February 23, 2015 - Bahia Manzanillo - Las Hadas

Some milestones were reached on our stop in Las Hadas, Bahia de Manzanillo.  Not only is this the furthest south we are planning to go, but we have been gone 180 days or six months now.  We have traveled approximately 2800nm and gone a bit more than halfway to the equator from our home territory on mv Adagio.  Our lives have changed and the experience truly rewarding.  Our thresholds for weather have increased quite a bit and now are not very concerned with leaving the dock when 20+ knots are in the forecast.  We crossed many ocean bars in the northwest and are more tolerant of sea swell.  I don’t know that we expected to be lonely on this voyage, but I can say that we have met so many new friends on this voyage, inspiring people, and people that share a same passion for adventure and life experiences.   Loneliness is NOT a concern while cruising.  Socially, I believe we have had more interaction than I thought we would.  I don't think that we realized how wonderful the morning VHF communication nets would be for us to find out about weather, find or give goods/services, and meet new people.  We are about to turn back northward and there are vessels, some that turn around as we are, and some that will continue their voyage south or cross the Pacific for the fabulous cruising grounds in the South Pacific.  I have been ecstatic to see so many young people out here, more than I would have expected.  We fall somewhere in the middle, but the majority of the cruisers out here are retirees.

We anchored just outside the Las Hadas resort. We certainly felt that it could have been off the coast of France, Greece, or Italy.  We had planned to go from Carrizal to Bahia Santiago for the next leg but Steve got up in the morning with a sore shoulder, feeling once again like it could be cellulitis.  Left shoulder also so I said that we should go to Las Hadas which has the resort and on-staff medical people, heart problems came to my mind as well as the bacterial infection.  He seemed fine within a day or two, and is just fine now.  The sv Zoe B was on the same path as us headed into Santiago and we could not catch them on the radio.  As we were trying to hail them, the sv Tappen Zee with Tom and Annie hailed us and we were happy to once again understand we would meet up with them as they were in the anchorage we were headed to.  We were happy when also to find out that sv Zoe B came in a few hours later and anchored nearby to us at Las Hadas anchorage.  The kids are having a wonderful time together and us adults get along as well.  Good people, good friends.

The resort charges you $200 pesos to dock your dinghy boat so we did have some costs there (about $14/day).  We were able to use their pools and such though which was nice.  Provisioning was great and several large grocery stores were within walking distance, several miles, and turned out to be a cheap cab ride back.  We sat by the pool and chatted, got together on our vessels for more conversation and too many late nights!  The kids made two movies using the iPad’s.  The kids had fun for hours with acting, and coming up with scenes for their movies.  I am hoping we can get them posted somewhere and then we will post a link to them.

Anchored in front of the Las Hadas resort.  It looks a lot like the
French Riviera!  Not quite what you expect to find in Mexico.

Adagio anchored in front of a very cool waterfront restaurant.

Iguanas are a pretty common site in this part of Mexico

The kids standing under the waterfall at the Las Hadas resort pool.

Zoe, Kevin, and Hal.  Zoe and Hal are from sv Zoe B.

Paul, Samara, Cindy, Zoe, Kevin, Hal, and Steve.  Kathy taking picture.
It was a full boatload heading into the dinghy dock at Las Hadas.

Zoe, Cindy, Kevin and Hal enjoying their Pinatas (Pina Colada w/o the alcohol).
Wonderful view of Manzanillo Bay.

The cruiser's anchorage in Manzanillo Bay

Our family and the sv Zoe B family took the bus from just outside the resort to Manzanillo.  Seems we are finally in a more authentic Mexican town.  Most of the Mexicans do not speak any English.   Our family still struggles with Spanish so it was nice that we were with Paul from sv Zoe B as he is fluent in Spanish (and Greek).  Anyway, he took care of all of us!  The bus is $7 pesos or less than a dollar for each of us to ride the bus for about an hour.  Cheap way to travel down here for sure.  

The kids waiting for the bus to old town Manzanillo.  Just above the Las Hadas
resort.

It was a crazy, bumpy, bus ride to Manzanillo.  The kids were laughing most
of the time as the bus lurched, clanked, and banged along the rough Mexican roads.

A HUGE sailfish sculpture on the Malecon of Manzanillo.

Walking through old town Manzanillo.  This is REAL mexico.  Virtually nobody
here speaks english.  There were almost no gringos to be found anywhere.

The large market in Manzanillo.  The fresh fruits and veggies were amazing.

Shopping at the market.  Kevin and Cindy are there, can you find them?

On the bow of a Mexican Navy ship.  It was open for tours when we arrived.  Free too!

Another shot from the Navy ship (about 200' long) that we got to explore.

Manzanillo Bay has a long history dating back to the 1500's where it was key factor in the creation of the Manila trade route.  Goods traveled thousands of miles, across two oceans.  From Spain, ships transported people, goods, and money to Atlantic Mexico where it was transported across land to the Pacific.  From Manzanillo items were then shipped to Manilla in the Philippines, and vice versa.

Today Manzanillo is still a major shipping port, and is one of the busiest on the Pacific coast.  A sizeable portion of the goods from Asia destined for the central United States arrive in Manzanillo via ships.   There are always freighters coming and going through this bay.

Kevin and Cindy - doesn't this look like they are super-imposed in this scene (blue screen background)?
Funny.....but this was the real backdrop and how a flash can change a photo!

Eating Chinese food for lunch in Manzanillo (hahahaha) - Cindy, Kevin, Hal and Zoe