Santiago and Barra de Navidad

Santiago and Barra de Navidad - heading north!

Santiago Bay (near Manzanillo):
March 2nd to March 7th

Enjoying the Santiago sunset and Happy Hour in the cockpit

These two blue footed boobies hung out on the wreck
in Santiago Bay

This is the wreck in Santiago. Good snorkeling.

Sunday at a beach Palapa in Santiago Bay

Barra de Navidad Lagoon:

March 7 to March 13

Fishermen in the Lagoon at Sunrise

The canal leading from the Lagoon to the Hotel Cabo Blanco
dock where they welcome cruisers to tie up and enjoy their
pool as long as they order something from their restaurant.

The French Baker delivers yummy croissants, quiche, baguettes, etc.
every morning but Wednesday. You can even place an order via
email or radio.

St Patrick is the patron saint of Melaque and San Patricio

- a short distance from Barra. They have a week

long celebration around the Malaque Central Plaza.

The major fireworks displays are the Saturday before

and Saint Patricks day itself. We went to the Saturday

celebration with a panga load of other cruisers.

It was wild and the fireworks didn't even start until 11PM.

The tower in the picture below is lit and the fuse works
it's way to the top. The crowd is surrounding the tower.
As the fuse burns fireworks go off on all sides of the tower -
shooting in all directions, including into the crowd.
From our vantage point in a 2nd floor bar across the plaza
we could see big chunks of flames shooting off into the
crowd and the crowd scattering around away from the flame.
As the burning fuse worked its way up the fireworks got
more elaborate until the top was spinning and spewing
sparks in every direction.
When the tower was burned out a runner with a big
tube of fireworks going off ran around the plaza and
everyone chased him. There were two or three consecutive
runners. It was wild and insane and we were glad
to be up on the 2nd floor looking down on the
whole show.

The infamous tower

The tower is just outside the church.
When the church doors are closed you know the show
is about to begin.

View from our 2nd floor vantage point

One day we hiked across the peninsula that separates

the Barra Lagoon from the Pacific Ocean. The surf was

pretty high and it was beautiful.

This photo and the next one were taken by a friend.
This is an amazing stairway around this cliff
to the "secret" beach on the other side

Next stop: Tenacatita

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