Losing Nemo

I was resting on the surface between dives when I was startled by a yellow flash in my peripheral vision. It was close to my mask and bright, taxi-cab yellow. I thought it was the sun reflecting off the yellow housing of the strobe attached to my camera and ignored it. I was freediving around one of the large rocks at Los Arcos south of Puerto Vallarta, exploring a series of ledges that stair-stepped down the wall. As I descended on my next dive, a yellow spot appeared in front of my mask. It was a small fish less than 5 cm (2 in) long, and it was leading me to the bottom.

Golden trevally swimming near my face

Beach Life

The beach at La Manzanilla is a destination for gringos in the winter and for Mexicans in the summer.  This is not an upscale resort and the gringo visitors mostly come for a respite from their busy lives. They want to relax, to slow down, to experience their vision of a sleepy tropical village on the Pacific Ocean. One gringa travel writer wrote about returning to “…this dusty little Mexican fishing village, a hushed-up spot that's still off the clock and, for a while yet, off the tourist track…to settle back in my beachside chair and stare for hours at the mini-curl of surf, ice cubes melting in my Cuba Libre, skin glowing, mind blank, system on zero” (link).

Fishermen leaving the beach at La Manzanilla

The Crocodile Farm

According to the Ramsar Convention*, Bahía Tenacatita is one of the five most important bays on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Estero La Manzanilla, an estuary on the east side of the bay, supports a mangrove forest in good condition. It is one of three estuaries on the coast with a large population of American crocodiles. During our stay in La Manzanilla, we often walked down a dirt road by the estuary to the restaurants on the beach. A sign said the area was a crocodile farm (cocodrilario) and a sagging chain-link fence was all that separated pedestrians from large crocodiles basking in the sunshine.

Be careful. Crocodiles in this area. Do not swim. Do not feed the crocodiles. Do not walk your pets. Do not fish. 

Swimming in the Aquarium

The paved road to Tenacatita turns off Hwy 200 15 km (9 mi) northwest of La Manzanilla. I’m going to dive “The Aquarium,” a group of islotes (small islands) and submerged rocks on the north side of Bahía Tenacatita. The road winds through agricultural fields and two rural villages. Early in the morning when I pass through El Rabalsito, the larger village, shopkeepers are sweeping out their stores, dogs and chickens are foraging in the street and young and middle-aged men are waiting in the back of pickup trucks that will take them to work on local farms or into La Manzanilla and Melaque.

Farm on the way to Rabalsito