Although the downtown has lost much of its charm for me, John’s house was absolutely lovely, very modern, very airy with a lovely pool and patio. We had a wonderful visit. John has a couple of restaurants “Vicingos” (Vikings since John is Danish) which he started and his sons now run. So when we did not go out, he would just call and order food. Very convenient!
We took a day trip to Taxco, which is where most of the Mexican silver is mined. It is a very old town and is built up the side of a mountain. It looks Mediterranean rather than Mexican because all the houses are painted white. There is a beautiful old cathedral dating from the 1500’s. John has a branch of his restaurants there and we sat on the patio and enjoyed the view with our lunch before traipsing through town.
Our visit to Cuernavaca was too short, Thursday evening through Sunday morning, and then we were back in La Paz to catch our flight to Anchorage. We over nighted in LA and arrived midday, March 1st, to Anchorage which was snow covered and dazzling under a lovely blue sky. The snow on the back deck was 3 feet high and Daisy found it a little overwhelming.
We were blessed with three weeks of glorious weather, and by the time we left the creeping phlox was gradually showing up where the snow was gone behind our house. It was wonderful seeing the grandchildren. The price was sharing the illnesses making the rounds of the Anchorage preschools. The down side was that we got sick. The upside was that for several days Amelia did not go to preschool and we had her for the whole day. She is two and chattering full time so we are really getting to know her.
Bella and I got to spend several days together as well. Our visit home coincided with Fur Rendezvous, the midwinter Anchorage festival. Among other activities, Bella got to take a dog sled ride. Then we enjoyed two trips to see an exhibit of Mammoths and Mastodons from the Field Museum in Chicago which was on tour. The second trip included Steve’s three teenagers including Elora, aged 13 + who patiently put up with being Bella’s prisoner. We saw many friends and the time flew bye. Finally, with our income taxes sort of taken care of and bills paid, we left on the 24th for warmer weather to recuperate from our colds.
We had a long trip back, leaving Anchorage at 1 am and arriving at 4 pm making a long day for us and even more for Daisy. We were able to break her out for breakfast and a walk in Seattle, but otherwise it was a long day in her crate.
We spent the next five days getting over my cold and preparing for Roland and Nancy who were due to arrive on March 30 to spend a week with us. Apparently I was not too ill since we managed an active social schedule. We saw a good deal of Herve, who has spent 25 years in California but is originally from Brittany. His wife, Helene, had returned to California so he was by himself and easily persuaded into drinks or dinner.
We had brought two new laptops with us, one PC and one Mac, to replace the two Dells we had on board which were beginning to act up. One, the PC, will be dedicated to navigation, while the Mac will be used for other stuff, such as blogging. We had also brought a wireless modem with the thought that we could create a WI FI hotspot on our boat and use the email and internet capabilities of our I phones as well as being able to move the computer around the boat without losing the internet connection. I was supposed to transfer everything on to the new computers and get the new equipment set up. I got stuff loaded on the Mac but we are still using the old Dell for navigation. The real problem turned out to be with little cradle-point wi fi modem that Earl had found. The directions were very sparse and I was unable to make it work properly. The more I tried, the worse it got. By the time I was through, I could not even get the internet cable connection to work. I hate being the “Help” desk and my frustration did not make the atmosphere in the boat a harmonic one. Fortunately another cruiser came to my rescue. Peter, from the Solara, a Nordhavn 64, has an impressive technical background and spent two hours working on my problem. He finally found the one little setting that needed to be changed and soon I was able to create a wireless hot spot on the boat using either the cable modem or the little Telcel stick modem. We celebrated that evening at Peter’s with a bottle of champaign after picking up Roland and Nancy at the airport.
After drinks at Peter’s including a tour of his beautiful boat, we took Roland and Nancy to the Beach Club Palapa for a dinner overlooking the beach. They loved it, as we knew they would. The next morning, bright and early as is Earl’s way, we took off to spend the day exploring the Espiritu Santo marine preserve. We hit two beaches, San Gabriel which has a beautiful long sand beach and a frigate bird rookery, then Cardoncita on Isla Partita, which we had not visited before. It has a nice area for snorkeling and Nancy and Roland had their equipment on almost before we had the anchor down. Finally, around four, we moved on to our favorite anchorage at Caleta Partita. Having seen no boats the rest of the day, Nancy was shocked that we had to share the anchorage with 6 or 7 other boats. It was lovely.
Roland, Nancy and Daisy approaching Espiritu Santo
The next morning we headed north to Isla San Francisco. Our plan was to catch some fish and then anchor at the Hook on the south side of the Island. It was not to be. No fish, and then a wind from the south required looking for a different anchorage. We spent mid day anchored on the East side of the island. Then the wind went down and we tried cruising around to catch a fish - still not a bite. However, we did have a thrill watching a school of small rays, mobulas, near the boat jumping and flying through the air. We ended up anchoring behind a spit on the SW side of Isla San Jose called Amortajada.
The next day started with a dingy ride through a small mangrove lagoon which was impressive a high tide. We then explored a beach further north on the island at a site which was once a salt mine. There are a few piece of abandoned equipment and the salt ponds still have some salt. We could have just filled up our containers with sea salt had we wished. I had heard that one could occasionally find a nautilus shell in the seaweed here. We found none but enjoyed our walk and Daisy really got to explore and stretch her legs. Then we headed 4 miles across the San Jose Canal to the little town of San Evaristo, which boasts about 20 families, a school, a desalinization plant, a cantina and tienda (little shop), goats and mules. The fishermen were unloading their pangas and had some pretty impressive catches of yellow tail. The pangas are open boats, but the pangeros have developed a low cost model of fish hold to keep their catch fresh. It is a 50 gallon plastic barrel which has been sprayed with a heavy layer of insulation, laid on its side with a lid cut into it. Very functional - the catch looked beautiful.
We wandered through the little town and gave Roland and Nancy a taste of rural Mexico. The tienda was quite well stocked and we were able to pick up onions and tomatoes. Nancy picked up some packages of cookies and later discovered what we already knew: Mexican cookies have zero taste.
We had cocktail hour on the top deck watching several sailboats coming in to anchor. One was no more than 20 feet long, and another was from Juneau Alaska and painted blue with the stars of the Alaska flag on its side. One of the interesting things was watching the fisherman catching bait for the next day. They use throw nets from the bow of their boat and it is a lovely thing to watch, it looks very easy and no doubt is a very difficult thing to do.
A wild 35 mph wind came up that night and we rocked a good deal, but we were well and safely anchored. One of the sailboats was not so well secured and came floating by us. We woke to the sound of roosters crowing and mules braying. It was another beautiful day and we were off to catch fish.
We cruised north up the Canal San Jose and then around the island of San Jose and down along the east side before heading back to the west and our anchorage at Los Gatos. It was a 10 hour day of fishing with no fish. In fact, this trip we saw relatively little in the way of sea life. Finally, just before we anchored we saw a couple of large whales. They were not so near or so spectacular to normally have been of much interest, but we noticed another boat tracking them. Obviously they had seen little sea life as well.
We had called on the radio saying that we were the Serenity and going to Gatos and hoping to buy lobsters. When we arrived was no one else there. We anchored and went up above to have a drink and admire the beautiful red rocks. Five minutes later, Earl saw a panga coming from the south - Manuel and his lobsters were coming. We had last see Manuel just before Christmas. He had been ill and we were worried about him. He greeted us with big hugs and told us that he was feeling much better. He had been one month in La Paz and had a small operation that solved his problem. He was happy to see us and after selling us 5 kilos of lobsters for a modest sum, he sat and had a beer. He can no longer dive for lobsters, so now he catches them in a net. The problem is the market. The Canadians and Americans frequently all show up at once and he runs out of lobster, which seems to be the only thing they want. He was saving to buy a second net, which would cost close to $100. As one fisherman to another, Earl contributed to the cost, and we all got more hugs. We feasted on lobsters, leaving 3 for lunch the next day in Earl’s live tank. Earl and I retired, leaving Roland and Nancy to skinny dip.
The next day, Earl was up early taking photos of the beautiful red rocks in the sunrise. There was Manuel in his panga with a gift of beautiful little bay scallops. He came by again as we were leaving to show us his catch and the net he is planning on duplicating. I think as long as Manuel is well, we will have lobsters waiting us in Los Gatos.
It was a short run up to Agua Verde - no surprise, no fish. We arrived in time for lunch on the boat deck: cold soup and lobster salad. Roland and Nancy explored the town and visited Marie’s tienda. Earl and I had our heads into our books. Later in the afternoon we saw the local goat herd making its way across the hill in front of us.
Tuesday, our last day of cruising, we ran up towards Puerto Escondido. We ran around the east side of the Isla Danzante where we finally found a pod of bottle-nose dolphins that played with us for a while. I am glad that we finally found some before Roland and Nancy left. Then our final stop before Escondido - Honeymoon cove for lunch and a swim. It was beautiful even if we had to share the cove with another boat.
We anchored in Puerto Escondido and arranged for a rental car for the next day. Then friends began to arrive. First, Steve and Tawny from the sailboat Imagine whom we had last seen a year ago in Bahia Conception where we spent several days weathered in. We had just started catching up with them when a dingy pulled up from the Nordhavn 46, Discovery, bringing Earl back his Nordhavn hat which he a lost in Conception to Gary who reports the sunrisa net weather. Not long after, our friends from Port Don Juan in the Bahia de Los Angeles, Gordon and Miriam from the 31 foot Golden Hind, Anwagomi, showed up. We all had a good time and it was fun introducing Roland and Nancy to some of our cruising friends.
That night we had dinner on shore at the Portobello restaurant in the marina. The restaurant overlooks the anchorage and it is impossible to ignore how beautiful it is. Then, too soon, it was Wednesday the 6th and time to take a quick tour of Loreto before dropping Roland and Nancy at the airport for their flight home. We toured the old Cathedral in Loreto. The mission was established in 1697 and was responsible for sending out the missionaries that established the missions in California. Then Nancy demonstrated some of her power shopping skills before we had a quick mexican lunch. We came back to a boat that seemed very quiet.
Gordon and Miriam came over and we had a nice visit with just the two of them. Gordon is a radio ham and gave Earl some tips on getting our single sideband receiver working. We were able to hear something this morning, even though we could not understand what was being said. We will give it another try tomorrow when the weather report is scheduled.
We are now headed north and for the first time in a week we have telephone and internet available. I paid some bills, checked the emails, and will post this while we are still able to do so. Our next chance will probably next week when we are planning to be in Santa Rosalia.
1 comment:
Great photos. El Tiburon is in San Diego, homesick for Mexico, but we are really enjoying it here. Hope all is well In Washington.
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