This page is a guide for cruisers that contains a huge collection of tips for Mexico cruising in your own boat.  These are things we

wish we had known before we cast off the docklines.  See our Tips for Cruising Mexico - Part 2 and Mexico Maps too.

If you are planning a cruise to Mexico, I hope this page will inspire you with new ideas for your preparations.  They include:

• Mexican Culture

Adapting to living in a very foreign country

• Learning Spanish

The best course you can take before you go

• Navigation:

Related equipment and cruising guides

• Weather Prediction:

Methods and websites

• Tides and Lunar Calendar:

Websites

• Sailing in Mexico

Where the wind is -- and isn't -- and the best places to sail

• Boat Preparation:

Major upgrades for marina-based versus anchor-based living

• Goodies:

Oddball items we have found very useful

MEXICAN CULTURE

All it takes is one provisioning run to realize that you're not in Kansas any more, and it can be quite a culture shock.  Mexicans

are a wonderful, outgoing, friendly and exuberant people, and their warmth is infectious.  But their traditions, ways of doing

things, history and ethnicity are very different than in the US and Canada.

We spent six months living on Groovy at Hotel Coral and Marina in Ensenada, and it was an awesome way to adapt to living

in Mexico while we still had wheels to drive back to San Diego.  If you are planning to cruise to Mexico, I highly recommend

spending a few months in Ensenada as you outfit the boat, perhaps split your time between Hotel Coral and Cruiesport

Marina.  Boatyard Baja Naval does outstanding work, and you be over your culture shock before heading south.

Ensenada is a terrific university town filled with activities and festivals of all kinds.  From classical music concerts to art

exhibits to the Baja 500 and 1000 car and motorcycle races to the Newport-Ensenada sailboat race to tours of the

surrounding wine country to the Rosarito-Ensenada bike ride, to the very active running community, there are all kinds of

things to do.  The bay is fantastic for daysailing -- the wind comes up most afternoons -- and you will be the only boat out there.

Some people have the misconception that Ensenada is not a "real" Mexican town.  In our experience it is as Mexican as any

other, but is more varied, less touristy and has fewer gringos than most of the other coastal cities.

If you can't spend a few months living in Ensenada, a long weekend can help give you a feel for what to expect.  There is a bus

line, ABC Bus (Spanish language website, prices in pesos) which runs between the Tijuana border and downtown Ensenada.

Take the trolley from San Diego to the border, walk over the border and catch the ABC bus to Ensenada and a cab from the bus

depot to your hotel.  For a high-end treat weekend getaway, stay at Hotel Coral and Marina.

LEARNING SPANISH

One of the best things I did to prepare for cruising in Mexico was to take some conversational Spanish classes at my local

community college.  I took three semesters and have found it has not only made it easier to get around and find things, but it

has enriched my time in Mexico.  I have gradually reached a point where I can listen to the thoughts of these fine people in their

own language.  Although three semesters taught me almost all the verb tenses and lots of vocabulary, learning to actually hold

a meaningful conversation is still an ongoing process for me.  However, the conversation in which the pizza store guy in Loreto

explained the Mexican presidential election process to me, the day the canvas lady in San Carlos told me all the ups and downs

she has faced as a professional boat service person in a man's industry, and the time the fuel dock guy in Manzanillo told me

about the keys to enjoying a long marriage all stand out as true highlights of this crazy cruising experience.  If you won't be

starting your cruise for a few years, sign up for a Spanish course today, and keep taking it until the day you leave.

Ensenada and La Paz both have immersion Spanish schools where four weeks of four-hour-a-day classes gives you a

semester's worth of conversational Spanish.  (Se Habla...La Paz) is one of the schools).  I'm sure there are others in the

mainland coastal cities as well. Click here for our Spanish Learning Tools page

I have met many cruisers trying to learn Spanish from courses on CD like Rosetta Stone.  I haven't met anyone who learned

Spanish this way.  Get serious, make the time, invest the money, and take some classes!

To see the funny things that happen to gringos living on sailboats in Mexico, see: What's it like to cruise Mexico?

NAVIGATION

Navigation in Mexico with a modern electronic chartplotter and radar overlay is a cinch.  All the cruising guides give GPS

waypoints for major obstacles and anchorages.  Sean Breeding and Heather Bansmer, authors of the popular Sea of Cortez: A

Cruising Guide and Pacific Mexico: A Cruising Guide, include a table at the end of each book that lists the suggested waypoints

with logically named labels and descriptions.  Entering these waypoints into your chart plotter turns Mexico cruising into an easy

paint-by-numbers affair.

The survey data used to create the chartplotter charts (Navionics and others) is something like a century or more old, and

although the contours are usually correct, the data is often offset from the real GPS coordinates by as much as a mile or so.

Whenever we approach an unknown anchorage we turn on the radar to see how accurate the chartplotter is.  50% of the time it

is right on.  The rest of the time it is usually just offset to one side or the other and it is easy to see where you should go and

what to avoid.

Note: we receive a 4-6% commission -- at no cost to you --

for purchases made through our Amazon links.

This helps us pay our out-of-pocket costs for this site.

If you buy something, let us know so we can say thanks!

Before setting out, we purchased Pat Rains' Mexico Boating Guide and Charlie's Charts of Mexico by Charles and Margo Wood

as well as the two books by Bansmer/Breeding.  All four were useful, and we were glad to have each one on board, as they offer

different perspectives.  Charlie's Charts reflects an earlier age of cruising but is completely up to date.  Pat Rains gives down-

and-dirty practical advice.  Bansmer/Breeding paints a vivid picture of what you will find in each anchorage.  We relied on Rains

and Wood for the San Diego to Cabo passage.  We used Rains, Wood and Bansmer/Breeding on the Pacific coast and used

Rains and Bansmer/Breeding in the Sea of Cortez.

WEATHER PREDICTION

We have found the weather in Mexico to be generally benign and the bad weather predictable well in advance.  The worst

weather we have experienced has been while we were at anchor.

Our preferred method for weather prediction is the internet.  We have had internet access from the boat at most locations,

relying primarily on our USB modem from TelCel (more on acquiring one of at Mexico Tips (2)).  On the trip south the only

place without internet via TelCel is Cedros Island.  Once south, the only place where there is no internet access (and you really

could use it for weather forecasting) is from Islas Espiritu Santos north to just south of Ensenada Blanca (Bahía Candeleros) in

the Sea of Cortez and from north of Isla Coronado further north to Bahía Concepción also in the Sea of Cortez.  These are both

long stretches of excellent cruising grounds, so after a few days at anchor when your downloaded weather data is out of date, it

becomes necessary to rely on SSB radio broadcast forecasts from amateur meteorologists (more about that below) or some

other method of obtaining weather information.  If you can understand rapid-fire Spanish full of wave heights and wind speeds,

the port captains periodically broadcast weather forecasts on the VHF radio on channel 12 or 14 (they are announced first on

Channel 16 and come mid-morning and mid-afternoon).

The key to all the internet weather websites is to add 5 knots to the wind speeds and a few feet to the wave heights, especially

in the Sea of Cortez where predicted, pleasant sounding 15 knot winds may be 20 with gusts to 25, accompanied with short

steep waves -- not fun.

San Diego to Cabo San Lucas Passage Websites:

http://www.sailflow.com  - Gives high resolution graphic images of the Pacific side of Baja that are are accurate if you

add 5 knots to the wind speed for good measure.

http://www.passageweather.com - There is a page for Baja California that shows the conditions on the Pacific side

of the Baja peninsula.  The time is given in UTC (Greenwich Mean Time).  Rather than worrying about time zones and

being exact, I simply subtract 6 hours to try to keep it simple and easy reading these charts, as the forecasts are given

for 3, 6, 9 and 12 am and pm.  You really need to study each time-stamped chart carefully to figure out what conditions

to expect.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/Geary/show.html - From amateur SSB weather broadcaster Geary (see below),

this site gives 3-day forecasts for each major anchorage on the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula.  The posts are

not always up to date.

Mainland Mexico weather websites:

http://www.passageweather.com - There is a page for California to Mexico that offer wind and wave forecasts.

Subtract 6 hours from UTC to get approximate local time.

http://www.passageweather.com/download.htm - The California to Mexico forecasts are available for download

if you have a slow internet connection.  These are also useful to download if you are going to lose internet

access in the next few days.

http://www.magicseaweed.com - Offers wind and swell forecasts similar to passageweather.com.

http://www.weather.solmatesantiago.com/wxdata/Solmate Santiago Weather.html - Posted by amateur meteorologist

Stan from Manzanillo Bay, there are separate links for each region of Mexico including the Tehuantepec.  The posts are not

always up to date.

http://www.sailflow.com - Gives high resolution graphic images for the Sea of Cortez that are accurate if you

add 5 knots to the wind speed for good measure.

Sea of Cortez weather websites:

http://www.bajainsider.com/weather/baja-weather108.htm - This gives a nice synopsis, including sea

temperature (SST tab), and there is a ton of other information about Baja elsewhere on the website.

http://www.passageweather.com - There is a page for California to Mexico that offer wind and wave forecasts.

Subtract 6 hours from UTC to get approximate local time.

Sea of Cortez to Mainland Crossing Websites

http://www.weather.solmatesantiago.com/wxdata/Mazatlan to Banderas Bay Forecast.html

- From Stan in Manzanillo Bay, forecast for crossing the Sea at different points.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/Geary/show.html - From amateaur SSB weather broadcaster Geary (see below),

this site gives 3-day forecasts for the northern and southern crossings including the wind conditions on each side and in

the middle.  The posts are not always up to date.

SSB Broadcasts

There are several amateur weather forecasters who give their predictions on various SSB radio nets.  The two most popular

forecasters are Geary who is located in Bahía Concepción in the Sea of Cortez and broadcasts on the Sea of Cortez focused

Sonrisa Net, and Don Anderson who (used to) broadcast from Ventura California on the Mexico and Central America focused

Southbound Net and Amigo Net.  Their volunteer work is extremely generous and they take their self-assigned jobs very

seriously.

Geary's 3-day forecasts for the passages down the outside of the Baja peninsuala (San Diego to Cabo) and the two Sea of

Cortez crossings (north and south crossing) are all excellent.  However, he does not offer a prediction beyond today for any of

the areas inside the Sea of Cortez. 

He posts the broadcast on the internet as well (see above website listings). and he takes questions from listeners

about specific areas.

Due to time constraints on the air, there's necessarily a lot of generalizing, lumping many miles over many hours into a single

"15 knots NNW" kind of statement.  When I have internet available, I find it much easier to look at pictures of the Sea of Cortez

or of Mainland Mexico showing wind speeds and directions in a graphical form to get an idea of what will be happening in my

particular little spot.  Especially in the Sea of Cortez where the wind wraps around the towering mountains, changing its direction

and intensity with every mile it traverses, a single wind speed and direction forecast can't tell the whole story.

We also like to get a general weather prediction for the air temperature, humidity, sunshine and rain.  We use:

http://www.weather.com

Other websites that can be useful:

http://www.grib.us - a free downloadable application that allows you to manipulate GRIB files.  Windows only.

http://www.bouyweather.com - a subscription-based marine weather predictor.

http://www.predictwind.com - a subscription-based marine weather predictor

http://www.wunderground.com - a general weather forecasting website

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/us_comp/us_comp.html - Gives a radar overview of the most recent conditions

http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/products/wximagery/usir.html - Gives a radar overview of the most recent conditions

TIDES & LUNAR CALENDAR

Tides generally run less than 6 feet in most of Pacific Mexico except in the far northern Sea of Cortez where they can be a lot

more (few cruisers venture to that area).

http://www.tide-forecast.com - Has a good graphic layout that shows where in the tide sequence you are right now.

http://www.tides4fishing.com/mx - An alternative tide forecasting site that includes solar/lunar and other info too.

It is nice to know how much moon you will have on an overnight crossing.  This website detects where you are from your IP

address and generates a lunar calendar for the month.  It also lets you put a red pinpoint on any location in the world and then

create a lunar calendar for the month:

http://www.kwathabeng.co.za/travel/moon/full-moon-calendar.html

SAILING IN MEXICO

The best sailing in Mexico is north of Cabo Corrientes: in the Sea of Cortez, in Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta area), and in the

"crossing zone" between Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.  South of Cabo Corrientes -- the Gold Coast

(Costa Alegre) and south to Zihuatanejo -- has very light wind and it tends to run parallel to the coast, making it either right on

the nose or dead astern as you sail between those anchorages. See our MAPS OF MEXICO page to get your bearings

We have sailed about half of the time that we have been in transit north of Cabo Corrientes and 10% of the time south of there.

This translates to somewhere around 5-10% of all the miles we have covered as the crow flies.  In order to sail in Mexico you

have to be willing to tack, to sail dead downwind and to sail at 2 or 3 knots.  Romping sailboat rides in 15 knot winds on flat seas

are not common, but they can be found.  One of the best ways to do that kind of sailing is to daysail.  Our favorite places for

daysailing have been Manzanillo Bay (south end of the Costa Alegre (Gold Coast)), Loreto Bay between Isla Carmen and the

Baja peninsula north of La Paz in the Sea of Cortez, Acapulco Bay, and the Bahías de Huatulco.  Banderas Bay (Puerto

Vallarta) is reportedly another good spot.  In any of these places you will likely be the only boat out daysailing.

Fishermen's "long lines," or nets, crop up in certain places.  We have seen one in the Sea of Cortez, five or six in the Isla

Isabel / Mazatlan area, one south of the penal colony islands Islas Marias outside Banderas Bay, and one on the Gold Coast

south of Cabo Corrientes.  They are marked by some kind of bouy at each end, and these end bouys are a few hundred yards

or a few miles apart.  The two end bouys may have a flag on them and may have a second smaller bouy floating nearby.

Reports from people who have sailed into them are that you can cut them fairly easily with a knife.

The VHF radio is an experience unto itself in Mexican waters.  The fishermen go crazy on channel 16, especially out at sea late

at night.  They whoop and holler and whistle at each other.  They hold the mic way too close and yell into it in very fast and

excited sounding Spanish.  I asked a Bolivian cruiser what the heck they were saying, and he said he couldn't understand them

either and that they have their own jargon.  Sometimes they hold the mic to their radio speakers and play songs on Channel 16.

Sometimes they make animal sounds and other weird noises.  In between, the cruisers hail each other and the freighters and

cruise ships hail the port captains, all sounding very formal.  The other day I heard a Mexican voice say in Spanish, "This

channel is for serious mariners, not animals."  To which the reply was a loud chicken squawk and then silence.  Channel 22 is

the channel cruisers use to hail each other when not underway, and many busy anchorages host morning nets on Channel 22.

BOAT PREPARATION

If you are outfitting a boat for cruising, I hope this section offers some food for thought and sparks some ideas.  We have found

that it is easy to get caught up in a mindset of never-ending boat projects to the point where the projects overshadow the

cruising.  Starting north of the border with a slew of upgrades., it is really tempting to continue taking on huge boat upgrade

projects in Mexico.  In addition, things break, and suddenly The Boat turns into a 50-hour-a-week job with no time left for

sightseeing and enjoying Mexico itself.  Soon frustration sets in.  "When do the boat projects end and the cruising begin?" one

friend asked in me in jest, but not really joking.  Here are some thoughts I've had about some of the most popular upgrades:

Solar Power and Watermaker -- Marina-based Living

If you are going to be in Mexico for just a season or two, and you have the budget to spend 50% or more of your time in

marinas, you may be best off skipping the watermaker and solar panels.  These are two huge, complicated, expensive projects

that will only help you when you are anchored out, and in reality, how many nights will that be?  For a lot of people the time

spent anchoring out is just a few weeks in the Sea of Cortez, a few days here and there between La Paz, Mazatlan and Puerto

Vallarta, and a few weeks on the Gold Coast.  The $10-15K outlay for a watermaker and solar power/arch setup might be much

better spent at the swank resort marinas and on trips inland to Mexico's famous landmarks.  Doesn't sitting in a hot tub or

visiting the extensive but distant Mayan ruins and dramatic landscapes sound better than overseeing a worker installing your

upgrades, or worse, doing it yourself?

If you stay at a marina for a few weeks and are then in transit for a week or two before settling into the next marina, a Yamaha

or Honda 2000 generator will keep the batteries happy on days you don't use your engine, and a large alternator will top them

off when you motor between anchorages.  If you have good sized water tanks you can manage with onboard water from the last

marina stop.

Some of the happiest cruisers we've met are people who didn't install these expensive items.  The water at the marinas is good.

If in doubt, you can always filter the water at the dock with a 1 micron filter and a carbon filter in series, or you can add a carbon

filter at a sink onboard.  If you are fussy about drinking water it is easy to stock up with bottled water in gallon containers, as it is

carried in even the tiniest one-room stores.

US camping stores sell collapsible water jugs in 2.5 and 5 gallon sizes.  Grab a few of these before you set out and you can

increase your on-board water supply without having to store the bottles on deck when they're empty.

Solar Power and Watermaker - Living on the Hook! For more on solar visit our SOLAR POWER pages.

On the other hand, if you are going to anchor out most of the time or are planning a longer cruise to places beyond Mexico that

don't have so many marinas, solar power and a watermaker are two awesome upgrades.  For us it made sense to get the

biggest ones we could.

Our DC fridge and freezer eat up about 100-120 amp hours every 24 hours.  Our 555 watts of solar panels tied to a 60 amp

MPPT charge controller is just barely sufficient in the winter if we keep the freezer running. If we run just the fridge but

keep the freezer turned off, we can live on solar power indefinitely.

On good sunny days we get anywhere from 150 amps in December/January to 230 amps in June/July.  We need to run the

engine (with its 100 amp alternator) for a few hours every third or fourth day in the wintertime.  This works out fine because that

is generally about the time we are ready to move on anyways.

We have met a lot of boats in Mexico that found they did not installed enough solar power before starting out and decided to

add more in Mexico.  This isn't easy to do.  So if you are considering putting solar power on your boat before starting your

cruise, get at least 500 watts, and more if possible.

The panels need to be installed so they are not shadowed and they need to be

wired in parallel.  Ours are aft of the boom, but they often get a little shade when

the sun is on the beam or foreword of the beam.  Lashing the boom off to one

side often helps.  Unfortunately, if as little as 5% of a solar panel is shaded, it

quits working all together.  If the panels are wired in series this knocks out the

whole solar panel array.  I have seen this on our fifth wheel where our 490 watts

of solar (wired in series) went from producing 10 amps on an early winter

morning to producing 0.1 amp when I used my body to shade a corner of just

one of the four panels.  Placing panels near or under radomes, wind generators

or the boom will make it very easy for shadows to creep onto one of the panels

and severely impair the system.  Of course while sailing they often end up tilted

away from the sun as well as shaded by the sails.

Our engine-driven water maker is rated to produce 38 gallons per hour, but it

actually makes as much as 60 gallons per hour.  In our research we discovered

that most DC watermakers require running the engine to keep the batteries at a

high enough voltage for the watermaker to operate well, so getting an engine driven unit that produces five times more water

made sense to us.  It was the same price as the more popular DC

watermakers that produce 6-12 gallons per hour.

In our fifth wheel we use only 8 gallons of water per day, because obtaining

water when boondocking can be tricky.  On the boat we use much more.

The salty, grubby marine environment requires lots of fresh water to keep

things clean.  Mark attaches a hose to the watermaker's sample tube so we

can wash the decks while making water (although the water pressure

is light).  Snorkeling gear and kayaking gear needs rinsing after use, and it

is nice to rinse off salty feet and salty bodies after swimming.  We also have

fresh water flush toilets.  We use about 20 to 30 gallons of water a day.

Because we are used to keeping our drinking water in gallon bottles in the

trailer rather than drinking from our holding tanks, we always make the last

bit of water into gallon jugs.  This allows us to add minerals to the water,

since desalinated water doesn't have any minerals in it.

Anchor & Rode

In Mexico we have been able to anchor in 15 to 25 feet of water almost everywhere, and we put out 120' of chain regardless of

the depth because there is usually plenty of swinging room.  When a Sea of Cortez Norther or Corumuel or Westerly blows in

we let out more chain, often as much as 250'.  We thought it was a little crazy when we followed the advice of seasoned cruisers

and installed 300' of chain, but we're sure glad we have it now, as we have never dragged.  Snorkeling over our 60 lb. Ultra

anchor (and Ultra flip swivel) we have seen a case where the boat pulled the chain in a 360 degree circle around the anchor,

and the anchor neatly cork-screwed into the sand.  The chain's pattern on the sand was very pretty.  I wish I'd had an

underwater camera to capture it!

GOODIES

These are some goodies we found extremely useful that are not usually on the list for outfitting cruising boats.

Shower Bags

Our hot water heater holds 11 gallons and relies on the engine to heat the water.  After two days at anchor it's not hot any more.

If we run the engine to make water in the anchorage then the water gets heated up again and the batteries get topped off.

However, if we don't want to run the engine another option is to fill a camping solar shower bag with water, set it in the sun for a

few hours and then use it to take a shower.  We tie the shower bag outside the bathroom window and run the nozzle through

the window to the shower.  It's not quite as nice as the real shower nozzle, but it does the trick.  The 2.5 gallon shower bags are

an easy size to deal with, and we can both get a shower from one bag.  The 4 gallon bags are ungainly.

SSB Radio (portable)

The SSB radio is great for socializing on the SSB nets and, if your radio can transmit, the addition of a

Pactor modem also gives you email access while out of reach of Wifi or TelCel cell towers.  However,

installing one is an expensive and complicated project, so we decided to forego it.  Instead, we use a

portable, battery operated SSB receiver.  Clipping a lead between the radio and a steel rod that comes

into the cabin from one of the inner shrouds is all we need to do to listen to the SSB cruiser nets.  It took

us quite while to figure out which buttons to push to get the various frequencies, and the nets often change

frequencies slightly up or down if the official frequency is in use when the net is supposed to begin.  SSB

broadcasts are full of beeps and blips and weird outerspace noises that make our fellow cruisers sound

like Martians.  Ours is a Sangean ATS 909, but others are made by Grundig, Eton and Sony.

WiFi Booster

There are a lot of places in Mexico where you can get a free wifi signal on the boat, but you need a booster.  We have a

Bitstorm BadBoy wifi antenna which has an RJ45 ethernet jack at the end that goes to the computer.  This makes the wifi

signal onshore available to one computer on the boat.  The manufacturer, Bitstorm, also sells their Unleashed product, a small

antenna which connects to this ethernet jack and then broadcasts wifi within the boat.  This effectively makes the external wifi

signal onshore available to multiple computers on board via local wifi.  When you turn on the BadBoy antenna it turns on the

Unleashed antenna at the same time, and all of it runs off DC power so there is no need to turn on an inverter.

GMRS Radios

One of the best things on our boat is two little GMRS walkie-talkie radios.  These are rated for 36 miles, but they require line of

sight to achieve that distance.  We have found they work over several miles with buildings in between.  For instance, from West

Marine's parking lot on Shelter Island Drive all the way down to the Police Dock.  We use them when anchoring, which makes

the whole process much less stressful and a lot more polite as we can discuss what's going on while Mark scopes out the

anchorage at the bow and I stand at the wheel.  Hand signals are great but you can't really converse about whether this or that

spot might be better and why.

They are also very handy when one person goes to shore and the other stays on the boat.  Most cruisers use a handheld VHF

for that purpose, but all VHF radio conversations are public, and I prefer our conversations not to be broadcast all over the

anchorage.

Shade Screen & Fans

If you will be cruising in the Sea of Cortez between May and October you will need a lot of shade in the

cockpit.  There are many fancy ways to create shade screens, and lots of people use a mesh that keeps

out 75% to 90% of the UV rays.  We chose screens that keep out 90% of the rays, and that was not

enough from June to early October.  You need true shade at those times.  A fancy solution is a sunbrella

flap that can connects to the bimini and comes down past the lifelines.  A cheaper option is just to buy

some bedsheets and use clamps to clamp them onto the bimini and lifelines.  These are easy to fold out of

the way and to wash.  The biggest problem with shade screens is that the boat rotates, so you need

coverage around the entire cockpit or you will go nuts constantly moving the shade screens from one

place to another.

Some portable DC fans that can be taken into the cockpit or pointed at yourself wherever you are sitting really help too.

Caframo makes high quality DC fans, and they have a small 2-blade model that rotates.  Perfect.

Super Siphon Hose

These plastic hoses have a check valve at one end, and they are ideal for transferring diesel or water from

jerry jugs into the boat's tanks.  You put the open end of the hose into the tank and put the check valve

end into the jerry jug.  Shake the check valve end of the hose up and down to coax the water into the

hose.   Once the siphon starts, keep the open end of the hose at the bottom of the jug until it is empty.  We

have one Super Siphon hose for water and another for diesel.

Electronic Spanish-English Dictionary

A small book dictionary will work too.  The idea is to have something small that you can whip out at the

grocery store when you are staring at a label and have no idea what is inside the container -- is it whole

wheat or oats?  Is it whole milk or skim?  Is that price for the carrots or the zucchini?  Etc., etc.  Also, it is

handy for deciphering signs, billboards and newspaper headlines.

Swimmer's Towels (and boat cleaning towels)

These are highly absorbent towels that you rinse out after use and store damp in a plastic container.  We

found swimmer's towels online, but they seem no different than the similar towels sold in auto parts stores and

the Walmart auto parts department for wiping down cars and boats.  We have a few of each.  We use the

swimmer's towels after swimming or after showering in the cockpit.  This significantly reduces the number of

salty, wet terry cloth towels we have lying around.  The boat cleaning towels are perfect for giving the boat a

sponge bath wipedown on dewey mornings.

Battery Operated LED Candles

We got four 3" candles at Bed Bath and Beyond, and they make the cabin very homey, especially since our

cabin lighting is fluorescent and LED.  On overnight passages they make the cabin feel warm and secure.

LED Lights

We replaced all of our incandescent lamp bulbs with LED bulbs, and we replaced two overhead halogen

bulbs with LED bulbs.  A good inexpensive source for LED bulbs is http://www.superbrightleds.com.

We got extra bulbs and we got a few in red so that on overnight passages we can switch a few of our lights

to red (although we don't generally bother to do that).  Our overhead cockpit light has a red LED bulb, and

this is very handy for identifying our boat in a crowded anchorage when we come back to it in the dark.

We replaced our anchor and running lights with LED bulbs too, but those are specialty items we got

through the traditional marine stores.

We also installed two LED reading lights that have turned out to be really great.  They cast a nice light that

is excellent for reading, and they don't have the harsh glare of most LED interior lights.  We also put

several $4 battery operated stick-on LED lights in hanging lockers, under the sinks and in other poorly lit

areas.

Dive Tank Handles

Getting dive tanks refilled usually involves at least a long walk if not a dinghy ride, and the easiest way to haul around the

ungainly tanks is with a webbing and velcro strap handle.  We found these simple handles make all the difference in the world.

Just make sure the dive shop knows the handles belong to you, or remove them before you leave the tanks if you have to leave

the tanks for a few hours or overnight, just so they don't disappear while at the shop.

This Tips for Mexico Cruisers guide is continued here: Tips for Cruising Mexico - Part 2

This is Page 2 of our collection of tips for cruising Mexico in your own boat (see Tips for Cruising Mexico - Part 1

and Mexico Maps for more info). These are things we learned en-route and wish we had known before we left. If you are

planning a cruise to Mexico, I hope this special page from our boat blog helps paint the picture of what you might find there.

• Checking In Procedures:

What you might experience during the check-in process

• Money:

Currency exchange and credit cards

• Provisioning:

Stores and foods

• Boat Parts:

What to expect - it's nothing like the US or Canada

• Internet Access:

UPDATE from 08/25/2016 - See INTERNET info at bottom of page!!

• Laundry:

Where to do it and what it costs

• Clothes

What kinds of clothes - and how much - to bring

• Hair Care

Getting your hair done can be a cultural experience

• Bugs:

There aren't many, but here are the few we've seen

• Dinghy/outboard Theft

Crime against tourists is rare, but dinghy/outboard theft is a known problem in two areas.

• Costs:

Approximate costs of cruising in Mexico

• Hurricane Season

Some things we learned after leaving our boat in San Carlos

CHECKING IN

This procedure changes so much it is almost silly to put anything in here, as it is probably out of date already. But this will give

you an idea of what might take place, as it is what we went through in February 2010 and October 2010…

We checked into Mexico in Ensenada. This is a great place to do it, as everything is in one room. In 2010 the Ensenada

marinas charged $60 to have a staff person take you to the port captain and walk you through the process, although we have a

friend who was not charged a centavo. Having a guide makes it a no brainer to check in, and you know everything is done right.

If you decide to do it yourself you will still need the marina to write up a crew list for you. The port captain in Ensenada wants to

see the letterhead of one of the three local marinas on the crew list. I tried to write one myself upon our second entry into

Mexico after we had left for the summer and they wouldn't accept it. The port is encouraging all boats not to anchor out, so this

may be part of their method for controlling that.

Your marina may write up a crew list for free, at least Baja Naval did for us when we checked into Mexico the second time.

They will also ask you to give them a copy of the paperwork when you get back from the port captain's office. It is a tightly

controlled port and the marinas are required to keep copies of the check-in paperwork for boats that stay with them. All

together you will need:

• Crew List

• Passports for all on board

• US Coast Guard boat documentation

• Boat insurance declaration page (I think…)

• Serial numbers of your boat's main engine and dinghy outboard

The port captain's office is on the north side of the big fish market at the north end of the malecón. It is down a side road,

opposite the chandlery Agencia Arjona, and is clearly marked "Capitania de Puerto." Ask for directions when you get to the fish

market.

Walk inside and tell the first person you see that you want to check in. There are several windows with officials sitting behind

them, and you will be pointed to the right one for starting the process.

You will be obtaining a 10-year Temporary Import Permit ("TIP") for your boat and a 6-month tourist visa for each person on the

boat. For each of these documents you will have to pay first at one window (the Banjercito) and then take your receipt to

another window to obtain the paperwork. You may go back and forth between the windows twice to get these documents

completed.

The TIP is a document that includes an addendum page that lists everything you have on your boat, including watermaker,

electronics, cooking appliances, etc. This is where the serial numbers of the engines comes in. We knew we would be adding

solar and a watermaker within a few months, so we listed the boat as having those already.

At the end of the whole process you will have three documents in your hand: 10-year TIP, Tourist visa(s), and stamped Crew

List. In addition you will have the two receipts from the Banjercito (TIP and tourist visa(s)). The process could take an hour or

could take two, as it did for us because we walked in right after a megayacht that had 10 New Zealanders on board.

Then you will be asked to press a magic button that is connected to a large street light. If it lights up green you are good to go.

If it lights up red and sirens go off, you will be mortified and everyone in the room will stare at you. This means you have been

arbitrarily selected for a boat inspection. A few uniformed people with clipboards will accompany you back to the boat and will

have a look around. They checked out our boat but didn't verify line-by-line what was on the TIP as I would have expected. It

was just a general, friendly inspection, much like the many Mexican Navy boardings that have taken place since then.

MONEY

There are lots of places to get the current exchange rate between the Mexican peso and US or Canadian dollar. One site with a

historical perspective and current rate is: http://www.x-rates.com/d/MXN/USD/graph120.html. Although in the past two years

the exchange rate has hovered between 11 and 13 pesos to 1 USD, most people use a 10-to-1 exchange rate in their heads

when trying to figure out prices on the fly.

The best place to change money is with your debit card at ATM machines located

within bank buildings. By using a bank's ATM machine you have someone to go to if

the machine doesn't give you your money (three different friends have told me a

free-standing Mexican ATM machine shorted them their money or gave them nothing

at all, and they had little recourse). You can't exchange money with a bank teller

unless you have an account at the bank, and the money changers on the streets

don't give great rates.

You will be charged a fee by the bank that changes your money, usually about 19-27

pesos, and unless you bank has a relationship with the Mexican bank, your bank will likely charge a $2-$3 fee too. So we prefer

to change as much money as possible whenever we do it (6,000 to 8,000 pesos seems typical with most cruisers I've talked to),

and the final exchange rate after the two sets of fees works out to about a few tenths of a peso less than the advertised rate.

The receipts never show the exchange rate you were given, so we find out what rate we got when we look at our bank account

online after the fact.

HSBC, Bancomer, Banamex, Santander and Scotiabank are in most cities. I haven't studied the comparative exchange rates,

but I do know in La Paz HSBC gives the best rate. One interesting note: I walked into a Santander bank and the first ATM

machine I walked up to wanted to charge 31 pesos to change money, while the second one, further from the door, charged only

21 pesos.

Credit card fraud is rampant in Mexico. In one year we had five cases of fraud on three different credit cards. I guess it took us

a while to learn our lesson. So bottom line: don't use your credit card. Our last fraud was either at an Ensenada marina or at

the main TelCel office in Ensenada, so even if you are dealing with an established, above-the-board big business, your card

may get compromised. Look up "ATM skimmers" or "credit card skimmers" online to learn more about some of the ways credit

card fraud is accomplished, both at US bank ATM machines and abroad.

All that being said, it can still be helpful to have a credit card available for emergencies or for purchases where you trust the

merchant. Most credit cards charge a fee for changing the currency from pesos to US dollars. However, Capital One credit

cards are terrific for all international travel because they do not charge any kind of a fee for changing money.

You will need lots of smaller bills when you are in smaller towns -- 20, 50 and 100 peso notes. We have found some places are

challenged to make change when you hand them a 200 peso note. Lots of 2, 5 and 10 peso coins are also handy for tipping. If

the ATM machine gives you a wad of 500 peso notes, go inside the bank and get some small ones.

FOOD & PROVISIONING

Warehouse Stores

There are some warehouse stores on the Mexican coast. Sams Club is more prevalent in the coastal port towns than Costco.

The only coastal Costcos are in Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco. The one in PV is very difficult to get to,

especially if you are staying in La Cruz, as there is no bus to it. The cab ride back to La Cruz from that Costco is about 100

pesos ($7.50). Sam's Club is much more common in coastal Mexico (Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and La Paz) and is

relatively easy to reach in every town. Before buying or renewing your club card, check the Mexican locations online, as new

Costcos and Sams Clubs will continue to pop up.

Supermarkets

There are lots of big supermarkets in the major cities (Ensenada, La Paz, Loreto, San Carlos,

Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Zihuatanejo). The Mexican chains are Soriana,

Comercial Mexicana (which has a line of mammoth supermarkets called "MEGA") and Ley.

Walmart is in most of those cities too. If you need to do a big provisioning run, take the bus

there and a cab back. Most cab rides are around 30 to 50 pesos ($2.30-$3.80). Negotiate the

fare before you hop in.

The selection and prices are all over the map, both in the warehouse stores and in the major

supermarkets. American packaged products are often more expensive than in the US due to

import taxes. Some brands have a big presence in Mexico and some are non-existent. For

instance, Kelloggs cereals are everywhere, some General Mills products are re-branded Nestle,

a handful of Quaker cereals can be found and Post cereals don't exist at all. If you have certain

products you can't live without, stock up before leaving the US. If you are willing to take the time

in the bigger cities, you can find just about everything if you check each of the big supermarkets.

Soriana and Comercial Mexicana (Mega) both have

club cards for frequent shoppers. It is easy to sign up

for a card and you will accumulate points. Every so

often it pays off. I've never fully grasped the subtleties

of these cards, but a few times we've had a hundred or

so pesos deducted from our grocery bill at the checkout

counter.

It is customary to tip the bagger a few pesos for bagging your groceries. I have

heard rumors that they are not paid by the stores, but I don't know if this is really

true. Also, we purchased two big insulated "cold bags" and keep some cold packs

in our freezer. This helps keep the refrigerated items cold during the long trek

back to the boat.

Public Markets

Many bigger towns have a Mercado Publico -- a central public

market. These usually take up nearly a city block and are enclosed

with lots of booths for different vendors. The meat, fish, poultry and

produce is brought in from the outlying farms. Prices aren't posted,

so it's a great time to practice your Spanish numbers as you ask

what different items cost. You bag what you want and pay the

person near the booth's register. Often lots of other things are for

sale -- there might be a hat booth, a straw basket booth, a hardware

booth, a broom booth, a DVD booth, etc. For us gringos, it can feel like a

very third world experience, but is also very colorful and exciting.

Small Grocery Stores

In smaller towns, villages and on the back streets of the cities you'll find corner "tiendas" or

"abarrotes." These are small convenience stores and grocery stores that carry essentials.

These little one-room shops usually have a few vegetables (onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and

maybe a few others), lots of canned goods, bread, boxed milk, soaps, cold drinks, bottled water,

beer and other basics. They are often called a "mini-super."

There are US-style convenience store chains as well. Oxxo is the most common convenience

store chain. Similar to 7-11 or Circle K, it can be found on many city street corners. The beer

breweries also have chains of convenience stores that sell their beer and other basics. Modelo,

Pacifico and Tecate all have convenience stores. For Corona fans: Modelo makes Corona.

Dollar Stores

There are dollar stores in Mexico. The most common are Waldo's ("Todo a un precio" - "Everything at one

price") and Solo Un Precio. Just like dollar stores in the US, they sell all kinds of cheap goodies. This is one of

the few places we have found pretzels, although they are not quite as tasty as pretzels you buy in the US. We

also found huge jars of peanut-butter and relatively inexpensive peanuts.

Provisioning before leaving the US

Specialty items, from favorite toiletries to spices, sauces and condiments, may or may not available in Mexico, so stock up on

those before you leave. Kikkoman soy sauce is easy to find, but Neutrogena facial products aren't. It's impossible to list all that

is available and not available. This is where living in Ensenada for a few months first (or at least driving or taking the bus down

for a weekend to check out the shopping situation) is really helpful

Don't bring any canned vegetables with you except what you are going to consume right away. Canned vegetables can be

found in even the tiniest "tienda" in the most remote Sea of Cortez village, so unless you eat a lot of canned vegetables, there is

no need to bring any with you from the US. Other canned goods like Dinty Moore Beef Stew, Chef Boyardi products, Bush's

Baked Beans and Hormel Chili are not easy to find. Canned tuna and canned chicken are reported to taste different in Mexico.

I can't verify that as I am still working on the enormous stash we bought at Costco before we left the US.

Paper products in Mexico are not the quality we are used to in the US. If you use a lot of paper towels and like them to be

strong enough not to disintegrate at first touch, take as many rolls as you can fit. We have friends who now use blue Shop

Towels as paper towels (available at auto parts stores in Mexico) -- an expensive way to go, but they couldn't stand the flimsy

Mexican paper towels. Likewise with toilet paper. Good quality brands of these products can be found at the warehouse stores,

but not necessarily at the supermarkets.

We found we longed for American snack foods, and were glad to have a stash of favorites. Ritz crackers,

potato chips and Oreos are readily available at supermarkets in Mexico, but Wheat Thins, Cheezits,

Triscuits, and Chips Ahoy are nearly impossible to find. Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter Pretzels and Nuts

of any kind are rare and expensive.

If you have a freezer, stock up on meats, chicken and your favorite cheese before leaving the US. The

Mexican counterparts are okay, but they are different, and it is really nice after a few months to bite into a

steak from your favorite hometown grocer.

Get some long-life veggie bags. Debbie Meyer's Green Bags or the Brawny pink ones. Both keep veggies

longer than if they are in regular plastic bags. You can wash and re-use the bags. We had beautiful fresh

broccoli 3 weeks after we bought it in San Diego. Carrots, potatoes and onions last well in brown paper

bags out of the fridge.

Provisioning in Mexico

Many big city supermarkets have a gringo section, and that is often stocked with Kirkland

(Costco) brand items, although the prices are more than in the US. Breton crackers, fancy

mustards and olives can often be found on these shelves. I've even seen peanut-butter pretzels.

Mexican dairy products are not the same as in the US. For some reason the fresh milk goes

sour a lot faster -- is it inferior processing, or does the US use more potent chemicals? Who

knows. Mark stopped eating cold cereal all together and I use boxed milk for my coffee. I don't

taste a difference. To me the boxed milk is just like fresh milk, but Mark disagrees

wholeheartedly.

If you like yogurt, the best yogurt we have found is from the dairy Alpura. This brand is sold

primarily on the mainland, but sometimes you can get lucky in Baja. All plain yogurt by other companies

has sugar in it ("azúcar" in the ingredients list). Alpura is the only dairy that sells true plain yogurt. Their

flavored yogurt is also the most similar to US yogurt. Even though Yoplait and Dannon sell yogurt in

Mexico, it is nothing like the US versions of the products.

If you want fat free products, that is "sin grasa," and sugar free is "sin azúcar." Many people confuse

yogurt and sour cream because the containers look the same. If the container says "Crema" it is sour

cream. If it says something that looks like the word "yogurt" (spellings vary) then it is yogurt.

There is one major Mexican cheese sold everywhere: Manchego cheese. It has a Spanish origin where

it is made from goat milk. In Mexico it is a different recipe using cow's milk/cream. It is a white cheese

that is good with crackers or in quesadillas or tortillas. However, many Americans eventually long for their

familiar orange cheddar cheese which Mexicans don't eat. Most supermarkets carry one brand of cheddar cheese: Joseph's

Farm from California. Stock up when you see it, if you like that kind of cheese, as other gringos will be stocking up too, and a lot

of times the supermarkets are sold out. Most big city supermarkets sell Gouda cheese and many have Brie and other soft

European cheeses as well.

Also in the dairy section you can always find Yakult, a terrific little sweet dairy drink packed with

probiotics, the perfect antidote to any kind of gastric distress caused by Montezuma or anything else.

We have never gotten sick from water or food -- only from swallowing red tide by accident. Most

digestive complaints from cruisers seem to come after a meal out.

The biggest supermarkets have good selections of fresh produce. However, the quality is not as high

as the US. Examine everything carefully, because blemishes are common. Most big supermarkets

sell small bottles of Microdyn or other antibacterial wash products. Pour a cap-full in a sink of water

and let all the veggies float in it for a while. Then rinse them well.

Eggs are often sold unrefrigerated. They can be kept unrefrigerated if you turn the box over every 24

hours. I had never in my life seen a rotten egg before living in Mexico. I cracked my first one not long

ago. The yolk and white were completely black and putrid. Now I understand the childhood taunt,

"Last one home is a rotten egg."

Meats and chicken take a little getting used to, as the quality is often only so-so. The chicken is very yellow. We have asked

lots of people why, and we've gotten several odd answers. There is an old wive's tale that it is from feeding the chickens

marigolds. Well, Mexican chickens are raised in factory farms, so that is doubtful. Some say they are dipped in iodine. I've also

heard they are fed corn, but US chicken is fed corn too. Who knows. It is very yellow and it can have a potent smell when

cooked if you don't remove the skin and fat.

Lunch meat is available in one variety: turkey ("pavo") that has been made to look like ham ("jamón"). The most common

brand is "Fud." It resembles the worst quality lunch meat available in US stores, and even that brand name "Fud" is

unappetizing. If you like good quality lunch meat, buy a bunch in the US, freeze it and bring it south with you.

Fresh fish is often a better bet. The Spanish names are different. Fish we have enjoyed immensely are Cabrilla (bass) and

Sierra (Spanish Mackerel), as well as dorado (mahi-mahi).

Pollo Asado is grilled chicken sold at outdoor stands. This chicken is delicious. Choose a stand that has a crowd of Mexicans

around it, and it will be tasty and safe to eat. A whole chicken is usually around 100 pesos ($7.50) and you can also buy half

and quarter chickens. They are often split along the sternum and laid out flat on the grill so they look like roadkill. They are sold

with corn tortillas and often with delicious flavored rice. This is a terrific thing to buy prior to a long passage. You can nibble the

chicken plain, make chicken salad or sandwiches, turn it into a stir-fry, or wrap it in a tortilla with cheese and heat it up.

Tacos on the street are also a great way to go for cheap eats. A good price is about 8 to 20 pesos per taco (around $0.60 to

$1.50). Two makes a meal and three stuff you. They are served open so you can fill them with toppings and then roll them up

yourself. Always choose places that are crowded with Mexicans. They know where the good food is. Carne, chicken and fish

tacos are available from Puerto Vallarta and to the north. The best are on the Baja peninsula (at Rancho Viejo in La Paz and

Las Brisas in Ensenada).

South of Cabo Corrientes corn tortillas begin to dominate and flour tortillas disappear along with the familiar style of beef,

chicken and fish tacos found up north. It is not nearly as easy in this area to find good beef taco stands. In Manzanillo we

walked all over town in search of fish tacos and finally asked at the visitors center where to find them. They sent us to a back

street where a vendor had a vat of fish stew he ladled into corn tortillas -- not at all the fish tacos we were used to in northern

Mexico and southern California and Arizona.

You can easily make fish tacos from any kind of cooked fish by dicing up tomatoes and cold crunchy veggies (cucumber, celery,

cabbage, etc.). Heat up the fish on a tortilla in a skillet or microwave, then sprinkle on the veggies and add a little mayo and hot

sauce and roll it up. Yum.

The best flour tortillas are on the Baja peninsula, and are found in tortillerias that make them there on the spot. They are

typically about a peso apiece, sold by the kilo (about 28 tortillas). Separate them before refrigerating or they will stick together

and rip. If you freeze them they may stick together when thawed, so separate first and make sure they are dry before freezing.

South of Cabo Corrientes there is only one brand of commercial flour tortillas, "Tortillinas," and they aren't nearly as good as the

homemade ones, but they are sold even in the smallest tiendas. Tortillerias in this southern coastal part of Mexico make and

sell only corn tortillas.

Totopos are a fried corn tortilla chip snack food that were probably the original ancestor of Doritos and Fritos (we discovered

that the famous Frito Bandito song from the old commercials is actually a take off on a famous Mariachi song here in Mexico).

They are available primarily on the mainland. You can buy them freshly made at tortillerias and in the bakery section of the big

city supermarkets, or you can buy them prepackaged at little corner tiendas. They are tasty as a snack served plain or with a

guacamole, bean, cheese or other dip.

We have found awesome refried beans under the brand "Isadora" that come in soft

plastic packaging. These are fantastic for a quickie bean burrito on the boat (tortilla,

beans, cheese, hot sauce - heat and roll up).

Mayonnaise also comes in this kind of soft packaging which is perfect for jamming

into a packed fridge…

It is hard to find good quality coffee in the northern part of Mexico. However, the

best coffee I have ever had can be found at The Octopus's Garden / Galeria Huichol in

La Cruz (Puerto Vallarta/Banderas Bay). The proprietor, a Frenchman named Wendy,

roasts his own beans to create a French Roast that is to die for and is about half the

price of Starbucks coffee in the US. He also sells his coffee at the weekly Farmer's

Market in La Cruz and is located in the last booth that sells coffee (so don't get hasty

and buy the wrong stuff!). Further south in Zihuatanejo you can get locally grown

Mexican coffee, and it is very good.

There are lots of products I have been told can't be found in Mexico, but they can be if you are patient. They just

aren't easy to find and may not be in the city where you want them to be. But keep prowling around and eventually

you will locate them. Among these are brown sugar, pickle relish and high quality packaged bread.

BOAT PARTS

While all Mexicans eat and there is an abundance of food to be had, even if it isn't quite what you're used to at home, not that

many Mexicans own cruising boats. Finding parts for the boat is a challenge. Even finding simple tools and hardware is a

challenge.

The best chandlery we've seen is Lopez Marine in La Paz. It is about ⅓ the size

of West Marine in San Diego. If they don't have it on the shelf they can order it

for you from the US. Prices are 10% to 30% higher than in the US. All the other

chandleries we visited in Mexico were fishing oriented and had few, if any,

sailboat-specific parts. My eyes popped out of my head when I saw a snap

shackle at Lopez Marine -- it was the first I had seen since West Marine in San

Diego 6 months earlier, and we had been all over the Mexican coast at that point.

The rule in Mexico for buying anything is: if you see and think you might want it

someday, buy it, because you won't see it again. That goes for the humongous

jar of Skippy peanut-butter and it goes for the gizmo-widget that looks like it might

come in handy in a crisis at sea.

Most hardware stores ("ferreterias") are small one- or two-room shops that

carry a variety of general purpose tools and parts. The selection is often

minimal and sometimes a bit weird. They may have 100 screws of one

length and pitch, six of another, and none of any others. When you ask for

an item they might hand you a dusty, opened box with something similar to

what you want inside. You have to rely on your own ingenuity and creativity

to make the best out of what you find in these little places. That's what the

Mexicans do, and they are extremely good at it.

Some hardware stores have specialties -- the

nuts-and-bolts-and-screws store, the tool store,

etc. Little is available in stainless steel. Home

Depot has a few stores in Mexico, and they are much the same as the stores in the US, but they

don't sell things the Mexicans don't buy. Appliances are smaller; the selection of things like faucets

is minimal. The major US auto parts stores like Napa Auto Parts are also common in Mexico. Again,

patience, lots of walking, and creativity are key. Most store clerks will point you to another store if

they don't have what you are looking for. You will get in lots of miles on foot.

In many ways we have had some of our best days getting to know the Mexicans and their culture

when we wandered the back streets of different towns looking for a particular part. We might not

have found the part, but we had a chance to practice our Spanish and experience a little of life in a

culture that is very differently than our own.

Major replacement parts can be

brought into Mexico, but it is a

complicated process that is heavily taxed. Some cities like

La Paz have an enterprising person that will drive to the US

and carry packages over the border for you for a fee (they

avoid the import tax for you by not declaring the part at the

border crossing). Otherwise, if the parts are shipped by a

commercial shipper they have to go through customs in a

major inland city (Mexico City or Guadalajara) and an import

duty is imposed. We have not done either of these things,

so I won't mislead you any further.

.

INTERNET - THIS SECTION IS OBSOLETE. SEE "INTERNET" AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

For internet access from the boat we found the TelCel USB modem to be very valuable. It uses the TelCel cell phone towers to

operate, and there are cell towers wherever there is a good sized town. It is a small stick that plugs into the computer's USB

port. The first time you plug it in it will download some application software onto your computer. You run that software to make

the USB modem connect to a cell tower.

TelCel (pronounced "Tell SELL") is owned by the world's richest man, Carlos Slim, but it is not a particularly easy device to buy

or renew. The best way to get one is to go to a main "TelCel - Atención A Clientes" office building. These are huge buildings in

major cities (Ensenada, La Paz, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, PV, Manzanillo, Ixtapa). Inside (often upstairs) there is a row of 20

or so clerk windows, like you find at a huge bank or at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Don't bother with any of the small

TelCel shops on the street. They are cell phone oriented and don't have what you need.

The big TelCel offices are run something like the Department of Motor Vehicles too: you tell the receptionist what product you

are there for and she gives you a number. Then you stand in line for as much as an hour until a window opens up. Like the

check-in process for entering Mexico, this whole process is ever evolving, but I will explain here what we have gone through to

purchase and renew our TelCel Banda Ancha. It is just a guideline...

The product you want is the Banda Ancha Amigo Alto 3G. The 3G is pronounced "trays jeega," but the important thing is to

get a clerk that speaks English. If the one you walk up to doesn't speak English, wait for one that does.

Once at the clerk's window, it will take a while for the paperwork to be processed. You will then be sent to a line to pay for it.

Your purchase should include both the USB modem and the first month's 399 pesos of upload/download. After you have paid (it

might be handled in two transactions) you return to your clerk's window with the receipt and they give you the USB modem stick.

Before leaving the building, take out your laptop, plug in the stick and verify that it works. Look for the word

"Idioma" (Language) in the software (it may be in the "Herramientas" (Tools) menu). By clicking "Idioma" you can set the

language to English. If you can't get it working, ask for help and stick around until it does. Make a note of the cell phone

number that has been assigned to your USB modem.

We got a Huawei modem stick and it works great. Other cruisers like their Huawei stick too. Our first stick was a Nokia and the

Macintosh implementation of its software couldn't go through the steps necessary to renew the account at the end of the month.

A real headache.

The stick lights up blue if it is a 3G connection and green otherwise. Much of the time it is green. The fastest connection I've

seen is in La Paz and has a download speed of just under 2.5 Mbps and an upload speed of around 0.15 Mbps. To compare

this to your current internet connection, go to http://www.speedtest.net and do the speed test. In most anchorages the

download speed is more like 0.5 Mbps and upload is around 0.07 Mbps. Pretty pitiful, but it sure is better than nothing and it

teaches you patience, a critical skill for cruising. Sitting in the cockpit, aiming the stick towards the cell tower and even holding

the laptop overhead can all make a difference in the speed (I held our laptop overhead off and on for 45 minutes while we left

Tenacatita during the March 2011 tsunami so we could get the latest news reports on how the waves were affecting the

California coast. We had connectivity--of sorts--for six miles out).

The cost is 399 pesos (~$32) per 3GB of uploads/downloads or 30 days, whichever comes first, and the USB

modem stick is a few hundred pesos. Oddly, access is sold in increments of 500 pesos. You can buy more

than one 3GB packet of access, but they are distinct purchases and you should get a separate receipt for each.

I found it best to stick to one 500 peso advance purchase at a time, activated when needed..

The 3GB of access is enough to send and receive email, surf the web, watch some YouTube and news videos and access

social media websites. If you spend a lot of time on YouTube or watching news videos or downloading large files you will use it

up faster.

You can see your approximate usage in the Statistics tab in the TelCel software. For a more accurate accounting, especially if

you access TelCel from more than one computer, you need to set up an account online. To do this go to http://

www.mitelcel.com and create a NIP (password) to go along with the cell number of your modem. Once you have logged

in you can go to "Internet TelCel" and click on "Consulta" see the exact amount you have used so far. On the right hand side

bar under "Mi Cuenta" you can go to "Consulta tu Saldo" to see the balance of pesos in your account.

Whether or not you use all your 3GB, your account will expire after 30 days at a specific hour, minute and second (given in your

online account). The communication between you and TelCel is handled through text messages in the software, and you will be

notified when it expires. All the text messages are in Spanish, so a Spanish-English dictionary really helps. Or, you can copy

the text from the message into the Google Translator (http://translate.google.com/) to get it translated into English.

In order to renew your service, you need to put more money in your account and then inform TelCel to apply it to another month

of Amigo 3G access. This is a two step process. You can put more money in your account any time by going to a chain market

(Soriana, Comercial Mexicana (MEGA), Chedraui, Walmart, Oxxo) and asking the checkout person to put 500 pesos on your

USB modem's cell phone number. Just show them the phone number and ask for 500 pesos to be put on your account.

Once the money is in your account you will get a text message in your TelCel software telling you it has been received. Activate

it after the current packet has expired, not before. There is a grace period of a few days where you get free access.

To activate it, open the TelCel application on your computer and go to the TEXT tab (for Text Messages). In the "Send

message to:" field put: 5050. In the body of the message write: bat30 You will get a text message reply stating that the

service has been restarted. It will also tell you the date and time the service expires. Or do it through your http://

www.mitelcel.com account. You can also purchase air time with a credit card through www.mitelcel.com, but when I last tried it

was not a secure credit card transaction. (Recently the text msg renewal deducted 500 pesos whereas the online one deducted 399).

Of course all this will probably change, so this is just an approximation of what to expect.

Patience is key, but the reward is internet access from the boat. A lot of times the speed is not great. Sometimes the servers

are down (and if so it will likely take until the next business day for them to be brought up again). However, something is better

than nothing, and it's all part of the cultural experience of living in a foreign country.

LAUNDRY

There are lots of laundromats in Mexico, usually within an easy walk. Most marinas have them onsite. The cost per load is is

somewhere around 30 to 60 pesos to wash and dry, or about $2.30 to $4.60 per load. For another 10 pesos or so per load you

can have your laundry done for you and returned to you folded and smelling good. The pricing is

frequently based on weight rather than load, and it is typically about 15 to 20 pesos per kilo to have your

laundry done for you (or about $1.15 to $1.50 per kilo). A load is usually two to three kilos. As with

everything, prices are cheaper further south.

We often go 2-3 weeks between laundry runs, so we have a second set of sheets and towels. We also

wash some lighter and smaller items by hand, like running shorts, bathing suits and tank tops. Washing

out a few things every day makes it an easy job.

Generally the commercial washing machines and dryers are far from new and unfortunately it is rather

common to get your clothes back with small rust stains on them, usually placed front and center on your

brand new souvenir t-shirt or dress. Occasionally you may find an article of someone else's clothing in

your bag when you get it back, or you might discover an item is missing. This is just because things get

stuck in the crevices of the washers and show up in the next load.

CLOTHES

Almost everyone takes too many clothes to Mexico. Living on a boat, especially at anchor, is a grubby business. It is amazing

how many times you will wear a piece of clothing because you know you won't be near a laundromat for a while. Several

changes of clothes may be sufficient to start -- that way you can get some souvenir t-shirts and beach cover-up dresses without

overloading your lockers. I loaded up on bathing suits before leaving the US, and then couldn't justify buying any of the really

cute bathing suits for sale in the Mexican tourist shops. Mark made the same mistake with t-shirts. So before you overstuff

your lockers, keep in mind that a lot of our clothes north of the border are made in Mexico, and they are cheaper down there!

You will need cold weather clothing for the trip to Cabo. If you spend the winter in La Paz, Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta, you may

still need a light jacket, long sleeves and long pants as well as shorts. If you stay south of Cabo Corrientes for the winter you will

be living in shorts and t-shirts. If you spend the coldest part of the winter in Z-town or south of there, you will be in a bathing

suit, lightweight shorts and tank tops.

HAIR CARE

Some of the best haircuts I've gotten have been in Mexico, and I've never paid more

than 80 pesos (about $6). Just as we discovered in our trailer in the US, sometimes

you learn a lot about a community from the hair stylists. I felt I had really reached a

high point when I was able to talk to the lady that cut our hair in Loreto for an hour in

Spanish. If you want true styling and not just a cut, the prices are more typically 200

pesos (about $15).

BUGS

Bugs are generally not an issue at all in Mexico. The only bugs we have come across have been:

Bees - In the Sea of Cortez there are a lot of thirsty bees looking for fresh water. In 2011 they were particularly pesky on the

islands around the Loreto area and at Puerto Los Gatos slightly south of there. However, I suspect that they move, as

anchorages reported to be bee-filled had few when we got there, and anchorages that were supposed to be bee-free were

inundated when we arrived. The best way to deal with them is to have a few good fly swatters on board and to get aggressive.

They move fairly slowly and are easy to kill. They send a scout first, and then they come in pairs and threes. If you can prevent

the scouts from returning to the hive you are winning. Another trick is to make sure you have no fresh water puddles from your

cockpit shower. I found that dousing the transom near the shower with seawater can really help discourage them. They can

detect fresh water in a sealed plastic water bottle…

Bobos - These are tiny mangrove-loving flies that don't bite but bug the heck out of you anyways by landing repeatedly all over

you. They can't get through screens.

Jejenes (pronounced "hayhaynays") - These are virtually invisible no-see-ums that bite like the dickens. You'll feel this zing and

then study your arm or leg and see nothing unless you get a magnifying glass. You can kill them by smearing your finger

across them. Screens don't keep them out. We found them in Amatorjada Bay on Isla San Jose in the Sea of Cortez, and they

seemed to stay with us on the boat for a week after that.

DINGHY & OUTBOARD THEFT

In most places in Mexico you can leave the dinghy in the water overnight without any concern. However, two areas on the

mainland have had rashes of outboard theft in recent years.

Barra de Navidad experienced nine dinghy/outboard thefts in the winter of 2009-10. Once cruisers started raising their dinks

there at night in 2010-11, the number dropped to just a few (which were in the water). So be sure to lift the dinghy out of the

water and lock the outboard to the dinghy transom while in Barra.

Mantanchen Bay outside San Blas (near Mazatlan) had a rash of 5 or 6 outboards/dinghies stolen in the winter of 2010-11.

While we were staying there friends of ours had their outboard stolen off the dinghy even though it was raised high in the davits

(it was not locked to the dinghy). They were on board and asleep when it happened. So the best defense is to remove the

outboard from the dink and lock it securely to your boat's transom.

In the fall of 2011 a saiboat anchored in the San Blas estuary outside of the Fonatur/Singlar marina experienced an attempted

robbery while the owners were ashore. So if you are staying there, it might be wise to stay in the marina rather than anchor out.

COSTS

Everyone has a different budget, and everyone spends what they have. So it is impossible to say "it costs xyz to cruise in

Mexico." However, I'll give a very rough idea of what some of the costs are that we have seen.

For us, keeping a boat in Mexico, living on it and sailing it 6 months a year, maintaining it, flying back and forth to it, insuring it

and storing it when we're not there costs around $13,000-$14,000 per year. If we were on it full-time and didn't fly back and

forth or store it, our annual cost would be around $21,000-$24,000.

Getting our boat ready to cruise - anchor system upgrade, watermaker installation, solar installation, dinghy & outboard,

downwind sailing gear, safety gear, interior comfort stuff and small goodies cost about 20% of the purchase price.

Food

On average we found our food bill is about 90% of what it is in the US, slightly higher than that in the northern parts of Mexico

and slightly lower in the southern parts. Beer is typically anywhere from 55 pesos a sixpack ($4.25) for Pacifico/Modelo to 72

pesos a sixpack ($5.50) for Bohemia Oscura (a darker more premium beer). Many grocery items are taxed 15%. American

branded items seem expensive. For instance Listerine is 42 pesos ($3.25) for a 16 oz bottle. Colgate toothpaste is 35 pesos

but for the same size tube the Mexican brand called Fresca is 6 pesos. So it is all in how you shop.

Restaurants

We don't eat out much, but simple street food is cheap: 100 pesos ($7.50) can buy each of us a meal and a drink. At the beach

palapa bars (sitting under an umbrella on a plastic chair in the sand) a beer is typically 12 pesos ($0.95) in the far south and 25

pesos ($1.95) further north. Fine dining in the high end resorts is similar in price to comparable US restaurants.

Fuel

Fuel pricing is government controlled so it can't swing up and down by huge amounts, and there is a tax on it. In addition,

marinas charge a service fee for using their docks and that fee can be anywhere from 10% to 20%. So in the end our fuel costs

in 2013 have averaged around $3.50 to $3.80 per gallon. You can't avoid the dock service fee by showing up with jerry jugs --

the fee applies no matter how the fuel is delivered. Still it's not a bad deal, as diesel in California is running over $4.00 per

gallon now in the fall of 2013.

We use about half as much fuel per month while cruising as we do while RVing. This may sound surprising, but we drive our

truck in the US less than some people might expect and we motor our sailboat in Mexico more than we ever expected. On the

boat we burn about 2/3 to 3/4 of a gallon of fuel per hour, and we traveled from San Diego down to Zihuatanejo up to San

Carlos and back down to Puerto Vallarta in a year. Our monthly fuel cost during that time was somewhere around $250 (2011).

Marinas

Marina costs are typically $30-$60 per night and $600-$1,000 per month for a 45' slip. Some marinas discount the price slightly

after 3 days or a week. Most offer a monthly rate, although both the popular Marina Riviera Nayarit (La Cruz in Banderas Bay)

and swank Paradise Village (Nuevo Vallarta in Banderas Bay) charge around $30 per day in winter no matter how many days

you stay ($0.60 to $0.65 per foot per day plus tax).

Rates drop in the summer. We paid $565/month for a slip in Marina San Carlos for the summer of 2011, $200/month

in Marina Chiapas in 2012 and $565/month in Paradise Village in 2013. The Fonatur/Singlar government run marinas

used to be less than the private marinas, but they raised their rates and are now comparable to the private marinas.

If you wanted to spend half your cruising time in marinas and had a 40-45' monohull, a comfortable budget figure

would be around $400 per month. This would allow for some shorter stays and some month-long stays. Most boats

spend significant time in marinas (they're nice!) and very few boats are at anchor more than 95% of the time like we were.

Boat Services

Having the bottom cleaned by a diver generally costs about $1 per foot. Having the boat washed is the same. We got the hull

waxed in San Carlos for 700 pesos ($53). If you use dive tanks to clean the bottom yourself and don't have a compressor, it

generally costs about 100 pesos ($7.50) to have one tank refilled at a dive shop (and you have to lug it there).

Boat Insurance

Insurance varies a lot by boat age, sailing experience, where you keep your boat during hurricane season and whether you go

south of Acapulco. Keeping our boat in San Carlos during hurricane season, staying north of Acapulco the whole season, and

having plenty of sailling experience, insuring our newer boat costs $1,600 per year with Pantaenius.

WHAT TO DO DURING HURRICANE SEASON

Starting in February people begin discussing their summer plans. The marinas in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, La Paz and San

Carlos are popular, as is dry storage in La Paz, Loreto and San Carlos/Guymas, and other spots as well. Some marinas offer

significant summer discounts, especially when pre-paid. We left our boat in San Carlos in the water for 3 months and were

shocked to return and find that everything was just as we left it. A quick boat wash and bottom cleaning and the boat was ready

to sail away. Some people who left their boats for six months in dry storage in Loreto and San Carlos reported having to clean a

lot of dust off the deck (and some inside).

San Carlos is a popular option for people from Arizona. The bus line Tufesa (this is the link for Bus Schedules) leaves from

Guaymas and goes to 27th Ave. and McDowell in Phoenix. The "Especial" bus trip from San Carlos to Phoenix is $61 per person

and takes 10-11 hours if you take the regular day-time bus. It stops in 4 or 5 towns in Mexico plus the military checkpoint, the

border crossing and again in Tucson. The buses are regular Greyhound style buses used for 2-4 hour trips in the US.

The "Ejecutivo" overnight bus is $81 and takes just 8-9 hours and is a much better option. It stops in 2 towns in Mexico plus the

military checkpoint, border crossing and again in Tucson. The buses are very luxurious. There are only 3 seats per row, 2 on

one side and 1 on the other. I found them wide enough to curl up in and try to sleep. Bring layers because the buses can be

heavily air-conditioned. Our driver in the US was kind enough to turn off the a/c (we were two of three people on the bus). Our

driver in Mexico had an attitude and refused to turn it off (even though the driver's cab is separate and has its own

thermostat...). The buses are theoretically equipped with wifi and electrcity. On the US side the driver turned on the electricity

so we could run the laptop from its charger cable. On the Mexican side the driver refused to (!). The wifi never worked on

either side. But it was still a very cool bus ride.

The bus depot in Phoenix is in an unsafe area. If you are there at night stay close to the terminal. Taxi cabs come to meet the

buses.

MORE INFO

These are some of the things we've done and found useful and would have liked to have known about cruising Mexico in

advance. Hopefully some of these goodies in our boat blog will make it easier when you're cruising Mexico too!!

If you haven't seen it yet, check out Page 1 of this guide: Tips for Mexico Cruisers - Part 1