Taxco is the silver mining center of Mexico and many of the artisans who fashion Mexican silver jewelry live and work in the town. In fact every second shop we saw was a “platera” or jewelry shop. The mountain town dates from the Aztecs and the name Taxco is from the Aztec language for “ball playing place”. Many of the Spanish colonial buildings have been restored and this is now a Mexican Historical Center so new construction is “supposed” to reflect this colonial architecture. We entered town during a strike demonstration by the silver miners that had closed the main roads into town. By following a line of taxicabs we were able to find the back streets through town going up and over the steep hillside. Taxco has the steepest streets I have ever walked or driven and some of the narrowest. Some streets had switchbacks that were so sharp that the taxis (all Volkswagen Bugs with the front passenger seat removed to allow access to the back seat) had to make three point turns to negotiate them. At one point Andrea had herself braced against the dashboard to keep from sliding forward and out of the seat.
We found a budget hotel where the principal features were cleanliness, proximity to the center of town, free parking, and that it happened to be the first hotel we saw after negotiating the steep streets into town. The room itself was nicely tiled, but had no window at all and no fans. A single cinder block had been removed above the door for air circulation. Fortunately Taxco is well elevated and temperatures were cool. We spent all of our time here wandering the mystery maze of streets sometimes running into the same street corner three or four times before we found our way out of the maze. All the streets were filled with either vendors or taxicabs, but when we did locate an exit they would open onto very pleasant plazas with restaurants and jewelry shops.
We drove back to Acapulco on Sunday afternoon and picked up our trip right where we were in my last note, just 72 hours later. By mid-morning Monday we were motoring out of Acapulco ready for the 48 hours to Puerto Angel. Well, almost ready. An hour into the trip our right engine overheated, but we decided to limp along on one engine (again) until we could fix it. The two day sail south (and east) was very pleasant. We sailed for good portions of the trip and we flew our asymmetrical spinnaker for several hours each day. For those of you who manage to get the spinnakers flying just in time to tack or jibe or pull it in we will only note that a 5 hour spinnaker run, autopilot, no change in course or wind direction, is an immense pleasure. When the winds died each evening we lowered sails and motored slowly.
We arrived in Puerto Angel (15 39.4/96 29.5) about 53 hours out of Acapulco . We dropped anchor of a small sandy beach lined with palapas and palms and immediately dropped off to sleep. Puerto Angel is a pretty anchorage in a small town. It is also located just a few miles from the famous (or infamous) Zipolite surf beach. We walked the three mile road over the steep hill to Zipolite which is renowned for both it’s beautiful surf and it’s dangerous undertows and has earned the name “Playa del Muerte” for the number of swimmers who drown here each year. The fact that much of the beach is a “Playa Nudista” also contributes to the popularity of the beach. Zipolite is budget Mexico . The lodgings are generally open air construction renting either rooms or just hammocks for the beach crowd. To say the beach is “beautiful” is an understatement. White sand, clear blue water, bougainvillea and hibiscus, palms, cheap beer, paradise found. For the return trip to Puerto Angel we grabbed the local bus which was a pickup truck with two bench seats mounted in the back. The bus was slow, full and fun and much easier than walking.
From Puerto Angel we moved another 25 miles along the coast to Puerto Huatulco (15 44.5/96 07.2) where we will wait for a good weather window before attempting to cross the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec . Huatulco is the Mexican version of a planned city with wide boulevards, paved streets, mostly finished construction and big ideas. The city was carved from the jungle less than 25 years ago and unlike most of the older cities it benefited from preplanned infrastructure. Sewer lines were laid, a water treatment plant was built and fiber optic cable was laid before the town was built. We think we will be here for at least a week… waiting.
if you like you can Google “ Gulf of Tehuantepec ” and see why we are proceeding with caution at this point. The winds in the Gulf average Force 6 year round and frequently exceed Force 8. (These gale force winds are called Tehuantepeckers and are a constant topic of conversation for cruisers along the southern Mexico coast. You cannot pass through this area without paying close attention to the T-peckers.) Add steep waves and surf to the formula and you have an uncomfortable and dangerous body of water. We will cross the Gulf in one quick dash sailing east to Salina Cruz (16 08.9/95 11.1) and then hugging the shoreline all the way to avoid the worst of the winds that funnel out of the Carribbean and across the narrow Isthmus of Tehuantepec. We will likely skip Puerto Madero (14 41.7/92 25.0) on the south end of the Gulf and make Huatulco our last stop in Mexico . If that is the case this leg of the trip will be a single 500 mile voyage to Barillas, El Salvador (13 09.4/88 28.1) and should take some 5 days at sea.
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