Playa La Bocana

When we visited this area last January, one of our favorite beaches was one called Playa La Bocana. So named because it sets at the mouth of the river Copalita. The river forms a lake of sorts before it hits the sea and drains itself into a river that runs parallel to the beach and exits into the ocean. Not very deep, fresh water and a light current. Perfect for playing in and floating down.

We were really anxious to revisit this beautiful and fun spot so it was the first beach we headed to.

Here is a picture of it taken last January.




Same view, more or less, taken last week.





The ocean was so far up that the river had entirely disappeared, swallowed up by the sea!




In the picture below, you should be able to see the river flowing down behind that bigger rock to the right and then emptying into the ocean. The area by the smaller rock was all beach.




We were shocked that the river and most of the beach was gone. This used to be a huge expanse of sand. I don't think that it was just that the tide was in either. I don't think there is that great of tidal drop here. But I could be wrong.

Nevertheless, it is still an interesting beach to visit.

Below you can see an older man who was surf fishing. He is sorting through the minnows that he caught in a throw net to be used as bait for bigger fish.




He had two young, experienced boys with him. I am guessing they were his grandsons and they took their direction from him. They waded out as far as they dared and cast with fishing poles.

And it was not a light surf the day we visited.

All three of them were quite successful. Of course, they had to continually throw the net to catch more bait fish. As soon as they emptied it onto the beach, all sorts of birds swept in to relieve them of their catch!

Here you see the excited boys running to their grandfather with their biggest catch - a barracuda! (that put an end to my thinking I would go swimming!)

They took him over to the safety of the beach under a small tree, to protect their catch from the marauding birds. They were amassing quite the haul. Including an eel.

I'm not sure if they were fishing for their own family or for fish to sell. Either way, it was fun and interesting to watch them work.

Although this beach was a bit of a disappointment to us this time around, we will be visiting it again before we leave. Next week I am going to take you on a journey to another beach, about 40 kilometers down the road from us.

Playa Zipolite, Mexico's only officially sanctioned nude beach where total nudity is allowed and encouraged. Stay tuned for that!