Loreto Fest

Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico

Four days later and it is all over.  And with perfect timing, the new Puerto Escondido Internet antenna is up and running; we have reasonably quick Internet on the boat!

Loreto Fest has apparently been going on for some 16 years.  It started as a simple harbour cleanup when some cruisers took it upon themselves to do a public service and collect the trash that accumulates around the anchorage.  Now it has grown to a 4-day festival, including many cruiser-oriented activities (Yes, they still do the harbour cleanup).

Great Blues Band on Saturday night

There are competitions such as horseshoes, bocce ball, dinghy races, train dominoes, bridge and canasta tournaments.  There are various raffles, a silent auction, a swap meet and nightly entertainment and, believe it or not, a puppet show.  Throughout the event, there is a food court and beverage sales, featuring my favorite Modelo Negra beer on tap.  Memberships in the Hidden Port Yacht Club are aggressively sold and all of the proceeds from all of these activities go to worthwhile local charities.  All in all it is a pretty intense time for cruisers like us, who are used to nice quiet, secluded anchorages.

Speaking of anchorages, try to imagine finding your boat in the dark in this extensive mooring field, especially after a few of those previously mentioned beverages.  Like many of the other cruisers, I tried to create a unique look utilizing some spectacular LED Christmas lights in addition to our usual anchor light - we could see them from at least a boat length away.  Lucky for us that this year's Fest coincided with a full moon, making it much less of a challenge.

View from our mooring, looking towards the marina office

What presented more of a challenge for us was the rapidly deflating floor in our dinghy.  Most of the time I could not be bothered to even try and pump it up, so we more or less just plowed through the water instead of skimmed over it.  It got us there and back OK, but I wasn't entering any dinghy races.  On the plus side, after cleaning out the fuel filter and getting some new, clean, gasoline, our ailing outboard has been running like new again.  You win some and you lose some.

Easy to spot our dinghy - it is usually the one trying to sink out of sight!  At least no one ever wants to steal it.

Our plan now is to try and get some laundry done before leaving.  With all of the like-minded boats still in the harbour, that could be another challenge.  I think we will stay here a couple more days and let some of the fleet disperse a bit before we have to fight for space at anchorages to the south.

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