San Evaristo to Bahia Aqua Verde
25°31.364'N, 111° 04.429'W


We said good by to our friends and San Evaristo on Thursday evening, departing early on Friday, May 13 for Aqua Verde, 44 nm north of here. I know according to seafaring lore one does not start a voyage on Friday and everyone knows about Friday the 13, but then again, I have bananas on board too! Anyway, we left early to make the top of Canal de San Jose before the winds could build too seriously again in the channel. As it turned out it was an easy and quick run to Bahia Aqua Verde; we were in and anchored in 16 feet of water before 1500 hrs.


As the name implies, Aqua Verde or green water is a very pretty place with clear, emerald green water much like our favorite spot on Catalina Island, Emerald Bay, only the water is a lot warmer! We were joined by Don and Kathie aboard their classic and beautiful wooden sloop "Wild Rose" out of Long Beach, California. We didn't know them well, but had met them on the dock at Marina Palmira in La Paz.


We took the dinghy to the village of Aqua Verde, about a mile across the bay from the northern hook we were anchored in. Landing on the beach has been easy here in the Sea of Cortez since there is little wave action, especially in these protected anchorages and bays. This village is noted for its goat herds and because it has a store with cold storage items. There is a wash that comes down from the mountains and it is greener here than most of the land side scenery we are seeing, no running water but it must be down there somewhere. The houses of the village were scattered about and quite a few had palm trees in addition to the desert mesquite and tamarack. We found the store by asking at a goat herder's home for directions. This store, like the one in San Evaristo was spartain and it did have some cold storage items in a large chest freezer packed with ice, but no cold beer or ice cream, just the essentials like meat and cheese. This building looked like it was purpose built and it was painted distinctively. When we got there the door was closed and no one answered. We looked around and knocked at the house behind and the proprietor came out and opened up. Produce was kept in it's cardboard shipping boxes on the floor, but they had plenty of canned and dry goods. One thing that we found which has been unavailable anywhere in Mexico was canned cut green beans. Go figure?


We walked the village, took some photos of the goats and of a few kids that were playing like kids everywhere, riding their bikes except there are no paved streets here, all dirt or packed sand trails really. Back at the boat I took the opportunity to dive the bottom to check things out. Besides a few barnacles on the rudder and keel the bottom of the boat has been staying pretty clean since we left La Cruz down in Bandaras Bay. I had the bottom cleaned twice while down south, there and in Zihuatanejo where it was really bad, but despite the warmer water we are not getting the growth here; possibly because we are moving more frequently? Anyway, I chipped the barnacles off and noticed that the little puffer fish that were swimming a round me snapped them up as they drifted down. The puffer fish seem almost fearless and swim around and right up to my mask. I didn't try to touch them, but they were that close. Other than a few sea turtles we didn't see any thing else swimming around in this anchorage. Pretty nice!


As beautiful as this place is we left after two nights to continue our trek north and to try to reconnect with Sirocco and So Inclined who we knew were in the general area of Puerto Escondido, where there is a real store, cell phones and internet or so we thought!