San Blas in review

With the boat projects done, inside clean, laundry done and groceries bought, it’s time to move on.  We’ve really enjoyed it in San Blas and have had a very pleasant, albeit unexpected stay in the marina.  So I thought I would take the time to do a little review on San Blas and the marina in case anyone was considering by passing this quaint little town.

Bugs:  The number one reason I’ve heard of people not stopping here is the bugs.  I don’t know if we just haven’t hit the season or what, but we had a lot more bugs on some of the islands we visited this summer.  There’s a few here and there, enough to put on bug spray, but not enough to skip the place altogether.

Marina:  The marina is a small marina but there aren’t many boats here so as of the writing of this post, there’s plenty of room.  For an entire week with showers, electricity, water (not potable) and the slip itself, our bill was less than $110.  We paid more than that to sit on a mooring ball in Puerto Escondido.  This is by far the cheapest marina in Mexico.  It also has the nicest staff we have come into contact with (well, right up there with San Carlos).  They do have a small tienda, though they open it on a whim (and close just as randomly) that sells sodas, beer, wine, liquor and a very small selection of condiment type items.  There is a restaurant that also opens randomly, but when they’re open, the food is reasonably priced and very good (at least the ceviche is).   It’s quiet here as it’s located in the estuary.  There are pangas passing by but I think we’re the only ones here who feel the effects of it since we’re on the end tie.  The only negative I can think of is most boats will need to enter and exit at high tide as we had only 6 feet below our rudder at mid tide when we came in and we only draw 3 feet.

Town: The town itself is small enough to be called a town (as opposed to a city), but big enough to have most everything you need.  There’s a market with a good selection of produce (something besides tomatoes and zuchinni) and a few good meat markets.  They also have plenty of fresh fish and shrimp.  There is no large “supermercado” so for dry goods, the selection is limited but it does exist at the local Zane store.  It’s typical of many small places here where you just have to go to several stores to get what you need.

There is plenty to do here as you can tell by our past posts; crocodile tour, hike to fort, beach, and there’s even a bar scene/night life if you’re into that.  The nice thing is that is hasn't been overtaken by tourists to the point that it's lost it's mexican feel.

I think so far, this is probably our favorite place we’ve visited in Mexico.  The recession has hit this town hard so we tried to do our part.  If you’re a fellow cruiser on the fence, hopefully this will push you over and you can enjoy it too.