Places We’ve Been: Las Hadas, Colima MX

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What can I say about Las Hadas.  I was there as a kid on a sailboat in the 70’s and probably anchored my own cruising sailboat with my own kids in about the same spot in 2021 and 2022.  The area hadn’t changed much.  The hotel is still white and posh, the bar we call restaurant/restaraunt is still there (I remember getting a haircut poolside by my mom when I was a kid) and the area is still fairly cruiser friendly.

There’s a small European style marina/breakwater in place now that tourist boats can med-moor inside, with a dinghy dock you have to pay to use and a fuel dock most cruising boats can’t get on…but you can jerry jugs from there to your boat.  There’s restaurants along the small boardwalk with decent pizza at high prices….and if you want to take a quick taxi ride out of Las Hadas; you can go find the Costco that’s close, intermixed with a bunch of American fast food chains.

Manzanillo proper is a another story.  We didn’t go into Manzanillo but it’s a bit different vibe.  Manzanillo has a huge shipping port, refinery and more industrial reputation but we just really had no reason to go that far into the city, so we stayed around the bay we knew.

Despite Las Hadas having the “European” style marina…most cruising boats dropped anchor in the same area looking up at Las Hadas that we did, thankful for the beautiful views of the hotel and surrounding bay.  Directly across from us just up a very thin tidal beach was restaurant/restaurant (I never caught it’s real name), which is a bar/restaurant catering to the timeshares/condos around it….with the pool steps away.  Like I alluded to above, I remember hanging out at this pool as a kid, without a care in the world.

This anchorage served as a great place for us to provision (at the Costco) and relax a bit before returning north or heading further south, where we would not find another Costco until Costa Rica.  We took a cab out of Las Hadas Hotel to provision and walked back once to the very end of the beach, where we had parked the dinghy above the high water lines, a good exercise in why dinghy wheels are essential for long term cruisers.

Aside from provisioning and taking the time to relax on shore, we also celebrated a 9th birthday here and tuned our serenading voices several times….you never know when you might get a late night serenade from a host of friendly dinghies (to the tune of “Kyrie”, by Mr. Mister).

Here’s more info:

Ease of anchoring:  We anchored a bit further out with good holding.  We anchored in 37 feet of water with 175 feet of chain down.        

Noise at anchor:  Yes, this anchorage has noise.  Whether it’s the Mexican version of “Ache Breaks Heart” for late night weddings on the boat, the various calvacade of jet skis, the various dinghy singers or the weekends when the party boats full of Mariachi Bands come circle the cruising boats, there’s noise.    

Provisioning:  Yes, there’s very good provisioning.   

Cellular reception at anchor:  Yes, good reception.

Wifi in the anchorage:  None, unless you can find some from shore. 

Water Clarity:  Nope. 

Protection:  Protection from the north and from the east.  From the ocean or the south, there’s not that much.  We experienced one really short intense blow here in the middle of a perfectly clear day….done and over with in less than an hour.    

Bugs:  None.  

Beach:  Yes.   

Would We Go Back:  Yes.  Both Las Hadas and Carrizal are good jumping off points for both north and south trips.

As I look at Tulum’s log books for the time we spent here, I’m struck by a few of the life decisions we made with friends.  One of those decisions came from a conversation on their boat out in Carrizal and then over drinks and chips up in the bar at restaurant/restaurant.  They were discussing a decision about whether to head left (south) to Costa Rica that year or head back north?  After many more drinks, we ultimately decided to head back north.  They made the decision to return to the US and return to work….we headed back to the Sea of Cortez for our “Summer of Soot“.  But regardless….it was still Covid and Central America had not fully opened back up yet, so heading south in January of that year would have been a bit of a crapshoot for us….especially as kid boats.  

No matter how far in time we are from our years on the boat with our family or from our latest family trip (Greece)…. we still travel as a family….even with our teenagers (who are growing up).  As a family, we’re not really getting older, we’re just leveling up! 

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Wanna read some of the other writing about the Mexican Gold Coast I’ve written lately?  Check out these links: 

Places We’ve Been: Ensenada Carrizal, Colima MX

Places We’ve Been: Barra De Navidad Lagoon, Jalisco MX

Places We’ve Been: Cuastecomate & Melaque, Jalisco MX

“Honey…Wanna Go Right Or Left”?