The long and winding road

San Diego, California, USA

Bus travel in Mexico can be a very nice experience - just look at our previous post when we took the bus from Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta.  On that trip we were travelling on a first class TAP bus, luxury all the way.  This time that was not an option.

The buses on this route are second class, a step up from Greyhound but still nothing like the first class vehicles.  Truthfully the bus was pretty good - the real problem was with the disorganization that had us scrambling for a seat in spite of having a supposed seat pre-assignment (it is right there printed on the tickets).  When we approached the driver with our tickets to Tijuana, he seemed quite upset that he could not seat us together - he had one left near the front of the bus and one on the very last row over the engine.  He assured us we could move to two seats together after our first major stop when some of the people were leaving.  As it turns out, even that seat near the front had someone already sitting in it, and he did not seem eager to move.  We went to the very back of the bus and snagged two seats on the last row instead - nobody seemed to care.  By the time we left we had a handful of people who had to stand for the first 1-1/2 hour journey - I think they were actually on stand-by which makes some kind of wierd sense.  After that we were able to get a couple of seats together for the rest of the 16-hour trip and managed OK.

One of the great features of  travelling this route is that there is always something happening.  We had to make a lot of stops for people to get on or off, as this bus serves all of the communities from Cabo San Lucas to Mexicali - most people are only going short distances.  We also got to stop periodically for drug inspections by the army.  On two of these occasions everyone had to get off the bus and all the luggage was taken off and thoroughly searched - by hand the first time and by a drug-sniffing dog the second time.  If you eliminated all of these interruptions the trip would probably only take about 11 hours and you might get to sleep for some of that - where would the fun be in that?

Regardless, we left Santa Rosalia at around 5PM (only about an hour late) and arrived in Tijuana around 8AM (about 1-1/2 hours late).  We were able to get a new Mexican visa right away at the bus terminal itself and caught the 8:30AM Greyhound bus to take us to the US border crossing to make our way into the good old USA.  Greyhound then took us to downtown San Diego where we just had to walk next door to the wonderful Hotel Sofia, where they actually managed to get us into a room at 9:30 in the morning.  Riding even this short distance on Greyhound sure makes you appreciate how good we had it on the trip up from Santa Rosalia.  This picture of the USA border lineup was taken through the window - it was a perfectly clear day - the windows were really that dirty.

San Diego is one of our favorite cities.  We used our time today, after much needed showers and a great breakfast at the hotel, to walk along the waterfront viewing the latest eclectic collection of statues and ogling all the cool yachts in the upscale Marriot Marina.  It sure is different to be here in the high season for a change.  The weather is beautiful, temperatures in the mid 20s with blue skies and sunshine - perfect for walking long distances, not sweating like pigs for a change.  Also neat to see so many people, mostly tourists, just out having a good time.  We did a little shopping too - Sue bought some new sandals to replace the ones she has pretty much worn out.

It was quite windy here today which made for lot of fun out in the bay too - lots of sailboats going every which way.

Tomorrow, we will most likely make a trip to West Marine to pick up a few non-essential boat items.

{GMST}32|43|N|117|10|W|San Diego, California|San Diego, California{GEND}

Change in plan

Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico

Santa Rosalia is a nice authentic Mexican working town; not really very touristy.

We have managed to tour the highlights, most notably the Iglesia Santa Barbara (a steel church well know for its famous architect, Gustave Eiffel, creator of Paris' Eiffel Tower), The Museo Historico Minero de Santa Rosalia (Museum), the Hotel Frances, and all the remnants of the old copper mine trains. The history of this town all revolves around the now defunct copper mines and the Boleo company that built all the wood-framed structures that litter the landscape.  Especially impressive is the old copper smelting ruins that overlook the harbour - probably pretty scary when the old smokestacks started to tumble down.  Rumour has it that a Canadian company is looking to reopen the mines, what with the increased value of copper these days, so the town is fairly upbeat.

As for food, there are a couple of excellent restaurants and of course Chuyitas, Santa Rosalia's most popular hotdog stand, serving bacon wrapped grilled hotdogs on a soft bun with the works.  Sitting on the boat in the marina is really hot; very little wind and temperatures in the high 30s every day - sort of saps your energy for any serious exploration, and really makes you not want to turn on the stove!

Lately we have been a little concerned about the timing of the expiry of our 180 day tourist visas.  With hurricane season stretching to mid October and no place where you can catch a plane or train or bus once we make our way further north, we could find ourselves in an awkward situation in a few months.  So, since we are safely tied up at the marina and there are no current imminent cyclones and the bus depot is just down the block, we have decided to make a quick trip to San Diego so we can re-enter Mexico and get a fresh set of visas.  With that in mind, we leave on a 15 hour overnight bus ride to Tijuana this afternoon.  With any luck we will be back in a few days and will have a fresh start on another 180 days.  We are beginning to understand why a lot of the cruisers down here go to the trouble and expense to obtain their FM3 status, allowing them to stay up to a year at a time, renewable from within Mexico - we will look into it when we are next at a major immigration center.

{GMST}27|20.415|N|112|15.93|W|Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico|Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Civilization

Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico

After a restful night at Punto Chivato (the SE swell didn't keep us awake after all), we made the short, 27 mile passage around Punto Chivato, past Isla San Marcos, and all the way to the town of Santa Rosalia.  I tried calling the Singlar marina before we arrived but there was no room left for us.  So we anchored just off of the docks at Marina Santa Rosalia and took the dinghy in to grab a late lunch (or early supper?).  Our journey here was via the engine the entire way, with very light north winds and light choppy seas - pretty uneventful.

In spite of the fact that we were anchored out, we were still able to register at the marina, which is run on a sort of honor system.
You fill out a piece of paper upon arrival and check off anything you use while here, then pay up when you leave.  They have coolers full of pop and beer and ice and there is pick-up and delivery service for laundry and propane - all very convenient.  In the afternoon, we were informed that the boat taking up the end slip at the docks was leaving during the night and their spot would be available in the morning if we wanted it (the end slip is also the only spot they have that is big enough for us), so this morning we moved to the dock.  This is the last vestige of civilization we will see for a couple of months and this will make if easier for doing some serious reprovisioning while here.  At 200 pesos per day (about $17 CDN per day) including power, water and WiFi Internet, it is also a pretty good deal.















Passagemaking un

 

{GMST}27|20.415|N|112|15.93|W|Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico|Santa Rosalia, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Getting to the point

Punto Chivato, BCS, Mexico

We have finally escaped from Bahia Concepcion!



Bertha's at El Burro

This morning, with plans to travel no further than Bahia Santo Domingo at the entrance to Bahia Concepcion, we hoisted our outboard onto the back rail of the boat, stowed the dinghy on deck, said goodbye to Playa El Burro and Bertha's restaurant, and got underway around 9:15AM.
Listening to the weather report from one of the cruiser's nets on the Ham radio, we decided that it might be more prudent to carry on out of the bay and north to Punta Chivato instead - only about 23 miles altogether.  The forecast winds from the NE would be better handled at Chivato Point, or so we thought.

We did some motor sailing with just the genoa flying and made good time across the shallow bay of Santo Ines.  We had the anchor down in about 15 feet of water by 1:30PM, in a small, somewhat protected, indentation formed by Punto Mezquitito, upon which sites a fancy resort.  As usual, we are the only boat here and there does not seem to be much life evident at the resort right beside us, or at any of the fancy homes that line this bay.  On the plus side, we have a good cell phone signal here for the first time since La Paz, and that means Internet!  Brutally slow Internet but Internet nonetheless.

As for out choice of anchorage; the wind has died and we seem to be in a good spot if any north winds come up in the night, however there seems to be SE swell getting into our little nook and we are most likely in for a rolly polly night.  Win some, lose some...

{GMST}27|4|N|111|57.7|W|Punto Chivato, BCS, Mexico|Punto Chivato, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Stalled in Concepcion

Playa El Burro, Bahia Concepcion, BCS, Mexico

Still here!

We spent a couple of nights at El Burro, partaking of Bertha's restaurant until the prevailing winds got a bit stronger and changed to the SE. We returned to Playa Santa Barbara along with 2 of the 3 boats that were with us in El Burro - Santa Barbara is the best protected spot in this area for southerly winds. As far as we can tell, the four boats, including us, who are in Santa Barbara represent most of the boats that are in the entire Bahia Concepcion area. I'm not sure why as this is such a beautiful spot with such great anchorages and even some eating out opportunities. One of our new friends has suggested that it is a little hotter here than most places in the Sea of Cortez, but I'm not sure I buy that. Oh well, more room for us!

After a few nights in Santa Barbara, learning the benefits of Mango Margaritas from our neighbors, we weathered some rather overcast days and one near-miss of a thunderstorm. We even got a few drops of rain one night, although not enough to actually get wet. During the cold snap the daily temperatures were only getting up to about 34C in the afternoons but still did not drop to much less than 30 at night. It was actually kind of nice not having the sun beating down so relentlessly for a while - the only downside was that we actually have had to run the engine to keep up our batteries as the solar panels are not producing very much.

Now that the sunshine has returned with a vengeance, we motored the 2 miles back to Playa El Burro, managing to get our anchor down in time to head for Bertha's for breakfast - quite a treat for us. Our new friends have been raving about the stuffed clams that are served in another restaurant just across the highway (maybe a 10 minute walk) and also suggested that we try the shrimp dishes at Bertha's as they are "to die" for. So this evening we walked to the, hitherto unknown to us, restaurant, only to find that they were closed (no idea why). So we went back to Bertha's to order up a shrimp dinner. Sorry, no shrimp, no scallops, no fish, no seafood at all! So we settled for some chicken tacos instead. Somehow this just seems to be our luck.

Tomorrow we will most likely start making our way northward again. People keep telling us there is no hurry and we have heard from a lot of boats on the SSB radio that are still making their way up from further south, but we are getting a bit low on some staple supplies such as bread and veggies and such, so Santa Rosalia is looking very tempting.

Basically the plan is to be in the Bahia de Los Angeles area by the end of August, as common wisdom has it that this is far enough north to avoid the worst of the hurricane season. This is only some 150 or so miles north of us now, so we still do have lots of time.

BTW: Have you noticed the complete lack of originality in the naming of places around here. You might almost think you are heading up the west coast of California. I wonder who got the names first?

{GMST}26|43.8|N|111|54.3|W|Playa El Burro, BCS, Mexico|Playa El Burro, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Hanging out

Playa Santa Barbara, Bahia Concepcion, BCS, Mexico

Nothing exciting to report.

After spending a few days at Playa Santispac, talking to some other cruisers and listening to the morning weather on the SSB, we decided to delay out departure from the Bahia Concepcion area for a while. We would like to get up to the village of Santa Rosalia, but it appears that that is not a unique idea just now. It sounds like the marinas are full and the anchorage is very crowded.

 Apparently one of the cruisers who makes this journey every year wrote an article for a popular cruising publication, extolling the virtues of a summer spent in the Sea of Cortez. This has resulted in an increase in the number of boats that are heading that way this year, making it much busier in the small harbors like the one at Santa Rosalia.

Since there is no real rush to get much further north just now, we instead just moved to another anchorage in the Bahia Coyote area called Playa Santa Barbara. It is very nice and secluded, with no houses or palapas on the beach, and the highway is several miles away so we don't hear the traffic noise. At this time there is only one other boat in the bay with us. We have spent our time lately swimming, snorkeling, exploring the coast (mangrove swamps here) by dinghy and just generally doing nothing. The daytime temperatures are around 38C during the late afternoon and drop to about 30 at night - we are almost getting used to it.

Tomorrow, we will probably head back to either Playa El Burro or Playa Coyote where we can at least take a break and go to Bertha's restaurant for a meal out once in a while. Maybe in a few days the horde of boats will have left Santa Rosalia.

{GMST}26|42.1|N|111|52.8|W|Playa Santa Barbara, BCS, Mexico|Playa Santa Barbara, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Working hard

Playa Sanispac, BCS, Mexico

After 4 nights here in Bahia Concepcion, we have moved only 3 miles, from Playa Coyote to Playa Sanispac, basically just different anchorages within the overall Bahia Coyote area. We have also visited Pasada Concepcion and Playa El Burro by dinghy, mostly exploring along the shoreline.

There is a restaurant in Playa El Burro (Bertha's) where we have had lunch a couple of times. Some of the other cruisers here in Playa Sanispac are going out for supper to Bertha's tonight, but we will have to pass. We have a fairly brisk north wind blowing right now and our little 5-horse outboard is just not up to fighting the wind and waves for the 3 mile trip back from El Burro, which is directly south of us.

The anchorages here are those picture perfect postcard settings. Beautiful turquoise waters, sand beaches, palm trees and blue skies. We spent a large part of each day in the water which is now warm enough that you can stay in indefinitely. Sue has been "aqua-jogging" around and around the boat, while I have been tackling the forest of growth on the bottom of the boat.

Since I do not seem to be able to master free diving, I have instead created a 10-foot long bottom scraper made up of a painting guide, an old handle from a broken mop, and the dowel left over from when I converted our hanging locker into shelves, all held together with plastic ties and gorilla tape. With this implement I have been able to scrape off the entire underside of the boat, right to the bottom of the 6-1/2 foot keel, all while just snorkeling around the boat. It is interesting that this process attracts the attention of a lot of the smaller fish in the area - I think they like eating the displaced weeds. It is a lot like swimming in a tropical aquarium.

Other than a lot of varieties of fish, we have also seen a few sea-turtles just cruising around in the anchorage. As yet, we have not seen the whale-sharks that are reported to be around, but we are keeping our eyes open.

Our current plan is to wait out the persistant northerly winds before we head further north - probably just a day or two.

{GMST}26|45.75|N|111|53.1|W|Playa Sanispac, BCS, Mexico|Playa Sanispac, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Fowl weather

Bahia Coyote, BCS, Mexico

After a much more restful night, we were up at dawn for a 7AM departure from La Ramada. When I first went on deck to set the topping lift on the mainsail, I bumped into a Pelican who had made a roost out of our bimini - we both just about had heart attacks! From the mess he left behind it is obvious he was sitting up there all night, right over Susanne's head as she was sleeping in the cockpit under the bimini. Thus I blame her entirely for the fact that she let him stay there.

We had a long day, motoring all the way in light SW and SE winds, making the 50+ mile passage into Bahia Concepcion and our anchorage for the night at Bahia Coyote, by 4:30PM. We did have the mainsail up for the entire trip and even used the genoa for a while when we thought it would help our speed. Right now, with the bottom of the boat covered in marine growth, we are lucky to maintain 5.5 knots for any length of time.

During the trip, a small group of Boobies (big brown, stupid birds) kept landing on out pulpit. They had a tough time of it trying to keep their balance as we were rocking and rolling to the quartering seas, but they were determined to hold on to their positions. They are impossible to intimidate - the only way you can get them off is to walk up them and push them off the rail, and then they just come back again anyway. Eventually, after about 5 hours of this, they got tired of the whole game and left for better places, leaving another mess on the bowsprit as a going away present for us.

We did see a moderate sized pod of dolphins but they were going the other way and did not seem interested in us.

We are anchored here along Playa Coyote (Coyote beach) where a lot of the local families camp out and swim and have fires on the beach, etc. Last night one of the buildings was hosting a karaoke session - bad singers come in Spanish flavors too.

We plan to hang around here for the day, then maybe check out some of the other anchorages close by, all contained within Bahia Concepcion, the largest sheltered bay on the eastern coast of Baja California. The bay is almost 22 miles long and 2 miles wide at its narrowest point. There are a few other cruisers around, pretty spread out so there is certainly no crowding this time of year.

{GMST}26|43|N|111|54.1|W|Bahia Coyote, BCS, Mexico|Bahia Coyote, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Close call

La Ramada Cove, BCS, Mexico

In our bid for the title of most idiotic cruisers, we had an interesting night.

Upon entering this small cove we had to contend with a couple of boats already at anchor, taking the prime real estate. I found what I thought looked like a good spot and we dropped the anchor in about 13 feet of water. When the anchor was set and the boat was swinging to the SE winds, the boat was in about 16 feet of water; everything seemed perfect. We knew there was going to be a low tide overnight but it would only be a drop of about 3 feet.

Around 3AM, the wind came up and, looking out my window, I noticed that we were not facing the same direction any more. The wind was now coming from the west and we were swinging closer to the shore. I checked the depth finder to discover we were now in only 7 feet of water. In a panic, I grabbed the old trusty lead-line and a flashlight and confirmed that 7 feet was correct. Two things of note here; first, we have a draft of 6-1/2 feet; second, according to our tide tables the tide was now going up and was probably about 1-1/2 feet higher than it had been around midnight. Somehow we lucked out and the wind did not come up until we had just enough depth to swing this way. Since we were not aground and the tide was still rising, we elected to wait till daylight to re-anchor.

Fortunately all of the other boats left this morning and we had our pick of places to set the hook. It took us 3 tries but we were finally satisfied with our new location; in over 20 feet of water this time. Just as well, as this afternoon the wind started gusting between 15 and 25 knots and we are sailing all over the place, as this boat is wont to do. One other boat has come in and we noticed they had to try 2 times before they were satisfied as well. Looking out at the open sea, it looks pretty lumpy with a lot of whitecaps - not a bad day to sit in the bay.

We did get off the boat this morning and took the dinghy to the beach and went for a hike along a dusty road. After about an hour we had had enough and returned to the mother ship, where we have now put the dinghy up on deck for tomorrow's long passage.

{GMST}26|22.82|N|111|25.83|W|La Ramada, BCS, Mexico|La Ramada, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Ramada Inn

La Ramada, BCS, Mexico

Today's journey was sent to make us feel humble again.

We left Puerto Ballandra around 8:30 AM with a brisk SE wind blowing. This made taking the anchor up more challenging than usual but promised some nice downwind sailing to our next destination at Caleta San Jaunico, some 26 miles further north.

As soon as we got out of the bay, the winds dropped to less than 7 knots making sailing pretty much a no-go for us - we need at least 10 or 15 knots of wind to get any speed out of our old tub. Just to add insult to injury, once we were out of the lee of Isla Carmen, we encountered some large short-period swells that made for a very rolly ride. We had gotten lazy over the last few passages and did not bother to bring the dinghy up on deck. Instead it was hoisted in our less than perfect davits. With the lumpy seas, we managed to dip it in the water a couple of times, something we have not done since our shake-down cruise in northern British Columbia.

We had the main up the whole time to try and deaden the motion and we did try to sail for about a half hour when the winds did peak at close to 9 knots, but this just made it worse with the sails flogging from side to side with the rolling of the boat.

The winds remained light until we were closing in on Caleta San Jaunico. This is a rather large bay that looked as if it might have some shelter from the south winds. Unfortunately, once we could see it, it did not appear to have any shelter from the large seas that were now rocking us about. We elected to go on for a couple more miles to a small, better protected, bay called La Ramada. Getting the mainsail down with the boat pounding into the waves and wind was a bit of fun, but we managed OK - we are just a bit out of practice.

La Ramada proved to be everything we were hoping. Great protection from the SE winds and seas and only two other boats here so we were able to find room to anchor without any problems. If this weather persists, we may just stay here another day. The weatherman was predicting some let up in the winds and waves for Monday. So for now, we are checked into what we cruisers call the Ramada Inn.

{GMST}26|22.82|N|111|25.83|W|La Ramada, BCS, Mexico|La Ramada, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Bee LLandra

Puerto Ballandra, BCS, Mexico

Short trip today, covering about 16 miles from Puerto Escondido to Puerto Ballandra.

 We sailed with both the main and genoa for 3 hours, with a light south wind, achieving speeds between 1 and 2 knots. At this rate this would have been an overnight passage so we turned on the engine and motored most of the way. Puerto Ballandra is a pretty bay on the north end of Isla Carmen, an island about 9 miles due east of Loreto.

We set our anchor in what we thought was over 20 feet of water but when the boat swung around we find we are only in about 10 feet now - still should be enough although it seems awfully shallow to us sailors used to the deep waters of British Columbia. Fortunately here the tides are only about a 2 foot range right now (That will change dramatically as we make our way further north in the Sea of Cortez).

We think the bay should be renamed as Bee-LLandra. As soon as we were anchored they started coming over from the land to check out our fresh water supply. At this point we seem to have gotten the majority of them out of the cabin and have all of our screens in place so hopefully we will have a quiet night. We will be out of here first thing in the morning regardless.

{GMST}26|1.1|N|111|9.95|W|Puerto Ballandra, BCS, Mexico|Puerto Ballandra, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Domestic bliss

Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico

The days here in Puerto Escondido are starting to follow a pattern of sorts.

In the morning, after a very calm night, we wake up to a perfectly clear blue sky.  The temperature is already in the high 20s and quickly builds to the low 30s.  In the late afternoon the heat rising over the land starts to create some towering fluffy-looking cloud formations, which sometimes turn darker and we can hear distant thunder, although no rain as yet.  The winds have been very light, usually from the east or southeast, not amounting to anything much.  Although the humidity is only around 50 or 60 percent, it still feels pretty humid to us and we spend a large part of our day just sitting in the cockpit or down below with a fan pointed at us, reading and slowly melting.  We can't really go swimming here in the polluted waters of the mooring field so that is not an option.

Laundry day got delayed by a day (we just didn't feel like it).  Last night we got down to work and defrosted the refrigerator and today did the laundry, washed up the dishes that have been accumulating and restocked our Diet Coke supply (The little store right at the marina actually has flats of 24 cans of a variety of pop and beer - definitely catering to the gringos in the harbour).  Tonight we are going to walk to the little resort hotel again for supper.

We paid for one extra day on the mooring and are now ready to set sail tomorrow.  I guess I should check and see if the engine still works...

{GMST}25|49.2|N|111|18.6|W|Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico|Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Going to town

Loreto, BCS, Mexico

Just in case anyone out there thinks that we have nothing but perfect sunny days all of the time, we can now confirm that that is not always the case.  For the last few days we have seen some clouds, especially in the mornings.  It even threatened to rain - we felt a couple of drops.  OK, it was not enough to force us to actually close the ports or anything, but it was definitely rain.  Unfortunately not enough to wash the dust off the boat.  When we started thinking about it we realized we have not seen any precipitation at all since leaving Ensenada on January 1st - this would be the first rain, if we can call it that, we have seen this year.

During this inclement weather, the temperature struggled to get to 30C degrees.  And it cooled off to about 27 at night.  The overcast skies have made our solar panels struggle to keep up with our power demands, but they are almost holding their own.  Lately we have had to resort to pulling our boom way out to the port side to allow more of our panels to be exposed during most of the day.  Our bimini does cause a bit of a problem when the sun is getting lower in the sky, often shadowing one side or the other of our two largest panels, but given the choice of power or shade, we opt for the shade.

Today, with the possibility that the sun would not be beating down on us relentlessly all day, we took a bit of a road trip.  We negotiated a round-trip by taxi to the town of Loreto, some 25 kms north on highway 1 (We use the Canadian method of bargaining - we ask how much; they tell us, and we say OK).  600 pesos - pretty expensive but cheaper than renting a car for the day.

Loreto is a very touristy little town with hotels and restaurants and bars and such, but definitely off season right now - not too many people about.  We did visit the historic mission church, "Mision Nuestra Senora de Loreta", located near the center of town.  From there, everything of interest is within about a 4 block radius.  The pedestrian-only cobblestone streets are pretty cool.

We did the obligatory walk along the seaside malecon and paid a visit to the local supermercado (supermarket) to pick up a few things that are not available in Puerto Escondido.  Note: it is possible to sail to Loreto and anchor by the town, but it is an open roadstead anchorage with little protection from winds from any direction - really only good for a day trip.  It just seemed easier to visit here by car.

Tomorrow will most likely be a laundry day, and then we should be out of here the day after that, heading ever northward to escape the threat of hurricanes.

{GMST}26|0.6|N|111|20.5|W|Loreto, BCS, Mexico|Loreto, BCS, Mexico{GEND}

Deserted desert

Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico

Hot, hot, hot...

Sue slept in cockpit last night - it was a bit cooler there.

The deal here in Puerto Escondido is that there is a large, very protected, bay that you can anchor in or take one of the mooring balls supplied - the price is the same regardless.  Of the over 100 mooring balls, only about 20 or 30 are being used, so it is easy to find a vacant one.  Where we ended up is a lot further away from the marina office than most other people, not so much because we wanted the privacy, but more a result of our complete incompetence with grabbing a mooring ball from the boat (in my defense, there was a slight breeze blowing that made it difficult to keep the bow close to anything for any length of time).  We just kept trying until Sue finally snagged one and we decided it looked perfect - so here we are.

This morning, we took the dinghy over to the office and did the paper work - it will cost us about 8 dollars a day to stay on a mooring here.  As soon as we had finished paying for a week's stay, we ran into a cruiser who advised us that if we anchored in the inner harbour it only costs 1 dollar a day.  Maybe next time. At least we don't have to put up with any close neighbors where we are now.

We hiked up the road towards highway 1, about 1/4 of a mile to an RV park, hotel and tienda.  Until we rounded a corner in the road and spotted the buildings, we were pretty convinced that there was no civilization to be had here - it doesn't get much more desolate looking than this.


Indeed, even the marina development is pretty sparse.  They have created an extensive grid of really wide paved streets complete with street lights and utilities - it looks like runways for small aircraft.  It is all for sale and there are absolutely no takers so far.  I guess this is all very new and will no doubt catch on in the next few years.

When we got to the RV park and hotel, it was like finding an oasis in the desert.  Beautiful grounds surrounding a pool and a very nice restaurant.  We took the opportunity to grab breakfast at a very reasonable price before checking out the mini-market and hiking back to the marina. I think we will be back here for supper tonight and probably for a few more breakfasts as well.

We were back to the boat by noon as the temperature was hitting about 33C.  This would actually not be so bad but the humidity makes it feel worse - and this is supposed to be a desert!  We can hardly wait until the real heat starts in the next couple of months.

 

{GMST}25|49.2|N|111|18.6|W|Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico|Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico{GEND}