02/01/2010, La Paz
And so today we both feel a little sad as Nev is getting ready to fly back to the States to take care of business. This time he will be gone 3 and a half weeks and I will be "on the hook" meaning that we are not in a marina. The good news is: Stephen is going to come and spend some time with me :) and then my mum is going to come down for ten days, and I am going to have to get over my fear of using the dinghy because it's my only transport to land!! I have been learning a lot this past week including anchoring, changing the gas in the dinghy, making water, and getting more comfortable using the radio!! It's going to be an adventure!! Please keep us in your prayers, and thanks to all of you who will be caring for my honey while he is away! I will miss him so much!
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02/01/2010, Bahia San Gabriel
We wanted one day on Isla Espiritu Santo and picked Bahia San Gabriel as it has a gorgeous 2 mile long sandy beach that wraps all the way around the bay. En route down from Isla Partida we were lucky to spot a couple of whales nearby - we turned the boat around and followed them for a while -so graceful for creatures of such enormous size! I about wet myself when a whale surfaced right next to BLUE and blew out air!!! SOOOOO CLOSE but I couldn't get my camera focused fast enough!!
Bahia San Gabriel ranks as one of my favorite beaches so far and would definitley be a return visit for me. Our walk along the beach was so interesting - shells we'd never seen before, crazy looking crabs, fabulous birdlife, and piles of driftwood. I picked up a dinner set of shells - shopping at the beach is great - it's free and fun, I can be as picky as I like and there's no limit to how much I can have (other than Nev saying we have no more room on Blue for more shells - we've still got so far to go!!)
Tomorrow it's back to La Paz, so we really enjoyed our evening on the back of BLUE watching the sunset and chatting, reliving the past and the present, and dreaming about the future.
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02/01/2010, Las Cuevitas on Isla Partida
Blue footed Boobies are so handsome! They have a wing span of up to 4 - 5 feet and live on fish; they make their nests on the ground and warm their eggs with their feet, mom and dad sharing equal duty! We took our dinghy around to the cove they are known to hang out in and got some fabulous pictures. What a treat! We then hiked up out of the cove and across to El Cardonal so I could get some good pictures of Blue at anchor there... Nev has resigned himself to these daily hikes now, and probably would even admit he's enjoying them!! It was no surprise that our dinghy was on the rocks when we got back!! really on the rocks this time! I'm going to create a drink called "Dinghy on the Rocks" - it's become such a theme in our lives!! and we've become pro's at getting her back into the water. It was a really windy day so we toured around Ensenada Grande hugging the coastline and enjoyed lunch on a pretty little beach. The bay has enormous limestone rocks and the erosion from wind and water has created amazing lacey type "tablecloths" over the rocks - it's the only way I can think to describe it... unusually beautiful. Each cove seems to offer something different - which is why we always want to see what's around the corner!!
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02/01/2010, El Cardonal, Isla Partida
El Cardonal is a gorgeous, long, deep bay north of Carlita Partida. I dropped anchor for the first time and it held!! yay! Our trail today was flat and took us through the mangroves and over to the other side of the island. The east side is rocky and wild - not great for anchoring usually. The pelicans love it though and there were hundreds of them feasting in the bay. We tried for a good 45 minutes to get a perfect picture of them diving - IMPOSSIBLE!!! After lunch, Nev explored a little further down the cove, and thank goodness he did! He found a turtle all tied up with a rope around its flippers and neck and kinda hidden behind some rocks! He was alive and hissed hard at us while we untied the rope. We picked him up and carried him down to the beach with him hissing and fighting all the way - he was a good 2 feet wide and heavy! When we put him in the water he put his tail straight up and wiggled it before he gracefully dissappeared - almost as tho he was saying thanks and goodbye!! We both wanted to cry!
Since Nev has to go backto the States on Feb 1st for a month for business, while he was out fishing I decorated Blue for Valentine's Day and we had a bottle of Nichelini (thanks Dill and Ryan!) and Nev made my favorite dinner: tuna melt! The sunset was amazing, of course! A happy day :)
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02/01/2010, Isla Partida
We trolled all the way out to the islands - nothing! The fish have not been plentiful by any means - the water is a little cold this time of year. Isla Partida is to the north of Isla Espiritu Santo, and our first anchorage was in Calita Partida - a gorgeous shallow bay that looks right onto Isla Espiritu. As we went ashore in the dinghy the water was shallow and clear and we could see starfish,anemones, bait fish, crabs, shells and pufferfish aplenty. 80% of the bay is shoal (shallow) and we pulled the dinghy most of the way to the beach! We found a trail on the north end of the beach and hiked way up into the mountain - way, way up! to a dry waterfall. The views were exquisite, the foliage the greenest we've seen in a long time, lots of poop ?coyote or a hare the islands are known to host, butterflies, lizards and flowers - I had great fun with the camera, and I think Nev was hapy to see me capturing something other than shells! He powered up and down that arroyo like a star! We ended the day watching a gorgeous sunset sipping my first attempt at a margarita (Nev said it was the best ever!!), Dinner was fish soup, chips, salsa and guacamole! The avos are so abundant and cheap down here you simply have to eat them everyday!!
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02/01/2010, La Paz
La Paz means "Place of Peace" - it's a pretty, gentle city - a mix of modern and rustic - something for everyone here - seems many people arrive to reprovision and never leave! Anchorage is shallow and on our first day Nyami-Nyami ran aground on a sandbar - Nev helped them off by pushing their boat with our dinghy! In La Paz they serve this amazing "dish" on the Malecon: A bag of dorito chips sliced lengthwise, add two cups of steaming frsh corn, a dollop of mayo, a heap of grated cheese, a generous squirt of chilli sauce and a squeeze of fresh lime, and voila!! you have an amazingly delicious pound packer for 30 pesos!! Added to that, we found supermarkets and are discovering real Mexican cheese! I've made chilli relleno and we're hooked!! This is a cruisers paradise: there is a club of cruisers here whose goal is to help each other, there are activites scheduled every day, and wonderful people to meet. Last night we met Sylvie and Dave from Zimbabwe on their catamaran "Puddytat" - had great chats and laughs. But we wanted to get to the islands, so we stayed 4 nights - enough time for Nev to watch the game on Sunday at Pappas and Beers, and to meet Tom from "Tis Magic" who recognised Blue when we arrived in La Paz: he is a salty old dog who's been on the water a long time and he spent a lot of time on Blue when John McVie owned her!! He has been great! so helpful! another angel along our way!
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