Still enjoying the Barra Navidad area but we moved from the lagoon to the marina where we have full privileges to the resort facilities. We love swimming off the boat when at anchor, but a pool in a resort with a swim up bar is a close second.

The town of Barra has a lot more happening than La Cruz. Restaurants, bars, a few tiny markets but Barra has small shops, which La Cruz does not have. And since Barra is bigger, there are way more locals in the restaurants and shops than there are boaters. A nice change from La Cruz.

One of the drinks many of the bars feature in Barra is the Michelada. Typically this is beer and Clamato Juice but we were seeing some other interesting takes on it. We decided to give them a try at Nacho’s where the owner, Carlos, is the bartender. While Carlos has a very small bar, he crafts exceptional cocktails.

Our waiter was Paco who speaks very good English. He is the ‘front man’ for Nachos pulling in people off the sidewalk. After talking with Paco, Gary chose a Michelada that included tamarind and I chose one with shrimp soup. I know you are probably all thinking, how gross is that. Carlos added ice and garnished them with cucumbers sprinkled with spices and we had one helluva big drink. I’m not sure we liked the combination enough to order them again but we both liked it well enough to finish them.

In talking with Paco we learned he teaches English and Spanish as well as instructing cooking classes. The following day he was teaching a class of 32 how to make chili relleno’s. When I mentioned that was a lot of people for a cooking class, Paco said ‘well I like to make money’.

Gary and I were walking back to the boat one hot afternoon and we came upon a small dog who looked very hot and stressed laying in the shade on the sidewalk. He didn’t move though we were only steps away. We hustled to our boat, filled up a plastic bowl with some water and I took off back to the dog. As I was approaching the gangway leading from the dock up to the sidewalk, I met a woman. She greeted me cheerfully and noting that I was balancing a bowl of water let me go ahead of her. Eager to get the dog some water, I hustled down the sidewalk to the left and she went to the right. But the dog wanted nothing to do with me or the water so off he went. There was a flurry of excitement further down the sidewalk at the sight of the dog. A couple who clearly knew the dog called out to his ‘mommy’ behind me that the dog had been found. I turned around and of course it was the lady on the gangway. The dog had wandered off the dock and she was just going to look for him when we met. My efforts to ‘save’ her dog got me a hug.