Barra de Navidad (First Stay)
We spent ten days in February anchored in the lagoon at Barra de Navidad. Our neighbors varied from 35-55 sailboats at any given time. Barra is a great stop-off point loved by cruisers for its sheltered (except for high wind conditions) “parking” area and several easy-to-access towns for eating, drinking, touristing and provisioning. We had a few days to catch up with both Firefly and Double Dharma whom we had not seen in a month or more.
One of the highlights of the lagoon is Emeric, the French Baker who visits the anchorage (and the nearby marina) each morning to deliver fresh croissants, quiches, pies, baguettes and more. We must admit that he was a regular visitor to Voyager, plus we stocked up on some frozen, ready-to-bake croissants when we departed Barra.
Adjacent to the marina in Barra is a spectacular luxury hotel, Grand Bay Resort. This facility is very yachtie-friendly and welcomes cruisers to enjoy their beautiful pools (as long as we do some occasional shopping at their restaurants/bars). Julie, Patty (Neener, Neener, Neener – yes REALLY!), and Dena (Double Dharma) spent a great girls-only afternoon enjoying the water, sun, and tasty margaritas.
The town of Barra de Navidad is very cruiser-friendly as well. Water taxi service runs nearly 24/7 between the anchorage and town (about a mile away) for about $2.25 per person round trip. The local nail salon gave a great manicure/pedicure for less than half of Bay Area prices, his and hers hair cuts were in the $4-5 range, three loads of laundry got dropped off and done in less than 24 hours for about $12. We had several wonderful and inexpensive meals onshore at street-side cafes and oceanfront restaurants including a lovely portobello-roquefort filet-mignon with salad for under $13 at a place on the water called Bananas. A few whales passed by the window while we were there.
