Exploring the Gold Coast

Hola Amigos!

In previous years, Brad and I have rounded the corner from Banderas Bay and our journey always came to an abrupt halt in Bahia Carrizal. In fact, we’ve nicknamed it Cursed Cove! Our first year visiting Carrizal we had to hightail it out of there due to a family medical event. On our second visit we ended up getting Covid and completed our quarantine inside the cove. To be honest, I was a bit nervous to visit this time. We decided to throw all superstitions aside, dropped our anchor and hoped for the best. The good news is that the curse seems to have broken and we had a great time. We didn’t do the usual snorkeling but we did do a land hike that was fantastic! The walk led us to a beautiful beach which we later found out is a nature preserve where turtles come to lay their eggs. During our walk we saw a variety of birds which made lugging the camera gear worth it.

Our first stop after Carrizal was Bahia Santiago, a 5nm hop. We pulled into the anchorage and chose a spot to drop the hook that was a comfortable distance from shore. Unfortunately the peaceful anchorage turned into chaos as the jet ski rentals made their appearance. Our boat became a target to zip around as quickly as possible, rinse and repeat! Aside from the jet skis we found the anchorage to be quite pleasant. The shore is peppered with colorful umbrellas, fancy homes and restaurants. The anchorage holds a mostly sunken ship that can be explored if the water is clear. The vessel was built in England in 1892 and spent a long career transporting barrels of oil. Later she transported minerals and ore from Santa Rosalia, Mexico to Tacoma, WA. A fascinating article about the wreck can be found here. https://www.manzanillosun.com/the-san-luciano-shipwreck/

Another happy place in the anchorage is the lagoon. During high tide you can take a dinghy tour through the channels of deep water. We found that even on a high tide it can get very shallow and the exploring was limited. Even so, we had a wonderful time seeing all the birds, fish and general happenings. Next time I’ll be sure to pack the camera to capture the action.

After spending a few days in Santiago we decided to make another short 4nm hop to Las Hadas. The anchorage lies below a cascade of all white buildings which makes you wonder, are we still in Mexico?! We later learned that the buildings are a condominium complex and a resort. From a distance everything looks great but upon closer inspection, the condos are showing some serious wear and tear. Part of the issue is that the area is very seismically active. In 2022 there were 267 recorded earthquakes 4.0 and above within a 300km distance of the city. Another interesting fact about Las Hadas is that the movie “10” was filmed here. Our friend in the anchorage spent plenty of time looking for Bo Derek on shore, with no success.

We spent almost a week anchored in Las Hadas and during that time we made great use of the dinghy dock and taxi services. Taxis were cheap compared to what we had been paying further north. We enjoyed simple tasks such as wandering around a Home Depot and Walmart. Not to mention grabbing Starbucks and a blizzard from Dairy Queen! Sometimes it is nice to visit places that remind us of back home.

A cheap $8 taxi ride brought us to the Manzanillo Malecon. This is where you can see the iconic Pez Vela, aka the gigantic Sailfish, on display. The sculpture stands at 75 meters in height, weighs 70 tons and was installed at the water front in 2002. Apparently Manzanillo is known as a Sailfish Capital of the World and has been hosting fishing tournaments since 1957.

Brad and I continued our waterfront tour and came across several docked military ships. The ships had military personnel on board and I was surprised to see that the entry ramps to the ships were not blocked off or secured. So different than the US military. The gray hulled ship, Blas Godinez, has been servicing the Mexican Navy since 1991 as an Offshore Patrol Vessel. I suspect the ship has a history much longer but I was unable to find info prior to 1991.

In addition to the military presence in the harbor, there are also plenty of cargo ships. Manzanillo is considered to be the busiest container facility in Mexico. It receives ships from more than 40 countries. The main exports are fish, corn, lemons, bananas, canned food, wine, copra, lumber, cement, etc. 

The port is also host to incoming cruise ships. We saw evidence of their developments in town when we came across several casinos, Burger King, Carls Jr, KFC, Dominos Pizza, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, and a movie theater all conveniently located next to each other. It makes me sad to think that the cruisers are getting off of the ship and experiencing fast food joints as part of their tour of Mexico.

Speaking of food, Brad and I were starting to get hungry so we left the Malecon and took a tour into the streets. There were tons of shops selling trinkets and souvenirs and a surprising amount of hardware shops. As we casually strolled we were faced with a set of the most colorful steps. There was only one option. We needed to climb the colorful stairs! The stairway provided access to private homes. As we huffed and puffed our way to the top we had a good chuckle as we saw a boy carrying a 40 pound jug of water up the steps to his home.

Our noses guided us to a local cafeteria of sorts where we were met with various choices of seafood, soups and traditional dishes. Both of us enjoyed a lunch and a beverage for about $10US total! Armed with full bellies we began our waddle back to the water front to find ourselves a ride back to Las Hadas. We barely scratched the surface in Manzanillo and we look forward to doing more exploring the next time we visit.

Where are we heading to next? We are going to start our journey north. We aren’t in a real hurry and plan to take our time, enjoying the anchorages as we go. If you want to view more photos from this post, you can find them linked below…

Carrizal https://sarahbowlin.smugmug.com/Carrizal-/

Manzanillo https://sarahbowlin.smugmug.com/Manzanillo/

We hope each of you are doing great and we thank you for the comments and engagement with our last blog post. It is nice to hear from you all! Cheers!