Manzanillo/Las Hadras
- Courtney
- Apr 9, 2018
- 7 min read
While I don't go seeking out these photo opps, we have been stumbling onto them and now I am making them a thing that I must find in each major city we visit. (anybody have any idea what they are properly called? I have seen them all over [Mexico, Europe] but internet searching hasn't pulled up much on them...city commissioned? I can't even recall if we have these in the states too?)
Anywho...
We arrived in Las Hadras, which is an freaking gorgeous (!!) anchorage just outside the busy port of Manzanillo on April 3. While in PV we got a heads up on this great anchorage and honestly, I don't think we would have stopped here if not for this killer inside scoop (thank you Chip and Debbie of SV Elegant Sea!! AGAIN, boaters are the best people, most supportive, helpful group of individuals I have ever met!!) Anyway, this was a freaking awesome find along the Mexican coast line!
Las Hadras anchorage spot, as I said is a smaller anchorage tucked just northeast from the bustling fishing and major port of Manzanillo. Without knowing where you are, you would think you would have transported elsewhere and back in time to a mythical castle (Las Hadras means "the fairies") with the incredible Moorish architecture consisting of turrets, towers, and cool sculptures all a-washed in stunning white, which honestly is a sight to see against the backdrop of the blue, blue waters, sky and bright pink bougainvillea covering the hillside:
(click image to expand view)
Anchorage here is quite small, sharing it with two other sailboats. We arrived just at sunset (thank you Daylight Savings!!!) We have loosely made an agreement that we would only come into new anchorages during daylight hours, thus minimizing issues navigating shoreline obstacles as much as possible.
First night we crashed early, with plans to visit Manzanillo tomorrow.
Leisurely starting our day the following day, we packed bags and headed into the marina to check in, take showers and head into Manzanillo
Las Hadras has a super small marina, maybe 30 tiny "slips" mostly consisting of local fishing boats/pangas and no real amenities that I could see. Our books shared there was a small daily dock fee for our dinghy, which also included use of all theirs and the hotel's facilities! Heck yeah!
Yeah...not so much. Once again, outdated books are not always the most accurate in terms of these minor details....
We check-in with the dock master and are told fee is 250 pesos (for reference, all other dinghy dock fees we have paid in other marinas (both large and small) have been no more than 20 pesos. SO this was a bit surprising, but fine as it's our only option for safe storage of our dinghy/getting to shore. The Dock Master then shared their showers are open for our use, but no, there is a separate fee if we wanted to use Las Hadras Resort, which we would need to work out with the resort separately.
Man, they are not kidding (meaning other websites/books/blogs and WOM from other cruisers we have met) Mexico is definitely getting hip to charging boaters for every little thing. Oh well, at least we can shower.
Again, whomp, whomp. More and more, I kick myself when thinking if I see red flags from the get-go at a certain marina, it's usually all down hill thereafter. Point in case here. We get to their quote, unquote bathrooms/showers and I am beginning to question what they define as a "shower." My definition is a place where one can get CLEAN. Theirs? Ummm, let's go with the opposite of my definition.
Pretty. damn. gross.
And for the first time in history ever, the women's bathroom is WAY, WAY worse then the men's (I think something had died in there, I might have started dry heaving when I walked in, can't completely recall as I have blocked it out already) I'll save you an in-depth description of what I recalled the smell being equated to. Just let your imagination wander to all horrible smells and then add heat and humidity to that lovely perfumed mixture.
Jay comes out of the men's side and we both give each other "the eye." The eye being a look we both have developed, without having to use words that communicate the following:
1. what sh*t end of the stick did we just draw now
2. what's our new level of grossness
3. sizing each other up as to which one of us is going to make the call on what to do. AKA: redrawing the line again of MEH/screw it versus NOPE-ing out of there.
Jay speaks first, "claiming" the mens isn't so bad. At this point, I am too irked at the dinghy fee (which supposedly included these nice showers) and being overall a dirty, sweaty mess to really care much anymore. I just wanted to be clean and be on our way, exploring.
MEH/SCREW IT it is and a new line redrawn again! If we come back home and insist on bathing in an outhouse surrounded by pigs as standard, you will understand where it all originated from.
In the name of adventure, I let a lot slide....but misinformation/promise of nice amenities resulting in showers looking like abandoned WWII bunkers/buildings looking like squatters have taken over is starting to frustrate me. Totally fine with an honest heads-up, then I can make the call ahead of time. But getting my hopes up on having a luxurious shower with full pressure, hot water for eternity and then having it ripped away from me. Well it sucks and I am developing trust issues. I think I will go back to being Pig Pen, with a dirt cloud around me all the time and only showering on the boat.
After standing under a trickle of water and washing off about 10% of our grime, we head out and on our way (I showered in the men's room BTW. This is after weighing my crap options of showering while dry heaving, with a good potential of throwing up versus showering as fast as humanly possible and praying no man needed to come in for #2. Incredibly thrilling experience....can't wait to do that again.)
Before catching the bus, we wandered around Las Hadras Resort. An absolutely stunning and architectually fascinating hotel. The resorts sits perched on a hillside overlooking the bay we are anchored in. Small cobblestone roads and walkways wind around the property with stunning views of the ocean throughout.
(that's BOAT happily sitting in her anchorage (slightly off centered from middle to the left)
(Super cool transportation on property for the guests around the grounds/to-from their rooms)
After meandering around the property grounds for a bit, we made our way to the entrance and to the bus stop to get into town.
Since wanting to enjoy the day and sightsee, we took this first bus as far as it would go, hopped off and guestimated the next bus we needed take to get to Manzanillo center. This is with the full enjoyment of potentially getting lost if we didn't make it to the center on first try. Also given our previous misses with finding where we wanted to go, we figured we would just go with the flow of the day and see where we ended up. I guess that is the trick for us, going with the flow, as next bus we hoped on, took us right into the city center!
The city center is focused around a little roundabout with a ton of traffic flowing in and out at dizzying speeds; cars, trucks, taxis, buses both large and small, and pedestrian traffic all whizzing around the center. We actually just sat and watched all the movement for a bit, people watching, and observing the bustle going on around us.
We wandered up and down main streets and side streets. Street vendors and shops filling the street and sidewalks with all sorts of energetic activity. I am not sure why, but I had visions of Manzanillo being a bit more industrial (think long empty cement streets lined with rows upon rows of large warehouses and little to no foot traffic) So I was surprised by a more local neighboorhood-esque city.
Side story: Many many moons ago, probably dating back to before antiquity, Jesus' birth and definitely before color was invented, four crazy college students took off in a VW bus (atleast I think it was a VW bus, definitely a hippie mobile of some sort) tripping from the east coast to Mexico for a school project. Two of these people were....my Mom and Dad, but well before they gained those titles, bringing little hellion me into the world. The other two crazy students? Dear family friends whom also eventually married, raising their family and spending much of our growing up together (Hi Richard and Annie!) This magical story that I had heard about many times from both my parents gave me even more reason to explore this city.
(and the comment about how long ago this all occurred is my duty per chapter 65 of the manual all kids get, How to Continually Irritate Your Parents... like an obligatory birthright in a way. You know, growing up, thinking your parents are as old as dirt...fast forward to actually being an adult at the age you swore they must have been atleast 100 years old and blown away by how in the hell they did all that with such maturity, grace, patience and wisdom. Hell, I can barely keep succulents and goldfish alive past 7 days, let alone raise little humans, especially little devils such as myself. Mother Theresa award to both my parents for not actually following thru with their threats of dropping me off on the side of the road in my youth [Hint: you should have]
(...and yet again another tangent story from me totally unrelated to anything else here in this post. Ok then, moving on now and BACK TO OUR TRIP!)
After exploring around for a good full day, we hitched a ride back on the bus and back to Las Hadras. The sun was beginning its skyline arch back to the horizon and its bedtime. We had our sights on our next leg: Ixtapa. With a three day sail ahead of us, we worked backwards in terms of estimated arrival times and decided best to start out that evening, giving us a lot of swing time on daytime arrival. Of course, ultimately being determined by winds, seas and currents as to how fast (or slow) we would be traveling, the nighttime departure would allow for some "bobbing around aimlessly" time should conditions not work in our favored direction.
We pulled anchor around 5pm and set off for Ixtapa!
--
Last Passage Distance: 24.7nm
Cumulative Distance to Date: 1,712.83nm
Days since last donating to Poseidon: Jeez so many at this point I have lost count. Might I have to retire this running tally?!
Items donated: n/a
Comments