Thursday, January 23, 2014

Costa Alegre, Mexico's Happy Coast

We are continuing to travel south of Banderas Bay, revisiting Costa Alegre, which we enjoyed last season with Bryan and our friend Tana.  Costa Alegre translates as the "Happy Coast" and seems to starts at Chamela Bay at the north end, and Manzanillo at the south end.  In a distance of about 50 miles, there are many places to explore, with pretty anchorages, small towns for supplies, and little islands for bird watching, snorkeling, paddle boarding and surf.
Here's some photos of our stops in the bay of Tenacatita including the small town of La Manzanilla.

Tenacatita is a beautiful, quiet, protected anchorage with about a 2-3 mile crescent shaped sandy beach. There are no buildings on the beach, except one beach resort at the far end.  Early in the mornings, there may be a few guests from the resort walking the beach.

Every day a few boats arrive and a few boats depart.  During our visit, there were an average of 10-14 boats in the anchorage.  It is a very social community.

There are loosely organized afternoon activities for any of the sailboats or power boats, which include a swim ashore, and beach walks or bocce games. Rob enjoyed representing us in the bocce games; I opted to go out on my paddle board when the wind is light, and explore the perimeter of the anchorage amidst the boats as the morning sun came up.
Tenacatita anchorage: Linda from Trinity Rose and Nancy 
One morning we took Shindig across the anchorage to the town of La Manzanilla.
This is the only town on the Bay of Tenacatita and getting onto shore via dinghys is known to be challenging.  Some boaters pay for a water taxi service to bring them from the anchorage across the bay to Manzanilla.  We decided to go ourselves and invited our friends from two other boats to join us.
So with Linda and Mike from Trinity Rose and Pam and Richard plus their new puppy Chloe, from Tisha Baby aboard, we set off for the 3 hour tour.  Two dinghies were pulled behind Shindig.

Colorful buildings in La Manzanilla
The dinghy landings were well timed, no challenges.  We all enjoyed our walk around town, poking into stores especially the surprisingly well stocked little German owned deli.  There are many large containers of spices which the owner will measure out whatever you'd like.  I bought some vegie tortes and a cup of shredded parmesan cheese.  Rob particularly enjoyed the sausage rolls that were coming out of the oven.

Sign for Le Martin's, a nice French /seafood restaurant 
 Restaurant Martin is a special, romantic restaurant high up in the tree tops overlooking the bay.  We decided to have lunch there, and everyone was happy.  It was so good that we''ve planned to return to La Manzanilla on the way north just to have another meal.  Time to hit the beach for some more exercise!

Restaurant view overlooking lush tree tops and beach

Their signature Caesar salad made at the tableside

Mmmmmm

More fun buildings 

Fish Sign

VW bug with nice paint trim
Mike and Rob with Bentley aboard Trinity Rose

View from Shindig's spot at Tenacatita

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.