A little blast in San Blas

We left on Tuesday, direction San Blas. The reason we wanted to go to this particular town was a personal one. We have a friend who found his Mexican bride there and she still lives in Summerland. Having heard so much about it we were curious to check it out. The road going there was pretty uneventful. We stuck to the quotas (the paying highways) which charge you indiscriminate amounts regardless of state of the road or distance covered. It's a bit hit or miss mostly miss for us since it cost almost $25.00 to cover a relatively short distance of about 350 kms. We always thought that the quotas were government run and didn't mind paying the money but our friend Pedro told us that they're privately owned and that only a small amount of tax is held back for the government. Score one again for free enterprise.
San Blas itself is your typical, chaotic Mexican small town. There are many buildings in various stages of construction or destruction. Dogs of all shapes and sizes roam the streets. The sidewalks are more or less non existent and many of the roads, most in fact, were unpaved. When we arrived we discovered that the main road had been completely gutted with huge mountains of dirt and rock debris waiting to be pushed around. Work was progressing, albeit at a bit of a slow pace yet in typical Mexican fashion everybody appeared to take it in stride. It was impossible to get to the best hotel in town because of the state of the road but our luck held out. We found this adorable pension, gringo owned, only 4 sparkling clean rooms with a swimming pool, lots of plants and beautifully decorated. The price was 450 a night the same as what we were paying at the Belmar which works out to about $37.00. It was well within out budget and a little oasis in the midst of the generalized brouhaha.
If you want to score a cheap price for oysters San Blas is the place for you. A dozen of medium size oysters will set you back 25 pesos, about $2.00. We had our lucky dozen and they were very tasty. It turns out that the salty rio (river) is just full of them which explains the cheapness and abundance. Fish whole and opened up in a sort of filet style is smoked and barbecued, another tasty dish which we also sampled by the side of the road. There are all sorts of shacks leading the way into San Blas which sell these. That same day we walked to the beach but were not impressed with the sand, kind of grayish in color or the quality of the waves. San Blas is reputed to be a blast for surfers, some of the longest, continuous waves around but the time was not right for those kinds of waves not that we had any intention to try our luck at surfing.
The next day we headed out to find a boat which would take us down the river to La Tovara for a journey of about 3 and a half hours. We found our guy fairly easily, settled on a price and off we went. The rio is home to about 300 bird species and also crocodiles. It's a mangrove very rich in nutrients. The beautiful, meandering river was a joy to travel on. We saw many species of birds which he identified for us. Neither of us are birders so I won't bother naming them for you.
Suffice it to say that spying on egrets, blue and green herons, boat bill herons and crocodiles of all shapes and sizes in their natural habitat was quite a thrill.
The most intriguing bird was an owl that looks just like the branch of a tree till you see its wings flutter, very unusual. When we got to La Tovara there was a restaurant and a crystal clear pool where we had a most refreshing swim. That trip in itself was worth going to San Blas for.
Coming back was equally peaceful, giant ferns, mangrove trees leading the way. The air smelled of decomposition but it was not unpleasant signaling instead nature doing its harmonious work, something dying and something reborn in equal measure.
We enjoyed our short stay in San Blas. It's the kind of authentic, gritty Mexican town that is unvarnished and which less adventurous tourists rarely get to experience. Regardless of their town the people who live there go about their business, boisterously trying to make each day count. Everybody was friendly and open. We wouldn't spend a week there but for a couple of days it was more than acceptable, not a total blast but a little bit of a blast for sure.