La Paz, Islas Partida and San Francisco, San Everisto, Timbabiche, and Agua Verdi
18 April 2016
Checking out the shoreline at Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida
April 11
Easter and the next three days were not so good in La Paz. Both Richard and I got the flu and it was not fun. I came down with it first, the morning we arrived in La Paz. I was very thankful for the Costa Baja Marina that we stayed at. It was the best marina we've been in, with el baño not too far away from the boat and a terrific pump out system for the head in each slip. Even more impressive, particularly since I wasn't feeling so great, was the fact that they have a doctor there every day. The first day I was up and about, he walked up to me and introduced himself, Angel. He told me that it was his first day at work there and offered his services if necessary. I was feeling better, and anyway there's not really much a doctor can do for the flu, but he helped Richard to find a medication that he was running low on. The Marina also provides a shuttle service to and from La Paz -- La Paz being a ten minute ride -- so when we were both able, we went into La Paz. La Paz differs from the other Mexican cities that we've been in, in that the sidewalks are nice and wide and when you want to cross the street, cars actually stop for you. Most other towns we've been in, pedestrians have no right of way and you really take your life in your hands crossing main thoroughfares. We made several trips into La Paz while we were there and I can see why people like it so much. The weather is cooler (though it still gets pretty hot) and drier and there is a huge contingent of cruisers. They have a farmer's market twice a week with fresh veggies, fruit, fresh-baked bread, coffee, and many other goodies. It seemed to be a more modern city than many we've been in.
We were (and are) running out of time though, since we need to have the boat ready to go by May 2, the day that we need to be back in the U.S.A., so after a week, we left La Paz for the Sea! Our first stop was Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida off the coast of La Paz, north of Espiritu Santo. It was gorgeous!! Turquoise water with reddish-colored rocks that looked like they'd been mud eons ago and had been plopped along the water's edge. There were 3 or 4 other boats at the anchorage and we met some cruisers from Poland there!! There was nothing on shore except for a couple of cooks preparing meals for some tourists due there the next day. So far, it's my favorite. We had a lot of stops to make, so after one night we left about noon for Isla San Francisco. Easy trip to a more crowded anchorage -- about 15 boats all together. It may be the longest white beach in the Sea of Cortez!! We walked along part of it the first day, and then on the second, hiked to several different areas. We hiked up to the top of a ridge (see photos in album labeled Sea of Cortez) with me staying as far away as possible from the precipitous edge!! Beautiful views of the sea from there. It's only a short walk to the other side of the island, over some dried up crusty pools with beautiful cacti along the way. Everywhere lovely colors of blues, greens, grays, yellows, reds, browns. Black crabs were all over the rocks on shore and we stayed and watched for awhile. About noon again, we walked back to the other shore and dinghied back to the boat and left for San Evaristo.
San Evaristo is on the mainland of Baja and the Sierra Gigantes mountains rise here startlingly and awesomely with their varied hues of reds and browns and blacks. I was looking forward to this stop because according to our guidebook, there was a tienda there and I could possibly do some provisioning. Upon arrival, we took our dinghy ashore. We had been told by the Polish people that we met in Ensenada Grande that there was a good restaurant in San Evaristo. Lupe Sierra's and Maggie Mae's is on the beach and it's the only restaurant. We spoke to Lupe, saw what the bill of fare was, and told him we'd be back later. Walking up the beach, we passed several fishermen's tarp-covered shelters, a few other buildings, a house with lovely chairs and a couch outside, and the desalination plant. The tienda was off the beach and as we headed for it, there was much excitement in the air and I heard a man talking on his cell phone. It turned out that they had just gotten the cell phone service installed that day!! We were excited, but it was short-lived, since when we went back the next day to this same spot, it wouldn't work. Outside the tienda, a cow was tethered to a tree. Some teenagers and several middle-aged men were hanging around on the concrete porch outside the tienda. When we entered, it was so dark that I was glad that I'd forgotten to take my flashlight out of my backpack. I had to turn it on to see anything on the shelves!! The only electricity that the town has is either provided by generators or solar power. The proprietor of the tienda has neither. He yawned continuously as he weighed the apples and figured out the cost of the few items that we bought. His scale was so old that it had weights on it and behind his desk were hundreds of small notebooks that he'd compiled over the years containing all of his transactions. As a tienda, it was disappointing to say the least. Dinner at Lupe Sierra's was better though -- great ceviche, quesadillas, and fish tacos. There were only three tables on the concrete patio. We were at one, and shortly after we sat down, about six cruisers arrived to sit at the other two. We finished about dark and returned to our boat.
Exploring the island the next day, we found a one-room school, where we dropped off some notebooks, pencils, and pads of paper for the kids. I talked to the teacher briefly in Spanish and he told me he has kids from ages 5 to 12! The one good thing was that there weren't that many of them. I took a picture, but the photographer -- ME -- malfunctioned and sadly I didn't get a picture of the students on San Evaristo at Benito Juarez School. Cute kids with a classroom pet, a dog named Dummy!! Walking on further, we came to old evaporation ponds, where salt used to be collected. Hearing the tinkling of bells on our return trip, we looked up to see two burros on the road, happily grazing. Some yards we passed had pens filled with goats. I bought some fish from one of the local fishermen on the beach, two gallons of desalinated water for 10 pesos at the desalination plant, and we prepared to leave the next day.
Surprise!! During the night, the corromauls (night winds) came up and it was a restless night on board, particularly for Richard who always worries about our anchor not holding. The next morning things didn't look too much better with white caps in the anchorage. We knew that rain had been predicted, but hadn't expected it to be very much. As we looked out at the Sea, we couldn't see any whitecaps, but we were afraid to leave the relative safety of the anchorage. The wind blew all day, bringing with it lots of showers. All day, the wives of the panga fishermen were on channel 16 on their radios to their husbands out fishing, crying "Mucho viento, mucho viento!" I wish we had left the anchorage, as several other boats did, and tried the Sea. We could have always come back, though anchoring in the wind isn't fun. Our reward, however, for sticking it out was a fabulous rainbow, where we could actually see both ends and a beautiful sunset. A few days later, we talked to people on one of the boats that left and they said that the Sea was calm, that the wind was strong and howling in the channel created by the mainland (where San Evaristo is located) and the island of San Jose, but once passed that, it was fine.
After basically hibernating all day, we were ready to leave the next day for Timbabiche. This was a pleasant spot with only one other boat anchored there. We only saw one fisherman, fishing from the shore. Walking into the lagoon, we came upon some birds, but it was too shallow to negotiate by dinghy. Gazing out over the water in the early evening, I was startled by a large group -- maybe 50 -- little ducks all swimming together. Suddenly they would all dive under the water together, stay under for a minute and then reappear a little further on. It was like they were doing their exercises, being led by the few ducks around the periphery who didn't dive under the water. The next morning they amused us again as we ate breakfast and prepared to leave for Agua Verde.
I was looking forward to Agua Verde for two reasons: one was that I'd heard that it was very lovely and there were lots of places to hike and two, because there are tiendas there for provisioning. Upon arriving in Agua Verde, we dinghied to shore and found again the only restaurant in town -- no name on this one though -- just a tiny palapa with one long table. We checked the hours and something about fish tacos was mentioned and we told the two women who ran the restaurant that we'd come back about 6:00PM for dinner. The tienda in Agua Verde is well stocked and has a lovely cactus garden along with oleanders and other plants growing outside. One side of the building is a freshly-painted Pacifico sign in bright yellow and blue. This store had windows, so although there wasn't any electricity -- beer is kept in ice and there was no sign of refrigeration -- I could see!! We got a few things, returned to the dinghy and explored the anchorage, saying hi to some people on some other boats that we'd met. Talking about Lupe Sierra's restaurant at San Evaristo with one couple, we began talking about the restaurant there at Agua Verde. The woman said not to eat there that a friend of theirs had gotten food poisoning there!! Her husband spoke up and said that that had been two years ago and they tried to downplay it. We were in a quandary. What do we do? We knew the two women at the Las Brisas del Mar Restaurant -- Maria and Lenora -- would be waiting for us. We went back to the boat and decided we'd risk it. The place had actually looked better and cleaner than many other places we'd eaten at. About 5:45PM, we got in the dinghy and prepared to meet our fate!! The starter on the outboard has been finicky lately and sometimes it takes a long time to start, but this time by 6:15PM, it still hadn't started. Was this an omen? Should we not go to this restaurant? I just don't believe in that kind of thinking, so Richard rowed us to shore.
What an interesting evening. First of all, there were some other people there, which made us feel better and they even recommended the fish tacos!! There really wasn't a choice, we were served fish tacos. They were delicious. With dinner we had a drink called Jimaica, that the women said was very good for one's health. The tacos came with a small bowl of potato salad!! And for dessert we had Hello (Jello). As it turned out, I was really glad that we went. As we were eating our dinner, with these two women hovering over us, one of them started telling us (in Spanish of course) how all their food was organic. Then I learned why she was so interested in organic food -- she is being treated for breast cancer. She was wearing a sleeve to prevent lymphodema -- swelling of the arm due to the loss of lymph nodes -- and I had wondered about that, but then she told us all about her treatment. It seemed very different from mine, with chemotherapy and radiation therapy reversed, but this was all in Spanish, so there were many questions that I had, but didn't have the words to ask. I felt a bond with this woman and hope that she felt my support for her and the trial of her treatment. We left with a warm hug. I will never forget her...and we didn't get food poisoning!!
After rowing back to the boat, we planned on a day of hiking the next day. About 4:30AM, the wind started howling. It lasted for a couple of hours, but it was calm by 7:00AM. When I got up, Richard (who of course had been up since 4:30AM) told me that our anchor had dragged and that he wanted to leave!! I try to be flexible, but I thought that we could reset the anchor and now that it was quiet, we would be o.k. But the wind hadn't totally stopped and it was a chilly and cold wind. I remembered what had happened in San Evaristo and I didn't want to stay in an anchorage again, when it might be calmer elsewhere. So about 9:15AM, we left Agua Verde and headed for Puerto Escondido. One problem with cruising the Sea of Cortez is that there's no Internet and therefore no connection to weather. We do listen to the SSB, but we had had trouble connecting with it the last several days. We've been communicating via our InReach with our son, Vincent, on the weather and he had said that the wind would be about 5 knots. By 9:30, the wind had risen to 25 knots and was rising. By 10:00AM, it was hitting 30 knots with some splashes of water entering the cockpit. I texted Vince and he was surprised and said that the website "windyty" had only predicted 5 knots!! Thirty knots isn't that comfortable for me and I was envisioning 25 miles of this -- the boat doing about 4.5 knots -- so another 6 hours! Richard decided to put up the sails and we picked up some speed. My teeth were chattering, I was so cold at the helm, so I decided to go below and put on some sweaters. By the time I came up, the wind had gone down to 25 knots. Another half hour passed and we were down to 20 knots. By 11:00AM, everything was rosy again at about 15 knots and by 2:00PM, there was nothing!! I think we did the right thing by leaving, because we heard from some people who stayed, that it had been very windy and very rolly there all day and night.
We arrived in Puerto Escondido at about 3:00PM.