First Two Weeks In La Paz - Home"less" and Boat"more"

Saturday 22 February 2014

It took us a few days (OK, at least a week) to recover from our epic push to get here on Feb 10th. As it turns out we ended up leaving quite a few items behind for our friends to deal with. Apologies and a huge thanks to Jack, Madelaine and Rich for covering our assets! It was reported that Jack did a helluva job with our home upgrades so that the new tenants could move in...YESTERDAY! Tom and I are officially homeless for at least two years and you know what? It feels just fine. I hope our tenants Beth, Ryan and their two kids enjoy our house as much as we have.

Do I look worried?

During the past week and a half in La Paz we have been spending most of our time catching up with some old friends and seeing La Paz, and practically zero time recommissioning the boat. We are waiting for our new batteries to arrive (shipped from San Diego) and after we install those I suppose we should get serious about putting the sails back on and getting ready to leave the dock.

On our third day in La Paz I was thrilled to run into our old pal Nick from Iolanthe...

We found Nick!!

We had a great time getting to know Nick last year and we look forward spending more time with him again this summer.

Valentine's Day with the crew of Iolanthe and Rob from Tiger Beetle

So what HAVE we been doing? Most mornings I take the free shuttle into town as an excuse to have to walk back for a little exercise. Nick knows La Paz pretty well and if I can drag him along then I'm sure to discover something interesting. He turned me on to a fantastic bagel shop, the farmer's market, and the bustling Mercado Bravo. 

At the Mercado Bravo you'll find vats of beef livers for sale...

...and smoothies to cure any ailment. We ordered the Anti-Gripal (Flu) smoothies.

Nick seems to know practically everyone in town, so a "short" morning excursion usually turns into a half-day affair.

Some of the cruisers report that the farmer's market is too pricey, kind of like an upscale farmer's market back home. All I can say is they sure haven't been to the Mountain View or Los Gatos farmer's market! I picked up some lovely Murano glass earrings made by an adorable, painfully shy girl who just got her art degree, for about $4.50, a bag of delicious produce (various lettuces and edible flowers, just-picked cukes, avocadoes, and more) for about $3.50, and the big splurge, a jar of gourmet chipotle/orange marmalade for $3.75.

Kayle sells organic produce from Todos Santos at the Tues and Sat Farmer's Market

Tom spent a couple of days doing duty as tech support for the BoschAP auto pilot product being tested by Ben and Lucie on Georgia. 

OMG don't let Ben have the soldering iron!!

A couple of days ago Tom, Nick and I made a pilgrimage to the infamous Cinemex Platino, a movie theater that features Barcalounger seats and food and drink service. Press a button and an employee shows up with a menu and ready to take your order. They feature all sorts of food and beverages, including a full bar. I ordered a cold beer and drank it very slowly while enjoying Monument Men on the big screen.

Check out the deluxe accommodations!

We were happy to reconnect with some fun people we met in La Cruz last year. Richard and Amber aboard Vagabundo were the ones who recommended Marina Palmira and our boat managers Ross Marine. They know La Paz very well, in fact Amber built a house here in 1978. They took us to lunch at their favorite restaurant high on a hill with the best view of La Paz. Wow!!

Vagabundo, Two Can Play, and Cinnabar at CostaBaja Clubhouse

Life in La Paz is mostly easygoing and pleasant, but bad things can happen, even in paradise. A few days ago a popular cruiser, John from Time Piece, responded to a VHF radio emergency call about a man getting ejected from his high-powered dinghy (belonging to a charter cruiser). The man was not wearing the kill switch lanyard so the dinghy continued to careen around the marina, dangerously out of control. Unfortunately while John was saving the man's life, the renegade dinghy rode up and over John's dinghy, causing John to sustain extensive damage to his leg and foot. Long story short, John was eventually air-lifted out of here but it took a couple of days. He is in San Diego where they are trying to save his limb, but amputation is a real possibility. John is a young man who is known for his friendly demeanor and willingness to always help out. It's impressive how the cruising community has rallied to support him in all manner of ways with time, assistance, and money. Tom Brown, via radio and his SV Eagle blog, as been excellent at sharing the facts with the concerned community and keeping the gossip and untruths at a minimum. Tom's wife Jeanne traveled to San Diego with John and has been at his side constantly. I heard that the vessel that caused this accident left the area without offering assistance or responsibility.

On a more positive note, Tom joined a cruiser-organized volunteer day at the local animal shelter, "local" being a 25 minute car ride into the desert. One of the concerned young girls from a family cruising boat (Del Viento) wanted to help the local stray animals and so her folks supported her drive by arranging to help the shelter. The task for the day was to build a set of bench seats out of shipping pallets, to be used by local schoolchildren on field trips from the schools as part of a community education program to promote good pet ownership, care and adoption. There were about 14 cruisers from 4 boats and about as many local volunteers. A good goal was reached - 12 sturdy benches were crafted, sanded and painted by the team. Everyone enjoyed the camaraderie of working together and helping our four-legged furry friends. Respect and care of animals is another aspect of a good community that we may take for granted from living back in the USA. 

Breaking down the pallets outside the animal shelter

Colorful and sturdy benches are completed

Doggies are healthy and thankful

Right now I am listening to the radio, channel 22 which is the cruiser's hailing channel, and laughing. Apparently there is a boat here named Flibbertigibbet (click name for definition). People keep hailing them on the radio and are totally mangling the name. Normal radio protocol asks you to say the boat's name you are hailing two or three times, then conclude with your own boat name. I am hearing "Flibbertergibber", "Flibbergibbet", "Flibbergibber", "Flippitgippit", and "Flibbe, Flibber, Flibbida...aw heck! Call "Tongue-Tied"* willya?" 

Come on, admit it, you just tried saying Flibbertigibbet three times, didn't you?


Some more pictures of our first two weeks can be found HERE.


* Name changed to protect the guilty

Never Give Up and Happy Birthday Tom!!

Tom had a great birthday this year, February 11, 2014...

1) The perfect birthday present, back in La Paz after 7 months in California.

After a few weeks of tying up loose ends, a few days of insanely mad packing/storing/selling/donating/trashing, and missing our flight (but getting on another one shortly thereafter), we arrived in Cabo San Lucas. We had a lively, 3 hour bus ride from Cabo to La Paz and arrived late, exhausted, with a cold six-pack in hand, a warm evening, and a comfortable, clean boat at the end. We could finally relax!!

2) Tom's best pal Jay called him from Massachusetts, they had a great conversation and it put Tom in a terrific mood.

3) We went to Tom's favorite place, Harker Board, for dinner and the best beer in town from Baja Brewing Company.

Tom enjoys a cold microwbrew (rare in Baja) on Harker Board's new upstairs patio. 

4) We were joined by our bay area friend Rob, so we were officially a Birthday Party. (Rob sailed down to Mexico last November on his boat Tiger Beetle and we have been drooling over his blog posts ever since.) We ate loads of food, drank a lot of beer (it was 2 for 1 night), watched the sun set and the moon rise. 

We rendezvous with Rob from Tiger Beetle

A lot of you know it seemed to take us forever to get back down here. It was an incredibly busy summer jam-packed with some fun activities and some difficult ones. Maybe we will do a post on "What We Did During Our Summer Vacation".  

As we were sorting through our last boxes of junk, pulling an all-nighter of packing in what seemed a vain attempt to catch our scheduled flight, I came across a cartoon that our friend Stan had given to me before I raced to Hawaii in 2004 with my friend Synthia. It gave us renewed vigor...

Thanks Stan. Words to live by.

We made it Tom! Happy Birthday!!

Hasta Luego La Paz! Returning to the Rat Race.

We've been in La Paz almost two weeks getting Cinnabar decommissioned and prepped for spending hurricane season here at Marina Palmira. We've contracted boat managers to keep an eye on our baby, met with a watermaker expert who helped us fix a leak in our watermaker, contracted Hector the canvas guy to make a boat cover for us, hired Chava and crew to polish Cinnabar's hull, topsides and metal, hooked up with a refrigeration expert (another Hector) who inspected and recharged our system, hired Luis the diver to regularly clean Cinnabar's hull, and so on and so forth.

We've been having fun* pickling the watermaker, pickling the heads, cleaning the boat, removing the sails, servicing and storing the dinghy and outboard, cleaning out the freezer and refrigerator, setting out roach hotels, and a ton of other things that are...wait a minute you say, back up, ROACH HOTELS??? Well yes, we bought them entirely as a preventative measure. However...HOWEVER...Tom spied an, er, "insect" in our cockpit this afternoon. GAH!!!!! We think we drowned the sucker, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's doing the backstroke around the boat right now waiting for us to turn our heads. But I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah...setting out ahem-cough-cough hotels and a ton of other things that are making me exhausted just thinking about them. Not to mention that every time we start a task it leads to some other extensive "fix" that we didn't plan on that seems to take all day! Boat owners will know exactly what I'm talking about. Let's see, it takes two weeks to get Cinnabar ready for hurricane season, we could probably sail home in two weeks...nah, I don't even want to go there!

*lie

In between the boat chores we've been making regular visits to Harker Board Co, a crazy combo of Stand Up Paddleboard  (SUP) rental by day and restaurant/pub by afternoon/evening. It's our new favorite spot by virtue of the fact that they sell all the beers from Baja Brewing Company. We love the ambience and the staff...

Beer goddess Nancy keeps Tom's growler filled.

...and it's located right on the malecon for maximum people watching effect. It's owned by a gringo, but the regulars seem to be locals. They even have a TV outside for sports fans and we enjoyed watching the NBA finals there amidst a large group of basketball aficionados.

As you can see, Tom patronizes Harker for THE BEER.

We've managed to fit in three mini birthday parties, two for people who aren't even here! (Any excuse to drink, heh. Oops, did I say that out loud?)



We did actually have a live birthday girl on Cinnabar one afternoon, so we had an impromptu celebration complete with a bottle of champagne, the last bottle in our inventory.



Birthday girl Nancy from Shindig. Those bad boys are giving up her age.

We are trying like mad to drink all our wine and beer and eat the last of our perishable food. I can't seem to get rid of one big jar of mayo, a giant jar of peanut butter and one pound of butter. How did we end up with all that fat? Oh, and there's that big block of cream cheese too.

It's getting hot as Hades here in La Paz, but the evenings are sublime. Three nights ago we enjoyed cocktails on a neighbor's boat, Victory, and watched the Supermoon rise in the East. It was an amazing sight.

This picture does NOT do that moon justice.

Yesterday the weather seemed to get humid and much hotter. All the locals say it's finally beginning to feel like summer, which means HOT HOT HOT! We are obsessed with keeping hydrated with cool drinks. Tom was particularly impressed with Nancy's ice sticks...

...so impressed that he was compelled to make some of his own, which were, how shall I say it delicately, obscenely huge!

Impressive girth there Tom.

It's hard to believe that by tomorrow afternoon we will be back in California. It will be 100 degrees in La Paz and 84 degrees in Mountain View. At the moment, drenched in our own condensation, 84 degrees sounds mighty nice, but I'll bet as soon as we get home we'll be kvetching about the cold.

A few more pics of our last couple of weeks in La Paz are HERE. It's kind of sad that we haven't had a chance to do more sightseeing, sigh. Maybe when we return in the fall.

To see our entire ~2600 nautical mile, 6 month route on a map, click onto the "Cinnabar Sails" link under the map on the sidebar.

Fix It Don't Nix It And Happy Summer Solstice!

How to make do with what you've got - One of the many great things about Mexico is that if something breaks it usually does not get thrown away and replaced, it gets repaired. Isn't that how the U.S. used to be before we became a disposable nation? Sometimes it is impossible or difficult to replace things in Mexico, so you have to figure out a way to use and fix what you've got.

When we were anchored off the salt farm in San Evaristo we dinghied to shore one day so we could hike into town. On the way down the hill Tom's shoe broke. Throwing it away and replacing it wasn't an option, so he had to repair it on the fly.

The problem: The sole separated from the best adventure sandal ever made (Keen Newport).

The solution: We found a piece of old rope along the dirt road and cut it to the right size with a sharp stone.

The result: Voila! A functional shoe that lasted until it could be duct-taped.

Kudos for thinking like a Mexican

We've seen examples all over Mexico of items that have been recycled into other uses. In San Evaristo the pangas are tied to land anchors. Here is an unusual beach anchor, made from something with some sailing hardware on it.

Tom tries to figure this one out.

What is this thing? It has a couple of clutches and a beautifully made, chrome-plated brass end fitting with a rotating gear and spindle . We look at the other side and see a mainsail track...

Aha! It was a roller furling boom! We'd love to know the story of how this lovely piece of boat gear ended up buried in the sand.

This anchor wouldn't pass Pac Cup inspection, but it's a brilliant re-use of rebar:

Not beautiful but it works (4 curved bars jammed into a pipe).

The anchorage north of San Evaristo was one of our favorite spots and it was a good place to catch up on some boat work, but we had a date with destiny in La Paz which was to arrive there before the extreme heat of summer and get Cinnabar decommissioned for hurricane season.

We Arrive in La Paz on 6/13/13 - We checked into Marina Palmira, got internet access, and discovered that our old pals on Iolanthe were here in La Paz! Turns out they were leaving the next morning to head to San Diego so we quickly arranged to hook up for dinner in town. It was fantastic to hang with our pals once again, if only for an evening:

Dinner at Rancho Viejo in La Paz with Nick and Arthur from Iolanthe.
(The BEST arrichara (marinated and grilled flank steak) on the planet)

But so much for just hanging out and having fun. We've also been up to our ears in all sorts of boat projects and doing what it takes to get Cinnabar in shape to spend her summer in La Paz. More about those projects later, but for now we'll just say...Happy First Day of Summer!

More pics of San Evaristo and our first days in La Paz are HERE.

We discover microbrewed beer in La Paz (Baja Brewing Peliroja). We might never leave.

Looking Back at Agua Verde and Grilled Wahoo Pibil

Tom thinks I'm crazy because we are sitting in La Paz and I am still writing about places we visited a week ago. I explained to him that I am posting about these places because we liked them and I want to make sure we remember what we did there. Not to mention it is almost 100 degrees here and I need to take a break from decommissioning the boat for the summer, so I might as well do a blog post...

Presenting Agua Verde!

After we left Candeleros (on June 4) we went (motored in light winds) about 17 nm south to the bay of Agua Verde, a very popular anchorage with cruisers.

Yes, the water really is verde.

It has several beaches that are perfect for anchoring and snorkeling, hiking trails, and an active fishing village including a goat farm.

Agua Verde is absolutely stunning. The day we arrived I couldn't wait to get into the water and snorkel Pyramid rock.



Cinnabar anchored behind Pyramid Rock.

The rock, attached by a reef that is exposed at low tide, is home to schooling reef fish, cleaning stations, sea fans, urchins, sea cucumbers, and I even spotted a neon purple and yellow nudibranch! The gigantic under-water boulder formations made for a fascinating snorkel.
  
That evening we enjoyed cocktails as a flock of goats, their little bells tinkling sweetly, scampered up a hill to their farm on the other side.  After sunset we sat under the stars and watched the bright International Space Station orbit directly over our boat (at 17,000 mph, 223 mi overhead). It was truly a magical first night in this stunning bay.

Agua Verde is a very active fishing village, and now I feel kind of bad for griping about the noise in an earlier post, because the reality is that these fisher-people work day and night to make their living. The women get up at 5:00 a.m. along with the men so that they can make breakfast and lunch for the men. Then the pangas roar out of the bay and don't return until evening, where they unload their day's catch of gigantic Itajara grouper into trucks that take the fresh fish into the inland town of Ciudad Constitution two hours away on the other side of Baja. The fish are reportedly caught about 18 nm offshore at the relatively remote (and presumably virgin) Catalina Is. It appears to be pretty heavy fishing pressure on the particular area and fish type.


Pangueros unloading their catch.
(About 6-12 large [20 -50 lbs] grouper per boat. Almost no other fish type were seen) 

Sometimes the pangas leave again in the evening to go out and catch bait (squid), returning between 10:00 p.m. and midnight. 

There is lots of great hiking around Agua Verde, and one day we dinghied over to the west anchorage beach to hike some goat trails. We met a wonderful fisherman named Jose who moved to the beach 17 years ago because he wanted tranquility.

We spent about an hour talking to Jose.

Unfortunately for him, that day an extremely loud and active group of guys arrived, set up camp right next door, and partied day and night for days. So much for Jose's tranquility! (We later found out that some of these guys were assistant attorneys general from Mexico City. No wonder they needed to blow off some steam.)

We hiked up the steep goat trails for stunning views of the bay and Sea of Cortez.



Big bay of Agua Verde

Tom on the mountain top with Roca Solitaira in the background. We will snorkel Solitaria the next day.

Then we hiked over another mountain to a freshwater oasis and solitary beach.




Oasis where underground aquifer seeps out of the ground.

 

Enjoying solitude on the beach.

Solitary except for the hundreds of fiddler crabs who lived in the mudflats.

It was a long, hot day so we rewarded ourselves with a dunk in the water and a meal of our last Wahoo filets, marinated pibil-style and perfectly grilled (recipe at end of post).



Perfect meal of Wahoo Pibil on lentils with cucumbers in lime juice. And a cold beer of course!

The next day it was calm enough for us to dinghy out of the bay to Roca Solitaria for a freedive expedition.

Tom gets ready for the cold plunge.

The underwater terrain was beautiful, even with some current and tepid water temp, but we were disappointed (though not entirely surprised) to discover that the place was pretty much fished out. Oh well, we had a nice snorkel even though the speargun didn't get used and there was the definite Cool Factor of snorkeling offshore.

That night we went into the dusty town of Agua Verde. Unfortunately we got there too late to visit the goats, which was a disappointment for me, but hopefully there will be a next time. You already know all about the questionable meal we had at the "restaurant" in town...

Restaurant? What were we thinking?!?

 ...and that we were craving solitude after all the activity in Agua Verde, so the next day, feeling healthy and happy not to have contracted food poisoning, we weighed anchor and headed south to our next anchorage.

More pictures of Agua Verde are HERE.



After our dreadful meal in town I dreamed about the Wahoo Pibil we'd had the night before; I immediately wrote down the recipe so we could make it another time...

Achiote-Marinated Wahoo (or Other Fish)

This is a Pibil-style preparation just like the famous Yucatan dish Cochinita Pibil, except that you’re not using pork, you’re not marinating overnight, and you’re not cooking the meat for hours in a pit.

Approx. 6 fish filets, wahoo, yellowtail, cabrilla, snapper, dorado, salmon, whatever, or 1 pound piece of whole fish

Marinade:

3-5 Tablespoons Achiote Paste, or make your own

8 cloves garlic minced and mashed
½ tsp. dried oregano
1/2 cup naranja agria (sour orange juice) OR 1/2 cup orange juice plus ¼ cup lime juice 

¼ cup oil

To Taste: Salsa Macha (hot chiles in oil) or diced fresh habanero, jalapeno or Serrano

Optional wrapping: Banana Leaves, heat over flame to make pliable. Banana leaves add a subtle smoky flavor to the fish.

Mix all marinade ingredients together.

Two choices for marinating the fish:

1)    Cut fish into portion size and place in marinade no longer than 1 hour. 

2)    This will be baked. Line baking dish with banana leaves and let leaves hang over the side. Place filets or whole piece of fish in dish and cover with marinade. Let sit for one hour.

Some choices for cooking the fish:

1)    Grill - Salt and pepper fish, sprinkle some oil over the fish and place filets directly on medium flame. Be careful not to burn the achiote marinade.

2)    Grill in banana leaf packets – Salt and Pepper Fish. Place each filet in its own banana leaf and wrap it up. Grill for about 5-8 minutes on each side or until the fish is cooked to your liking. If you want, wrap each packet in foil so the marinade doesn’t leak all over the grill.

3)    Bake – Salt and pepper fish. Fold banana leaves over the fish that is marinating in the baking dish. Cover with foil and bake at 350 F. or until fish is cooked to your liking.

Pibil is traditionally served with lime or vinegar-marinated red onions, called Cebollas Encurtidos.

If you want to know how to make Puerco or Cochinita (piggy) Pibil, just watch this YouTube video by director Robert Rodriguez - Ten Minute Cooking School.

Looking Back at Los Candeleros, aka Ensenada Blanca, aka Wi-Fi Cove, aka Danzante Bay

Whew! We made it to La Paz and have spent the past couple of days getting settled, reconnecting with friends, making arrangements for Cinnabar's stay here during the summer, and reflecting upon the last few anchorages. Except for Los Candeleros, we were completely without internet and phone connections (egad! 7 days) until we got to La Paz. But we were able to communicate via Sailmail and our Single Sideband radio, which is pretty cool.

After leaving Puerto Escondido on June 1st (3 week stay), we went to the nearby anchorage of Honeymoon Cove at Isla Danzante. We had fond memories of this anchorage when we did a bareboat charter here over 20 years ago. We had heard on the morning radio net that several boats had enjoyed this cove, although there was a bit of a bee issue. Sure enough, as we motored into the empty cove to check out the anchorage we were immediately beset by bees swarming the boat.

See ya; wouldn't wanna bee ya! Tom waves goodbye to the Honeymoon bees.

Yikes! We went with Plan B and headed toward Los Candeleros back on the land side (a whopping 7 mile motor).

Los Candeleros, The Candlesticks, gets its name from three tall islets grouped on the southern side of the bay. Los Candeleros is also known as Ensenada Blanca, White Cove, due to its long white beach. Probably the most notable feature of Los Candeleros is the honking big resort, called Villa del Palmar at "The Islands of Loreto" (snort!), that sits smack dab in the middle of the bay.

Our view of the big, 7 story, 2 year old resort in the boonies (but great free wifi!)

Which leads us to the cove's nickname of Wi-Fi Cove, due to the excellent and free internet connection that boats can get from this hotel. It was very odd to see this deluxe resort just plopped in the middle of a dry, remote, desert bay.

Tom couldn't resist that long, white beach, so while he swam to shore for a beach run, I decided to snorkel to shore and go for a walk. Well I never actually made it to the beach because when I hit about 10 feet of water I saw the telltale double siphon holes of the famous local Chocolate Clams (pronounced Cho-ko-lah-tay). In about 15 minutes I had gathered enough of these babies for a nice clam ceviche lunch for two.

They were delicious diced and mixed with some fresh lime, onion, garlic, tomato, and dried chiles.

Clam ceviche with avocado, tostadas and beer. Yum!

One day we dinghied over to the south side of the bay and snorkeled around the point. It was full of schooling fish, reef fish, sea fans, sea pens, hydroids, coral and scallops. Some very cool Mexican barracuda kept swimming by to suss us out. 

After the snorkel we went to check out the resort. The assault of sudden greenery after months of earth tones was a shock. But we had to admit that the hotel grounds were quite beautiful and impressive (4 big pools shaped like turtle shells, but visitors have to pay to use them ($65 pp/day! Ah...NO thanks).

They sure must go through a lot of water keeping this place so green.

Apparently they have big plans for this place and plan to expand the hotel, add a big golf course, and numerous condos that will surround the bay. Oh, and they will give the place yet another name...Danzante Bay. We've noticed that many things in Mexico get started but never completed, so it will be interesting to see if the plans turn into reality.

The Dream - resort diorama, complete with golf courses, vacation home plots, and roads.

When we walked to the patio restaurant we had to admit that the view looking out into the bay was spectacular, and it truly did showcase The Islands of Loreto, the moniker we had originally scoffed at. OK, so we were wrong AGAIN.

Enjoying chilled drinks and eating crow for disparaging "The Islands of Loreto"

We enjoyed (expensive) drinks and yummy wood-fired pizza at the patio café while taking in the beautiful view. The night view was stunning as well, as we could see the lights of Puerto Escondido and the city of Loreto in the distance.

More pics from Los Candeleros can be found HERE.

We hated to leave Candeleros as it was a beautiful and pleasant anchorage, but it was time to keep moving south to lovely Agua Verde. There's lots more to Agua Verde than noise and an "interesting" restaurant, so stay tuned...