We SO enjoyed our time in February,
with Doug and Barb Vincent, and checking out many of the beautiful spots in and
around La Paz. They are GREAT fun to
travel with … and Barb’s knowledge of the marine and bird life added much to
the trip.
They are good crew !!
It was also great fun to team up with
Talbots and twin bro, Peter on Northern Ranger.
Our next trip to Mexico is in April
and the plan is to take the boat from La Paz to Puerto Escondito, pick up the
Bennetts and the Royal-Carsons and head further north to Bahia Concepcion …..
check out as much as we can in a few days (not much time as it is a HUGE bay) then
spend a week with everyone at Villa del Palmar Resort in Loreto, where Richard and Wendy
have a time share. Then we will bring
SEA LEVEL back to Costa Baja where she will stay until we return next fall!!!!
Because we have been out of any sort
of communication coverage until just now, the blog is a tad bit behind. My apologies …..
But here it is – with lots of photos
of all the beautiful spots we have enjoyed !!
Loreto and Bahia
Conception – April 2016
We departed
YVR for San Jose del Cabo via Calgary, early Friday morning (April 15) and
arrived at SJD airport in plenty of time to meet up with Jerome and Karen
Fisher (DAYBREAK) …(And possibly have a couple of margaritas while we waited) !
As I had
feared, we hit “the red button” coming through security in Mexico, and had to
run our suitcases through the scanner.
Cam’s suitcase was FILLED with spare parts, filters and zincs which we
need but haven’t been able to source easily in La Paz…. And we knew THAT wasn’t
going to scan well.
It
didn’t.
And so we had to open just that one suitcase and have it
inspected…..
Apparently,
having the bills for everything, as we were told we needed to do, is not
enough. Ahead of coming down, we are
required to write a letter to the TIP office with a list of all the parts etc
that we are planning to import … they will “approve” the list and THAT is what
we need to present at customs.... asking permission ?!?!
Who knew
?!?!?
After
quietly listening ( OK … truth be known, Cam quietly listened while I was hushed by the
customs agent !!) and a little “butt kissing” (I won’t go into which of us did
the butt kissing and which of us won’t, under ANY circumstance, kiss the butt
of ANY customs agent) , we carried
on our way, no worse for wear.
Then … it
was margarita time at the airport bar, waiting for the Fishers (who had
generously offered us a ride to La Paz).
We arrived
at Marina Costa Baja, to find all things “good in the hood”. Francisco had SEA LEVEL washed and ready to
go. Karen along with their friends
Paul, Tanya and daughter, Samantha, and I headed into town the next day (Saturday),
to gather our provisions.
After a
couple of days of stowing provisions, oiling the cockpit deck and doing a few
minor installs and maintenance tasks, hitting the pool for a little swim and a
prosecco (where we watched Steve Job’s vessel, VENUS, dock at the dock adjacent to ours), had
a visit with Alan and Robin from BLUEFISH, picked up park passes and fishing
licenses for Bennetts and Carsons …. We finally pulled out Monday morning and headed
to San Evaristo …. A place we had been before with the Vincents and NORTHERN
RANGER.
In San Evaristo, we
met up with the Fishers (DAYBREAK) and their crew, and had dinner with them at
Lupe and Maggie Mae’s “restaurant” on the beach …. I had taken a bunch of
paints and brushes to leave with Lupe for visitors to paint shells with (as we
had done on our last trip) which 10 year old Samantha enjoyed using. It was a fun evening …..
Drinks first on SEA LEVEL then off to Lupe's for dinner ....
The next morning SEA LEVEL and DAYBREAK headed from San Evaristo to Agua Verde - a beautiful anchorage where there is a small "village" very well known for their goats cheese. We anchored and headed to the beach for a little walk about (in hopes of finding some goats cheese, and lunch !!)
On the beach with "town" in the background .....
Yes ... a turkey !
Beautiful little church ....
Goats coming down from the hills ....
We found the "restaurant" .....
Lunch at the "restaurant" ..... not so lucky with the goats cheese (not a big fan of goats cheese so not a big disappointment !!)
We said our goodbyes to DAYBREAK and SEA LEVEL headed to Puerto Excondito ....
Our trip up
to Loreto/ Puerto Escondito, to meet the Bennetts and the Carsons was lovely …. Flat calm
water and a very comfortable temperature for travelling. We anchored in “the waiting room” (a small
bay just outside the main breakwater of the marinas at San Evaristo) and
tendered into the inner harbor to check out where we will be leaving SEA LEVEL
when we come back and head to the resort at Loreto.
Puerto Escondito
has two beautiful, but little, marinas with plans to expand through this
summer. It would be a great spot to
leave SEA LEVEL for a time, allowing us to explore this end of the Sea of
Cortez …. LOTS of beautiful spots and secure marinas AND flights directly into Loreto (which is an issue
with La Paz …..)
Coming through the very narrow channel into Puerto Esconditio .....
Our first
overnite with our crew was in Honeymoon Cove across from San Evaristo, then up
to Bahia San Juanico to overnite before continuing on to our most northerly
destination for this trip, Bahia Concepcion.
Our CREW heading to Honeymoon Cove ....
We were
entertained by all the amazing wildlife ....
An orca ....
The weather
has warmed up significantly (we are low 30’s) but it was supposed to cool off
…. (which it did not btw … !!) The water temperature has been 72-74’ …. Fabulous
for swimming. Wendy (our FISH) has been
swimming from the boat to various islands, then to the beach, then back to the
boat!!! I think she has put in at least
a hundred miles …..
Caleta San
Juanico is a beautiful spot with lots of areas to explore and snorkel
around. After checking things out in
the tender, and doing a little snorkeling and
lots of swimming, we returned to
the boat, threw come carne (beef / steak) on the barbq and enjoyed a beautiful
sunset and an even more beautiful full moon !!
From San
Juanico, we headed up to Bahia Conception which is a huge bay with many playas (beaches)
and smaller bays. We spent two
overnights anchored in Playa Santispac in the area of Bahia Coyote within the
larger, Bahia Conception.
Temperatures
were WARM, in the low 30’s during the day and cooling off to mid 20’s in the
evening…. the air was warm and still at
night.
While in
Santispac, we headed over to the nearby beach to check out Anna’s Restaurant
(as recommended in our boating book) but it appears to have closed (maybe just for the season ??).
Luckily for us, Armando’s next door, was open for business so it was “margarita time” …. And we ended up staying for ribs …. Then music and dancing!! Four hours later, we headed back to the boat and got ready for bed. Lots of fun meeting some of the locals and the more “regular” gringos (ie old hippies who have been coming down for decades !!)
Luckily for us, Armando’s next door, was open for business so it was “margarita time” …. And we ended up staying for ribs …. Then music and dancing!! Four hours later, we headed back to the boat and got ready for bed. Lots of fun meeting some of the locals and the more “regular” gringos (ie old hippies who have been coming down for decades !!)
The
following day we headed out in the tender to find and snorkel around, a sunken
sailboat that we had read about, and look for the whale sharks that have been
spotted in the area. We managed to find
the boat AND as a bonus, we came across a turtle, floating in Playa Coyote …. but
never did see the whale sharks.
We also ran
into Martin and Elzane on ENTERPRISE ll …. And briefly checked in on them to
say HI !!
We found a great spot for fish and shrimp
tacos and cervezas situated back off the beach in Playa El Burro (just past
Bertha’s which had not yet opened for the day).
We managed to then stop at Bertha’s (now open !) on the way back to the beach, for a
margarita …. And a little play with Teri, the Chihuahua puppy … SO CUTE !! (a playmate for Zoe?!?)
Just imagine
…. a puppy (AND a divorce) all in one little trip to the
beach!!!!!!!!
The same
interesting group of leathery old gringos that we met at the fish taco place,
we ran into AGAIN at Bertha’s and we ended up sitting with them and
chatting!! They were “pub crawling” … so
I guess we were too ….
Such an
interesting group … a fisherman from Queen Charlottes …. A miner who moved here
22 years ago and never left …. An albino, high-end hairdresser from Idaho (I am not kidding .....) and
another friend who was just visiting for a week. SO interesting to chat with …. Funny as all
get out !!
Tacos on the back deck of the boat for dinner and another beautiful evening ….. then off to bed !
We got away
at 7am to start our way back to Puerto Escondito …. An early start gets us into
San Juanico in time to enjoy a swim and soak up some sunshine before our
seafood pasta dinner. Fishers (DAYBREAK)
was there so they joined us for dinner.
Laurel and Karen
Cam, Lee and Jerome
Enroute we were
entertained by a school of dolphins.
Having
arrived in Puerto Escondito and securing SEA LEVEL at Fonatur Marina for the
week, we made our way to the Villa del Palmar resort …. From there we will
check out Loreto and the surrounding area ....
Villa del
Palmar is a BEAUTIFUL resort, about a 20
minute drive south of Puerto Escondito (which is about a 20 minute drive south
of Loreto). Carson’s arranged for our
accommodation through their timeshare and we stayed in a luxurious 3 bedroom suite on the 4th floor, with sweeping views of the resort pools, the
sea and the resort’s golf course. We
each had our own bathrooms, we had a full kitchen, living room, dining area and
a huge wrap around deck. The resort
itself is STUNNING, with many pool areas, 3 restaurants, pristine manicured
gardens and inviting seating areas strategically located all around the
grounds, including my favorite - PINK adirondack rocking chairs !!
From the
resort, we headed into the town of Loreto which we found quaint and much like
La Paz, with a malecon running along the waterfront and many little shops, a
main “old street” which is tree- lined with little shops selling pottery,
jewelry and souvenirs and a beautiful big church in the center of town.
There are lots of restaurants including one which quickly became our favorite, Mi Loreto …. Awesome margaritas …. GREAT spot!!!
We grabbed
some provisions in town, then headed back to Palmar to enjoy all that the
resort had to offer (pool-side margaritas !!??)
Wendy organized
an excursion with Mario up to the San Javier Mission, the first of many Jesuit
missions built between Cabo and San Diego.
The drive to the mission took us way up into and over the hills around
Loreto, towards the Pacific Ocean side of the Baja. There are about 500 residents of the mission
area, mostly farmers. There is also a school
at the Mission …. (Jesuits have a strong focus on education).
During our stay at the resort, we spent
much time swimming, enjoying margaritas and mojitos, walking the beach, hot
tubbing and dining in the restaurants.
Laurel, Wendy and I did a couple of yoga classes with Hector and a
cooking class (making Sopas) with Edwardo.
All TONS of fun !!
Friday,
before our Saturday departure, the Bennetts treated us all to dinner at the
beautiful restaurant at Puerto Escondito ….. Highly recommended!!!
Cam and I
stayed on board SEA LEVEL with plans to depart on Saturday morning. Bennetts and Carsons headed back to Palmar, with
Bennetts heading back to YVR Saturday afternoon. Carsons will enjoy another week at Palmar
with family …..
On route to Bahia
Agua Verde, Cam and I made a quick stop at San Cosme to check out the hot
springs mentioned in our boating guide.
Sadly, the hot springs seem to no longer be …. At least WE couldn’t find
them! So we carried on to Bahia Agua
Verde, anchored near Pyramid Rock, and tendered in to check out the beaches,
grabbed some fresh veggies at the tienda (under the Pacifico sign) and enjoyed THE BEST pescado (fish) tacos ever, at
the beach side restaurant BRISA DEL MAR …. Complete with sweet dogs under the
table & sitting on our feet!
Pyramid Rock
Our next
stop was a short hop away, at Puerto Los Gatos, a beautiful but very open
anchorage surrounded by red-orange rocks.
We tendered to shore, scrambled over the rocks and enjoyed a picnic
lunch, then made our way back to the boat.
By 4 pm, the swells had started to build up in the bay, and we spent the evening laid out on the couches … because walking around in the salon was near impossible. CRAZY !!
We awoke to
calm waters, thankfully, and headed to Calita Partida, where we met up with
Christopher and Diana on COLIBRI. We
spent a glorious couple of days in the bay with them, snorkelling with the sea
lions (hysterical), having dinner on the
back deck and a picnic on the beach.
Christopher and Diana
Running over to COLIBRI with a bottle of sparkly ....
The
second day, Penny and Lawrence on NORTHERN RANGER joined the festivities and
the 3 Musketeers were together again.
Once NR got
settled in, we hopped in the dinghy and made our way through a small channel
between the two islands, to the eastern side of Espiritu Santo to check out the
rock caves ….. fabulous.
Then back to
SEA LEVEL for dinner before our departure the next morning.
COLIBRI and
NORTHERN RANGER are heading north, hoping to meet up with the Goldbergs (DUET)
and the Fishers (DAYBREAK) …. We are heading back to La Paz to close up SEA
LEVEL until next fall when we will return with all our kids !!
Once back to
the marina, we gave SEA LEVEL a much deserved bath and thorough cleaning, did laundry,
changed oil and filters, did some pre-provisioning and generally re-connected
with the world now that we were back in cell coverage.
Craig and
Cathy Small (SMALL CREW) were at dock and we all headed out to Azul’s
Restaurant, here at the resort for a very fun and lively dinner !!
We fly home
on Mother’s Day, which I will sadly be spending most of, in the air and not
with my children … or my mom…. or my mom-in-law .
We will plan
for a belated celebration of the BEST job in the world ….
Being a MOM
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Mother's Day .....
