La Paz

By the time we left La Paz, we'd had a chance to explore a large number of the area's attractions. Some favorites: Bahia de Balandra, with shallow water perfect for wading/dinghy excursions and the best snorkeling spot around; Isla Espiritu Santo, a national marine park with gorgeous anchorages and terrific hikes; swimming with whale sharks (huge spotted plankton-eating sharks; amazing!!); and frequent walks along the malecon.

The lengthy stopover was good for getting some important boat projects done (a few lingering from earlier To Do lists, plus new ones; it's a boat, so hey, something is always breaking!). More important, though, we had time to meander through many streets/neighborhoods and immerse ourselves deeper into the local culture. Balmy weather, friendly people, and the low cost of living were all appealing--and the supportive cruising community and Marina de La Paz staff were especially appreciated.  Handmade tamales and fresh fruit drinks available from street vendors and palapa restaurants were wonderful treats. Even wandering the aisles in the grocery store, full of products we'd never seen before, was fascinating. (Tip: if you ever see something called cacahuates japones, buy as many as you can! Peanuts with a crunchy, slightly spicy coating; mmmmmm.....)

La Paz--"The Peace"--was the perfect place to spend the holiday season. Now, though, we feel ready to be on the move again. The current plan is to visit a few more island anchorages north of La Paz, cross the Sea of Cortez in the next open weather window, then make a few stops on the mainland side before "parking" in Banderas Bay. That bay (which includes Puerto Vallarta) will be our jumping-off point to the South Pacific, so we will be taking care of a lot of final preparations there. Who knows when the next internet access will be; until then, best wishes to all of you for a healthy and happy 2015!

There are many wonderful sculptures along the waterfront

The founder of La Paz

For just $1, frozen fruit on a stick!

The "Cruisers Club" at Marina de La Paz.
They offered an enormous book trading library, a huge array of DVD's, and accumulated years of La Paz experience
("Walnuts? Try Guadalajara, a store on Serdan"; "Sergio on Navarra does the best welding around" etc...)

One of many wall murals (even on side streets)

Brooms & bins
(sidewalks in front of stores and houses
are swept often, so brooms are sold in many places)

The town square, with government building in the background and a replica of Mushroom Rock (at Bahia de Balandra) in the foreground

Cathedral downtown;
we heard the bells ring every morning and evening

Shade palapas along the beach

Familiar Faces

Ah, La Paz (or "La Pause", as the cruising community fondly calls it, since so many sailors end up staying here quite a while): as mellow as Cabo San Lucas is glitzy. Since we were expecting multiple sets of visitors, we paid for a month at Marina de La Paz, conveniently located within walking distance to downtown in one direction and grocery/hardware/marine stores in the other. We were blessed with the company of Katelinn and Camden before Christmas, Cheryl & Eric & Andrew Wertheimer (sister, brother-in-law and nephew) right after Christmas, and Gordon & Judith Hammerle (old friends from our Michigan days) in early January. We didn't tire of taking guests along the malecon (the wide sidewalk along the waterfront, complete with interesting statues and perfect for strolling), to the open air markets for fresh vegetables and fish/shrimp, and to a nearby beach for snorkeling and/or a sand-floored cantina. Those were fun activities, but of course the best part was just having family and friends around! No matter how beautiful Oz--or La Paz--is, there's no place like home... 

Camden, Katelinn & Art at Mercado Bravo,
an open air market downtown

Fresh guacamole & margaritas in the cockpit

Hiking at Isla Espiritu Santo

Taking a sun sight with the sextants

  

Christmas lights in the cabin

Lunch with Wertheimers at Mercado Bravo

Christmas lights in the cockpit

Sand-floored cantina with Andrew, Eric and Cheryl

Snorkeling reef at Balandra
(are we under that water somewhere?)

Art, Gordon & Judith at Rancho Viejo

Cheers!

Communication Update

When we embarked on this voyage, we knew we would be off the grid much of the time--but we didn't expect it to be almost all the time! I was planning to get online at every major port, but it turns out that wifi in Mexico can be very hard to find. Even the major marinas, all of which advertise wifi access, have undependable connections. So I send my deepest apologies to those of you who may have been expecting emails, updates, etc.; it simply has not been possible.

In Cabo  San Lucas I chose to use my extremely limited online access for blog posting, since it's a way to reach more people at once. Hopefully it's like sending postcards to all of you! In La Paz I managed to get wifi a little more often, so I caught up on some emails and overdue business. 

Bottom line: YES, please do go ahead and send an email if you wish; we love hearing from you! (nancielinnshaw@gmail.com)--but please don't be surprised or disappointed when it seems to take forever to get a reply.

We also heard from several people that tracking us on the Vesselfinder website stopped working in November, probably when we were no longer in US waters. It is still possible to find our location on a different site: www.marinetraffic.com.  Just click on the Vessel tab, type in our MMSI number (367525340), and our boat will pop up. Do not type the vessel name in the box, just the MMSI. (There is a subscription service you can sign up for--one free level, then others for a fee--but you don't have to do that. The vessel tab on their home page then the MMSI number are all you need.) Hope this helps! It's fun for us to imagine being stalked--er, tracked--as we ply the seas...

Puerto Los Gatos

The next anchorage was Puerto Los Gatos, which we nicknamed Eden. It was the most strikingly gorgeous place we had been so far, and we had it all to ourselves. 

Red rock formations were reminiscent of Sedona, if Sedona were filled with water. We spent hours poking around the rocks (and taking way too many pictures, since every angle and every view looked like a cover photo). We did some hiking and snorkeling, too, but our favorite pastime was watching the light change on the sculpted rocks at sunrise and sunset. The only way we pulled ourselves out of that anchorage was knowing we were heading back south to meet Katelinn and Camden!

 

Bahia Agua Verde

The village of Agua Verde was a special treat; its small but nice homes (still cement block, but painted bright colors with patterned curtains over the windows) tucked under date palms, tiny store (the size of a walk-in closet in the USA), and friendly pangueros (fishermen in small boats) all felt welcoming. 

Our guidebook said there was a restaurant in the village, but in reality the 'restaurant' was a woman who would pull out a small table and plastic chairs and cook for someone if they happened to stop by. "Tacos de pescado?" she inquired--Do you want fish tacos--and knowing that 1) we love fish tacos and 2) that's all she had to offer, we replied "Si! Queremos tacos de pescado!"--Yes, we want fish tacos (which were as delicious as they were authentic). Fortunately my simple Spanish--reasonably good 40 years ago, but terribly rusty now--is sufficient for us to make purchases, get directions, deliver some supplies we brought for the village schools, etc. 

"Restaurante" sign 

The only customers

Art & a fisherman with his panga (small boat)

Inside the town store

Cemetery outside of Agua Verde

Lovely little church

Free range cattle near the town

Free range Art near the town

Gunkholing time!

Gunkhole, verb: to move from anchorage to anchorage exploring out-of-the-way places by boat

We're looking forward to meeting groups of family and friends in La Paz, so we decided to bypass the city for now and continue exploring north up the Sea of Cortez. Our first stop was Puerto Balandra--not a port, but a beautiful anchorage with long white beaches, turquoise water, and (YES! finally!!) a place to snorkel. 

Mushroom rock at Puerto Balandra

Uh-oh, Art got the camera

The next stop was San Evaristo, a quintessential fishing village with about 30 dwellings. Walking to the school and the salt evaporation ponds passed by plenty of cardon cactus, some burros and goats, and a small tienda where we purchased some almost-fresh vegetables. (Though the tiny stores carry a surprising variety of nonperishable items, produce deliveries to this remote desert village are made just once a week.)

Morning light at San Evaristo

Burros roam freely in & around town

Roadside shrine 

The school has 8 students drawn from a large geographic area

The wind picked up quite a bit and we hung out in the most sheltered part of that bay an extra day before moving on to Timbabiche, then Bahia San Marte and Bahia Agua Verde. The scenery got more and more spectacular; indeed, I ran out of superlative adjectives in my daily journal. The Sierra de la Gigante range along the coast has high mesas, jagged peaks and ridge lines, colorful rock layers, and plenty of cactus and shrubs. We had not expected the desert here to be nearly this beautiful; we gorged on the surroundings, with plenty of hiking and even more just sitting and absorbing. 

Striated cliffs of the Sierra de la Gigante range

Moon at Bahia San Marte

Hiking up a dry wash

View from the ridge

Second Wind at anchor, Bahia San Marte

Lots of colorful shells here!

East Cape

Rounding the East Cape is reputedly difficult--sailing upwind into strong breezes and waves--and it lived up to its reputation. We got underway by 5:00 each morning so we could get half of the day's journey complete by the time the winds picked up around 10:30. After that, the next several hours would be quite a romp, pounding through building waves and increasing wind. It was some of the toughest sailing we've done--not dangerous, just tiring--and we were grateful to be able to drop anchor and sleep at the end of each day. There were ample rewards, too: the first day we got to see whales near the boat a couple of times, and we enjoyed the addition of organ pipe cactus to the scenery.

Bahia Los Frailes was especially pretty. After managing to land the dinghy in big surf (probably with more luck than skill), we walked to a lagoon behind the sand dunes. Calm fresh water with snowy egrets, nestled below cactus-covered hillsides with a mountainous backdrop: especially after hundreds of miles of barren desert, it was a breathtaking sight. Then we were treated to a manta ray show! All around the boat, rays were leaping at least 3' into the air then flopping loudly back onto the water. It was quite a spectacle (too bad I didn't catch it on camera)...

Surf at Bahia Los Frailes

Freshwater lagoon

Peaceful evening at Bahia Los Frailes

Soaring seabirds

We only spent one night at the second anchorage, Ensenada de los Muertos, which was ringed with cactus and a sand beach. The show du jour at that location was watching a large number of sea birds soar overhead; they weren't fishing, just playing with the wind, graceful as a ballet.

The next day we reached the La Paz area. It was December 1 and we were now completely in the Sea of Cortez:
another milestone.