We finished up our boat work on the 24th in the morning. Earl had arranged for a rental car from Hertz at noon. Puerto Escondido is about thirty minutes from Loreto and shopping, so we always get a rental car. (The marina always calls Hertz, and we noticed at the airport the next day that there are other rental agencies - Eurocar, Fox and Thrifty among others, and we will check them out next time and see if the rates are better. ) We had lunch at Tio Lupe. It was good, but incredibly slow. Earl had an enormous fish soup - more like a stew actually. It included crab, lobster, clams, scallops, shrimp and fish. Very pleasant even if slow. We wandered around town looking for some specific items. I wanted a container to put by the stove with implements and finally found a couple that I liked. Then we tried to get some scuba masks to replace our leaking ones, but could not find any.
The man from Hertz had recommended that we drive to Constitution for groceries. It is a town of 60,000 and has much more to offer than Loreto which is a small town of about 10,000. We took off shortly after 7 am and had a beautiful drive through the mountains watching the sun slowly light up the wonderful rock formations around us. The road was excellent. As promised, Constitution was a good place to shop. We went to Leys and they had most everything we wanted. After that we stopped at another store that was more like a Costco with lots of canned goods, but not much in the way of fruits and vegetables which were our main goals. Finally we went into a Ferra Mar (marine store) and found some fins and masks. It was a good trip and one I think we will repeat if we are again in Loreto.
Then it was time to meet Howard and Louise at the airport. The Loreto airport is very modern and the temperature inside was lovely. Louise was a little taken aback by the heat when we left the building. I promised her good swimming so we hurried back to Puerto Escondito, picked up our anchor and headed for lovely Honeymoon Cove and warm clear water.
The next day the promised wind had arrived. It was too windy to kayak or swim. The good news was that the winds had cooled things down lots so we were finally able to sleep without air conditioning. We were visited by a nice couple from the sailboat, AirOps, with not one but two schnauzers who came on board for a cup of coffee. Daisy was delighted to be the hostess and the dogs were all very well behaved. The couple keep their boat in Puerto Escondido. They told us lots of stories about local politics in there which were reminiscent of what happens in other small groups. The up shot was that the manager Connie who was well known among the cruising community was fired and things have since settled down.
Mary’s hobby is shells and she told us a great deal about where to find various shells and where to go clamming. One place we need to visit is the fish camp at Santo Domingo at the entrance to Bahia Concepcion Apparently there is a large pile of murex shells on the beach there.
We started north on the next day, the 28th, only to find it choppier than we had anticipated. We anchored behind Pulpito, a wonderful rock formation that is shaped like a church pulpit. We had never anchored there before and found it a wonderful shelter from the north wind. The downside was there was no beach to speak of and much of the land was fenced with barbed wire which we would have to climb through to explore, so we spent the day on board. There were two boats there, a largish motor boat and a sail boat. We never saw the occupants if any. Around lunch time, we were joined by 4 very small open sail boats, each with 4 people on board They came from the north and anchored with more or less skill. Eventually they swam to beach, climbed the rocks and made their way through the barbed wire and up the rock head land. We saw them come out on the top of Pulpito. I suspect it was an outward bound type of group. They entertained us.
It was time for dinner out. Around 5 we piled into the dingy and went in. The tide was out and we had to wade the last 20 feet to dry land. We were surprised at the large number of cars in front. As we walked in, it was clear that there was a Halloween party underway. We were greeted at the door by an extraordinarily slender and tall woman with long black hair and wearing a glittery one piece pants outfit with spaggeti straps- apparently Cher. Six foot legs and a twelve inch waist, and quite a dancer. A nice couple from a sailboat, the only other people not in costume, invited us to sit at their table. We sat there with our barbeque, margaritas and beer and enjoyed the show. There is apparently a good sized expat community in the area, presumably all retirees and they meet on Saturday nights at Ana’s and party. For many of them this was their first chance to see one another since returning south after the summer. There was a chunky lady dressed as Smokey the Bear who danced all night, frequently alone, with or without her shovel. Kermit the Frog had a long red tongue that he would snake out at one and a couple in Zorro outfits had several sword fights. Fred Flintstone and his wife showed up, as did the lady decorated with shells including clam shells boobs complete with smaller shells for nipples. Sadly none of us had a camera, so these pictures are in our memories only.
It was a wonderful evening and we stayed much longer than we had planned. It was dark when we left and we had no flashlight to help us find our dingy. Earl, miracle worker, found it, but then the bad thing happened. Louise walked into a large stone and badly hurt her foot. She had to spend most of the rest of our trip with her foot elevated and iced.
Sunday we headed north. We had promised Louise a chance to collect some shells so we stopped at Punta Chivato where the shells are so plentiful that they form drifts. Louise is a determined lady and even in pain she managed to make it. It is an overwhelming sight, but once again, no one had a camera. We filled bags with shells and Louise spent the next day sorting through them to determine which ones she would take back to Alaska.
We fished all day Monday as we headed north towards Isla San Marcos. All we got for our trouble were a couple of bonito which we had named Howard Fish after he caught ten of them on his last visit. We anchored on the south side of the island. There is a large gypsum mine on the island and the anchorage is reputed to be dusty but we found it perfectly pleasant and had our last swim that afternoon.
The next day, Tuesday November 1st, we headed into Santa Rosalia and tied up by noon. I took Howard for a short tour of the town and we picked up a little fresh fruit and eggs. It was terribly hot, and we had to stop for a cool cervesa. There was wind forecasted for Wednesday at noon. It arrived with a bang at about 10 am. Suddenly we had north winds that gusted up to forty. There were white caps in the harbor. It was crazy and lasted overnight.
We took Louise for a very short tour of the city by cab so she was able to see the steel church by Eiffel, but we really did not have the opportunity to show her the parts of the city that we love, like the panadaria and the fruitaria.
That night we invited a couple from the sailboat Isabella for drinks. Jane immediately sympathized with Louise. It turns out that she had a minor foot operation which lead to a mers c infection - a one in a million occurrence. She had seven operations, one of which she went into not knowing if she would have a foot since amputation was one of the possible outcomes. She contributed a ice pack for Louise to use on her trip north the next day.
Then it was Thursday the 3rd. We woke before dawn and walked the Esslingers to the bus station next door to the marina for the 7 am bus to Loreto. We would return at six to pick up the Scarboros - Joan and Clark- who were flying down on the plane that the Esslingers would take north.
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