all are smiling….even some with kids driving. The main highway to other towns and major cities is one road out, 2 kilometers away.
At about 10:00 PM there is not much but the sound of the waves, lots of stars and, well we do not usually make to ten but if we did… At 9:00 there are lots of stars, the waves and some left over music from the beach that we cannot hear when we go to bed.
Now we ran out of cash - no debit/credit card usage around here. Oh no! The nearest bank is an hour bus ride to Melaque which is in the same bay as Barra …in the guide book it's said to be a small quiet town.
That is not so. It is full of gringo tourists and there are lots of gringo bars and even a market called the Hawaii store which caters to gringo food needs. This is not bad just different. It has lots of hotels lining the beach and some RV parks. There is a big bus terminal there which is where we arrived because we took the bus. There are two anchorages and after the bank and some breakfast at a gringo restaurant we walked to the beach and hung out looking at the anchorage and the bay. Then we strolled through town and all the tourist shops and we had some good ice cream cones. We sat in the town square and ate them. Just before we met a woman from Oakland and she said they had been coming there on vacation for at least ten years. Nice person and she told about the hotels and restaurants.
There is a good street market there each Wednesday and there are just lots of gringo tourists all over the place. In fact that's what that women liked was the fact they would always go to this small twelve room hotel and before you long know every one there. Meaning they spoke English etc.
There are police and some street signs etc. and plenty of places to get all the provisions we could want as far as food is concerned. Not sure yet about other items like zincs or other marine items.
Possibly in Barra there is. There is an estuary for anchoring and a five star hotel with marina which we hear is pricey.
The dingy can be landed there for a small fee.
The bay anchorage has beach-through-the surf dingy landing and we are still working on ours. The day we went to Melaque we landed the dingy through the surf in the before-dawn light. When we got back we had dinner at the Magdelana's restaurant and bar, a palapa restaurant on the beach. We were mucho glad to be home and away from the big (to us) city, ok it was still just a town but a bigger one.
We will eventually make our way to Melaque and Barra but will be prepared for the difference.
When you get off the bus to get to town on the highway there is just this little road that goes to where we are. Just a small sign and that's it. If you were on the bus it is hardly noticeable but it sure is nice. By the way there were no gringos but us on the bus. We saw none at the bus terminal or on the way either. Guess they take taxies and fly? There were lots of kids on the bus on the way back but all were well behaved. Some kids just sitting in the isle playing quietly, one sleeping across the isle that we needed to walk over. Makes you wonder how many other places there are along the coast like this?
For now we are more than happy to be back on our Islander Freeport 36 foot sail boat that is taking great care of us in the bay of Chamela, at least for a couple more weeks.
Epilogue to this post (on 01-07-2013)
Now the holidays are over and the beach is back to normal. A few people in the water but not the crowds and noise of before. It was good noise but still noisy. We had another successful dingy landing, no surf to speak of, and went to town for supplies. We got a couple stoppers (believe it or not) at the hardware store. Last time I could not explain what we wanted, this time I brought one. Maybe these will fit the dingy.
We got a hose for the shop vac that I had put on the rail to drain and it went "ker plunk" and sank. Seems I do that much too often, kerplunk it is gone!
We got lots of food and snacks. There was no one about as the people went home.
Hmmm, lots of doing, time for a siesta, got to keep practicing them.
Editor's note: The use of the term "gringo" is not meant to be derogatory in any manner and our intention is not to offend anyone by its use. It is merely used to describe non-Spanish speaking people, such as some Americans, Canadians, and Europeans. The term seems like it is the easiest one to use and one that most readers will understand.
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