Twenty Days in Tenacatita

January 8-27, 2024

Tenacatita is a large bay roughly 120 nautical miles south of Puerto Vallarta. It was one of our favorite stops last season and we had been talking it up to our friends and twisting their arms to head there as soon as we could. After a quick two nights in Chamela, we had talked them into it and the crews of Tasi, One World, and Starr E picked up anchor and headed for Tenacatita under great downwind conditions.

We got the anchor set in Tenacatita and proceeded to enjoy the area. We met up with old friends and made new ones as more and more boats arrived. At one point I counted over 40 boats in the anchorage. The crews of Tino Pai, Rio Solado, One World, Starr E, Lia Hona, Caribana, Rest Awhile, Finally, Rosemullion, Watermark and many others made the most of our days with morning surf sessions and afternoon beach meet-ups complete with smash ball and happy hour. There was even a late night whiskey tasting (or two) thrown in the mix.

We took a few trips up the river to the adjacent beach named the Aquarium where we enjoyed beach palapa days and a Raicilla tasting. The river goes through a thick estuary which gets quite narrow and is known to have crocodiles making for a unique ride.

Raicilla is an agave based liquor native to this area. It’s related to Tequila but has a smokier flavor similar to Mezcal. Our guide, Pancho, proceeded to explain to us how the local producers are subsidized by the government so they can continue to produce Raicilla using traditional hand made techniques without the need to mass produce. We then proceeded to taste a lot of Raicilla and enjoyed a nice lunch on the grounds before loading back into the pickup for a ride back to our dinghies and the ride back down the crocodile infested river. What could go wrong with that?

We had heard there is a waterfall hike in the small town of La Manzanilla which is 3 miles across the bay from our anchorage. We loaded up in several dinghies and headed over. The hike took us through the outskirts of town into the jungle which was cool to hike through. It is the dry season now so the waterfall was a little small but still worth the effort. It’s truly about the journey, not the destination.

The kids organized a bonfire one of the nights. They gathered all the wood and set up the fire. Just added a little gasoline and we had bonfire.

In our downtime we relaxed and enjoyed the anchorage.

And just like that, we had been there almost three weeks. It was time to leave but it wouldn’t be easy. First we had to dive under the boat to scrape off three weeks of growth from the propeller and other underwater parts of the boat. Then we had to laboriously clean the anchor chain foot by foot as we brought it up since it was also covered in soft growth and barnacles. Finally we were off to Barra de Navidad. This is another favorite little town from last season. Unfortunately, on the way I wasn’t feeling all that well. After arriving and getting settled in to the marina, I continued to feel worse.

Yup, came down with COVID so have been isolated on the boat for 5 days. Finally feeling better now as I write this blog entry. Hopefully we’ll get out to enjoy Barra here soon.