Agua Verde to La Paz
10 December 2012
Connie, low 80's
Agua Verde to La Paz
We stayed in Agua Verde 2 more days after Thanksgiving to enjoy this beautiful place. We went ashore and walked around the village. We went to Maria’s tienda (store) and bought some fresh goat cheese. She pulled out a big piece of cheese and I cut off how much I wanted. The store was about 15’ by 15’ and had a variety of dry and can goods, and some fresh produce. Outside she had some old refrigerators lying on their sides in the dirt. They were not plugged in, but had ice in them to keep food cold. Some of the villagers have a herd of goats and make the cheese themselves. We’ve often seen the goats climbing the steep hillsides around the bay.
The next destination was Los Gatos and we all met up there (s/v Gladys, s/v Grace, and s/v Windsong). Gladys got there first and spoke to a local fisherman named Manuel and asked him for some lobsters. Manuel gets lobsters for cruisers as a way of supplementing his income. Every time we’ve been to Los Gatos, he has come by to see if we wanted lobsters, and other cruisers have had the same experience. In the afternoon he came back with 9 lobsters! Ed cooked them on the bar-b-que and everyone brought some food and we had a delicious lobster dinner on board Sirena. Los Gatos has beautiful red sandstone on one side of the harbor. The low bluffs are smooth and rounded with shadings of reds, pinks, and creams, and reminds me of saltwater taffy that has been poured out on a pan and hardened in soft mounds.
The next day we all left for San Evaristo, which is another small fishing village like Agua Verde, and has a calm, protected bay. We enjoyed relaxing, swimming, walking on the beach, and eating together at the palapa on the beach. This is the only “restaurant” in the village. Last year this palapa just sold beer, but this year they’ve enlarged it and added a kitchen and another shaded eating area. She prepared food while her young boys played around the palapa and on the beach. She made a good fish dinner with rice and a salad. Unfortunately, by the time we got our food it was dusk and the Bobo’s were swarming us, so we ate as quickly as we could and returned to our boats for the night.
When we left in the morning we parted company with the other 3 boats. They were making one more stop and then going to La Paz. We wanted to stay out a few more days before we went to La Paz. We went to Isla San Francisco, which is one of our favorite anchorages with its half-moon shaped bay, white sand beach, and turquoise water. The water was crystal clear and we could see the sand ripples on the bottom in 20’ of water. I took a picture of the anchor chain to show the clarity of the water. For the picture I stood on deck looking down at the bottom with my toes in the picture as a reference point, and took a picture of the anchor chain and the boats’ shadow on the bottom. When we raised the anchor and began leaving I looked down at the boats’ shadow and was surprised to see a school of fish swimming as fast as they could to keep up with the shadow. They must have been under the boat using our boat as a safe haven when it started moving, so they followed until they couldn’t keep up any longer. Pretty funny!
We went to Ensenada Grande on Isla Partida, which is another one of our favorites. It also had the crystal clear water, which is convenient to be able to see if your anchor is dug in good. We enjoyed 2 days here; swimming, walking on the beaches, exploring in the dinghy, and just relaxing and soaking up the beautiful scenery. Finally it was time to raise the anchor and head for the “big city” of La Paz.