MEXICO

2001 Mexican Peso = $US 0.10

  Isla Mujeres
May 2001

Banco Chinchorro
June 2001

Xcalak
June 2001

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After a week or so of settling in, with much guidance from our friends Margret and Ulli on "Filia", we found that we could live very comfortably in Isla Mujeres. The typical prices were as shown in the table at left. The chicken dinner mentioned in the table was a roasted chicken half, beans and rice, pickeled onions, roasted jalapenos, and a stack of tortillas. On the other hand, we went to Cancun shopping for a 2 hp outboard and after long search finally found the Yamaha dealer only to learn the outboard is US$740 which was more than in Florida. 

Lisa began cooking every day, and having a great time trying new recipes and some new ingredients (several new fruits, some cheeses, and many different types of peppers). One day she made a batch of fudge. It also became a daily routine to ponder the weather - we were watching for an opportunity to moove south, but the tropical waves kept arriving every few days. We kept thinking the weather would be better in a few days, because the forecast predicts only 72 hours ahead. . . we waited a month. It is not that the weather was BAD in most respects, it was quite nice actually. But the wind stayed from the southeast. Finally a day came when it seemed a little more east than southeast and we decided it was time to move on to the south.

6/9/01 - We sailed south from Isla Mujeres at about noon. Soon afterward, we cleared Punta Cancun with all those hotels. We hoped to visit Tulum, a Mayan site to the south of Cancun along the coast. However, the seas and wind were too strong for us to go into the cut in the reef at Tulum. It would have been possible to go into the anchorage, but likely impossible to depart again for a few days, so we continued southward in the night and into the next day.

We sailed two days and two nights upwind against the current in five foot seas with winds of 15 to 25 knots and made it on the afternoon of June 11 to Banco Chinchorro. It is one of only four coral atolls in the western hemisphere according to our cruising guide book. The coral reef almost completely encircles a shallow bank which is 20 miles long and about 6 to 8 miles wide. We anchored near the two small islands at the north end. The reef was pretty fished out, but still beautiful with many small fish. Here, we also collected, cleaned and prepared our first conchs for dinner. We stayed a week.

6/19/01 - arrived from Banco Chinchorro at Xcalac (ish-ka-LAK) which is the southernmost port on the east coast of Mexico. We followed a range through a narrow cut in the reef. The anchorage is just behind the reef and in front of the town. This is a very quiet and out-of-the-way place. There is only electricity from 7:30 PM to 11:30 PM daily, and there is no telephone line. The post office accepts local deliveries only, but a local resident travels to the nearest city, Chetumal, periodically and will carry mail for foreign delivery. We finished our stay in Xcalac with a fine evening of dining at the Tierra Maya resort. Tom the resort operator, kindly gave us a ride back to the dinghy dock to save us from the mosquitoes.

6/22/01 - We departed Xcalak with waves crashing through the inlet and breaking on our foredeck - very exciting! We made a comfortable and short run down the coast and arrived at the anchorage in San Pedro, Belize five hours later.