Loreto, April 2010

Loreto is 14 miles north of Puerto Escondido and is an open roadstead, so anchoring is recommended as short-term only. In settled weather, you could anchor off Loreto and take your dinghy into the panga docks, but you wouldn't want to be there in any kind of breeze. You're better off keeping your boat in Puerto Escondido, but that presents the question: How to get to Loreto? You can a) rent a car from one of the chains at the airport (they'll actually deliver the car to you at the marina), b) hike about 30-40 minutes out to the main road and hope to flag down the express bus, or c) hitch hike.

The first day we got a ride to town with some folks who we met while out walking the night before. Right outside the marina is the most high-end RV park I’ve ever seen and a I grew up camping with my grandparents. This RV park outside the marina has a great tienda and a hotel with pool that the cruisers can use if they eat a meal in the restaurant. This RV park is a walk though and when we were walking back the first night we got in we met a couple who decided to turn around rather than walk all the way to the RV park. We got to talking with them and they told us that they had rented a car and would be willing to take us into town for a day of sight seeing. We jumped at the chance. We almost missed our free ride when to our dismay we found out that Puerto Escondido “sprung forward” on the clock and we had the wrong local time. We had to make a mad dash for the dinghy dock in order not to miss our ride.

We had a great day touring the mission, the museum and the town with Sam and Corrine from Alluvium.

We made it to the "first" mission

All of us standing in the museum's courtyard next door to the mission

Ryan in front of the mission

The alter inside the mission

The front of the mission from street level

The mission's bells

The pot used by the padres to make a porridge for the natives

Some of the early tools used by the missionaries

Ryan and I explore one of the early sailing vessels used by the local native people

The courtyard at the museum which is next door to the church

What the early cowboys would have used who worked the mission and the neighboring ranchero

We visited the mission, then spent an hour and a half in the museum next door. It's definitely worth a visit. We also spent a couple of hours combing up and down the touristo street looking at ceramics, woven blankets, jewelry, cheap trinkets, etc. It's all there. The Cap'n also continued his routine of checking out the local ferreterias (hardware stores) in search of light bulbs for the engine instruments, and various bits and pieces to finish the never-ending boat projects.

The next day was the real adventure. Given our three choices and being the irresponsible parents that we are, we introduced the kids to the time-honored tradition of hitching a ride. Don't bother to call Child Protective Services though, we merely asked one of the resident cruisers in the parking lot if we could bum a ride to town with them.

We got a ride from a great couple (Gail and Doug from Native Dancer) who have been coming here forever. They worked for themselves and had winters off, so they started cruising in their 20's and either trailered their boat down here or kept their boat in Mexico!!! Wow! Why didn't we learn that lesson when we were 20? During our 30-minute ride to town, we had a great, rambling conversation with them and learned that many of the old-time cruisers wonder about the lack of new cruisers. There are plenty of older cruisers, but they believe the lifestyle needs fresh, young blood to keep growing. Once in town, they gave us a great tour up and down the two main streets, showing us everywhere we needed to go.
The Sabbatical gang definitely marches on its stomachs, so we needed some re-provisioning. We went to the supermarket ("El Pescador") for staples and Juarez Market for fresh cut meats. There are 2 or 3 other places to get fresh fruits and vegetables, and plenty of tortillerias. You certainly won't go hungry here.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a road trip without some street tacos, would it? Our "guides," Gail and Doug gave their highest praise to "El Rey del Taco" on Juarez Street, so we had to give it a try. Wow! Are we glad we did. They serve two things, and two things only: fish tacos and beef tacos. You walk in and the owner greets you by asking how many you want of each! A couple minutes later and he brings them over to you. All the "fixin's" are on the side table: cabbage, limes, crema, avocado sauce, hot sauces, salsa, jalapenos, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, etc. Just help yourself and heap 'em on! Washed down with a fresh limonada, it's a meal fit for a king, or at least folks out buying groceries.

We were here two years ago while on a cruise ship and couldn't help but notice the difference. Back then, cruise ships made regular stops here, and the town had plenty of folks walking around. Fast forward through the economic downturn, the H1N1 scare and it's a much quieter town today. The cruise ships have stopped coming and tourism is way down. Quite a few stores were closed. Some still had tape on their windows from a past storm warning, but it looked like the owners never came back to open the shops. Back in better economic times, a number of civic projects were started, including paving some of the dirt streets, putting in new sidewalks, and converting the "tourist street" into a pedestrian-only walking street. The projects are almost done, waiting for more tourists. We hope the improvements pay off since Loreto is such a charming, old town.

Our next stop is Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen.







80, Loreto mission sign; 4, Ryan in front of the mission; 2, inside church;6 front of church; 10 bells from church; 17, The pot in which the padres made the gruel for the native workers; 21, Tools used at the mission;27, canoe used by early natives at the mission; 74, courtyard at the missions museum; 65, vaqueros work room; 75 Kumpis family in front of the sculpture in the mission’s courtyard;

Puerto Escondido, April 2010

We spent 3 pleasant days at Puerto Escondido, the "Hidden Port," and nearby Loreto, the former capital of Baja California Sur and site of the first mission in Baja California. In case you need it, the Loreto International Airport is between the two.

The Hidden Port has 3 parts: the "Waiting Room" (the anchorage outside the harbor), the "Ellipse" (another, smaller anchorage, just inside the harbor), and the main bay with the marina (only 10 slips) and dozens of mooring balls. There is some skinny water (less than 10 feet) as you pass the narrow (30 yards wide) entrance into the main harbor, but after that, it's 30+ feet deep. There's fresh water and a fuel dock, but you'll need to wait for an open slip to fill your tanks unless you want to jerry jug it in your dinghy. Then, it's out to the mooring balls. Overall, the marina follows the standard Singlar design and has nice facilities (the Harbor Master's office on the second floor; a mini-tienda selling beer, sodas, some veggies and some staples; a cruisers lounge below the Harbor Master's office; an on-site restaurant; a small pool upstairs; and a nice restaurant and large pool at the RV park about a 20 minute walk away) and a friendly staff. Some long-term cruisers have swallowed the anchor here and store their boats in the marina yard while living ashore. Others keep fishing boats on trailers and launch when they need something for dinner.

Apparently, someone had great plans for this area many years ago. There are wide, paved streets, pedestrian bridges over Italian-style canals, and a couple of lighted roads leading a few hundred yards to nowhere. But, that's as far as anyone got. The place has been unfinished for 20 years.

Escondido is home to the Hidden Port Yacht Club, a great group of folks, with a large book exchange (especially one for kids), a DVD lending library, and a surprisingly active social calendar. They also host "Loreto Fest", the annual cruiser event at the end of April/beginning of May. We plan to be back for the Fest the first weekend in May.

We happened to be in town for one of the weekly Sunday afternoon pot luck suppers and had a great time. One of the sport fishing boats donated tons of fresh fish (yellow fin tuna and swordfish) to the party, and each boat brought a side dish or desert to share. The mini-tienda at the marina sold beer and sodas, and no one went hungry! We met folks that drive down here each year from Canada and the US, as well as cruisers like ourselves. Luckily, we met one other kid boat from Canada that had a boy and a girl the same ages as Kelly and Ryan. The boys spent the days playing what else - video games - while the girls hung out and learned to play about a 1000 versions of "cat's cradle" from one of the cruiser ladies. It was hard to tell who was having more fun, the girls or the ladies who were re-living their childhoods and sitting on the floor playing.

While we were in Escondido we managed to get into Loreto - see the next installment of the blog

Sunrise on the west side of th anchorage at Puerto Escondido

The eastern side of the anchorage and all the mooring balls at Puerto Escondido

The northwest corner

The North side of the anchorage that if you walked across would open up to the Sea of Cortez

Life under Sail – on the way to Puerto Escondido

Now that we are on the move, we spend a lot of time sailing/motoring our way up into the Sea. That means that some days we might be moving for over 6 hours. The kids will tell you that there’s not a lot to do while we are moving. Now that they both have their sea legs, they actually prefer to stay below and read, play games or sleep. Of course neither of them is too bored to do extra homework. Many days we just look out at the sea.

Kelly haning out on our sail north to Puerto Escondido

Kelly likes to listen to music while we move and when Phil forces her to listen to John Coltrane she plugs in her i-pod which is usually sorely in need of a charge. Ryan, sleeps, reads (yes even Ryan has resorted to reading on the longer passages), or devises major battles with his legos. Phil watches – for whales, passing boats or interesting things ashore.

Dad looking for landmarks so we know when to turn

Ryan reading one of he Percy Jackson books below

The flippers of a sleeping sea lion that we passed on our trip north

That's a blue whale over there in the distance right in front of the other boat

If you click on the picture above you can see the whal trolling along looking for food.

I usually read. What is truly sad is that now that we have been at this for a while the kids don’t even want to come up and look at whales or other things we see in the ocean. On our passage to Puerto Escondido we came upon a whale feeding and neither of the kids came up to see it, both of them yelling up to me that “we’ve seen them before.” In this world of computer animation, the real thing just isn’t that interesting. Oh well I guess that when given the choice as a kid of watching Marlin Perkins Wild Kingdom or The Wonderful World of Disney I probably choice Walt over Marlin every time.

Agua Verde – April 5- April 8, 2010

We set out for Agua Verde on Monday and got in about noon. This is another one of the “must go to spots” in the Sea of Cortez. Pictures from this location grace the covers of several of the cruising guides we are using here in Mexico and everyone tells you that you must stop here.
Agua Verde - whether it really means "turquoise," "green water," or something else, we ended up staying here for three days. At first we anchored off the main beach. We arrived from the south, which meant we had to choose either the inside passage between the shore and the reef, or the outside passage around the mile and a half long reef. The various guidebooks all give different directions, of course, but if you decide to take the route inside the reef, be sure to hug the coast - like within 100 yards of the rocks on shore. If not, and, like us, you try to "eye-ball" about a third of the distance between the reef and the shore, you may find the water a tad "skinny" - like 20 feet, going to 15 feet, then to 12 feet, all in less than 30 seconds. Yikes! Time to turn back and head outside the reef! This is definitely a place when local knowledge helps, or at least watching some folks take the inside passage before you do. The outside passage around the reef adds at least an hour and 1/2 to the trip. (We found this out when we came back the other way on the trip south and it took us a whole 15 minutes to take the short cut rather than go around the island.)

However you get here, Agua Verde is desolate and beautiful. The water is every bit the blue and green you picture in your mind, and you can see the sand and the rocks on the bottom as you anchor. (Even though you can't see it in these pictures.  I'll get some with the good camera when we stop here on the way back south.)This really is "the desert meets the ocean" as the steep brown hills navigated primarily by the goats that are kept to make all the local goat cheese and sprinkled with cacti remind us every day. And it never fails to amaze when, on one cactus, you see a turkey vulture and, on the next cactus, you’ll see a seagull or a pelican.

The spit of land at the north end of Agua Verde

 

The north end of the bay where you tuck in when the wind blows out of the north

Ryan on the road above the anchorage

We spent a pleasant night off the main beach before the north winds cranked up and combined with the swell that curled around the point to create a rolly anchorage. On our second day, we moved over to the northwest cove for some shelter from the wind and waves. We weren't the only ones with that idea as we were joined by 4 or 5 other boats. Luckily, everyone was extremely considerate of the each other and left plenty of room to swing at anchor. You may be surprised at how close you can get to shore and still have 15 feet of water under you.

The "town" consists of a few dirt roads, a few houses, and lots of cacti. All the guidebooks mention "Maria's Tienda" and tell you that you can re-provision there, including the local, fresh goat cheese ("queso fresco"). Maria's is still here, and she does have a decent, if small, selection of stuff. We bought some drinks for the kids, but what the Cap'n really wanted was the fresh goat cheese since he's such a sucker for it. Maria keeps a nice block of the cheese in her cooler and you just cut off as much as you want. It was more the texture of firm tofu than the soft, creamy cheese you probably get back home, but it was still pretty good. In fact, it tasted even better the second day. Sadly, there won't be a "third day" since Phil ate the last of it this afternoon.


There's also a small, blue house with a front porch and a fence with a hand-painted "Restaurant" sign. We wandered in and were served cheese quesadillas and frijoles refritos. They were pretty good (yeah, lard really does make the tortillas taste that much better!), but some might wonder whether they were really worth the $5 (US dollars) per plate that we were charged. We'd heard from other cruisers that prices were a bit steep here, so maybe it was to be expected. I guess that's the price of paradise.



I'll bet that we've hiked more here than we have since we got to Mexico. There are goat trails up into the hills, an old graveyard to visit, and a deserted beach over the hills to wander. We followed the goat path over the hills past the graveyard to get to the beach and found it wild and deserted. The only living things we saw were a few crabs and a baby calf that was wandering in the brush. We hiked for a couple of miles to the end of the beach in search of some caves with Indian petroglyphs, but, unfortunately, never found the paintings. I guess local knowledge might have helped there too. Still, we had a great time searching for shells, sea glass, and drift wood, and arrived back at the boat 4 hours later, tired, but happy. Who would have guessed that flip-flops make such great hiking shoes on the goat trails?

On the way to the graveyard

We made it over the goat trails to the old graveyard

The kids playing with driftwood they found on the north beach

The last night we were in the anchorage a boat ran aground trying to make it through that skinny passage I talked about above. The single-hander actually fell asleep at the wheel – yep it happens on boats more than on cars since that rocking motion lulls you to sleep a lot faster than speed-bumps. The six boats that were in Agua Verde when it happened tried to help but to make a long story short, after a week of trying, they managed to get the boat off the rocks – there was a hole in the bottom that had to be patched – but the mast was snapped in the process of trying to drag Little Fawn back into the water. The boat is now in dry dock in Puerto Escondido.

When we left Agua Verde we headed north to Puerto Escondido, the nearest anchorage to the Loreto area unless you want to anchor in the open in front of the town where the cruise ships used to drop anchor and tender people ashore. We plan to make this a short trip as we expect to be back in Puerto Escondido for "Loreto Fest" at the end of April. That said, in order to see all that we want to see, we need to keep moving north. With any luck, we'll still make it to Santa Rosalia, with its old, French copper mine and Eiffel-designed church from the World's Fair just before the turn of the 20th century. Apparently, the building was built in France, exhibited at the Fair, then dis-assembled, stored in Brussels, and ultimately, shipped to Mexico and put back together. Can you imagine anyone doing that today?

There is so much to see down here and so little time to see it.

San Telmo/Punta Prieta – April 4-April 5, 2010 – Easter Sunday

After an absolutely calm night with cool temperatures, we left San Evaristo at 7 AM for a fairly long day's run to Punta San Telmo. It's also known as Punta Prieta, but there are two or three places by that name that we've seen so far, so we'll just use San Telmo. It's only a mile past Puerto Los Gatos, a very popular anchorage, but it seems everyone goes to Los Gatos and we had San Telmo to ourselves. Well, except for Manuel, but we'll get to him later.

We enjoyed a peaceful motorsail up the coast. We passed cliff after cliff of the Sierra de Gigante mountains. We passed broad alluvial fans where the rains are slowly washing the mountains down to the beach and  where giant cacti grow to 20 feet. We saw the remains of old ranchos and a few houses scattered on the shoreline.

We anchored in our usual 20 feet over sand and set about to enjoy the solitude. Phil (in his wet suit) snorkeled around the bay for an hour and learned that the middle of this bay is basically an underwater desert. It's gently sloping and sandy, and you can see the occasional puffer fish trying to hide in the sand ripples, but nothing else, not even a plant or a rock. The edges of the bay, however, are teeming with life. Between the sandy beaches are rocky out-croppings of volcanic rock that lead to reefs in 6 to 10 feet of water. There you'll find huge schools of fish rushing along in streams like they were on the freeway. Some of the fish even turn to look at you. Every now and then the school goes nuts and splits into a thousand directions as a large grouper darts in for his lunch. It's your basic "Wild Kingdom" moment, and you have a front row seat. There are smallish clumps of coral, sea fans, starfish, sea urchins, etc. - all in 10 feet of water. The Cap'n eventually swam ashore and walked up one of the arroyos to see what he could find. The only tracks he saw were from lizards and coyotes.  Did I mention that while he was frolicking ashore the anchor alarm started going off which meant we were actually dragging our anchor in the bay.  When I waved to him on shore and then started using a flash light to do morse code for SOS, he just waved back.  He finally realized something was going on and came back to the boat.

We were originally anchored in front of these rocks and then we moved around them to be behind them after the anchor dragged

The area on shore where Phil was wandering around

More of what we saw from the boat

The dragging of the anchor coupled with the wind starting to pipe up from the southeast, the only direction from which this bay had no protection..... . . let's review the bidding: we've got the wind coming up, the swell building, shallow water, the anchor dragging slowly through very soft sand, and a rocky, lee shore just 100 yards behind us. OK, time to move!

Up came the anchor for a 15 minute trip around the point, where we anchored on the backside of the rocks along a gravel beach where we were more sheltered from the wind and swell. It's a bit of a pain to haul up the anchor and move once you've settled in, but this one was a no-brainer. The story has a happy ending though: Manuel (remember him?) and his son were just getting ready to leave a beach shack in their panga when they spotted us dropping the hook. Well, well, well, what do you know, Manuel had a few lobster to sell to the yachtistas. Let's just leave it at this: the kids now love lobster as much as we do. The night ended up being quite pleasant and we had a great day before we set out north for Agua Verde.

Kelly trying her Eastert lobster

Dad and Ryan licking their fingers

The last bite

All that was left of Shirley, Stephen and Al (what the kids named the 3 lobsters)

Does it get any better than this? We wish you were here to enjoy it.

San Evaristo - April 3-4, 2010

San Evaristo - the South end of the beach

The center of the beach

The north end of the beach in San Evaristo

Phil checking the water temperature as reported from out trusty mate - Fred the duck.

San Evaristo is a true, Baja fishing village, exactly the kind we'd imagined and hoped to see. No one speaks English and the folks in this town rely on the sea for everything. There are about 20 families living in the little bay, and it looks like every one of them has a panga: a big, fast, carry anything and everything panga. Because were starting out in the sea during a local school vacation there were lots of families camping along the shore enjoying the sunshine. The water temperature is cold for us spoiled by the warm waters of southern Mexico. Fred our trusty duck thermometer is telling us it is only 72. That does not seem to bother the kids. Jumping in the water is fun anywhere we go.
The little village extends only about 100 yards in from the beach, with one dirt road in and out. There are the usual fishing shacks and lean-to's along the beach made of scrap plywood, driftwood and old galvanized roofing, and even a few tents. The houses range from shacks to cinder block. The one palapa was easy to spot - it has the only awning in the whole place. Well, that and the "Pacifico" beer logo on top.

Dad managed to find the "ballena"

Kelly standing on the beach - this camera had a little accident down in Chamela and it makes everything blue when it is really sunny - no matter how much I try and override the colors.

Main street in Evaristo (same camera)

The sign for the "mini-mart"

We rowed the dinghy ashore and spent an hour or two wandering around and practicing our bad Spanglish with the residents. They were super friendly and tried to help us find the local tienda – “casa rosa.” The little store was surprisingly well stocked, although some of the tomatoes looked a little long in the tooth. We passed on them, but picked up a few other things for the galley. We eventually stopped by the palapa and enjoyed a beverage while watching the fishermen make ceviche with giant clams. Who knows where they get their supplies, but they use a lot of limes in their ceviche, then pour it into big glasses and top it off with bottles and bottles of Clamato juice. The fishermen called it a "Cocktel de Ceviche." Call it what you want, it looked great.

The anchorage is small and well protected from the north and northwest and, for once, the swell didn't curl around the point very much - perfect sleeping conditions. The Nautical Almanac said the moon wouldn't rise until about 2300, so we had an amazing display of stars after dinner. The crew collapsed long before then, tired, but happy.

As Easter Sunday was quickly approaching, the kids realized that we had not brought our traditional “Easter baskets” with us on the boat. Ryan did not seem to care and he wrote a note to the Easter Bunny explaining what had happened. Kelly on the other hand insisted that there would be no candy if she did not have a basket. She proceeded to make her own. She was rewarded with a little more candy than Ryan got. We think it was because she had a basket but we’ll never know as the Rabbit did not leave an explanation.

This was Kelly's work in process

This was the final product which actually held candy

Sun setting over the bay in San Evaristo (picture by Ryan)

Back in La Paz

After six weeks exploring the Sea of Cortez we are back in La Paz to deal with our immigration issue.  The problem is that we are nearing the 180 day limit that we are allowed to stay in the country.  We have to get extensions on our visas before we can head out again.  We hope to have it all cleared up in a day or two but in the meantime, it gives me a chance to catch up on the blog which I have not been able to do while we have been anchored in remote locations up in the sea.  Hope you enjoy what will follow trying to catch all of you up on what we have been doing down here in Mexico.