We were keen to reach Barra for two reasons: one was the Panama Posse Kickoff Event, but the bigger reason was to meet up with our friends Manuel and Emma who run “The View,” a restaurant built on the roof of their home in Collomilla. We had helped them get their business started some five years previously and it was great to see that they had weathered two lost tourist seasons to Covid without losing their business to the troubles. Walking the streets of Barra it was very clear to us that two years of Covid had wreaked general havoc on the small local business community there - shuttered doors and empty buildings were in abundance.
As we have moved northward we have noticed that adherence to Covid protocols have steadily diminished - gringos often being the worst offenders, throwing caution to the winds for both themselves and others. Masking at the Panama Posse kickoff events was minimal and our guard levels also likely dropped. A week after leaving Barra, Greg fell to a feverish illness that lasted through 11 highly unpleasant days of self-isolation on the boat while we stayed at La Cruz in Banderas Bay. Alice was thankfully unscathed, save for having to suffer the same lengthy period of boat boredom.
With Greg at last convalesced sufficiently for us to move onward, we headed to meet our friends Al and Kate in Mazatlan. On the way we again visited the always lovely Isla Isabel, nesting grounds to the blue-footed booby and numerous other sea birds. Just outside the anchorage, jumping, slapping and spouting were 3 groups of hump-back whales. At night the whales would move in close enough to the anchored boats that we could hear their spouts and smell their breath.
Arriving at Mazatlan, our friends Al and Kate offered us a spare room - spacious luxury with a real bed, hot showers and an actual porcelain toilet! We celebrated the arrival of 2022 at the lovely Torres Mazatlan resort in the open outside air, tables widely spaced apart. The dance floor got a little crowded but no one in our group has subsequently gotten sick (save for the next day hangovers) so perhaps we are lucky, even if we are not always smart.
Tomorrow we head north into the Sea of Cortez, bound for Puerto Escondido Baja. There our son Adrian and his friend Gabor plan to fly in to nearby Loreto and then spend 10 days with us exploring the anchorages as we head southwards to La Paz.
Zooming around at high speeds in the lagoon at Barra.
Bird watching in the estuary at Tenacatita.
