TROPICAL SHORES FOR MILES AND MILES

Jim and I continued to cruised north, visiting Isla San Fransisco where we rock hounded for rough agates and had some success.  It’s addictive, once you know what to look for.  We really enjoyed our hours of looking intensely at the layers of rocks rolling underfoot.  We were seeking out the gems, and loving the afternoon shade from a high cliff beside the beach.  We’re already planning on returning next winter because it is such a beautiful and protected anchorage.

We cruised to a small fishing village built on a narrow gravel beach tucked in below Punta Nopolo. We enjoyed the quiet of the anchorage under cloudy skies and mild temperatures.  Their concrete block houses were built in a crescent, following the contours of their  cove.

Isla San Jose early morning

Flat calm weather is good for fishing though

About 10 houses are clustered in this tiny place

Though we could see a path leading up the hill behind the village we didn’t want to intrude on their space so we stayed on board.  Since they had no fresh water, we watched as villagers gathered their water containers and loaded them into a panga and taken to a close by river for re-filling.   Imagine, this would be repeated every few days, year round.  We know that Rotary International are working at fixing that and we hope Nopolo’s fishing village is on their list.

Every few days they have to take all the water jugs to be filled from a
community that has fresh water

Their only accessible is by boat, which means all provisions, fuel, household goods, etc. are also brought in by panga.  Likewise, any fish caught are kept on ice, taken by panga nine miles south to San Evaristo then driven to La Paz.

Late afternoon one of the fishermen stopped by to say hello with his young daughter in tow.  She was tiny and shy but her eyes lit up when I got out a bottle of bubbles for her.  They left, waving the bubbles as they headed for shore.  The next morning another fisherman, Alfredo, stopped by in his fishing panga to ask for Jim’s help in understanding his Garmin GPS, used for navigation.  Unfortunately the instructions were in Spanish but Jim was able to extrapolate and explained how the basics for how it worked, since we have a similar one.

Alfredo was in his late 20’s with a wife and two young children.  We learned that there were seven children in the village so we gathered most of our school supplies and asked Alfredo to deliver them for us.  It was clear that he was in no hurry to leave so we got out pictures of Alaskan mountains and glaciers along with our English/Spanish dictionary and muddled through the visit for another hour. By then a slight northerly breeze was blowing so we said goodbye, pulled up anchor and had a downwind sail to San Evaristo where we met up with Scott and Tanya from Kialoa and their friend Bill from Graybeard.  Since we hadn’t seen them for a couple of weeks we had a potluck dinner on board Falcon to catch up and discuss options for the next day.  The five of us decided to motor across to the abandoned salt flats at the bottom end of Isla San Jose, only four miles away.

Such a beautiful location for this remote community

Moon in the morning

The following morning was spectacular with blue skies, turquoise flat seas and a radiant morning sun so we motored 30 miles north to Los Gatos, which had 10 yellow nylon tents lined up along the beach, along with mess tent, kayaks and paddle boards.  There appeared to be 20 people, including at least two families amongst them.  They were a happy, harmonious and energetic bunch, rotating between paddling, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, spear fishing and beachcombing.  In the morning they all collapsed their tents, packed up camp and headed out in three pangas.  Now that looked like a fun vacation!  The pangas transported everything from one tropical beach to another where the sports toys were once again lined up in the sand, ready for play.

Typical geography along the Baja

The earth's crust makes amazing natural art

Jim and I took the dinghy to shore to explore the rock formations close up.  The cliff were copper coloured, glowing in the morning sun and elongated shadows.  It had more moon-like wind swept rounded mounds crushed against other formations clearly showing the earth’s crushing forces.

Just after anchoring we were approached by local fishermen who wanted to know if we would like to buy some lobster.  We readily agreed and they promptly sped off in their panga…to catch two fresh lobsters, which they brought back within half an hour.

Fresh dinner!

We cooked them in garlic and olive oil, served with baby potatoes, zucchini fajita.  Needless to say, they were delicious but too rich to finish so we had the rest in a pear salad the next day.  Doesn’t get much fresher than that!

Fresh lobster dinner!  Yum!!!

The days are getting ever so slowly longer but by 7:00 the sun is setting and the first stars appear.  I love being away from civilization so I can see the celestial sky, hoping to catch a falling star or see a satellite cross overhead. I know some of the constellations and plan on studying a bit more.  No picture could show you the beauty of the uninterrupted night sky in Mexico.  It has to be experienced.
Since the photos of both the salt flats and terrain of Los Gatos were so plentiful we’ve posted more eye candy under a separate blog entry. Enjoy!

Tricia and Jim Bowen,
S/V Falcon VII
email: tandjbowen13@gmail.com.