We're here at last! Actually, we've been here a couple of days. My sailblogs posts kept bouncing for a few days, but seems to be working now. Here's an update on what's going on.

Rescue mission: I was reminded the other day that we never did follow-up on the rescue mission of the fishing vessel. I'm happy to report that they did come back and re-provisioned us just like they promised. They gave us 10 gallons of gasoline, 6.5 gallons of diesel, and a whole bunch of food. They also gave us an assortment of lures and some much needed instruction on catching a fish (No, we still haven't caught one). A lot of people have certainly helped us over the last few months, so it was nice to be able to return the favor.

Agua Verde: I met Archie in Agua Verde. He's been cruising the Sea of Cortez for the last 7 years. He took me under his wing and gave me lots of instruction on everything under the sun. Archie's written some companion guides for cruising the Sea of Cortez and they're quite popular. Look up Sea-tacean when you get to La Paz and make sure you get it. His wife, Beverly, got the girls hooked on making bracelets out of beads. Now there's bead stuff everywhere around the boat. They also turned the family on to the dice game Farkel and gave us a game-set of our own. I have dreams now of being the Farkel champion of the world.

Escondido: First, getting here is a bit tricky. There are a lot of rocks and islands in the way. This wouldn't ordinarily be a big deal if we had decent charts, but they don't exist. The electronic charts are WAY, WAY OFF. We relied on all of our guides to get us here. Cunningham's guides do about the best job, but it helps having Archie point out all the dangers too. We gladly made it to Puerto Escondido without incident. We did look at our forward facing sonar a lot though.

We arrived at Puerto Escondido around 4:30 pm. There's an cove called the Waiting Room just outside the entrance and that's where you'll find a lot of anchored boats. Bahia Juan calito, which is another cove about 4 miles away, also has a lot of boats. It does have WIFI, though, for 5 bucks a day.

After working our way through the entrance we found the nearly empty bay. It's deserted. There's 12 boats moored in a place that has over a 100 mooring balls. We had heard rumors of this place being expensive, but we didn't expect there to be so much room. We called Singlar and they gave us a mooring assignment. Kathy and I found it and we hooked on to the mooring without incident. This may have been due to the fact that there was nothing to run in to.

Escondido is a very pretty place and we're surrounded by beautiful mountains. Tara wanted to know when we're going to the Grand Canyon and I told her that we're already there. "Just look around. This is what it looks like," I said. She didn't believe me though and walked off in a huff. I know, I know: I just don't get it.

The water here is currently 88 degrees, which is a bit warm. We were told to be prepared because it just gets hotter from here on out and we can expect the water to get into the 90's.

We went to the office the next day and learned the reason why the place is deserted. I seems that the mooring fees are a bit on the high side. For our 42 Catalina we are expected to pay $28 US, American greenbacks, per day. Just so you understand, that's for a tying to a mooring. There are facilities though: you can tie to the dock by the office (the only one there is) and get electricity, which is extra, and for $3.50 a load you can wash and dry your clothes. Fuel is also available, but there's the dreaded 22% "docking" fee. That's right - you pay a 22% tax on your fuel. There is a way to get around this though.

Shhhh.... Look behind you. Is anyone watching you? Good. Here's the scoop: you have to have wheels. Since we rented a car, this is no problem. Here's the process that we go through: we bring our jerry cans from the dinghy to the dock. Next we put them in the car (although we were told that a bicycle will work too) and drive them to the fuel dock 200 feet away. We then take the jerry cans out of the car and have them filled up and, finally, return them to the car and drive back to the dinghy. For those of you thinking that I'm somehow doing something illegal, be assured that this process was explained to me by the Singlar employee that pumps the fuel.

We rented a car through Hertz for $44 US a day with no insurance. They deliver the car to Puerto Escondido which helps a lot. The taxi is $66 dollars round trip to Loreto (the nearest town).

Loreto is a pretty small town but has a fairly large super market. It looks like it's "going" to be a really nice town. Unfortunately, a lot of roads are still under construction. The main drag is currently one large dirt road. There is an internet cafe here and it costs about $2 US per hour. This is our first driving experience in Mexico and we're trying desperately to learn the rules. There are no lanes and Alto is just a suggestion. Kathy only once drove down a one-way street the wrong way. I just wish that street wasn't, you know: THE HIGHWAY!

Kathy and I are trying to find a spot to keep our boat for the hurricane season. We're hoping to end up in San Carlos, but everything's basically full right now. We plan on taking September and October off and going back to the states. We'll see though.

We'll hang out here until Tuesday, slowing carrying jerry cans to and from Adventure until our tanks are full. We'll also wash all of our clothes. I, for one, look forward to wearing clean underwear