Steve cold
06/02/2011, San Diego

The reason this pic is so blurry is that one of the many things I have on my shopping list while in San Diego, is to buy a new camera. Normally I wouldn´t use this pic on this very high class blog....but since I had just spent 15 hours coming up Baja on a bus from Santa Rosalia, and was feeling a little blurry myself, I felt the pic was appropriate. Baja California has always had the reputation of being a VERY desolate place and it is in some places. People are often warned when thinking about driving down Baja....not to do it. It has a history of washed out, poorly maintained roads. It has a reputation of having few if any services for hundreds of miles. It also has a reputation...and history, of banditos who set up road blocks, often posing as police and robbing unsuspecting travelers. I read a warning that told people that if they break down, not to leave their car unattended, or it would be stripped within minutes....like in the middle of nowhere, some bad guys who want to strip you car won´t do it because some middle aged gringo and his wife are standing guard.
So now let me clear up some of these misconceptions. First of all the road, Mexico 1, although narrow and with many curves, is a very well maintained road. There were a couple of places that the road turned to dirt for a few hundred feet, but even these areas were keep up. As we learned while in Bahia Concepcion, Mexico 1 has A LOT of traffic, and especially truck traffic, on it. Meaning that if you did have a problem there would be someone along within minutes. I was VERY surprised to see so many towns and even small cities along the way, it seemed that there was some sort of civilization every 50 miles or so...and guess what, they all had services that you could buy gas, have a needed repair done or even.....buy a taco, WOW. Lastly, we didn´t run into any bandidos, we did go through half a dozen checkpoints where there were ligitiment Marina´s, heavy armed, who went through our bags at one, and came on the bus several times during the night to have a look see.
The bandidos are probably in a cantina somewhere, playing pool with the pirates I keep hearing about.

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Steve
05/30/2011

Before arriving in Santa Rosalia (SR) I had heard many different opinions, ranging from "it´s a refreshingly beautiful, friendly, working town" to "it´s a real shit hole". I figured that I would keep an open mind, as is what I normally try to do. Right at the moment I´m not really sure how I feel about SR. I can tell you that the harbor area fits into the shit hole catagory, but then it is a working port and many of them worldwide are in this same class.
Santa Rosalia was originally founded in 1885 as a company town for a French copper mining company called El Boleo. El Boleo reportedly mistreated the workers and ended up closing down the operation and leaving. Recently A partnership by a Canadian company, a Mexican company and a company from China (wouldn´t you know it), have reopened the mining operation. The local church (pic) was built by Gustav Eiffel (as in the Eiffel Tower). The portable church was bought in Brussels and shipped to SR, where it is known as Eiffel´s Church.
Other than the few boats that we have been traveling up the sea with, there are no gringos here. Last night after dinner I stopped in the local sports bar to try to catch a bisball game. I was immediately approached by a few of the locals, one of which had lived in San Diego for awhile. Carlos was VERY excited to meet me and talk to me as he was anxious to keep up on his english (none spoken here). It was a pretty funny conversation as Carlos would talk to me in english and I would talk to him in spanish (at least try to). Carlos works for the new mining company (also Boleo) and the company has a basketball team of which Carlos plays on. They have a game tonight and I hope to be able to go watch my new friend play.
Anyway, I will continue exploring for the next couple of days and let you know later how I feel about SR. One thing I can tell you is that as is normal here in Mexico, the people are wonderful.

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Steve
05/28/2011, Santa Rosalia, B.C.S, Mexico

We arrived in Santa Rosalia yesterday afternoon and are now , for the first time in over 3 weeks, tied up to a slip. As we have slowly moved up the inside of Baja we have been aware of many changes. The first part of our journey we were anchored in mostly small fishing villages. We were intrigued by the pangeros (Mexican Fisherman) daily routines. Both Bob and myself marveled at how hard working and tough these men of the sea are. As we moved further north we started running into more of the American/Canadian retirees and travelers. Bahia Concepcion had many expat and campers scattered around it´s pristine shores and it was fun sharing stories and adventures with each other. Most everyone that comes down here has an adventurous side to them wether they come by boat, RV or even living in a house, we all share many of the same traits.
As we have traveled further north up the sea it has also become more challanging navigating the beautiful waters. The reason that you see the tourquise colored water in the pictures is due to shoaling. Shoaling is a build up of sand that can happen around points, islands and in bays. I´ve had areas that show up 20 feet deep on my depth finder and you´re over a mile from the closest land. You may also notice all of the islands in the Pictures, these must also be navigated around (duh) creating a constant need to always be alert while underway.
I´ll be returning to San Diego by bus next week to take care of a few issues and attend Ashley´s graduation from UCLA. Over the next couple of days I will share in more detail some of the adventures that we´ve had over the past 3 weeks and of course there will also be stories to tell about Santa Rosalia.
Vaya usted con Dios

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05/23/2011, Playa Santispac

As you may have figured out by now...we haven´t had internet access since leaving Loreto. I´m currently sitting in a resturant in Mulege checking email and of course updating my blog. Si Bon is on the hook in a cove called Santispac, which is in a bay called Bahia Coyote, which is in another bay called Bahia Concepcion, which is in the Sea of Cortez....so we are in a cove in a bay in a bay in a sea. We stopped in a beautiful bay on the way here called San Juanico (SJ) and spent three nights there. So many things have happened since leaving Loreto that I don´t know where to start. I´ll give a quick rundown and will go into more details later. I got into my first argument with a fellow cruiser while anchoring in SJ, homie didn´t seem to think that the 200 feet seperating us was enough room. Lucky for me that several other criuisers in the anchorage went to bat for me thru the VHF radio and the guy has now turned into a kinda joke among those of us working our way up the sea. We attended our first bonfire/clambake on the beach in SJ. I was given some fishing advice while at the bonfire and I caught my first fish within minutes of deploying the new system. I fileted the little sucker the next day and Bob and I had a fish appetizer before happy hour. We have now seen our first Whale Sharks (pic). Whale Sharks are the largest fish on the planet and can grow to 60 feet. So far the ones that slowly and silently swim around the cove we´re in are only about 25-30 feet long. Whale Sharks are harmless and as soon as they come around again I plan on swimming with them. We are getting ready to head back to Si Bon and are going to move Si Bon to another cove in Bahia Coyote tomorrow. I hope we will have better internet access there and once I do I´ll go into more details and hopefully will be able to add some pics.

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Steve
05/16/2011, Puerto Escondido

Loreto is a coastal town about 15 miles north of Puerto Escondido. Loreto doesn´t have any reliable anchorage, so the best way to visit it is by road. A cab ride to Loreto costs around $50 USD dollars each way. Bob and I had decided on the way here that we would like to check out Loreto while in the area and that we might just as well spend a night or two there since it was going to cost us 100 buck just to get there and back. As luck would have it one of the workers at the Marina here was just getting ready to go to Loreto so we hitched a ride with him and gave him 300 Pasos (25USD). We checked into a really nice hotel called the Sante Fe and each got our own room, thus not only getting a boat break but also getting a little break form each other. Let´s face it, living together on a 42 foot sailboat doesn´t give you a lot of personal space.
Loreto Is a nice little town that supposedly has a lot of retired gringos living in it. We saw very few retired gringos, or anyone else for that matter, the town was VERY quiet, in fact with the exception of hordes of teenagers on rollerblades, there was almost no one to be seen. We never the less enjoyed our time in Loreto and ended up staying two nights. When we were getting ready to leave some dude in the hotel lobby that had been trying for the past two days to sell us hiking and kayak tours, offered us a ride back to Puerto Escondido and a free breakfast. All we had to do was listen to a "short" presentation that he swore up and down wasn´t a time share. Well of course it was a time share, but we got a nice tour of a beautiful resort, a free breakfast and a free ride back to PE....and all I had to do was say no 136 times and in half a dozen different ways.
Tomorrow we´ll be leaving PE and working our way up to Santa Rosalia, I should have internet access along the way, but may not be able to blog everyday.

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Steve
05/15/2011, mmmm...Puerto Escondido

I think I´ve now finally caught up on my trip up to Puerto Escondido (PE). So is´s now time to actually tell you a little about PE. PE (pic) is a nearly landlocked bay which offers protection from almost all wind and swell directions. PE is used as a hurricane hole for this entire region of the Sea of Cortez, A hurricane hole is a bay or port that if you´re unlucky enough (or dumb enough) to be caught in an approaching hurricane, allows you to drop your anchor (or tie up to a mooring ball), take all of your sails and other canvas off the deck, go below decks, put your head between your legs...and kiss your ass goodbye. Just kidding (sort of). PE offers several things that a cruiser looks forward to, they have showers (hot from 10-2) a laundry room, a small store, a nice little resturant and of course plenty of other cruisers to share informatioin with. PE now has mooring balls throughout the bay thereby limiting the ability to anchor. Since we didn´t have to worry about my anchor dragging in the middle of the night, Bob and I decided to take a land trip over to Loreto Thursday and Friday night for a little boat break and a little private time for ourselves.
Tomorrow I will tell you a little about Loreto and how to avoid the $100.00 round trip cab fare.

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