“It may be useful to think of places not as areas on maps, but as constantly shifting articulations of social relations through time…the identity of places, indeed the identification of places as particular places is always in that sense, temporary, uncertain and in process. ”
Cruiser’s rave about Bahia Tenacatita, at least those that visited this anchorage prior to 2010. I had read all about the super friendly and active cruiser’s who frequent both of the anchorages, throwing spontaneous soirees on the beach, taking the “jungle tour” up the estuary to enjoy the “colorful beach scene” at Tenacatita where a popular snorkeling site dubbed the aquarium lured them into the warm water. I imagined beach goers washing down their full day with an ice cold beer at one of the many palapa restaurants lining the surf. This is the scene I painted for Jeff when I lobbied for this anchorage. I didn’t have to lobby that hard, but it was on my top 10 list of places to stop along the mainland coast and I made a pretty solid case. My expectations were maybe just a little bit high.
We opted to stay at the anchorage slightly northeast of Playa Tenacatita at Playa Boca de Iguanas (mouth of the iguanas). In addition to being the starting point for the estuary tour, Playa Boca de Iguanas has some good snorkeling spots, a palapa restaurant, a turtle sanctuary and a long beach to walk on (that deposits you at a resort that insists on playing bass driven music every night). Altogether, a pretty good spot unto itself.
The estuary was so overgrown (from lack of maintenance and frequent traffic it would turn out) that we were deterred from going to the lagoon at the end of the line (unlike PacificSailors, who were more daring). The branches reaching towards us and jutting out of the water were a death wish for inflatable dinghies. We didn’t even want to test it with our hard dinghy. What we found at the end of the tour was an abandoned and nearly razed town. Far from a colorful beach scene, it was a sad, empty (verging on dead) town with drained pools and exposed foundations. Jeff tells the rest of the story better than I can.
The short story is that Tenacatita was overseen by power hungry “Jalisco” police officers who almost made us forsake our dinghy for having (unwittingly) walked on private property owned by some megalomaniac. I can’t say I “enjoyed” myself, but it made for a pretty good story. This just goes to show that you shouldn’t always count on your guidebook to provide up-to-date (or accurate) information (this isn’t the first time we’ve discovered this).
Little did we know, we would be one of the last cruisers to see Tenacatita in this downtrodden, rubblized state. The townspeople that had been forcibly removed years prior with rubber bullets, aggressive dogs and an even more aggressive police force (police impostors?) were recently allowed reentry to their beautiful little town. A (hopefully) happy ending to what had been a very sad and disturbing story of political oppression at the hands of a ruthless developer.
The experience made us realize that all we see are snapshots in time. Everything will change. This is all contested space and Tenacatita is testament to that. There are larger stories playing out all around us that we are oftentimes totally unaware of. Some of these stories are beautiful and uplifting while some of them make your heart race and stomach churn.
We wish the people of Tenacatita all the best as they reclaim and rebuild their homes and businesses.
Here are the pictures. Some of which (I now found out) could have gotten us in (more) trouble for taking. I risked my life so you can enjoy them. You’re welcome :).
