16th April, 2015

San Blas

February 20. 2015

San Blas is a small town that lies three and a half miles NW of Matanchen Bay where one can stay either at the marina or anchor in the estuary.

We wanted to visit San Blas but weren’t too excited about going over the bar – shallow water over the entrance that can build up waves causing it to become dangerous fast. Besides that, the Jejenes, or no-see-ums that are known for being rampant in this area are particularly fierce up in the harbor. Instead, we decided to anchor in Matanchen Bay and we were glad we did.

Once we left the La Tavara tour, it was time to head to San Blas. Kathy, Jim, Jay and I waited for a cab while The Vortex group went walking. After about fifteen minutes standing in the sun with no cabs in sight, we too, started walking up the road alongside the river.

“Look!” Kathy said. “Over there! There’s a crocodile!” It was kind of unreal, walking on the edge of the road with cars whizzing by on the left and crocodiles swimming by on the right.

Not long after we started walking, two taxis pulled up. But they both had people in them. We couldn’t understand why they wanted us to get in when there was no room for us so we told them no thank you. One taxi took off but the other didn’t and he waved down another taxi. That taxi had people in it too.

“There’s no room.” Jim says. Meanwhile the cab driver is moving things aside in the front seat and the people are moving over in the back seat.

“Dos.” He says, pointing to his car. “y Dos!” He says, pointing to the other taxi. Finally, we get it and Jay and I get in one cab and Cathy and Jim get in the other. As we drove down the road, we saw our friends from The Vortex jumping into a cab too. It was just too hot and too long of a walk and dangerous too, with cars passing much too close and not much room on the side of the road to get out of the way.

Thirty pesos later we were in San Blas Plaza wondering in which direction to go.

Since we were all starving, we were in search of a restaurant and Jim spotted the san Blas Social Club where we had hamburgers and a beer. There were lots of Mexican eateries, but somehow we ended up here with the Americans. Sometimes all we want is American food.

San Blas was once a busy port but nowis but a sleepy town. It has much history and is said to be the place where Father Juniper Serra began his missionary work that led him to California. It is also the home of the Templo de la Virgin del Rosario church whose bells were removed in 1872 and is said to be the inspiration for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, The Bells of San Blas.