A SAN BLAS VALENTINE

Casa Moreles in San Blas has a pet white pelican tethered in their patio. He's not from the local flock, which are all brown. He reportedly wanders down the street and stops traffic if they let him go.

Chacala turned out to be inhospitable this year, thanks to a rolly anchorage that was at times rougher than being underway. I spent Monday wandering the town looking for my friend Andee, but she was not to be found. Located her new place, a second-floor apartment in Dona Lupe’s establishment and left a note.

Then I wandered the main street, watching for her, and also looking for Daniela's shop, for my favorite rayon beach dresses. Last summer I lived in these little shifts, which are so light they feel like you’re wearing nothing, and come in various lengths to suit any level of modesty. I like the ones that end just above the knee.

We gave it up after two sleepless nights and made an early start for San Blas. Within a couple of hours the seas were flattened and glassy, and we had a Cadillac ride up the coast, a rare occurrence when you’re traveling north. We motored the whole way, due to winds too light for our sails, and arrived on Valentine's Day.

San Blas is another one of my favorite stops on the mainland coast. There’s a big anchorage along the Metanchen outside the estuary entrance, but we always enter the estuary and drop anchor just opposite the navy docks, where the water is so flat it’s like being in a parking lot. This was our fourth visit, and out of habit we checked in with the resident cruisers’ pilot, Capt. Norm Goldie, a transplanted New Yorker who has been guiding boats into San Blas for 40 years.

It’s easy to go aground entering the estuary, if you’re not warned to stay within the buoys and bear to the left side. If a sailboat goes aground, it can block the larger fishing boats from entering, and raise the ire of the Port Captain.


San Blas Plaza is brightly lighted at night

Norm has a tradition of inviting newcomers to meet him in the Plaza the evening of their arrival, and helping them get settled in. He also welcomes visitors to his beautiful garden in the morning and serves coffee and pastries. He’s even made up an information packet with a map, shopping guide and San Blas lore. Some cruisers apparently resent his paternalistic style and shun his hospitality, but I’ve always found him and his wife Janet a treasure of tips and information. And I confess, I get a kick out of their New York accents. So once we had puttered into the estuary, obediently bearing to the left as he emphasized on the radio, had our lunch and a brief nap, we put on our “town clothes” and dingied to shore for our rendezvous with the Goldies.


A bevy of San Blas schoolgirls in immaculate white uniforms (a laundry challenge for Las Madres!)

Last year the dinghy landing was the navy dock itself, and two guards helped us climb out and onto the dock, which is built for ship access. We paid the sailors at the end of our stay with a bag of pastries. This year Edgar, a young civilian, acts as security for a lower concrete dock nearby, in exchange for a daily 10-peso tip. The dock’s not lighted at night and we soon learned to bring a flashlight.

Our first stop at the San Blas Plaza is always our favorite paleteria, where we buy frozen fruit bars, usually coconut. Norm was already sitting in the Plaza, wearing his trademark Hawaiian shirt and various mementos--a gold marlin, curious carvings of bone--draped around his neck. The Capt. asked him about the best source for a new alternator (ours was ruined when a hose carrying salt water broke and sprayed it). I wanted to know if anyone had reported good results from using Vitamin B-12 to build immunity against the dreaded San Blas “no-see-ums.” Nope, Norm says.

There must be a place in Nature’s plan for these evil biting gnats; they're the one feature of San Blas I always dread. Each visit leaves me with dozens of itchy bites, especially around my knees and ankles. The only repellent that seems to work is Autan, a Mexican cream that comes in a tube and leaves the skin somewhat sticky (especially combined with a layer of sunblock). They only attack during the hours of dawn and early evening, and Jan says after 40 years she’s developed some immunity to them, so it’s possible to coexist with them. She recommended spraying the boat with a solution called H-24, which we promptly bought, but when we used it the odor was so foul we decided rely on Off , which we spray on our clothing to avoid absorbing DEET into our blood, and on the special fine-mesh no-see-um screens I made for all our hatches. I soon learned the easiest way to deal with the bites I always get anyway, is to rub a slice of lemon on them.

Jan said although a little spraying has been done by the city of San Blas to combat the no-see-ums and the equally voracious mosquitoes that arrive every summer, there’ll never be an all-out spraying war conducted here, because of the fishing and shrimping industry. Spray would wash into the estuary when it rains and kill the larvae that become shrimp, a vital part of the town’s economy.


The Surfers' Museum

The upside of all this is that there may never be a McDonald’s, a Holiday Inn or a condo row here. San Blas was first settled 3000 years ago, by a tribe of 45 Indians (how they know how many, I can't imagine). The Spaniards used San Blas as a jumping-off point for their explorations, and Fr. Junipero Serra started his mission-building trek with 16 missionaries, from San Blas. There’s a jungle tour that takes you upriver to a lagoon where you can swim (mind the crocs!) and dine at a little restaurant. Huichol Indians from the mountains east of here come to sell their intricate beadwork and observe special ceremonies by the sea. Nahaytls come from Guerrero and Zapatecos from Oaxaca with their beads and wood carvings to sell in the little plaza near the docks. World-famous shrimp up to a quarter-pound are caught here. A big coffee plantation is nearby and tours will take you there and to a very old Mexican village nearby. And the beach, lined with palapas and camping sites and boasting its own Surfing Museum, is one of the cleanest and pleasantest I’ve seen in Mexico!

A few little palapas on stilts are for rent on the San Blas beach