We’ve been laying low in Marina Chiapas preparing for our exit out of North America and Mexico. Since we’ve done quite a bit of inland travel in Mexico the last two years and plan to do a lot in Central America, we decided to forgo any traveling here. As luck would have it, the sailboat Yonder arrived yesterday heading north and we have been picking their brains on all things El Salvador and further south. What a wealth of information and they were very willing to give us the ins and outs.
Marina Chiapas is a bit remote requiring either an expensive taxi ride or an adventure in a collectivo, which is basically a van filled to the max with people. The collectivo’s cost about 1.50 USD, have no air conditioning, stop often and are ‘personalized’ by the drivers.
The front seat of the collectivo all decked out by the driver. Lucky for us there was no music blasting out of the speakers. For 20 pesos each, we got a ride to town.
Puerto Chiapas is home to a fishing fleet with a fish processing plant as well as a coffee roasting facility that makes instant coffee. All that combines for some interesting smells and the water is actually the color of coffee. There are plans to build a hotel near the marina but I’m not sure what the draw would be for vacationers here. The restaurant on site is quite good and from what we observed locals are what is keeping that and the small convenience store open.
The marina staff here are awesome and provide a great service checking into and out of Mexico. They completed all our paperwork and drove us to four different places so we could check out of the country. It took three hours but without their help we would still be running around instead of working on this blog. Oh and they took Gary and our jerry cans to get fuel.
We are excited to be moving on to El Salvador and the rally. We have our ‘appointment’ all lined up to cross the bar. Thank you Jeff on Third Wish for the good conversation on our last evening in Mexico.
Fair winds,
Cindy
