Mexico
November 2018 – April 2022
Written by Bruce & Alene in French Polynesia — October & November 2022
Primero y lo más importante, queremos darle nuestro más sincero agradecimiento a la gente y al gobierno de México por su calorosa hospitalidad y amabilidad durante los años de Covid.
First and most importantly, we want to give our heartfelt thanks to the people and government of Mexico for their warm welcome and kindness during the years of Covid.
Mexico by the Numbers
Wow, what a ride. México was a fiesta and a siesta. Mexico was hot desert, cold mountains. Mexico was teeming cities, isolated islands. Empty resorts to busy hotels. Long-term guests to months alone. Boogie boarding on abandoned beaches, soaring with giant mantas. Mexico had so many faces during our 3 years there. But always we were met with friendliness and kindness… even during the worst months of Covid. How to measure our time in Mexico? Well, the best way to measure anything is to start with the numbers:
4
months we planned to stay in Mexico
41
months we actually were in Mexico
17
nautical miles sailed toward French Polynesia in 2019 before we turned back
5
trips to the Islas Revillagigedo
31
days sailing to or from the Islas Revillagigedo
18
weeks diving with giant oceanic mantas at the Islas Revillagigedo
4
boatyard haulouts
8
months on the hard
6
months of boatyard work
9
months exploring the Sea of Cortez
4
months with Ruby aboard
4
one thousand-mile drives along the Baja peninsula
3
French Polynesia visa applications submitted to the Mexico City French Embassy
3
trips to Mexico City
8
months away from Migration (including our longest time away: 6 months)
6,553
miles sailed
Heaps of friends made
4 months we planned to stay in Mexico
41 months we actually were in Mexico
17 nautical miles sailed toward French Polynesia in 2019 before we turned back
We left California on 22 November 2018 expecting to spend 4 months in Mexico before heading to French Polynesia. How appropriate that it was Thanksgiving Day; we ended up having much to be thankful for during our time in Mexico. We say our lives are normally ruled by hurricane seasons and visas expirations. But 2019 to 2022 were not normal years. The reason is obvious for 2020 and 2021.
Why 2019?
We decided to let giant fish rule our lives. Here’s what we wrote to our families on the 5th of May 2019:
Hi Everyone,
We left the Mexican mainland 3 weeks ago and arrived at San Benedicto Island in the Revillagigedos 3 days later. Since then, we have had some of the most amazing diving experiences of our lives. The Revillagigedos are known for their resident population of giant manta rays who happen to be very social and seem to enjoy being around humans. And it’s true! Over a one-week period at San Benedicto Island, we dove once or twice a day… each time with one, two, or three mantas who glided by so close we could have reached out and touched them. These are big mantas – some are 18 feet from wingtip to wingtip.
Besides mantas, we also found turtles, plenty of sharks, lots of fish, and… dolphins! Very playful dolphins that seemed to enjoy showing off their hunting techniques and swimming around us. Often there were whales outside the anchorage. Though we didn’t scuba dive with them, at Socorro Island we were able to snorkel with a mother humpback and her calf. It was awesome.
But the seasons are changing and it was time to get going on our 2,500 nautical mile voyage to the Marquesas. We left today at around noon, both of us excited about the passage and feeling that Migration was in good shape and certainly very well-provisioned. We headed southwest in a nice breeze. It was fine sailing. As we finished our late lunch on deck, I (BB) mentioned that I was sad we were leaving the Revillagigedos as we probably would never dive here again. I said I could almost stay in Mexico another year so we could come back. I’d mentioned this several times yesterday but Alene didn’t think I was serious. But now, upon realizing that I had meant it, it opened up a possibility she hadn’t really considered. We discussed it for over an hour as we continued on our course for the Marquesas. We talked about the pros and cons. Made a list. Rated each pro and con. Added up the totals. Flipped a coin. Talked some more. And finally, turned the wheel and headed back north!
So tonight we are back at Socorro Island. We’ll stay a few more days here before heading to the mainland, then work our way north into the Gulf of California where we will spend the summer (the same place we spent our first summer together in 2006). Early in 2020 we will return to the Revillagigedos and then, sometime in April, start off again for the Marquesas.
That is, unless we change our plans again…
Love to all,
BB & ADR
5 May 2019
And thus, we spun the wheel and turned around. We told ourselves we’d go to the Marquesas in 2020. But the world, as you know, had other plans.
5 trips to the Islas Revillagigedo
31 days sailing to or from the Islas Revillagigedo
18 weeks diving with giant oceanic mantas at the Islas Revillagigedo
Our visit to the Islas Revillagigedo changed our lives.
It’s true. No other place we have visited has changed our plans, focus, and level of happiness more than the Revillas. The islands captured us and forced us to change course — to become different people.
We spent the majority of our time at Isla San Benedicto. This island’s stark volcanic beauty – it erupted in 1953 and is still mostly covered in ash — sits in intense juxtaposition to what lies beneath the sea at its feet. Much larger Isla Socorro is covered with vegetation and offers painted cliffs and striking vistas when anchored beneath its 1,150 meter (3,770 ft) volcanic peak.
But it is our time underwater at the Revillas that affected us most profoundly. Snorkeling and diving with magnificent sea creatures: whales, sharks, turtles, dolphins – but most especially our interactions with giant oceanic manta rays with 6 meter (20’) wing spans – is the reason we aborted our 2019 voyage to French Polynesia so we could do it again, and again, and again.
The Parque Nacional Revillagigedo was created by the Mexican government in 2017. It is the largest marine protected area in North America covering over 150,000 square kilometers (57,000 square miles). The national park was created to protect the unique species of the area by stopping the Mexican fishermen and foreign poachers from decimating the fish populations as well as killing sharks and mantas. Though Mexico does not have the necessary resources to patrol the entire area, the park designation has helped. The Mexican Navy’s presence on Islas Socorro and Clarion, the development of a tourism industry for divers, and the occasional visit from cruising sailboats, help to keep the poachers away… at least from the waters near the islands.
As I write this, over three and half years after our first visit to the Revillas in April 2019, we are still in awe of what we experienced there. Imagine you are hiking in a forest, come across a clearing, and sit down on a log to rest. Suddenly, out of the trees walks a full-grown bull moose. It is a wild animal that weighs almost 3/4 of a ton. Instead of attacking (you are intruding in its territory), or running away, it ambles over, lowers its head and clearly wants you to scratch it under the chin. After 30 or 40 minutes of scratching & silent communion, it strolls back into the trees leaving you with your mouth agape and wondering if that really did happen.
Replace the forest with the clear blue waters of the Revillas, the moose with a manta ray that weighs twice as much as the moose (nearly 2 tons!), and maybe this communicates a small sense of the astonishment of diving in this extraordinary locale. Though there were plenty of dives when we spotted no mantas, we had dozens of dives with giant rays that clearly sought us out (they can hear our exhalation bubbles) and swam with us just to be near us. Their big black eyes stared right into ours as they glided by majestically with hardly a movement of their great wings, often circling around us and back again for more time together. They were truly awesome in their beauty, and we were honored and astounded by their choice to socially interact with us.
It wasn’t just mantas that we saw while diving and snorkeling; we regularly had six different species of sharks in the water with us (tiger, hammerhead, Galapagos, silky, white tip, & silver tip), plus dolphins, turtles and the thousands of beautiful fish who seem to get ignored because of the presence of the larger, more charismatic species. Though we saw many whales on the surface, only once did one pass by when we were scuba diving… that was a very memorable dive!
We are at a loss for words that can do justice to this remarkable part of the world. The best we can do is try to share a little of the experience with our photos and videos.
Sharks
Happy divers
4 boatyard haulouts
8 months on the hard
6 months of boatyard work
In Japan in 2017 we hauled Migration and painted her bottom with Coppercoat; a more environmentally-friendly and longer-lasting antifouling coating than traditional bottom paints. It worked great until we got to the warmer waters of southern California and Mexico. And so began our arduous Coppercoat ordeal. One of the benefits of Coppercoat is that it is supposed to last for 10 years. We thought we would avoid hauling Migration for a long time because it’s often difficult to find a yard that will haul a boat so wide, but it was not to be. To be fair, we found several structural problems we needed to deal with, but each time we hauled, we continued our Coppercoat experiment. You can read more about it if you are interested.
Too much time in the boatyard. Too much time sanding. Too much time repairing. But, as we always say, better to find the problems now than out at sea. Thank goodness for the help of good friends with amazing boatbuilding skills: Russell Brown and Milton Sanders… we love you!
9 months exploring the Sea of Cortez
When we originally thought our decision to stay in Mexico would be for only a year, we were excited that we could spend the summer in the Gulf of California – also known as the Sea of Cortez.
In 1983, when I (BB) was 24, I sailed to Mexico as crew on an old Piver Trimaran. The owner got sick and left me and my friends alone on the boat until he could return. It was here that I fell in love with cruising and knew it was the life I would someday lead. During those weeks, we met a cruising couple who had just finished a circumnavigation. They seemed ancient — but were probably the age I am now. They were so experienced, had been to so many places, sailed so many miles. We sat in their cabin one night listening to their stories; I was riveted. I will always remember them saying that the Sea of Cortez was one of their favorite places in all the world.
Though Alene & I have not circumnavigated, we have sailed a combined 122,000 or so nautical miles. And we definitely agree with them. The Sea is a magical place. The Baja is the 2nd longest peninsula in the world with towering mountain ranges and the sea is deep — over 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet); the dry desert is adjacent to the sea, the cold and warm currents, the blazing sunsets – these all combine to create a unique and powerful environment that one would have to work hard to not fall in love with. The Sea does not usually grab you and shake you and force you to pay attention…it slips in through your eyes, ears — into your soul — and invites you to pay attention to one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
The summers of 2019 and 2020 allowed us to spend 9 months in the beautiful Sea. It was especially wonderful during 2020 when we spent much of our time alone at uninhabited islands – self-isolation was not something we had to seek out.
4 months with Ruby aboard
When we were preparing to depart for the Revillagigedos and French Polynesia in 2019, we hosted a little going-away get-together aboard Migration for friends on s/v Little Wing who were heading out the next day for the Marquesas. They invited a woman crewing on a neighboring boat who was also headed in that direction. And thus we met Ruby.
We became fast friends and had a lot of fun until she, too, departed. She completed her passage and returned home to Portland, Oregon where she sold her house and set off on her own adventure to find a sailboat and cruise full-time. With a paying gig lined up to deliver a yacht from Samoa to the USA in April 2020, we suggested she first come to Mexico for a visit. She arrived for a 10-day stay aboard Migration on 18 March 2020.
You can guess the rest. The world shut down a few days later. Having sold her home and not yet found a boat of her own, we invited Ruby to stay with us. The three of us proceeded to have an entertaining, amusing, exuberant 4 months together. Before this, the longest stay by any guest aboard Migration was about 2 weeks; that tends to be our limit. But life with Ruby was such a blast and she was so incredibly respectful of our space, that it was easy for all of us. Not only that, she wanted to learn everything about owning a boat and was always willing to work on projects: be it helping change the engine oil or polishing stainless.
We had an amazing time together.
Footnote: Ruby finally found her boat, s/v Makani, and is now cruising. She’s singlehanded over 3,000 miles throughout Mexico! If you are a woman and are interested in the cruising life, you can book one of her sailing and empowerment courses at SeaNixie.com.
4 one thousand-mile drives along the Baja peninsula
In December 2019 we decided to drive back to the US to visit family and friends for the holidays. We’d done this drive (over a thousand miles each way) in 2006 and loved it. Again, we were taken by the stunning beauty of the peninsula. Heading north in 2019 was slightly bittersweet as it also brought back many memories of the 2006 trip when we drove north because my father was dying.
The return trip in January proved to be incredibly fortuitous in a way that only travel without a firm itinerary can be. On New Year’s Eve, we stopped at the half-way point to spend the night in Guerrero Negro which is adjacent to Laguna Ojo de Liebre where the California grey whales hang out with their young. It was early in the season and we had no reservation, but we thought maybe on New Year’s Day there wouldn’t be many people looking to go out to whale-watch.
We were very wrong. At the whale watching center we were told they were completely booked but we could wait around to see if someone didn’t show up. How lucky we were! Not only because there was a no-show and we did get to see the whales, but also because on that trip was Raul and his family. When Raul walked into the waiting room, he filled it with his welcoming heart… wishing happy new year and shaking the hands of every stranger there. It seemed we became friends almost immediately. We then found out he runs a school in a poor section of Mexico City. Since we were going to be there (to visit the French Embassy) in a couple of weeks, I offered to do an author visit. And that, to paraphrase Rick, was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. More about that later.
Two years later, in 2021, during yet another haulout of the boat, we realized we needed many supplies to finish the work and decided to drive back to the US once more to get them.
The drive north was again spectacular with the cactus, boojum trees, boulders, and plains creating captivating changing vistas every dozen miles. This time we drove up the fairly new Hwy 5 on the NE side of the peninsula; it was odd to drive along that coast staring out at the remote islands where we had recently anchored all by ourselves.
It was the middle of the pandemic and having rarely been exposed to COVID, we didn’t relish dealing with the USA with all the insanity created by anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers. (And to top it off, a few days after we arrived, we watched the news of the insurrection at the Capitol. Oh, how we should be ashamed of ourselves! That it happened. That we let it happen. And that so many of our citizens still believe it should have happened.)
We got our goods, said a few hellos and goodbyes and headed back down the coast on that beautiful drive, looking forward to the relative sanity of a Mexican boatyard – which, if you have spent time in a Mexican boatyard, isn’t a very complimentary comparison.
3 French Polynesia visa applications submitted to the Mexico City French Embassy
3 trips to Mexico City
We had been looking forward to returning to French Polynesia since 2012 and we knew we wanted to spend more time than allowed by the 3-month visa given to US citizens upon arrival. Thus, in January of 2019 we began the process of figuring out how to apply for a French Polynesia long stay visa (carte du long sejour) in Mexico; made more complicated if one is not a Mexican citizen. It was an interesting process and we ended up creating a document to help other sailors navigate the French bureaucracy.
We applied for, and received, three long stay visas:
2019: Didn’t use it because we ended up turning around (as you’ve already read)
2020: Couldn’t use it because of the pandemic
2021: Didn’t apply because of the pandemic
2022: We’re in French Polynesia!
Besides a lot of paperwork and fees, each application required a trip to the French Embassy in Mexico City. In 2019 we extended our trip a bit to do some touring around La Ciudad.
In 2020, the year we met Raul and his family, they invited us to their cabin in the Valle de Bravo south of the city to view the monarch butterflies. That was something we’d always wanted to do and we had so much fun together. I also spoke at Raul’s school named after Sir Edmund Hilary because Raul wanted to inspire his students with a remarkable and accomplished human being.
In 2021, we returned again, this time sharing an AirBnB with friends from s/v Ticket to Ride who were also applying for a visa. Because of the pandemic, we did not get to tour around or spend as much time as we’d hoped with Raul and family, but what time we had was precious.
Heaps of Friends
There seems to be something about cruising Mexico that allows sailors to make lots of friends very quickly. And not just passing friendships. We still have close ties with sailors we met there 15 years ago. And we made many more this time around. Add to that the friendliness of the Mexican people. The Spanish word amabilidad is perfectly appropriate for the country.
During the pandemic there was so much misinformation floating around social media. Even sailors were not immune and some popular cruising bloggers spread rumors about how difficult it was in parts of the country. As for us, we never had a single problem. Mexico allowed us to renew our tourist visas without leaving the country, and everyone was welcoming. We even took the opportunity to apply for, and receive, our Mexican permanent residency! Why, if we were leaving? Because we absolutely know we will return.
Muchas gracias por todo, México. Nosotros volveremos un dia…
Be good. Be safe. Have fun.
BB & ADR
(Last 3 photos courtesy of Sarah of s/v Perspective)