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| Our Christmas Card shot Dad took in Los Cabos |
“Goooood Morning La Paz and Good Morning Cruisers!” is what we heard blaring through VHF channel 22A as we entered the La Paz entrance channel at 8am sharp. A cheery male voice rang out, hailing all yatistas, and hosting the VHF version of “Problem Corner: You’re on the air…” ¡Bienvenidos a la “Cruisers Mecca:” La Paz! After a calm night sail up from Bahía los Muertos, we made it into the bay just in time to hear the entire Cruisers Net, a La Paz yastista community connection, including tides, weather, general announcement, arrivals and departures (I called in an announced that we had arrived from Juneau!), local advice and “swaps and trades.” It was a highly entertaining broadcast: with questions ranging from “What time is women’s dominos this week?” to “Can someone returning to the states bring my grandchildren their Christmas presents?”
(We are
definitely the young ones here.)
One of our
favorite aspects of cruising is meeting the cruisers themselves. We had
interacted with more sailors this side of Cabo San Lucas, than we have the
entire journey. So many people from so many walks of life: some with lots of
money, some with very little, but everyone making it work and living on their
boat. The first couple we met was in San Jose del Cabo, just shortly after my
Dad left us, bound back for Seattle. We had a great dinner of tacos and sailing
stories with Chris and Alena, off their 34’ Colombia, S/V Green Panther. They started in San Diego, almost around the
same time we did, and are planning to cross the Pacific this coming spring. We
were rejuvenated and inspired by Chris and Alena’s excitement and enthusiasm
about their upcoming “Puddle Jump” and look forward to spending more time with
them in La Paz.
In San Jose del Cabo
we also caught the bow and stern lines for S/V
Mandalay, a big 55’ catch hailing from the Bay area (originally from
Seattle). We ended up leapfrogging each other up the coast and enjoying a nice
breakfast and morning margarita with them in Bahía de los Muertos. Anthony, the
captain of Mandalay, has a wealth of
cruising knowledge, especially in the Sea of Cortez, so we followed him (along
with Green Panther) up the last
stretch of coastline into La Paz on a following current and enjoyed radioing
back and forth through the night.
A little about Mexican transportation…
We’ve had a couple of humorous, but enjoyable experiences on
the mainland since we’ve slowed down a bit. It was goals of ours to not only
explore the Baja coastal waters, but also the land Baja itself! In San Jose del
Cabo, we had our first public bus ride into town from the marina, which went
very smooth (thanks to a Mexican family waiting at the bus stop with us). The
bus pulled up, what looked like a school bus, and up we hopped, depositing 10
pesos each in the driver’s hand. The bus had school bus seats, but they had
been rearranged to be facing each other, with polls installed through out,
similar to a subway car. We rode the bus with school children, families grocery
shopping, hotel workings and not a gringo in site.
Catching a ride back to the marina seemed self-explanatory:
just catch the same number of bus at the same stop heading back toward the
marina. So, we did just that. We realized that something was wrong maybe about
15 minutes into our bus ride… we were definitely going the wrong way… on a
highway. Where were we going? The cable-car-like school bus was crammed with
people now. I had a small 3-year old Mexican boy pass out asleep on my
shoulder, while his mother next to me watched music videos on her phone,
passing the time (as if we were in it for the long haul). This was no quick bus
circle. Somehow, we made it onto a bus that went completely out of San Jose del
Cabo, almost an hour out of our way. We waited to ask the driver until we were
the last of four people on the bus, recognizing that we were probably not
headed back to the marina anytime soon. He looked as us, un-phased, pointed to
a bus that was passing on the left side and opened the school bus door. We ran
across the street, hopped on the same number of bus (Are all these busses labeled
#5?… it could quick possibly be so) and rode back the exact same way for
another hour, back into town and stopping, finally, at the Puerto Los Cabos
Marina.
Needless to say, I got a scoop of ice cream after the whole
ordeal.
Our next stop of was anchoring in Los Frailes, a specific
anchorage for boats wanting to access the Cabo Pulmo State Park. Cabo Pulmo
with well-renowned for excellent snorkeling, diving and kayaking, but requires
a little bit of a hike from our quaint beach anchorage. We had to get into Cabo
Pulmo village to schedule any scuba diving, so we opted to hitch hike on the
one dirt road that connected the coastline. It was hot that day, we were
rationing our drinking water, slathering on the sunscreen and hiking with snorkeling
gear in tow. You would think… that Clif and I would be the MOST likely to be
picked up as hitch hikers. Two young white kids? Clearly, American backpacker
types…I was even wearing a skirt. But we watched multiple cars, trucks, jeeps,
you name it, go by with just a wave, most of them looked to be Americans on
their Mexican road trip getaway.
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| Clif, face to face with a meandering bull in the raod. |
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| Go Pro camera fun. |
As we walked away, a dark rain cloud set in, we were
contemplating finding some shade and trying to wait out the rainstorm, but
instead had a young family from Hood River, OR (small world) finish their
snorkel outing and ask if we wanted a ride into town! We lucked out. Our way back
was a little less hiking. We still had to walk a ways, but had a truck-full of
old surfer dudes from California ask if we wanted to climb in the back. Riding
in the back of that little white Toyota truck: surfboard strapped on top, empty
Pacifico bottles rolling around in the back, the desert mountains racing by and
the red dirt kicking up behind us—it was a Mexico Kodak moment for sure. We
thanked the guys immensely when they dropped us back off at the beach, just in
time to row back to the boat and escape the rainy weather that was really
setting in for not just an “afternoon shower.”
We did end up
scheduling some scuba dives through a dive shop in Cabo Pulmo, but due to high
winds and rain the following day the trip was cancelled. All dressed up in our
wetsuits, we ended up snorkeling just near our boat on a little rocky wall area
within the Los Frailes Bay. The fish were plentiful, but what was more
beautiful was being able to hear the whale sing underwater. We heard big long
sighs, singing back and forth, all while we snorkeled and free-dove around the
area.
We’re hoping to
get back down to Cabo Pulmo, possibly with just backpacks, scuba gear and a
tent, and actually get to do some good dives. However, that will most likely be
a post-Christmas adventure.
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| Tah-dah! We took an underwater couples picture... Brownie points! |
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| Snorkel gear around cockpit. |
Back in La Paz…
The weather,
both the wind and the chop, has picked up since I opened my computer to write
this blog. We heard for the past several days that the weather was going to get
nasty for a couple days, so we high tailed it up to La Paz, along with several
other sailboats avoiding this weather. I’m glad we did! It looks like not much
fun. We are safe and snug, anchored up on a warm boat. I suppose we can take a
couple days of winter weather to pay for all the sun we’ve been soaking up. J
Going to stick
it our here in La Paz to reprovision, meet new people, and wait out the
weather… maybe do a little Christmas shopping before we head back to the states
on the 19th.
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| I saw this at a gringo bar/cafe and instantly loved the mantra. |
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