San Jose- San Evaristo...



Wild? Burros in San Evaristo

 

Fisherman using a handline, with a roosterfish

 

Lifting the dinghy over the bar into the estuary on Isla San Jose.  Short people stay inside!



Howard, Lynn, Anne, Mark and Leif on Isla San Jose

 As you can see from the title, we discovered that if we wanted to get to Bahia de Concepcion, we had better boogie!  So, here is a short summary of each of our stops as we sailed northward to our farthest destination of Posada Concepcion.   After visiting Mulege and the local area we intend to spend a more leisurely time heading back to San Jose del Cabo to await a weather window for our eventual return to Calif.

Isla San Jose-  This long island is near the coast, and known for its mangrove shrouded passage where we took a group ride on Blue Rodeo’s dinghy to see the birds and fish in the nature preserve.  We found beautiful clear water, heron, gulls, and lovely scenery with no bugs.  This was a lunch stop on our way to San Evaristo.  For our lunch we had snacks on Swift Current before leaving on our tour.  Such a fun crowd to hang with, easy going, funny, and knowledgeable.  The wind had picked up dramatically, and on our way across to San Evaristo it became quite wet with spray flying over the boat.  Fortunately, it was warm spray.

San Evaristo-  This little inlet is on the Baja peninsula, and very pretty in a dramatic sort of way.  There were wild burros on the hillside, and also in the street among the houses.  The cows roamed freely through the brush and street, fortunately for them there is not much traffic here.  There was a remote tienda which sold us some fresh? veggies after waiting a day for the delivery from La Paz.  As we walked up there were two donkeys with full saddles tied to a post outside the fence.  The cowboys were relaxing on the porch in the shade of the tienda.  The local occupations seemed to consist of the salt ponds on the far side of a nearby hill which were tended by the local men, as well as some pangas coming and going with their catch.  The school building, the nicest in town, was for the younger children in the village.  We bought a media kilo of Pargo, (fish) and had a lovely dinner on Blue Rodeo with folks from Pacifico, Swift Current, and Honcho.  Dave cooked the best Pargo Vera Cruz, and Anne barbequed some equally excellent marinated Pargo. Later that night, Leif and I realized that we needed to get moving if we wanted to see Bahia de Concepcion.  So, with reluctance, we upped anchor early and left our travelling buddies who have all summer to dilly dally in the sea.

Agua Verde-  This is the first day of sailing without our friends in quite awhile, and when we arrived at Agua Verde, there was Pacifico who left ahead of us.  They had the intention of staying awhile and unpacking the boat, but it seemed that didn’t happen as we then saw them again in Puerto Escondido.  Agua Verde was just one more beautiful bay with, duh, lovely clear water, sort of greenish.  Each afternoon we have taken up the practice of swimming and showering off the stern.  It’s a refreshing way to get all of the sunscreen off and feel clean for the evening.   We stayed one night, then pushed on to Puerto Escondido.

Puerto Escondido- This is the first marina on the Baja side since La Paz.  It’s a small marina almost completely enclosed by land.  It actually had moorings, and the three slips were for the large fishing yachts.  It did have nice showers, internet, dirty pool, a restaurant, tienda and laundry.  We picked up a mooring for about $15. a night, and spent a couple of nights eating out.  We met our friends from Serena, Ed and Connie, and it was Connie’s birthday, so we helped her celebrate one more time.  The owner of the restaurant sang her both birthday songs, one in Spanish and one in English.  He had a beautiful voice, and the whole place joined in on the Spanish version.  Our hopes were to visit Loreto from here, but, we ran out of time.  So, perhaps on the way back down.

San Juanico-  A picturesque bay on the Baja, filled with colored cliffs, white sand beaches, clear water, reefs, and lots to see and do.  Of course we only stayed one night on our way north, so maybe a stop on the way back.  Really a pretty place, but with nasty stinging kelp that floated all around.  Yes, we found that out the hard way.   We left early in the a.m. for a  55+ mile trip to Playa Santispac through light chop and building winds. 

Playa Santispac and Posada Concepcion-  On our way up we hit northerly winds the entire way, so today was not unusual with 10-20 on the nose.  We had to motor most of the way until turning the corner at the opening of Bahia Concepcion, then we could sail a bit.  The seas were rough, short, choppy and steep, not too fun with waves coming over the dodger.  As we rounded, we finally caught our first edible fish, a small yellowtail on the Mexican lure!  I filleted it and saved it for dinner later.  The entrance to the bay was also very shallow, with 8’ under our keel at times, which is rather unnerving to me, esp. as we sailed downwind at 6 knots.  Finally it got deeper as we neared Posada.  We turned the corner, dropped the main and dropped anchor in front of the cliffs nearest to Posada.  The houses lining the cliff are built of stone, and really unique.  Susie’s dad’s place is just around the corner, and we’ll visit tomorrow, but for now we would like a meal out, so off to the La Enferma restaurant, Anna’s.  We met some folks who have a house overlooking the bay and our boat.  They said they saw us come in, and leave in the dinghy for dinner,  they had hoped to beat us there, but didn’t.   Leif and I toasted to our final destination north, enjoyed triggerfish tacos, and great conversation with the couple behind us.  Sorry Penny, no scallops there for me ever.  We left the restaurant in our dinghy with the full moon rising in a golden glow across the water anxious to get someep after a long day of bouncy seas and wind.  The anchorage was dead calm, it almost felt as if we were at a dock, ahh peace.