Hola,
Isla Mujeres (EES-lah, moo-HEH-rehs), the island of women, is about
five miles long and maybe at most 1/2 mile wide. It is offshore, 4 miles from the mainland state of Quintana Roo and about 4 1/2 miles NW of Cancun. High-speed ferries depart every 30 minutes to provide a steady stream of tourists from the Cancun hotel district. The north end of Isla Mujeres is packed with small shops, restaurants, and golf cart rentals, and that sort of thing. Our marina, fortunately, is well away in a quiet part of the island. All of the boats in the marina are foreign-flagged. It is about 1 1/2 miles to the tourist area, and we walk there daily, if nothing more than to get the exercise, but often for lunch.
Any boat staying in Mexico for more than six days is supposed to pay an import fee of $50. The certificate is good for ten years. Our first big adventure then was to go pay the fee. We took the ferry to Puerto Juarez, walked to the new government building, which houses Customs, Immigration, Health, and the one we needed - Banjercito. We provided forms with inventories of equipment and electronics on board and serial numbers for boats and engines. Jose at the marina reviewed our forms before we went, so it went smoothly. With our business completed, we returned, as there really wasn't much to see in Puerto Juarez.
We have been fascinated watching the installation of some new pilings in the marina. The only power tool used was a pump to pump the sand out of the hole to sink the piling. The huge pilings were delivered by road. These guys used a chain-fall to drag the pilings to the water, then floated them to the site. They erected the scaffolding you see them on, worked the piling to a vertical position, and then one guy dives down to place the suction hose while the other two wiggle the piling. It slowly sinks several feet into the sand bed. These are very hard-working men.
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