too many boats is a good thing
27 April 2013 | Isla Partida
Sue
We left La Paz early on Saturday April 20th and settled ourselves in the main anchorage at Isla Partida, part of the Espirtu Santos Island National Park. The last time we were here two years ago, we were one of two boats. This week there were as many as 20 boats and never fewer than a dozen. Talking to some locals who live in La Paz, this is the most boats they have seen here in years. So the economy must be getting better somewhere.... for so many people to be cruising. In fact while we were in La Paz, we almost could not find an empty slip, everyone was in port to avoid the storm. Even the local fisherman has set up a secondary fish camp in this bay.
The islands are beautiful, but and the water a blue green like the carribbean, but the temperatures continued to hover around 61 degrees. This was ok wearing wetsuits while snorkeling the healthy reefs here, but made us less inclined to jump in and swim around the boat. We did use the stand up paddle board a bit along with the dingy to get to the best snorkeling spots.
The weather continued to be unpredictable. The wind would vary from nothing and glass calm water, to 20 knots at a moments notice, and this was all the while the forecast was for beautiful warm weather with 5 knots of wind. At least the wind kept the bugs at bay, which was the first time we have really been bothered by them.
We had a resident turtle near us. He must have been very old, because he was very large and had a large wizened head. We thought that perhaps he had lived long enough to be here when there were only sailing ships and none of these loud engines disturbing his reverie.
We have now returned to La Paz to enjoy some restaurants and local bicycling riding before heading onward to Cabo.