No sooner had we anchored in the bay then the Mexican Navy approached us requesting to board our boat for inspection. We had been forewarned due to the problem of drug traffic between Mexico and Central America. The Navy person who came aboard was young and most polite. He had to fill out about four pages of paperwork on our boat. Between his English and my little Spanish we were successful in filling out all the paperwork with only having to look up just a few words in our Spanish-English dictionary onboard. With his dark uniform, heavy boots, and black T-shirt, he was so hot. He truly looked uncomfortable!
Huatulco and the nearby town of La Crucecita quite pleasantly surprised us. Nothing special had ever been written about them in our cruising guide. What we found were two beautiful, charming, clean small Mexican towns with newly paved roads and landscaping. The Mexican government for tourism had promoted all. We easily could have lingered here longer. Unfortunately, though, there was quite a bit of surge in the bay at times. Sunday night was so uncomfortable that we were ready to depart immediately after checking out of the country on Monday. Luckily, though, there was much less surge Monday night, and we were able to get a good night�s sleep before departing on Tuesday.
Ever since we departed Puerto Vallarta, there have been just a few cruising boats at each of our anchorages. It was clear that we were at the end of the cruising season for this area. We finally met our first cruising boat going south in Acapulco. Until then, all boats we met had been heading north. In Huatulco we met our second cruising boat, a beautiful 52-ft. catamaran, and we ended up spending most of Monday with John and Dodie as we all were checking out of the country at the same time.
When we were amongst the desert scenery in the Sea of Cortez and would look at all the lush, green pictures of the Mexico mainland in our cruising books, we imagined ourselves being immersed in that same setting once we arrived on the mainland side. Naturally this wasn�t the case as we were cruising in the dry season. The hills were mostly brown from Puerto Vallarta to Zihuatanejo, with Acapulco and Huatulco being only slightly greener. Sunday night in Huatulco we had our first drizzle since departing San Diego the end of February. On Monday, May 19, while we were traveling to the airport to go to immigration and customs, the scenery reminded me of the beginning of springtime in the Pacific Northwest with small leaves forming on many of the barren trees due to the rainfall. Only the temperature was different!
We have had a most a wonderful 11� weeks in Mexico - full of wonderful people, great memories, and terrific food. We, especially, enjoyed the Mexican bus system. It is so easy and inexpensive to travel around by bus, never having to wait more than 15 minutes at any time. One thing, though, that we won�t miss is the very time-consuming check-in and checkout procedures that cruisers have to follow when they enter a port with a port captain. For example, in Zihuatanejo when we checked in, we had to go first to the immigration office, a mile�s walk from the port captain�s office. Then, it was back to the port captain�s office with our papers. Next, we went to the bank to pay our port fees (for us a charge of about $15 in and $15 out) and, more often than not, we usually had to wait in line at the bank close to an hour. Finally, it was back to the port captain�s office. When we checked out of Zihuatanejo, we had to do the same procedure all over again, thus the reason for our departing later than planned from Zihuatanejo. Because of this very time-consuming procedure, we found ourselves not stopping at a few places because of the hassle and stopping more at anchorages without port captains.
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