Barra de Navidad
On March 26th we left Bahia Tenacatita around noon and headed towards Barra de Navidad. The sailing conditions were excellent and around 16:00 we entered the narrow channel leading to the lagoon. The path is very shallow, about 10ft at some point and gets quickly shallower if you deviate from the route suggested by Navonics (we would learn that the hard way a few days later when exiting the bay). We dropped the anchor in 8ft of water and even though the wind was blowing at 20kn, the swell was non-existent.
One of the must-try experience is the French Baker delivery at your boat in the lagoon (or at the dock at the marina wherever you are). Many years ago, a French guy had started this concept, bringing freshly baked baguettes, chocolatines, croissants and all kinds of goodies with his panga straight to your boat. The business has since then been taken over by Luis, a local Mexican gentleman who has perpetuated the original recipes. You can order in advance via whatsapp or on the VHF if you want specific items or you can hail him on the lagoon when you hear the ringing bell. We’ve had croissant and baguettes every morning…
To reach the little town of Barra, you can use the dinghy dock at the Sands hotel and walk from there or you can call a watertaxi on the VHF and land at the main dock. This little town has a lot of restaurants and can be walked very easily. To access groceries you can take a bus to Melaque located only a few km from Barra. A fuel dock is available between the laguna and the marina. If you get there by dinghy, the best is to land in the launching ramp and walk 100m with the jerrycans to the Pemex, that would avoid the premium fee charged at the dock.
My favorite part of the lagoon has been Colimilla and the little town of La Culebra. A very authentic village with a few restaurants on the beach. Dozens of fishing pangas are lined up along the shore. There we have discovered a local fish market named Cooperativa Colimilla, providing fresh fish and seafoods: tuna, mahi-mahi, marlin, octopus, shrimps, langostas, scallops and more. They even prepared and vacuum sealed filets for us and froze them overnight so we could stock them in our freezer before we left. For Paul’s birthday, we had sushis at Fortino’s, one of the restaurants on the beach, it was amazing.
On April 4th we left Barra de Navidad around noon and headed toward Bahia Zihutanejo, ready for a 2-night navigation
