[The above photo was taken by Lori and shows the Marina Santa Rosilia Office and cruisers lounge]

We first arrived in Santa Rosilia on July 8th and unless something unforeseen happens between now and dawn (which is very likely if you have followed the crew of THIRD DAY for anytime at all) we will pull anchor from the harbor and make our way to Isla San Marcos, just a short 6 nautical miles away. We have enjoyed our stay in Rosilia and found it to be a great place to leave your boat in safety, as we did for our 12 day trip to the States to visit family and renew our Mexican visas. During our time here, we have seen more than a dozen other boats left for periods of up to several months while their crews make return trips to the States for various reasons. While Santa Rosilia certainly isn't somewhere I would want to leave our boat during hurricane season, having Baja's Hwy 1 run right through town with daily buss service to the US/Mexican boarder and only being 13 hours from San Diego make it an ideal spot for cruisers wanting to make a run to the States. There are two marinas to choose from: Singular with first class, first world facilities at a first world price ($10pesos/ft/day or $40pesos/ft/week or $120pesos/ft/month), or Marina Santa Rosilia a truly small town old locally owned marina with plenty of character (read falling apart) at $175 pesos per day for boats up to 39ft or $3000pesos per month. Both have good internet access, but apart from that the marina are worlds apart (again first world and third world). A third option is anchoring out inside the protection of the harbor breakwater. It costs $25 pesos per day, paid at the Marina Santa Rosilia, and includes the use of their dingy dock, cruisers lounge and easy access to town. While were away form the boat, we were in the Marina Santa Rosilia, however, we were comfortable anchored out while on the boat and would wholeheartedly recommend it to other cruisers looking to save their precious cruising funds.

I don't want to sell Santa Rosilia short by making is sound like the only value here is a place to leave your boat. The town ranks second on our list of small towns we have visited on our cruise, right behind our adopted home town of San Blas! In fact, one of the reasons we so like Santa Rosilia is that, just like San Blas, it isn't a tourist town, but a real life working fishing and mining town. There isn't a "Norte Americano Section" of town with modern condos targeting American and Canadian retirees, bringing along their sidewalk timeshare salesmen. Here the streets are quite and packed with delectable food carts rather than tour and condo booths. Food at these carts range from bacon wrapped hot dogs and empanadas to all sorts of local specialties. Each afternoon and evening, lines of locals form at the popular street carts and for less than you would pay for McD's dollar menu items, you will be treated to fabulous and authentic Mexican food. Just writing about the bacon wrapped hot dogs is making my mouth water!

If anything bad can be said about Santa Rosilia it's has to be about the summer heat! Like Bahia Conception, Santa Rosilia is typically several degrees hotter than the surrounding areas, especially the Islands just a short trip offshore. We are looking forward to visiting Santa Rosilia again as we work our way south form our hurricane refuge in the Bay of Los Angeles. The first thing I will do when we return will be to head straight for the food cart selling those bacon wrapped hot dogs, which by the way, are illegal in the city of Los Angeles, California, USA, so much for the so called, "Land of the Free".