After growing weary for the nasty sewage smell in Z-town and figured out that there is no way to get fuel at a dock, we decided to take a bus ride to Ixtapa to look at our options. Is the bus rolled through town and north to the marina, it became apparent that in comparison Z-town is NOT a tourist town. Ixtapa is over-the-top touristy.
We found the marina office and inquired as to slip prices, thinking we might stay a night or two. When we saw the offered slip location and got a price quote, we decided to pass. When we asked about getting fuel we were instructed to go to the Performance Marine office, apparently the marina doesn’t handle fuel, it has been outsourced to this outfit. We had to make an appointment, which we did for the next day at 10:30 am. By the way, sorry they have no water for us.The next day we left Z-town at 08:00 hours and headed north to Ixtapa. The entrance to the marina was surprisingly narrow and shallow. Why do they build these great big fancy marinas that have such difficult entrances? Can’t they make the jetties a little farther apart, maybe longer to protect from the surge? Mazatlan’s Marina entrance had the same problem, and further south at Huatulco.
As we approached the harbor entrance, we noticed a mega-yacht approaching as well. We continued in and she went in behind us. We tied up and the fuel dock just after 9:30 am and noticed about 10 people scurrying down to the fuel docks. Was it a welcome committee just for us, perhaps? Alas no, they were all anticipating the mega-yacht pulling up and buy fuel. Cha-ching! When they all realized she was instead destined for a slip, they scattered – no one even said hello to us. In fact, even though no one else was there, they made us wait until our appointment time for fuel service.
Meanwhile we were eyeing the fresh water spigots, trying to see if we could run our hoses to fill our tanks. Due to the raw sewage, we couldn’t run our water maker in Z-town. Tom asked a guy washing a large power boat in a nearby slip if we could buy some water from him. He pulled of his hose and we attached ours to reach the water tank. He wouldn’t accept any money, but we thanked him profusely.
Our appointment time was finally approaching and a Performance Marine employee finally sauntered down to the fuel dock. After finishing his breakfast, he saw fit to service us. The fuel was more expensive than anywhere else we’d been, but to add insult to injury they tacked on an additional 17% “fuel tax”. When I pointed out that the fuel pump said “all taxes incluso” (included in the pump price), I was told that it was a “fuel dock surcharge”. Basically that’s what Performance Marine hits you with for the privilege of using THEIR dock (built by the Mexican Government). OUCH!
By 12:15 pm we were too glad to be out of the harbor and begin the 110 mile overnight journey to Acapulco.