We're just back from a two-week scouting of a bit of the Southern Baja area of Mexico. We had planned this trip while still thinking that we'd be sailing off in 2019, but, when we decided to take off from the PNW
this Summer instead of next, we still decided to take this little vacation in order to break up this long Winter and also take the opportunity to see where we'll be heading off to in a few months.
Chelsea and I spent the first three nights in Cabo at the Welk resort. The hotel was a great place to stay, with many fun activities to be had. We then explored downtown Cabo. This was my second time in Cabo, and it was as I remembered - touristy and expensive, with gringo prices to be had almost everywhere. We knew that we would not be spending quite so extravagantly while cruising, but we considered this a vacation, so we indulged a bit. We'll likely only stay in Cabo for a day or two when we bring the boat down, as marina moorage fees there are ridiculously high.
After a few days in Cabo, we caught an EcoBaja shuttle to La Paz, where we met up with Chelsea's mother and her partner, and rented a wonderful vacation house directly on the malecon. We dubbed this "The Castle" for it's wonderful masonry work and large, double-opening wooden doors. While La Paz still felt touristy, it did feel a bit more like traditional Mexico. Chelsea and I made great progress with our Espanol and we often looked up words we didn't know to expand our vocabulary ("Vocabulario").
We indulged in all of the touristy activities, swimming with whale sharks, fishing for mahi mahi (thank you Carlos!), and going horseback riding (thank you Kimberly!). Chelsea and I walked down to have morning coffee at the
Club Cruceros meetup several mornings. We met some very wonderful people there and gained quite a bit of insight and valuable local knowledge.
We're glad we took this opportunity to scout out a tiny bit of Mexico and are now even more excited to explore all that the Sea of Cortez has to offer! Now it's back to the PNW, where we will soon be pulling the mast to replace all chainplates and rigging to prepare for our trip South. We are EXCITED!!! =D