A Few More Photos

Puerto Balandra

Sea cave near Partida

Isla Sanfancisco with the Sierras Gigantes in the background

San Evaristo's burros para tacos

San Telmo

Agua Verde

Puerto Escondido

Isla Danzante, Honeymoon Cove

Cortez Angelfish

Isla Carmen

Okay, so it's been awhile since the last blog post and if there is anyone who actually reads this thing, you are probably wondering what we have been up to. I thought about maybe catching you all up on what we've been doing for the last month and a half but then I thought it might be easier to just post the latest.

Our last great adventure was on Isla Carmen, about 10 miles east of Loreto. We stopped at the 1st anchorage on the western side, Bahia Marquer for a couple days. Nice peaceful anchorage, not much life there but the water was crystal clear. Full moon night and we could see clear to the bottom. We were woken up a 3am to Zero growling and hissing at something, got up but didn't see what he was so upset about. Very possible with the visibility being what it was that he saw something big swim past the boat. 

On the way to Isla Carmen from Isla Danzante

Water was so clear we could see our anchor

Beautiful full moon night

Sea cliff at Bahia Marquer anchorage

The next day we headed up to the next anchorage, Puerto Ballandra. A couple people had told us not to bother going there 'all those islands look the same, don't even bother' or 'they call that place Bee landra for a reason', but we went anyway. We dropped the hook, we were the only ones there, the water was turquoise blue and it was a nice overcast day for a change and so we thought it would be a perfect day for a hike.

Puerto Ballandra, Isla Carmen. 

So we had read in the cruising guide that Isla Carmen is home to several Desert Bighorn Sheep, they were placed there so they could be in a safe place to reproduce and hopefully provide stock for the dwindling sheep herds on the mainland of Baja. We never thought we would be lucky enough to actually spot one.

 We also saw a Jack Rabbit and a cool blue bellied lizard. We ended up seeing about a dozen sheep in all, making the whole trip well worth the effort.

Beautiful hike through the canyon, didn't make it over to the other side where there is the remains of an old salt mine, it's just gets too hot to be out there for very long.

When we got back to the boat, we found out why they call it Bee landra. We found about 500-600 bees on board, swarming all over the boat but mostly down inside the cabin, they come out to the boats looking for fresh water, which is in short supply in the desert this time of year. They found the cat's water dish and also got into the dish pan.

So needless to say we high tailed it out of there, I don't really care for bees, I can deal with a few at a time, but so many that they are landing on us, crawling up inside our shorts, and we couldn't take a step without stepping on them, it was just too much. Jim lit up a cigar to smoke them out and along with the motion of the boat all of those that could still move on their own left the boat. Somehow we made it through without any of us getting stung. The rest were either drowned or rolling around on their backs so full of water that they couldn't fly off.

The next morning when we made ourselves a pot of tea, we found that a bunch of them had also drowned themselves in the water kettle.

We are currently in Loreto doing some provisioning, getting ready to head north to do some more exploring. Other than that, we're trying to stay cool. It's starting to get really hot, it's worse on the coast where there is little breeze and the humidity is higher than it is out on the islands. We spend as much time as possible in the water and in the shade or now that we are in Loreto, in air conditioned bars during happy hour or shopping the air conditioned stores, we don't go in if it doesn't have air conditioning and some we visit even if the don't have anything we want but have air conditioning. Think maybe we'd be better off without the brief breaks from the heat though, it makes it all that much worse when we have to go back into it.

Hurricane season is approaching and so the further north we go, the less likely we'll have to experience one and we are still waiting for the first experience with the dreaded Chubascos. Still haven't seen any rain on this side of the sea but can see from here that they are getting some good storms on the mainland side.

On returning to Mazatlan

Our next destination after leaving San Blas was Mazatlan with an overnight stop at Isla Isabela where Jim cleaned the bottom again, the rate of growth on the bottom of the boat has been almost more than we can keep up with. We probably would of stayed longer had the visibility been better but it was pretty cloudy when we got there and so we skipped doing any snorkeling, I would of liked to go ashore to see what stage the nesting birds were in as compared to when we were there in December but that involves the effort of setting up the dinghy.

Had intended to only stay in Mazatlan for a couple days but plans change always it seems. Ended up staying there 3 weeks waiting for some decent wind so we wouldn't have to spend the money on fuel to get to La Paz. Winds normally come from the west and northwest which was the direction we wanted to go, but occasionally, there will be a southerly or a northerly that will allow a nice sail across, and that's what we were waiting for. Jim made friends with some fishermen who ended up supplying us with plenty of fresh fish and our friends on Third Day along with about 4 other boats were also there, so it ended up being a good time despite the waiting.

Early morning in the harbor, tug boats heading out to guide in the ferry

Old Mazatlan waterfront

Tostiloco is like a frito pie only made with tostitos, the only Fritos I've been able to find here have been lime flavored like everything here, it has to be flavored with lime, and or chili or they don't carry it. They top it with chili, beans, cheese and your choice of about 8 other toppings. The corn on the cob is not a sweet corn and served with lime, chili powder and mayo? The fried platanos are also served with chili powder. They also had what looked like hotdogs wrapped in tortillas, deep fried and then cut up in pieces and smothered in chili, cheese etc, I didn't try that one, it gave me heartburn just looking at it.

Pangas in the old harbor

This tortilleria made the best tortillas maize that we found in Mazatlan, the other places seemed to be putting too much water in their masa making them fall apart when you try to use them. The price of tortillas has gone up to 14 pesos a kilo.

Peregrine Falcon that I found feeding on a bird it had just caught during a hike up to El Faro

White-winged Dove defending his cactus

San Blas

After leaving the rolling anchorage of La Cruz we headed for San Blas. A small Mexican town without a lot of tourists, no big resorts, but plenty of friendly people and good food. It was here that I found the closest thing to a New Mexican sopapilla in Mexico, they call it a gordita harina and sell them for only 2 pesos each. We also found one of the best taco carts we've been to called Las Cuatas, they put a layer of cheese between the 2 tortillas when making your taco and Chavas who makes a roasted pork taco, which they also sell by the kilo, that is amazing.

The anchorage is in the estuary which makes it very calm but at the same time it's surrounded by mangroves and so the bugs, mosquitoes and jejenes, can be very intense. We really enjoyed the town itself and would of liked to stay longer but our defenses just weren't up to win the battle with the biting insects and so we retreated after a couple days bringing with us a kilo of fresh tortillas and of course a kilo of pork from Chavas.

The old church and the new church under construction on the main plaza

 

Old Fort Built in 1770

Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, built in 1769. The ruins once contained the bronze bells that are said to have inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Bells of San Blas"

'But to me, a dreamer of dreams,
To whom what is and what seems
Are often one and the same,--
The Bells of San Blas to me
Have a strange, wild melody,
And are something more than a name.'
Except from the poem The Bells of San Blas by Henry W Longfellow

The jejenes or no-see-ums are the size of a period "." and inflicts such pain that you can only imagine that it would have to be all teeth. The bites from these things take days to heal and will often start oozing. In San Blas the jejenes would get so thick you actually could see them. It was a couple days after leaving before we got rid of them all, they moved in and stayed.

View from the Matachen anchorage outside of San Blas, we tried anchoring here for a night to get away from the bugs, but they found us anyway.