May 6, 2010 - On the way to Isla Coronado

May 5, 2010 – Puerto Escondido

We had a couple of pleasant days in La Paz with the Esslingers. The first day, while Earl played with Serenity, the three of us went shopping to replenish our liquor and ice cream supply. I got stopped by a motorcycle cop and was told that I had not one, but two, violations. I had apparently gone through a stop sign (which I had been assured was purely a suggestion locally) and was going too fast and there was a large fine, oddly given in American dollars. What was more, by this time he had my license and told me that I would need to go to the police office on Monday to retrieve it. This being Saturday, that did not work for me. I asked if I could pay the fine to him right there. I was told no, there were too many people around, which at the time made no sense to me. As directed, I followed him to a deserted street. He came up to the car and when I tried to open the door, he told me no, roll down the window. Then he passed in a clipboard with some papers and my license and told me to put money under the paper. I grabbed my license and slipped some pesos – significantly less than the quoted fine- under the paper. After that we all agreed that we did not want any ‘trouble’ and went happily our separate ways. I had finally paid my first bribe and simultaneously made a Mexican cop very happy.

One day we drove over to Todos Santos to show off the Pacific and eat shrimp stuffed avocados at Cerritos on the beach. Louise continued a long tradition of meeting at least one other Dutch person on every foreign trip she and Howard take. There was a lovely young lady trying to sell us massages, and Louise and Howard fingered her as Dutch, which she was. Then we went back to Todos Santos and I watched Louise shop. She definitely understands the difference between ‘shopping’ and ‘buying’. She drove the poor Mexican shopkeepers crazy. One poor man reduced the cost of some tourist doodads from $5, to $4, to $3, to $2.50, to $2 and finally, in desperation, to $1, at which point Louise stopped walking out of the shop and bought some. Then, before we knew it, it was time to take them to the airport and say goodbye after a visit that went by far too quickly.

A couple of days later, we met Gene and Carol Dickason at the airport. Gene and Carol are our oldest Anchorage friends. It was in 1970 that Earl, then Gene’s coworker and friend, sent him to Anchorage. As in our case, the Alaska assignment was ‘only for two years’. Anchorage does grow on some people! Gene is a talented amateur photographer. He frequently has photos on the Anchorage Channel 2 evening news. This was particularly fortunate, since somehow all our photos were erased from our camera this morning.

The first day, while Earl played with installing the new vhf radio which Gene had carried down, Gene, Carol and I explored La Paz. They were as charmed as I have been with Ibarra’s pottery. It is pretty special to buy pottery from the family that produces it. Then we wandered town looking for a replacement rubber base for our deck chair. Vicky at Ibarra suggested a street crossing which had a hardware store on each corner. These stores remind me of small hardware stores in my neighborhood in New York when I was a girl. A small store front leads to multiple dark and dusty rooms which are apparently stocked with everything one could want. We did find what we asked for. (Unfortunately, I asked for 1 ¼ inch and Earl insisted that he had told me 1 inch, but that is another story.) We explored the Malecon and ate real Mexican food at Rancho Viejo.

The next day we headed off towards Loreto, from which the Dickasons will leave on May 6^th. The wind gods were not as kind to us on this trip as on the last. Our first morning was bumpy. Fortunately, Bonanza on the east coast of Espiritu Santo was a perfect anchorage for the weather. I introduced Gene to kayaking and we enjoy a lovely evening in front of the enormous white beach. The next day we trolled up the east side of the islands on our way to the hook at San Francisco. We had no success at fishing, but Gene was fascinated, as we knew he would be, by the geologic display. (Gene’s undergraduate field was geological engineering.) As soon as we left the shelter of the islands, it was bumpy, but our anchorage was lovely – and by evening – full.

The third day was a charm. We cruised up the east side of Isla San Jose with reasonable seas. Everything was jumping – rays, porpoises, bill fish and even sharks. We saw one shark jump at least twice its height. We had no luck fishing, until Earl got technical. He got out his manuals and decided that we needed to troll faster to catch a bill fish (marlin and sailfish) which he did. Gene, Earl and I were on the front deck looking for fish when Carol gave the alarm. Chinese fire drill time! We had a sailfish on. It was pretty exciting, lots of running back and forth and confusing directions from Captain Earl who was probably more excited than anyone else, but Gene finally brought him in. Earl and Gene thought the fish was about 90 pounds. Photos were taken and Earl released the fish. It was a first for all of us, but I think Carol gets the real credit for yelling ‘fish on’. Later we lost another, complete with the lure when no one called ‘fish on’. After that someone was always on watch and we were rewarded with some black skipjack. At one point we had two on at once. We anchored in Los Gatos feeling that it had been a perfect day. It became even more perfect when a pangero came by and asked if we wanted lobster. (Does a bird fly?) He said he would return in an hour and we watched him dive not far from the boat. In less than an hour, he was back with seven lobsters. It was another first for Gene! More fresh lobster than he could eat. And since the water was boiling when the pangero brought them, the lobster could hardly have been fresher. I think they averaged less than 30 minutes out of the water.

The next day the forecast was not appropriate for a fishing trip out to Catalina for more bill fish. We went north to Agua Verde and arrived before noon. The first panga sold us shell necklaces and traded miscellaneous food items - jam, candy, etc – for some bait fish. The next panga asked if we wanted lobsters. We don’t know how to say no, so we soon had a large bowl full of lobster tails. That night, we had grilled dorado and lobster. The next day, we had dorado tacos for lunch and lobster salad for dinner. I think we are now part crustacean.

Yesterday we ran into Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante. For once, there was no one in the north cove which has a beautiful sand beach. Shortly after we dropped the anchor, a 25 foot whale came up behind the boat to welcome us to the cove. Later we all went swimming in gin clear water, all, including Daisy. She has been getting progressively braver about the water. It is now routine for her to jump out of the boat into water when we hit the beach. This time, she waded in well up to her shoulders and, with a little coaxing from Earl, she went a little deeper and actually swam. She got lots of positive feedback and did it several times more.

This morning as we were pulling anchor, the little rays around us started jumping. Daisy was the first to notice and alerted us all with her exciting yelping. Gene braved the bobos and got some wonderful photos of them. It was a short trip over to Puerto Escondido, just long enough for Gene to see his first flying fish. As Gene says, firsts at our age are more special than when we were younger, and we have been lucky enough to have a good many of them on this trip. This afternoon we are going into Loreto and instead of watching the boys fish, Carol and I will let them watch us shop!

May 5, 2010, - leaving Puerto Escondido

Yesterday we went into Loreto and started with a late lunch at Café Ole, where we have eaten before. The food is good, but ‘light’ is not a concept understood by the chefs. Full to the gills with heavy food, Carol and I were given a mere 90 minutes for retail therapy. In spite of the heat and the lunch, we set off to see how much we could accomplish in such a limited time window. All I can say is that we are far more efficient shoppers than the men are fisherman! We ran out of money and time almost simultaneously and made it into the back seat of the car with 10 seconds to spare.

That night we had dinner at the marina at the little restaurant. It was very congenial and tasty and we watched the sunset over the harbor. This morning, we loaded the Dickasons' luggage into the car and headed back to town. Loreto is about 15 miles from Puerto Escondido which is the only drawback to this anchorage. I had a list of miscellaneous stuff. We first stopped at a hardware store looking for mosquito netting. They had none, but told us where to go to get Earl’s fishing gear. He was looking for a fishing plug, which sounded rather benign. Unfortunately, the Ferra Mar was a boy’s toy store and it was an expensive stop. Faster than a speeding bullet Earl had found the reels and picked out the most expensive one – a replacement for one that had died recently. Before I had a chance to trip him, the sales man quickly found multiple expensive lures and then a local fisherman who spoke perfect English showed up and added to the shopping list. This shop keeper told us where to go for mosquito netting and then the only significant item needed were large band aids. We went from one pharmacy to next, each sales person suggesting another possibility until I think we had canvassed the entire town. This is not an item to be found in Loreto, but we did get to see the whole town looking. We settled for a much lighter lunch – wonderful shrimp cocktails and then, sadly, off to the airport to see the Dickasons off.

We now headed north from Puerto Escondido and plan on anchoring at Coronados this evening. It may be a long trip since Earl is on the back deck hooking up new gear and I suspect he will not be content to troll in a straight line to our anchorage.