Barra de Navidad and Bahia Chamela

Tags: Bahia Chamela, Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico

Date: December 5, 2023

Next we sailed 1 and half days to Barra de Navidad. It's a small tourist town with quite a few surfers:

Some of them were quite good:

A dog (maybe belonging to one of the surfers in the water) looking at the waves from the wall protecting the beach promenade:

Félicie in front of a monument celebrating the 400 anniversary of the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi and Andres de Urdaneta from Mexico (then called New Spain) to the Philippines, which left from Barra de Navidad on November 21 1564 and was the start of the trade relations between Manila and Acapulco that lasted 250 years.

In Manila, on Plaza Mexico, they have a corresponding monument.

Looking from Barra de Navidad across the harbor entrance to a large resort:

Félicie in the water taxi we used to go to town from the anchorage:

Christmas tree decoration in the center of Barra de Navidad:

After leaving Barra de Navidad, we were ready to see something other than towns and people, so we went to Bahia Chamela and anchored off some small islands — one of them seen here in the evening light:

The island right next to us was covered in huge cacti, almost like trees.

The birds also saw them as trees one can perch on. Here a a number of vultures sitting in the cactus "trees":

Here it is frigate birds perching. On some of them the inflatable red pouch is visible. Only the males have them and use them to attract females during the mating season:

We did some snorkeling in the area and found this lovely, very large shell (about 12 cm long). Unfortunately, it was inhabited by its original owner, so we could not keep it:

More views of the island: