A visit to Salinas
01 March 2010 | Porto Perico, Isla Carmen
Bill Hudson
We hopped into Puff and took off for Bahia Salinas. It's an old abandoned salt mining town about 2.5 miles from Porto Perico. They had massive flats set up to dry the salt water and make salt to export all over the world. It closed down back in the 1980's and the place has not withstood the test of time. Salt is a very powerful corrosive and it has done its work. Most of the metal things are almost unrecognizable as what they were. Carts and old cars as well as grinders and loaders just sit and rust away. Many of the buildings are still standing but the winds and sand have eaten a lot of the mortar away from the bricks and concrete block leaving a strange hollowed out look to the walls. There is virtually nothing left of the dock and you can see several sunken boats in the harbor and along the beach.
We arrived in mid morning understanding that the place was over seen by a caretaker and that he would let you explore the salt flats and the buildings. Not sure if we ran into the caretaker, but the man we met advised us that the salt flats were to dangerous to explore, but we could tour through all the buildings. Now how a piece of ground that is flat can be to dangerous to tour was a bit beyond us but it is his place and he is responsible for it and all that goes on. So, we turned around(we were on the road(clearly marked with signs) to the salt flats when he caught up with us) and headed back to the village compound. Most useable things were long since removed either by the company or the locals. From the windows to much of the roofs, to the floors and plumbing and electrical wiring is all gone. If this had been in the US, there is no way we would have been allowed to go anywhere near the buildings. To say they are in bad shape is an understatement. In the close to 30 years since they closed, Mother Nature had taken over and won against the work of man. It can't stand up to blowing wind and sand and water.
We walked the miles of beach along the shoreline seeing no one. The place is on the side(East) of Isla Carmen that few boats visit. We figured to be the only boat anywhere near here. We returned to Zephyr and stowed Dragon and hoisted Puff back on board. We plan on taking off tomorrow for Bahia San Marte. about 31 miles South of here. It is supposed to have decent protection from the North winds.
As we sat in the cockpit in the afternoon reading and planning our course for tomorrow, along comes another sail boat. A small boat with three people on board. It is one of the boats that gets rented out with a guide for people to explore the islands and coves. There are no cabins on board and they pull into a cove at night and roll out their sleeping bags and spend the night. Since they are normally on National Park property, they are not allowed to build fires so there isn't much to do once the Sun goes down. Now Porto Perico is a nice cove, but it is still relatively deep right up to the shoreline. No sandy beaches over here. These boats typically sail into the cove, drop their bow anchor and then row the stern of the boat toward shore and put out a second anchor on land to hold the boat in a safe position. Well, out went the bow anchor and the man at the oars rowed and rowed and rowed and couldn't get the stern of the boat to properly face the shore. After a while, and several tries, his wife jumped into the water(up to her arm pits) and pulls the boat ashore. I guess she had had enough and wanted to get ashore. With the water at 69 degrees and the wind blowing at a good 15 knots, I'm sure she was chilled to the bone quickly. Once ashore, they set up a small lean too with a tarp for some coverage and had a wonderful cold dinner(yum). The guys had to wade ashore too so I'm sure they got good and wet also. Not how I would want to spend my vacation.
About 1600, along comes another boat!!! A big catamaran! I thought this was supposed to be a place that few boats visited!! We have more boats in here tonight than there are in San Juanico. All those boats let yesterday. The catamaran(Limerick)sailed up the the Southwest coast of Isla Carmen so they must have come from the Escondido area around the South tip of Carmen and up the coast. Not a fun sail as all the winds(13-20 knots) were out of the North and Northeast and they would have to plow into them all the way up the coast.
Tomorrow, we expect to take off South for Bahia San Marte, a small indentation along the Baja Coast. Nice and protected(at least sort of) from the North winds that are due tomorrow. You can check it out--25 30.254N 111 01.030W at Google Earth. Zoom in and I would expect that someone has posted some pictures of the cove. Check out Puerto Los Gatos(25 18.200N 110 56.732W, we expect to be there in a few days. The sandstone formations are said to be incredible. We'd stopped in there for a lunch on our way North and now want to stay a bit longer(weather permitting) and see it better.