January 31, 2014  Mulege, Sea of Cortez, Mexico

After saying good bye to Carol and Jim we left Puerto Escondido and headed back across to Isla Dazante for the night then up to Isla Carmen on Monday.  We are enjoying our slower pace now and have months before we have to be in Nuevo Vallarta near Puerto Vallarta for hurricane season.

Last Tuesday morning was glass calm so we took Falcon across the nine mile stretch of water to Loreto so that we could provision for a couple of weeks. Loreto doesn’t have a big boat harbour so we had to anchor out in front of the town in the open water. Just after we got the dinghy to the dock, the wind picked up considerably.  We agreed that it was better for me to shop and Jim to stay on Falcon.  So I walked along the crumbling sidewalks and through the deserted tourist area until I made it to the small supermarket. It only cost me about $100 US to provision for two weeks before I took a taxi back to the dock where Jim came and got me.  After washing fruits and vegetables (in case of bugs) and stowing all the food we pulled up the anchor we decided to go with the wind, back south as it would be a more comfortable ride.  Carol and Jim had generously offered to wash Falcon down before they left and she had sparkled for a couple of days.  We were tired to pounding into big head seas and didn’t want to get Falcon covered with salt spray again so soon!

Heading south was a good decision and after three hours of gentle downwind sailing we were back in Puerto Escondido.  We had wanted to return at some point anyway as there was a canyon within walking distance that we wanted to explore.

View towards "The Waiting Room" at Puerto Escondido

Sierre de la Gigante - the canyon is in shadow
below the point on the left

We anchored in a large bowl called “The Waiting Room” where there were about 30 other boats anchored and had a quiet night. It looked like lots of boats were moored there fairly permanently and a few cruisers waved as we dropped the hook for the night.

The next morning we packed a lunch and took off for the canyon.  It was a hot half an hour walk to the main highway on a well maintained blacktop road.  We crossed the #1 highway and walked along a rough gravel road for another half hour before making it to an enormous dry spillway, which we followed to the most beautiful canyon.  The wide, deep spillway was engineered to take the tremendous rush of water that came through the narrow canyon during the rainy season or in case of hurricane flooding.

The start of the canyon walk

Within minutes we saw our first stream in weeks!  It was only a trickling stream but it grew slightly bigger as we hiked further along in glorious shade.  At times it was subterranean.  Apparently a hurricane hit the Loreto area last September and the massive barrage of water rearranged hundreds of huge rocks and gravel beds in the canyon.  We heard from other hikers that boulders the size of vans and bigger were pushed around like bowling balls, settling amongst ripped up palm trees and shrubs.  Still, some tenacious foliage persisted and we really enjoyed the microcosm change from the desert climate.

Boulders at the widest part of the canyon

Tenacious little flowers still exist

We ran into a few hikers on their way out and three fit young men in their early 20’s that passed us heading into the canyon at a good pace.  We didn’t hike as far we would have liked because the treacherous steep rock walls would have been too challenging for me so Jim and I decided to take a shady seat on a massive boulder and enjoy our lunch looking out at the unusual scenery in the canyon.

My climbing skills being tested out

Jim and the trickling creek

The stream was sub-terrainian at ties

It wasn’t long before the three young hikers returned, making their way down the huge faces of rocks and boulders like mountain goats.  I admired their spunk and carefree attitude, feeling my almost 60 years. Oh to be a mountain goat in my early 20’s!

This boulder was bigger than a van and impassable

Two of the three guys hiking above Jim

We had lunch on this rock table looking downstream

Reflection of the sun above the canyon

By mid-afternoon we were making our way back down the canyon and along the gravel roadway towards the marina.  En route we stopped at a little tienda, which is a small grocery store, for juice and took a seat at the shaded informal outdoor seating.  We struck up a conversation with a retired architect from the Los Angeles area who comes to Mexico each winter and lives in a little trailer on a beach. Earlier we chatted with a couple from Friday Harbour in the San Juan Islands who used to cruise extensively but were staying for a month in Loreto.  We tried to convince them to head to Southeast Alaska next summer on their Krogen diesel trawler.  We meet all kinds of people down here.

The next day we motored north to Isla Coronado, a small volcanic cone shaped island off of the town of Loreto.  Before we left Victoria my mom told us that she was glad that we were cruising while we were young and still had our health.  Well, we may be ‘young’ and in good health but we sure challenged ourselves by hiking up Isla Coronado’s crater shaped peak, 928 feet high and extremely steep at the very top.

Isla Coronado's lava rocks and bay below

NOTE: If you are coming to Mexico make sure you have good, broken in hiking boots with you!  We could not do the hikes we do without them!!!

As it was near noon we ate lunch on board looking at the spectacular white sandy beach.  Once the dinghy was beached we started our three stage hike.  First we had to wind our way along a well maintained path that covered the flat lower ground.  That area was white sand and ground up sea shells along with old coral left behind from a time thousands of years before when that part of the island would have been underwater.  After about 30 minutes of walking in the extremely hot sun we reached the second part of the trek up an immense rocky lava field cascading down the side of the mountain. 

Ankle breaking rocks went on and on and on.
The top of the crater visible at the very top

Jim resting at the top, looking east

Amongst the rust coloured rocks were black obsidian rocks, left over from vast volcanic lava flows.  These unusual shiny black rocks were often the size of tv’s.  The smaller pieces sounded like glass under foot and chipped easily with each step.  Obsidian rock was often used by aboriginal people as it can be easily chipped into sharp edges for arrow heads and blades.

View from 928' up were worth it!

Can you make out the 'path' we walked for an hour

The path was barely discernible at times as the lava rock went on and on and on.  However, there were little rock cairns stacked up as sign posts every now and then, which help identify the path from the rest of the rocks. It took us close to an hour to cross that section, taking extreme care with every step.  You wouldn’t want to twist an ankle around here!  When we finally reached the ‘foothill’ we came to the really hard part.  The path was made up of little pieces of round gravel pebbles and dusty dirt and went almost straight up.  The hot afternoon sun was pounding down and we had to stop every 10 steps or so to rest.  People say the Baja is ‘cold’ in the winter but it was about 80 degrees out!  Fortunately we took lots of water and Gatorade as it would have been easy to get dehydrated.  It was incredibly slow going getting up that last stretch as we stopped to catch our breath and seek out the shade from scrawny bushes. There were times when we both wondered if we could make it but we persevered and were rewarded with a light breeze and flat ground at the top with the most amazing views looking down at the anchorage and over at the Sierra de la Giganta mountain range.

I packed some fruit, which we enjoyed at the top as we rested from our strenuous hike.  Going down the steep part was easier but, again, we had to be very careful where we planted each foot.  The middle section over the lava rocks seemed to take forever but the lower section was a piece of cake.  While Jim chatted with Martin, a panga owner who had brought a couple to the island, I quickly changed into my bathing suit, waded out into the cool water and sunk down neck deep, which felt absolutely amazing and refreshing.

When we finally got back to Falcon we discovered we had been invaded by thirsty bees.  Hundreds of them were swarming around the galley, many of them drowning themselves in a bowl of water left in the bottom of the sink.  We quickly put screens up in the portlights and closed all hatches and the companionway so no more bees could enter.  Then we had to kill all the unfortunate bees left inside.  They didn’t appear interested in us, though, and were not agitated, only thirsty, so we didn’t feel any threat of bee stings.  Strange!!!  So we have learned another cruising lesson and will leave the screens in place when we go away from the boat from now on.

Unusual cloud filled sunset over Pulmo Pulpito

The next two days were spent working our way further north to the 25 mile long peninsula called Bahia Conception.  The ocean charting for Mexico is very rough, at best, and this area of the Baja is very inaccurate.  Many of the old original charts were created as far back as 1881, with updates in 1914, 1976, etc.  Without more sophisticated Navionics electronic navigational charts on our IPad, used in conjunction with our Standard Horizon chart plotter program it would be very difficult to find our way into many of the anchorages. I took a picture from our chart plotter that a clearly shows us crossing the neck of land. That is not unusual when near land.

Not a great picture but you can see the boat
icon over land.....while we were still on water. 
The anchor is to the right, showing on land.

Navionics shows us on the water - the circle to
the left shows our boat position heading towards land

Navionics proved more accurate by far but still not 100% accurate.  For example, it did not show a reef off of the Playa Sanitspac but our cruising guide, Sea of Cortez by Shaun Beeding and Heather Bansmer, did.  We always use a combination of tools to stay safe.

On February 1st we had been cruising for over 5 months and we were just off of Punta Conception when Jim caught his first yellowtail tuna, a tremendous accomplishment!

Yellowtail tuna - the best tuna!

Of course it happened under sail going into the wind, which added to the challenge as I had to slow the boat down, rolling in the headsail myself while Jim played the fish to tire it out.  The beautiful 20 pound tuna fought valiantly but we managed to net it very excitedly none-the-less.  Once Jim had filleted it we had enough meat for five huge meals!  Last night I looked in my many cookbooks and found a recipe for herb and garlic marinated tuna.  I seared it for two minutes a side then served the mouth-watering dish up with fresh potatoes, corn and a sautéed zucchini just as the sun dropped.  The meat was exquisite and we are now looking forward to the rest of the meals. I have to find more fresh tuna recipes!

Day one at Bihia Coyote inside Bahia Concepcion

We are now anchored in one of five anchorages in Bahia Coyote inside Bahia Conception where we’ll spend a few days relaxing. This section of the Baja is very popular and there are dozens of rv’s lining the shore, many shore-side large houses and even a couple of restaurants scattered around.  It’s time to take it easy, read books, swim, tidy the boat up and reflect on this part of our adventure, which continues.  Until then…