Friday December 27 — Continued from yesterday… At 0940, we turned into the channel into Puerto Chiapas/Puerto Madero. 

If our understanding is correct, Puerto Chiapas is the south side of the channel, which has a large navy base and the marina. Puerto Madero is the north side of the channel, which has a small fishing village. This is a photo of Puerto Madero taken from the main channel.

About halfway up the main channel, there was a smaller channel that went west. We turned into the side channel. The north side had piers with commercial fishing boats and a fuel dock. 

The south side was naval equipment. 

The channel narrowed significantly and curved. We traversed through a lush jungle, surrounded by bird calls and insect noises. It felt very much like the Jungle Tour ride at Disneyland. 

The canal ended at Marina Chiapas. We pulled into a slip at around 1000. From what we could see from our vantage point, the marina looked nice. The first photo is the marina office, the second is the restaurant 

Beyond the small stretch of developed land, we were completely surrounded by jungle. Tiny birds were flitting all around. There was a ray swimming around the empty slip next to us, and a few minutes later, a few more joined it. In the empty slip across the way, a turtle popped its head up for a moment before gracefully sliding back under the water. Small fish were constantly jumping out of the water. Everything felt serene and peaceful. 

The marina staff who’d come to help us tie up told us to wait onboard until the authorities arrived. We immediately got to work situating the boat. Kosmos’s exterior was caked in salt – there was even salt on top of the pilot house. The top deck was completely covered in bird poop, with lots of poop on the pilot house roof and starboard side of the boat, as well. 

Christi did a quick rinse down. The bird poop was baked on and was not rinsing away. It was going to take some serious scrubbing to remove the poop. Scrubbing could wait until tomorrow. 

The two staffers returned about 45-minutes later with five officials, one of whom was handling a dog. The dog and handler immediately went aboard and started sniffing around. We later found out they were looking for undeclared people as well as drugs. 

The paperwork took about a half-hour. Once the paperwork was done, we took showers and went to the restaurant for lunch. Along the way, we saw a lot of lizards running around the rocks lining the water and on the ground near the rocks. 

Behind the marina office was a boat yard

Like many of the restaurants we’ve been to in Mexico, Baos was a patio covered with a palapa. We were seated at a table with a view of Kosmos. 

The restaurant had an upscale menu, with some classic Mexican dishes and some foreign dishes, too. After we ordered, a woman came by with a tray and said that tableside prepared salsa was included in our meal. The tray had an assortment of roasted veggies that she chopped up and mixed together. It was garnished with whole grilled green onion and a fairly large piece of grilled nopales cactus.

Eric had ordered a salad, so a few minutes after the salsa lady finished, the waiter came out and assembled Eric’s salad at the table. 

Christi ordered Camarones Hawaianos, hoping that it was the same dish she’d gotten in Huatulco many years ago. She doesn’t think it was exactly the same, as this one had both ham and shrimp, and she only remembers shrimp being in the one in Huatulco. However, it was similar and delicious. 

Eric’s had ordered the seafood lasagna, which had shrimp, mushroom, spinach and cheese in a marinara sauce. Keith had ordered a steak and a baked potato.

After lunch, Christi and Keith went to the pool for a bit, where we met a few other cruisers. 

Twilight from the pool