Just like when you travel by other means, when you travel on your own yacht, you have to officially clear in and out of each country. This usually means some sort of interaction with Customs and Immigration. Unlike other means of travel, you also have to interact with the local Port Captain in the port you are clearing in/out of. For some reason these formalities are always a mystery, and Mexico was no different. I don’t know why it’s so mysterious, maybe laws and processes change, maybe individuals in the official offices implement processes in different ways, maybe urban legends among cruisers get perpetuated to the point that no one knows what’s going on.
Anyway, as time got close, I kept hearing from various people, OK mostly from Lady Carolina, that you had to go to Paradise Village to clear out. That made no sense to me, how could a single marina have a monopoly on all traffic exiting Mexico from Banderas Bay? So, when we got back to La Cruz after our trip south, it was time for me to try to sort it out. My first stop was Katrina, the PR rep from the La Cruz marina, and she actually had a printout with written instructions on how to clear out. Wow, could it really be that easy? It indicated that Nuevo Vallarta was the port in Banderas Bay where you had to clear out from, not La Cruz or Puerto Vallarta. So, that made more sense, Paradise Village is IN Nuevo Vallarta so it’s not that you have to clear out from the Paradise Village marina but rather from the Port of Nuevo Vallarta.
The instructions said that before your departure date you should phone the Nuevo Vallarta Port captain and make him aware of your intentions to leave. Then you should email copies of your passports, ship’s papers, etc., to him so he can arrange your departure with immigration and customs. Then on your departure date you take your boat to Marina Nuevo Vallarta and get a temporary slip to complete all of the formalities. So, since 10 March was a Monday, I phoned the Port Captain the week before. He took our boat information, insisted that we not email him anything, and that we should just come to Nuevo Vallarta to clear out. I felt good at first, but then I started to doubt. Perhaps he still needs the paperwork in advance, he just doesn’t want us to email it. I consternated over it, and then just decided to go there by bus on the Friday before. The trip coincided nicely with the Latitude 38 PPJ sendoff party at the yacht club at Paradise Village, so it wasn’t really even a special trip. It was a good thing we did, because my worries were correct, and he did need the paperwork. We got all of that taken care of, and after we paid our fee, we had an appointment to check out on Monday at 10:30 am.
So, we pulled into Nuevo Vallarta about an hour early, hailed Marina Nuevo Vallarta on VHF to arrange a temporary place to park Exodus and headed over to the Port Captains office. He told us we could wait on Exodus for everyone to come see us. From our end tie we could see the various officials visiting Lady Carolina, who were over on A dock at Paradise Village (you obviously don’t have to move to Marina Nuevo Vallarta if you are staying at Paradise Village, the officials will come there too.) Eventually we were visited by all three government organizations (immigration, customs, and port captain) including an inspection by a German Shepherd. The poor puppy had trouble boarding Exodus and fell partly in the water, only to be rescued by his leash and collar. Then we were free to go. That was it, easy peasy.
Gresham Family Exodus 