Welcome to Vagari’s 7th winter of sailing. We have put 8,000 miles under Vagari’s keel during those cruises but this year like last year won’t be a high mileage year. We just don’t have the lust for the long cruises that we did when we started cruising but we still enjoy living on board and sailing near our homeport. Welcome aboard! We hope you enjoy our blog. Your comments, questions and suggestions are appreciated and encouraged.

Friday, December 28, 2007

First world and third world in Barra de Navidad Lagoon

JUXTAPOSITION

The Grand Bay Hotel is on the west shore of the lagoon on the ocean side. This hotel has a first class marina. Spending a night on Vagari in the marina would cost over $100 US a night or about $700 a week. We never paid that much for a months slip rental in San Diego.  The hotel is a five star hotel.  The grounds and buildings certainly look like a place that charges several hundred dollars a night for just a room. The hotel appears full this Christmas week, mostly with Mexican nationals.

The first morning here we were in the cockpit at sunrise.  An old man was rowing a small wooden boat with a fishing net falling out the back as he moved forward.  A little later we saw another small crude wooden boat with two old men doing the same thing except between the two of them they only had one oar and one handmade paddle.  I'm sure none of them could make more than a subsistence living fishing using the equipment they were using.

First and third world on display just a hundred yards apart.

So what is Mexico, first or third world?  The answer is yes.  We see a lot of affluence in the large towns we visit.  Even in the small towns we see mostly newer cars, small for sure but a few years ago we saw mostly junkers that looked like they had zero miles left on them. Even in the small towns now we see some newer large SUV's.  There are always lots of beachfront restaurants that have some locals enjoying a meal and cocktails.

So perhaps the answer is that Mexico is a country moving up in the world.



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