Gualby Nation : Punta Allen

        After our morning at Tulum we set sail for Punta Allen and the Bay of Ascension. It was a pretty nice sail and the strong northerly current seems to becoming a little bit weaker. The Bay of Ascension is surrounded by a reef, with a small break about half way down the reef. We were keeping an eye on the GPS and where it told us the reef lay as well as a sharp eye on the water for breaking waves. The GPS was scarily inaccurate but thankfully with the whole flotilla communicating and keeping good look outs we safely made it through the reef pass into the calm waters of the bay. The holding was excellent and a nice breeze blew through the open hatches in the boat and the phosphorescence were incredible. Con, Mike and I were on the sugar scoop running our hands through the water and talking excitedly, so much that Penny got all rallied up and jumped in. We could see her whole body outlined by the green glow of the bioluminescence as she gracefully swam around the boat.
        The bay is surrounded by mangroves and has a large turtle and dolphin population. Coffee and dolphin spotting in the morning is not a bad way to start the day. The trade off I guess of the pretty surroundings and animal spottings is there really isn’t much to snorkel here and Conor’s blood thirst is starting to grow. We will have to find a good snorkel spot soon!
        We took the canoe and did some exploring in the mangroves. There were some very cool pathways deeper into the mangroves with lots of birds and fish. I couldn’t help but think that this looked a lot like a nice place to live if you were a crocodile but I kept pushing that thought out of my mine and besides I wasn’t swimming, I was sitting safely in a canoe. The town of Punta Allen was on the other side of where we anchored and we were able to get to it through the mangroves. We ran into a friendly Mexican in his Panga boat while exploring and he showed us where to leave our boats and nicely assured us that there were no crocodiles in this area. Well, that was good news. We walked around the sleepy town of Punta Allen and saw its beautiful beaches and interesting yet simple architecture. The houses are built on stilts and made from local wood and palm fronds as the roofs. I took a bunch of pictures because I hope to have a “Swiss Family Robinson” style house someday in the future.
M.

Mini Voltran Formation

Penny makes a lovely canoe hood ornament also

Local Architecture

The beaches on the other side of the peninsula

Mangrove Dead End

A few days later we discovered a public dock closer to where our boats were located and paddled our canoe there when we wanted to go into town. The local Mexicans keep their Panga boats there. The Panga boats are awesome. They are similar to a large canoe and a 25 foot Panga planes out with a boat full of people with only a 40 horse on the back. Conor loves them. I foresee one in the backyard of our tree house! We were surprised by one of the passengers in one of the Pangas.