We routinely topped our water tanks from dock water jerry jugged out to Nakia by dinghy, and paid one of the friendly restaurant owners to swap out our two jugs of purified drinking water as they emptied. It's an easy walk with a small gas can to a local Pemex (the national fuel stations), and a six peso (about 50 cents) bus ride back to Las Hadas. By the way we would not recommend taking on diesel fuel in the marina as it is not a Pemex fuel dock and sees very little traffic (making for potentially old/dirty fuel).
Although you can walk five minutes up a steep hill to the resort entrance and catch a bus out to the highway, we preferred the very pleasant half hour walk in front of neighboring condos and through the back of Karmina. In the mornings this is mostly shady and when you reach the highway you are directly across the street from a lavanderia; a block from the Salahua jardin (main square); and another 5-10 minutes from major supermarkets. Or you can hop on a six peso bus to Manzanillo or Santiago. We would usually walk out to do our errands and then ride back on a bus with our purchases. Or, for a large shop, a taxi was a very reasonable 40-50 pesos ($4-5). I can't tell you how nice it was to get back to the dinghy with groceries or clean laundry, knowing that we weren't going to have to brave the surf to get back out to Nakia. The dinghy dock also gave John and me the flexibility to come and go separately, without the ordeal of a beach landing. And I loved wearing tennis shoes and socks, which are much easier on my feet than sandals when walking on cobblestone roads.
For whatever reason we did not meet many new cruisers this season. We noticed that first year boats tended to stick together, and most did not approach Nakia to introduce themselves or ask for local assistance. Granted neither did we self-appoint ourselves "mayor" of Las Hadas. We pretty much watched boats come and go while we made play dates with our local land dwelling friends. It really came to feel more like we were "wintering over" in Mexico as opposed to cruising. We just happen to be living on a boat and not in a condo or a house.
It's nice to stay in one place long enough to do non-cruiser types of things. Thanks to a birthday gift certificate from Stan and MJ I attended twice weekly water aerobics classes in a small condominium pool. I hate exercising and grumbled my way there by bus in the mornings, but talk about gym class in paradise. Marlene (www.manzimassagefit.com) motivated our small class (5-10 people at a time) and did a great job making sure we had perfect form. Her "Chins up!" reminders got me gazing at butterflies, palm trees, and even an iguana who watched our class from the peak of the tiled pool palapa roof. I also managed to snag a short dog-sitting job for a snow bird which happened to fall during an unusual period of rainy weather. But keeping up with muddy paw prints on the tile floor and playing fetch in between showers was a nice change from being on the boat. John made a point of inviting many of our local acquaintances out to tour Nakia, most of whom had never been on a sailboat before. They were happy to get a taste of how we live and to sit back with a beer and admire the view. We got to know a few people from the condos overlooking the anchorage, who also enjoyed seeing our view of them for a change.
It's been a cooler winter than we remember, but now the days are getting noticeably longer and we're on a north bound track again. We'll be updating our progress in our new, improved blog and sending occasional project updates over the summer. One of the new features of the blog is that you can sign up to receive our updates by email. I'd like to take this opportunity to let anyone drop off the direct email list who is so inclined. So drop us a line only if you want to REMAIN on the old email loop. Otherwise you can sign up directly through the blog.
Linda (and John and Ziggy too)