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Monday February 1, 2010

Happy birthday Kevin. We are arriving in Barra Navidad. We had to slow to 5 knots so as not to arrive before sun rise. The sun is peeking through broken clouds and there is no more rain nor lightning. Trying to contact the Marina Master is getting to answer so we look for channel buoys, green to the left and red to the right marking the entrance to the marina and lagoon. We can see the hotel resort on the right. The GPS chart plotter is of no use as it positions us over dry land, some 200 yards off of where we know we are. Never trust a chart plotter this close to land. Soon we see the cramped slips for the other vessels in the marina just below the hotel. Just across the channel to our left is the local Mexican town of Barra Navidad. Over the hills behind the hotel we have been told there is a beautiful 27 hole golf course on the ocean. Soon the fuel dock is visible off our starboard side and the lagoon where about 30 boats are anchored is off our port side. We approach the fuel dock and chat with a not bad looking obviously strong Mexican girl in blue jeans and a t-shirt; she understands little English and speaks with single phrase sentences. John is able to communicate that the Marina Master has agreed we can tie up at the fuel dock through Wednesday morning.

After lunch we all take a tour of the Hotel and Resort. All the facilities are available to crew aboard marina vessels. There is an OK gym and a multiple level swimming pool with gentile water slides swishing multinational families from one pool to the next. Very conveniently placed at the bottom pool is a bar with drinks for the whole family. After purchasing our internet passes, $10 per day for 2 days, we make our way down to the pangas, small motor boat taxi, to go the few hundred yards to the other side of the channel to the authentic Mexican town of Barra. It is a holiday today and many Mexican children and their parents are playing on the beach on the lagoon side of town. The town flows down 3 parallel streets parallel to the ocean on one side and lagoon on the other. On the ocean side a few children play in the sand, only surfers are in the water waiting for the perfect wave. The beach is dotted with many cantinas, and restaurants and small intimate hotels with modest swimming pools; the guests look mostly local. There is the usual Mexican handicraft stores and small grocery stores. There are surf board shops and surfing schools. One simple Catholic Church is in the heart of the town.

On the panga we met a couple of women who live in Sacramento and Boston. Linda from Sac considers Barrio Nuevo, a town nearby within walking distance, home. She was full of and willing to give us information about the area. After running into her several times in town we ask her and her friend to join us for a coffee; she knew the best place; it was good. She tells us she bought property here 20 years ago and started building a house 5 years latter; it was only finished last year. The first unfinished house was totally destroyed in a hurricane. She started another that was built by 2 slow perfectionist Mexicans. Each brick was laid and evaluated from different angles by both men before moving to the next. No matter, she is very happy with the final artful outcome. The same hurricane, that destroyed her first home construction, totally flattened the little town of Barra. The only thing left of the simple Catholic church was the wooden statue of Jesus on a cross. He was the only survivor in the town, I assume most went inland. He stands above the alter in the small church today. His only damage is his collar bones were both broken by the hurricane so his shoulders droop. He is a very famous figure in this part of Mexico known as the Hurricane Christ of Christmas, Navidad. Before the hurricane the streets were just dusty dirt; now they are hand laid puzzle shaped bricks.

All in all this place is a place where you slow your roll and relax.

God Bless Bella Donna