Good-Bye Mexico

Good times. Good-Bye

After spending a little over two years in Mexico, going back and forth as needed to renew our visas we've left Chiapas, heading South towards Nicaragua.

It's time to say a hearty Good-Bye, and big Thank You!

We had a great time in Mexico, and made so many incredible memories. Humpback whales when we rounded Cabo, huge dolphin pods in the Sea of California, turtles and rays. We watched coyotes fishing in shallow waters, and seals hunting large schools of fish.

Most importantly we met many friendly people, cruisers and locals. Many made us feel so very welcomed, and we enjoyed their "can do" and hard work attitude.

We started learning what cruising further away from large yachting centers means, and the self-reliance it entails. We also learned how big the country is, having been fooled a little by the Mercator projection that makes it look a little smaller than the 3,000 miles of coast we ended up exploring.

Refugio was magical

Because we don't plan much, other than booking safe harbors during hurricane season, we had to adapt our spare part and our provisions' inventories. We enjoyed the extra freedom that comes from being able to anchor in a beautiful place, and decide we like it so much we stay as long as we want.

Refugio, up in the northern part of the Sea of Cortez was one of the many such spots where we spent as long as we felt like. 40 miles away from any port, we were on our own, in crystal clear waters with seals and sea lions for main neighbors, with the occasional humpback whale.

Like on so many huge empty beaches, Princess could run, and we'd walk behind her, holding hands, chatting away and enjoying every moment of these special times. Days, often similar but never truly the same.

Princess running at her heart's content

Navigating was mostly easy, with predictable weather most of the time, but we had our share of strong winds. The biggest challenge was the lack of good detailed nautical charts outside some more touristic areas and anchorages.

We found volcanic rocks jutting up from the depths, totally uncharted. Easier, we found large bays marked as "shallow" on our charts, yet completely accessible and open to cruising and anchoring. It definitely kept us on our toes, and I suspect things won't get any better as we head towards Central America.

So many dolphins

We learned to navigate the necessary paperwork too. Nothing too difficult and we became quite good at doing the strict minimum, but there were a few times we couldn't avoid trekking around a city to a Capitania to get a "Zarpe" or similar. Every time, we found helpful -if unhurried- personnel. Di's native Spanish and my relative understanding helped open doors and smiles even more.

On that front the most involved was -surprisingly- when we left Mexico, with the Chiapas procedures being more complex than for internal legs.

Luckily Chiapas marina proved extremely helpful and held our hands throughout the process.

It started with a visit to the local marine office, where a few of us, cruisers either entering or leaving Mexico, had gathered in a tiny office, with 3 marine officials. The first, sat behind a small metal desk and wearing a white and blue uniform, a woman with a big huge smile who delegated most everything. The chief.

The second, a thin lady in a beige uniform, clearly her assistant, spent a great amount of time inking the official stamps' ink-pads with the proper red ink, and checking that the date and design would properly print when applied. She was, in effect, in charge of the ink-pad. From her serious demeanor that was obviously a very important job.

Last, a tall young kid, probably an intern or similar, hovered over the photocopier. His job I therefore understood to be the photocopier operator, as no one else even approached the completely standard machine.

Incredible sights, and coyotes hiding

The circuit went thus:

The chief would study the various documents we'd each brought in, settle on a particular form, turn around to her assistant who would then double and triple check the ink, ink-pad and stamp. Very formally, she'd hand it over to her boss, who'd then in an important gesture that comes from years of being chief, would stamp the document in a single powerful thwack. She'd smile at the result, and move on to the next stack of documents, to repeat the action.

The now stamped document made it's way from the chief, to the assistant to the photocopier handler, all of them within arm reach of one another in the tiny space, and he'd then produce as many copies as needed, before handling them back up the chain.

At no time was the chain ever broken, documents always going up and down the line. Chief, assistant, photocopier.

With all properly stamped document in hands, we then moved on to the Capitania where we waited a couple hours, all our nice documents having mysteriously disappeared behind an impenetrable office window, through a special slot.

Once in a while someone would pop their head in our waiting room, and tell us it wouldn't be long. That was more friendly propaganda than anything time related, but eventually, and somewhat suddenly all our documents re-appeared, with a couple more. These would allow us to now head over to the immigration office, about an hour away at the Mexico/Nicaragua border.

All the waiting for paperwork made worth it in spots like this

The drive was uneventful, if spirited and creative. We found ourselves in a huge hangar like office, which to our surprise after a long day, handled everything in a few minutes.

Last, the next morning, an inspection crew from the local marine base came to inspect the boat, beautiful drug sniffing Malinois dog in tow.

Suddenly that was it: We were cleared to leave Mexico. Actually we had to leave within 48 hours. It felt both as a relief after spending a whole day getting the OK, but we couldn't escape a pinch of sadness to be leaving.

Good-Bye then.

Adios!