Tenacatita is awesome! An absurdly beautiful spot from every angle – in the water, on the boat, on land, and even by drone from someone we met on the beach.

The first night, one of the palapas was… on fire? Smoking heavily? It smelled like some of the fires we had in the Bay Area before leaving (I do not miss the raining ash), but it did lead to a fantastic sunset. Dramatic clouds, dark, with brilliant, almost sickly yellows.

The highlight was the mangrove forest! We inflated our kayak for the first time since coming to Mexico, went to shore, and carried it over the little spit of land to the mangrove swamp. It was beautiful, I highly recommend for anybody visiting the area. The kayak was perfect, and we moved leisurely through the dense trees. Sometimes silent other than our paddling, sometimes deafening with birds, sometimes with waves crashing on a distant beach, it was a beautiful soundscape. We saw 5 crocodiles! I only got one on camera, and it was a tiny one, but the others we saw got progressively bigger and we focused on continuing to move. We followed the mangrove river to its end at the other, eastern anchorage, where we nosed through the waves to make a big loop home. The whole round-trip took about 3 and a half hours.

We got in good beach time and enjoyed a few of the palapas. A quick walk from the main beach in front of the anchorage is a dual beach, with one side facing the bay and the other the Pacific! The sands were completely different consistencies, and the Pacific side had great noisy rocks whenever a wave receded. We noticed a stray dog was trying to catch the waves, at first we thought just playing, but then we saw it lapping the water. We found a coconut husk and poured out some fresh water for it, which it drank up!

Notes for boaters:

  • We anchored at 19°17.014′ N, 104°52.235′ W.
  • Anchored in ~22 feet of water with ~125 feet of chain.
  • Several of the beach palapas accepted credit card, and had pretty good food.
  • The water clarity ranged wildly day to day.