Continued from yesterday”¦ The marina seems to be well sheltered and flat calm, which was really nice. Ahhh”¦ it feels so good not to be hobby-horsing anymore! We went to the marina office and checked in. Here is a shot of Eric on the way to the office.

The fee was even higher than we had re-braced ourselves for at $107.50 USD per night. Ouch. This is the most expensive place we have ever been. Siracusa came close at $105 USD per night, but that was during the peak tourist month when they raise the slip fees exponentially compared to the rest of the year. The good news is that you can use many of the hotel’s amenities, such as the pool and tennis courts. The bad news is internet is not free and is actually on the expensive side at $10 per day.

The person who checked us in is clearly brand new and doesn’t know what he is doing yet. We are not sure if he is the dock master or just filling in while the dockmaster is out. While the actual paperwork for the marina went well, he had a hard time answering our questions and several times had to go ask someone else for answers. He told us that we are required to check in with the Port Captain and that he would not do it for us. We were surprised by that. This marina is 2 ½ times the price of the marina in Ixtapa, so we just assumed that for the price they would offer as many services as Ixtapa does. When we asked for directions to the Port Captain’s office, he was incredibly vague, pointing off in the distance and saying “over there”. We wonder if he even knew.

The hotel offers a water taxi service to the peninsula for a nominal fee. We walked through the hotel grounds over to the taxi dock. Yes, this place is definitely swanky. And big. Here is part of the pool area and the beach.

The water taxi was getting ready to leave as we walked up, but it saw us coming and waited for us. It was a quick ride over to the peninsula, which is part of the town of Barra Navidad. The first picture is a shot of Barra across the lagoon, taken from the water taxi stand. The second photo was taken from the water taxi as we were about to disembark in Barra.

When we stepped on shore, we were a little bit surprised at how crowded it was. The water, streets and the beaches were all packed with people. Loud music was blaring from speakers on the sand. We were immediately swarmed by touts trying to sell us a boat ride that seemed genuinely shocked that we wouldn’t be interested. They were nice, though. We found a restaurant about ½ a block away from the drop off point. It was an open patio style place with a palm frond roof. It was right on the beach, overlooking the ocean side. Breakfast choices were limited — either Mexican eggs (eggs scrambled with salsa and fried) or huevos rancheros. We got one of each.

When we were done eating, we wandered down the street in search of the Port Captain, figuring it had to be close. We saw a police station and asked for directions. They gave detailed directions. We followed their directions explicitly, wandering down charming cobblestone streets lined with colorful buildings and street vendors selling colorful goods. Most of the buildings are old, but generally well maintained. The buildings are set close together and the town definitely has a “village” feel to it. The sidewalks come and go, so sometimes we were walking in the street while dodging cars. Barra is a popular vacation destination for Mexicans, so most of the goods in the stalls and shops were local handicrafts as opposed to touristy junk made in China.

We arrived at a hotel and restaurant, not the Port Captain. Hmmm. We asked at the restaurant where to go and we were told to stay on this road and take it to the end. All in all, it was a longer walk then we expected, and we were crestfallen when we saw that we had been directed to a commercial boat yard of sorts. It was closed and it didn’t look like the Port Captain’s Office was in there anyway. Bummer! We are sure the nice gentlemen meant well, assuming the Port Captain was here. At least it was a pretty walk over here.

We asked some locals sitting outside in front of a shop for directions. They told us to take a taxi, that the directions were too complicated. We hadn’t seen a taxi stand, or for that matter, noticed any taxis on the street. We turned around and headed back the way came, keeping our eyes peeled for a taxi. A couple blocks later, we spotted a couple whose aura screamed “We are full time cruisers.” We stopped them, asking if they were cruisers. They were taken aback, wondering how we picked them out as different from other gringo tourists. Was it the fact they were holding groceries? We told them we were cruisers, too, which surprised them more. We definitely don’t have the cruiser “look”, and we suspect that the fact other cruisers sometimes have a hard time taking us seriously is because we don’t look the part. Maybe if we looked more the part, the touts wouldn’t be so surprised that we don’t need a boat ride.

Anyway, we wound up having a lovely chat with them. Like most cruisers, they are very kind people. They gave us all kinds of interesting and helpful information, including the location of the Port Captain’s office. We were a little bit dubious of the location, since it wasn’t on the water. Port Captain’s offices are always on the water so they can watch for illegal boats.

We left the peninsula, heading northeast along the main road. Off the peninsula, the town becomes a nice grid. The buildings are all significantly newer. On the main drag it is mostly commercial retail stores. We walked for quite a ways before realizing that we had missed the street we were supposed to turn on. Darn. We made a right at the next intersection. The Port Captain’s office was on one of these cross streets and we figured it would be obvious. Back here it was mostly residential, though there were a few businesses scattered here and there. The lots are fairly large and about half of them are undeveloped. Each house is custom, and boy, do they vary wildly, ranging from tiny bungalows to ostentatious mansions.

After wandering for several blocks, we finally stopped and asked for directions. We had overshot the appropriate cross street by about three blocks. Once we made the turn, it should only be two more blocks down the road. We got to the right block on the grid, but didn’t see anything that looked like the Port Captain. Then we noticed a discreet sign in front of a house. Oh. Weird. There is no office. The Port Captain works from home.

The Port Captain was outside with his grown son and it was clear that he had just locked up and was leaving for lunch. He could have told us to come back in two hours when they re-open, but he didn’t. Instead, he opened the office back up and told his son to wait. Inside, it was clear that he didn’t live here. It is definitely a real office with nothing about it that indicated anything residential. What a weird choice of building and location.

Anyway, the paperwork took less than 10 minutes. He cleared us in and out so we don’t have to come back when we leave, which we thought was nice. His grown daughter arrived just after we did, and we realized that the only reason we caught him was because his daughter was late for their lunch date. Lucky for us! The Port Captain was gracious throughout the process.

After he was done, we walked back to the water taxi dock. It turns out that it is actually a fairly short walk when you take the direct route instead of looping all over the entire town and back. Within a few minutes, the taxi came. We were pleased when they said they could deliver us right to the boat instead of taking us to the taxi stand at the hotel. Nice!

Christi was so tired and just couldn’t resist a nap. Eric rinsed Kosmos off while she slept. When Christi woke up, it was clear she was sick. Her neck glands were swollen up to the size of golf balls, her throat was sore, her nose was running and she felt awful. Guess maybe we should have closed the pilot house up, after all. Sitting in the cold was apparently not a good plan.

We were feeling obligated to use amenities to help justify cost of the marina, so we went down to the pool for a while. We didn’t stay for very long, though. We got hungry and went back to the boat to make dinner. Here is Eric in the Jacuzzi.

The wind has been steadily picking up all day, and at dinner time it was up to 15 25 knots inside the marina, which is surrounded by a big hill on three sides. We are so glad we aren’t on the water right now. It has to be ugly out there. While eating, we watched two boats come in and dock. They both had a heck of a time in this wind. One of them crashed into a pylon. Ouch. And they are a mega yacht, so chances are the captain is in trouble with the owner.