Isla Mujeres Mexico and South.

By Captain Scott Buckley

As I write this post about our experiences in Mexico I am actually in Guatemala.  We have cruised Belize and traveled up the Rio Dulce in Guatemala and are at a Marina.  Cleaning up the boat washing clothes, taking long showers and yes catching up on blog post because we have INTERNET.  Tamera always says the same thing when we are anchored at some remote island with no one around she will pick up her phone and announce that she “cannot believe there is NO INTERET”.  I usually reply, “I know I hate this place”.

I want to talk more about the magic of Belize and the jewel that is Guatemala but to do justice to the chronology of the blog I have to cover those times that are already fading into memory.

In Isla Mujeres Mexico we checked into our second foreign country as cruisers.  It is a bit harder than it was in the Bahamas because of the language barrier.  As well there are much fewer cruising boats that visit the Western Caribbean than the Eastern Caribbean therefore it is a little less cruiser friendly.  To add to the general confusion for first timers like us the system has recently changed.  The Navy took over the Port Captains duties and removed many services such as immigration and custom office up and down the eastern Yucatan coast.  I believe this effort is to combat corruption but it is causing problems for many Mexican as this was their way of doing business with Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Trinidad and others.   While I applaud the intent of this action the impact has been hard on the towns down the Yucatan coast that relied on trading other than the tourist trade.  For us and those traveling with us this lost of official services would prove problematic later on.
'I used the services of an agent to help us get through checking into Mexico.  I did not plan it this way but when we arrived in Isla Mujeres I guess I had been running on nerves.  In the past 4 days after leaving St. Joe Florida I had only slept an hour or two.   Once we were tied up at a dock I went ashore alone to begin clearing in the crew and vessel.  Within 30 to 40 minutes of walking to this and that office the exhaustion began to overwhelm me.  I could no longer think straight and my Spanish was becoming horribly mixed with Portuguese, English and even some Russian.  I knew I was screwing up the discussion but my mind was not functioning correctly.  Words kept flying out of my mouth that I knew were wrong but for the life of me I could not summon the correct Spanish ones.  As I walked I felt myself being pulled to the ground by a weariness that I had not experienced in decades.  I no longer wanted to return to the boat but instead find a shady tree to lie down under and drift off.  I asked the Marina office clerk to recommend an agent to help me complete the checking documentation cha cha.  I met him and somehow passed along enough information to get him started checking the crew and vessel into Mexico.  At the time he asked me if I also wanted to check out of Mexico.  At the time that made no sense to my already mottled brain.  I did not know how long I would be in Mexico and there was so much more to see along the coast.  Since you only have 48 hours to get out the country after checking out I wanted to wait.  Turns out I was wrong.

The Crew of Kooky Dance after checking into Mexico.  Scott, Tamera and Bud.  Bud is the handsome one.

But, we were in Isla Mujeres.  Me and my best friend (Tamera my 1st mate) had worked hard save our money, delayed our gratification so that someday we could sail our own little boat to see the world at our pace and not the pace of some tour guide.  We kept looking at each other at odd times and asking; “you know what?”.  “We’re in Isla Mujeres”.  Occasionally it would be followed by a high five slapping of hands.  Sometime we would asking each other at the same time. 

The lovely 1st mate infront of the "Puerto Isla Mujeres marina sign.

We stayed at the Marina for an extra day to that it would be easy to get Bud our crewmate from St. Joe FL to the Cancun ferry so he could catch his plane back home. Back home has a new meaning for Tamera and me.  We have no home in the USA.  Our little boat Kooky Dance IS our home.  Where she goes we go.  So she went and anchored down in the Isla Mujeres anchorage for the next several weeks.  I was keen on meeting some cruisers and was hoping to hook up with some buddy boats heading south that could show us the way.  It is funny how things work out.
In many popular cruiser anchorages there are cruiser radio nets broadcasted almost every morning.  On these nets new boats are welcomed to the area, departing vessel get to say good bye, announcements are made and questions get answered.  Every new boat to an anchorage with a local cruiser’s radio net listens every morning and that includes us.   There was a call on this particular net in Isla Mujeres for volunteers to act as net controllers.  The “net Controller” organizes, schedules and grants permission for communication on the net.  They call for priority or medical traffic, they pass on weather forecasts and make useful safety announcements.  If someone want to pass traffic on the net they announce their vessel’s name and wait to be recognized.   The “net controller” keeps things flowing and controls radio traffic so that people are not broadcasting at the time or what is commonly called walking on each other. 
The 1st mate suggested if I really want to meet other cruisers then I should volunteer to be net controller.  Well I immediately began cussing her and calling her less than nice name.  Why?  Because she was right.  What did I know about being a net controller?  Who in their right minds liked public speaking in high school?  But, I could not think of a reasonable argument to counter her logic (Dam woman).  So I volunteered and thought I would only be doing it for 1 day a week but ended up doing it as much as 5 days a week.  But, Tamera turned out to be right.  Tamera and I got better known and met other cruiser and some turned out to be also head south and agreed to buddy boat with us.  The issue of who was leading who quickly evolved shortly after we once got underway. 
I should write about our stay in Isla Mujeres before I start droning on about leaving.  We soon left the marina after we took Bud to the airport and went to the anchorage out near town.  From here we needed to dinghy into town.  As there are no official dinghy docks and some businesses that had docks reserved their use to customers you generally had to find unofficial places to deposit your dinghy while you walked to town

Tying the dinghy up to the tree on the beach.

Sunset in t Isla Mujeres Anchorage

Stopping for lunch while provisioning

Isla Mujeres 1

Isla Mujeres 2

Isla Mujeres 3

  

El Milagro

Isla Mujeres was pretty friendly to cruisers for a predominately tourist driven town.  The streets teamed with souvenir vendor tour boat operators and taxis.  But expensive restaurants were plentiful and markets were easy and cheap for provisioning.  We made friends with some other cruiser that were also headed south and played around Isla Mujeres for the next 3 weeks. 

Swinging around in the Anchorage

Anchor watch track.  The boat moves around a bit when

at anchor.  Winds shift and tidal current changes 

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