Agua Verde Days

Thursday, Mar 22

Kayaks in front of the San Evaristo store after the norther.

Having waited out the norther in the great company of other San Evaristo cruisers we were delighted to wake up to a calm morning, so calm, in fact that by 8 a.m. kayakers had already arrived at the beach and were stripping down to get ready for some warm shore time. They must have had a long wait stranded somewhere, as the wind had blown up great foamy waves for 3 days.

 

Whales are hard to photograph so we put in 2 shots.

Weighing the hook at about 9:30, the last of our little Ague Verde bound fleet, we powered over calm seas to the turn at Punta Marcial. There Charlie called me up from a nap and lo, lolling along very close beside us we saw blue whales, a mother and calf. Again it struck me how far down the back is their tiny fin.

Arriving in Agua Verde we headed for the northern anchorage inside a spit fully occupied by birds.

  We had some trouble getting a good set on the anchor, but on the third try it held. The water was somewhat turbid after the big blow, but true to its name, a bright green, about the color of  floracine dye! We had a great swim, noting that our bottom is weedy again, only two weeks since the last cleaning. I don’t think Puget Sound bottom paint works here.

Susie, Diane and Dianne hold up crafty silverware in Prairie Oyster's cozy cabin.

Friday started with a great craft sharing in the cabin of Prairie Oyster with Dianne showing Diane Marsh and me how to wire beads from her astounding collection onto the handles of thrift store silverware. I did some knitting on the current hat.

After a while we got organized to walk to town via the beach route under puddingstone like overhangs. Very cool. The beach there had shells I hadn’t seen before, though the worn down pieces were common off San Evaristo’s salt ponds. These shells grow up to an inch in thickness. I picked up a conch that probably weighed half a pound. We wondered where they came from to have such rugged design. So far no living shellfish have been seen here.

Maria took about an hour to make our 48 tortillas, frying 

each one on a square of metal on her front burner.

Eventually we found ourselves heading toward the village, up a sandy arroyo plain with a few palms, acacias and other desert trees. Actually this settlement had about 300 residents, and many goats, chickens and even turkeys. There was notably more shade and water. Efforts to cultivate the landscape stand a chance here. We saw bouganvilia and wooden poles used for animal corrals, unlike in San Evaristo. I learned that recently the residents have started to farm a bit, raising their own vegetables.

photo

We visited Maria whose orderly two room house advertised tortillas. She informed us that she would make them to order so we ordered a couple of kilos and walked on to the store for more queso fresco, made in the village. To my surprise they had coolers full of veggies and meat as well. Good fortune, as we were out of meat except for machaca (dried grated beef). This town is about 25 miles from Route 1 by mostly dirt road making fresh food deliveries a more reliable occurrence than in San Evaristo.

After the hot walk back we scrubbed the bottom and made machaca burritos with our fresh tortillas for the crowd gathered on Salish Sea for drinks. What a day!

Charlie works hard to make sure we get the most out of our solar panels.

Also of note is the cutter jib cover I made in La Paz, jib hanked on and ready!

Saturday morning’s calm invited a little rowing around the anchorage to visit the birds, not a big variety of species but oystercatchers flew by noisily and a Brandts cormorant was out. We’ve been amazed by the convenience of watching pelicans right next to our boats. Instead of plunge diving into the water as usual, they scoop up little fish in their ballooning pouches and then drain out the water while the bill is tipped down. The gulls, especially young Heermans, hang around, swimming close to a chosen pelican friend in hopes of a stray nibble. The water had cleared up and we could see to the bottom. There are good fish to be caught here but so far Ian, the fisherman, has been skunked.

Now you see why it's called Agua Verde. Gratitude farthest boat. Salish Sea nearest.

Later we visited a third beach, this one on the south side on the cove. It had less litter and flotsam but great shells. I picked up pearl oyster shells I think with lovely pearly grey nacre. The pearl business collapsed years ago, but probably the oysters will rebound if left long enough.

Charlie meanwhile stayed aboard stoking the batteries and working on his Seaweed Blaster movie. Mark I was a hit with the San Evaristo crowd. Soon it will go viral no doubt, if he can just get it to the web!

Cemetery near the anchorage

At night we endured the grating of our anchor chain being dragged over rocks. Charlie did check the snubber on the anchor chain which normally dampens the pull and eliminates sound transfer. He thought it was connected, but it wasn’t.  Bad for sleeping. In the morning we climbed a rocky dry trail to “the other side of the mountain” just to take a look. The little cemetery at the bottom had few graves, none later than the early 60’s when quite a number of deaths occurred. There was a tiny settlement, or at least houses, visible in the next arroyo. Living here can be such a struggle.

San Evaristo Fishing Village

 Friday, March 16 to Thursday, March 22

A hamlet on the shores of the best harbor, or should I call it an anchorage?, between La Paz and Aqua Verde on the eastern coast of the Baja Peninsula, San Evaristo has been populated by fishermen for many generations. We sailed here knowing that it was a community stewarded by a couple from the US living here aboard a 27 foot sailboat, their home since 2008. They have committed themselves to a life in the community as guardians and supporters of the village.

We rowed ashore on our first evening at anchor, a beautiful calm warm afternoon when the setting sun lit the red mountains of San Jose Island across the channel. Walking the beginning of the dirt road to La Paz we found the old dump, home to two friendly dogs who immediately joined us for a beach walk the length of the anchorage. Lots of triggerfish skeletons and heads of young hammerhead shark below the high tide mark defined the diet of these villagers. Pangas on mooring lines and pulled up along the shore outnumbered the number of folks we saw from the water’s edge. As we later learned, the school has a population of 9. Under a big circular palapa we found white plastic bags of salt from drying ponds on the north side of town awaiting shipment to La Paz.

Our friends Ian and Diane had arrived before us with guests Carol and Roger aboard. They told us that the store was out of everything and had closed for the day. The next shipment was to arrive on Tuesday. Since we’d shopped in La Paz we didn’t need a store but wondered about the local people.

Bilingual book and cupcake party...

 reading with a kid felt so normal in

spite of ripped tarp keeping out the wind and sand under 

foot in the sometime restaurant 

The next day we met Steve and Charlotte, the godparents of San Evaristo, as they tried to cram 6 kids into their tiny inflatable dinghy to ferry them ashore from a boat visit. We took a couple of little boys who urged Charlie to speed. Our shore party wandered from the lighthouse atop the local cactus covered hill to the salt pans on the beach to the north of town passing the little school. We met the teacher, a local young woman who had gone to college and returned to teach in her home village.

A number of cruisers who come to this town find themselves returning yearly to see kids they’ve met, donate clothes, help out with school supplies and so on. While we were here a former school librarian from Seattle brought a dozen books with English and Spanish texts for the kids to read. We had a cupcake party and sat around reading with the children while their teacher attended some meeting in La Paz.

Charlie found soccer pals while we read on.

Having asked Charlotte and Steve to visit for an evening drink and to tell us more about their Willful Simplicity and eponymous life, we found ourselves hosting a nice gathering of crews from Salish Sea, Prairie Oyster, Willful Simplicity and Gratitude for what seems to be the customary cruisers’ surrogate for dinner. You eat wonderful fresh food carted over by your friends and have a beer or two. Then, as the stars and planets show up, everyone leaves well fed. No need to cook!

La Paz Layover

    

View of La Paz from the large, privately owned peninsula known as the Mogote.

March 12, 2012


As our friend Ian on Salish Sea has pointed out, you can get sucked into the La Paz vortex. In this life afloat we’re always home and often don’t really need to be anywhere between visitors. Somehow of all the places we’ve lingered, this town fits us best. The life on the docks is easy, with amiable fellow boaters, many of whom are Northwesterners or friends of friends. Befriended by Carol Dyer of Casa Tuscany we’ve connected with a wonderful group of ex-pats who live in town, several of whom have become my Bridge buddies. In addition there are lots of interesting local events like Carnaval that keep the town jumping. Just take a walk out to the Malecon for entertainment any time!  

Towering condos surround the pool at the Mogote development, viewed

from the city, a mysterious cluster of buildings and half finished shells 

reputedly stopped by financial difficulties. From inside it's a nice view,

 an expensive, artificial oasis in the desert.

The last two weeks have flowed by as easily as the captions relate.  I played a bit of Bridge, enjoyed lunch over on the Mogote’s big condo development and enjoyed another trip to Todos Santos, this time by bus. Last weekend Diane returned to Salish Sea to rejoin Ian. She fed us a grand dinner with the perk of a Boggle game. Everyone kindly played though it’s not a favorite except for me.

J-42 owners, Teri and Rob, kidnapped us in their dinghy for drinks.

Casakeeper Carol and the Outlaws, Kirk and KC start on the hors d's.

On Monday evening wild whooping Ahoys were heard on the dock as we dined below.  Our outlaw shipmates Kirk and KC had driven into town, scootered over from their camper, tracked down our slip, and were soon partaking of our best German sausages!  The next evening we had them and Carol for a much classier dinner, yellowfin tuna, a wonderful time.

We returned to Balandra Bay with Kirk and KC for an early season (read cool) snorkel. The fish were amazingly varied and coral healthy. Charlie patrolled the swimmers from the dinghy and took pictures. You can see Gratitude in the distance. Pelicans, cormorants and Caspian terns kept a wary eye on us.

Large breeding male in photo above intrigued Charlie.

Today we finished up the cutter jib bag project, my attempt to achieve deck storage for a smaller jib. Unfortunately it took two tries. Tomorrow we are happily headed back out to the islands and the northern Sea of Cortez for several weeks mostly on the hook.

Two Days in Todos Santos

February 26-28

Yard art over lettuce in one of the many art galleries

This month seems to be made for exploring the state of Baja California Sur, most recently to the west coast town of Todos Santos. After years of ranching, fruit and sugarcane growing, the Todos Santos aquifer dried up in the last century and by 1965 the town was basically a ghost town. However we had heard great things about its revival, with surfing and a fine arts community driving the economy plus a return to agricultural endeavors. Bonney and Jeff were up for the trip.

Cane crushing machinery rusting away. Behind photographer
is a big brick chimney for boiling down syrup to make candy.

By good fortune we really hit the mark going this week. As it happened, the local Palapa Society had a tour of historic buildings. Also the Todos Santos Film Festival was running. After a great lunch as Modo Todo Hotel, actually on the tour, as it was once the general store (bottles of fine booze grace the shelves formerly occupied by brassieres), we visited the cultural center where local kids now go for enrichment classes in computer, art, science and so on. It actually had a museum like collection of art and historic photos plus, in the courtyard, a one room wattle farmhouse typical of early dwellings in the region.

Houses on the tour typically were occupied by gringos who had restored old buildings. We visited the Brookses, a couple of teachers whose back yard is now a mini citrus orchard.  Neil gave us a sample from his grapefruit tree. I haven’t tasted a better one in years! (Their sailboat is kept in Deer Harbor!)

Wattle farmhouse at Cultural Center

The town square and church were next to the theater where we bought tickets for two delightful movies. One, El Ambulante, about a man who travels through rural Argentina stopping in a town, getting locals to work on making a film with him, and moving on. His income is the proceeds from the showing. It was a wonderful, heartwarming story! The next night we watched Los 100 Sones Cubanas about the trademark sounds of Cuban music, reminiscent of the Buena Vista Social Club. 

On our second day in town we headed for the beach, planning to take a walk to the turtle nesting area and do a little birding at La Poza (aka lagoon). As we crested the dunes we found ourselves faced with a parade of gray whales heading north. Some were very close to the beach. The sandy bottom comes up steeply here and the waves make interesting scallops of the shore. In fact they seem to come from south and north at once, smashing in the middle and sending up spray geysers. Very unusual. I can’t imagine surfing there. We walked south and found lots of birds at the lagoon including many ruddy ducks!

A local fisherman was surf fishing by throwing his baited hooks up into the wind, then running up the beach to jig and pull the line in. He caught a couple of fish in this fashion.

Next to Bonney a turtle trail?

We walked back, checked out the only turtle nest we could see, and loaded into the car. A little way out the sand road we passed a couple of elderly women, one wearing stunning toy glasses. Stopping to joke around we learned she and her companion were lost! They’d been on a walk with younger relatives and found they couldn’t keep up. When we learned that they were staying at a classy posada on the Pozo’s inner shore, we decided to rescue them. Not really, but it was fun to tour the beautiful hotel and grounds all planted by the current innkeepers, a Swiss couple. And those nice ladies bought us a round of drinks which we sipped from the rooftop lounge overlooking the lagoon. 

Real Mexican Cooking

Chiara and Jeff with Chiara's baby nephew

Friday, February 24

This morning we biked to Casa Tuscany where Bonney and Jeff, our Seattle friends are staying. Our destination, by car! (theirs, rented) was Sabores de Mexico, a newly opened tienda featuring many mysterious culinary enticements. Chiara Bende, the owner, and a chef of New World heritage, had offered to talk with me about using her creations when Karen and I stopped by her shop in early February. The little bottles of mole and salsa, packages of sea salt and dried peppers beckoned. But how to use these treasures?

It came to me that the Lemkins' visit would provide the perfect opportunity to return. Jeff has a food blog and I knew he’d go nuts learning from Chiara. Plus more Seattle gringos would benefit, recall and practice with the new ingredients.

When we arrived, me with computer in hand, Jeff with camera, Chiara welcomed us into her outdoor seating area where she’d set out chopped ingredients and several bags of chiles next to her electric wok and a molcajete, the local term for a stone metate.

Although she’d only promised us a talk, she couldn’t hold herself back from turning our visit into a full on cooking lesson! She started with a lecture on chiles which was full of eye openers for us. She tore into a package of dry criollo chiles and the fun began.

The first recipe was for any salsa, starting with the dry criollo, rehydrating it in hot water and pounding it into a red sauce to add to the salsa. The rest of the recipe is (or will be shortly) on Jeff’s food blog (www.caloriefactory.com). Next, her friend Lupita who had been quietly drinking coffee in the background with Chiara’s husband appeared to give us a demonstration of making a tortilla. Lupita, dressed like a model in fashionable jeans and 5” heels, made us feel like beach bums. (Wait that’s pretty much who the Stillmans are!) Chiara noted that if you just open a bottle of her intensely chocolate sauce you can work some of that into the masa dough to make a better flavored tortilla. Pretty soon she was getting Jeff to mash avocado into guacomole while she stirred tortilla strips in hot oil for chilaquiles, a recent and favorite discovery of ours. Finally, making my day, she pulled out a package of machaca de res, dried shredded beef, from Aramburo, a local grocery, and stirred it into fried bell peppers, tomato and onion, showing us  how to make machaca burritos, the very elevenses we’d slavered over on our way to Mag Bay.

Oh what a joy! Still reeling from the smells and bright colors of her delicious dishes, and laden with new ingredients for boat cooking, we swung by the Mercado Municipal for yellowfin tuna and  licuados before siesta time! Thank you, thank you Chiara and buen provecho!

Carnaval in La Paz

Ash Wednesday, February 22

Mexican version of Hot Cross Buns?

Returning from the quiet unpopulated world of beach life to mad local revelry has been a bit of a shock.




From our slip we can see the Malecon swarming with crowds and vendors. Impacting us more is the constant beat of music and crackly amplification of voices from the many stages. The din starts in early afternoon and continues past midnight. The normally slow pace of La Paz life continues on our little side streets as police have them blocked off. It is nice that the daily parade is the only traffic allowed down Obragon, the beachfront drive, but the numbers of gun toting Army men as well as police all over town make me uneasy.

Home made eggs, masks and princess hats for sale

For several afternoons we’ve endured semi truck horns and the attendant music of the parade. Of course we had to go out and watch some of it as well. This town’s celebration is very home grown. Lots of kids on floats and working booths.

Child mango sculptor

Local customs entertained us. We were at first puzzled by passing parade goers, confetti sparkling on their hair and shoulders. Many industrious families must spend all year emptying eggshells and filling them with confetti and decorating them to sell for Carnaval. You can buy half a dozen for 10 pesos. 
The kids throw them at each other, smash them on people’s heads and the parade floats. Special foods, for example decorated buns, “pan de Texcoco,” and corn with thick cream on it are popular. Masks and other adornments are for sale everywhere. And vendors from other parts of Mexico set up booths all down the Malecon.

We can't wait for Lent to begin!

Cotton candy maker or Marge Simpson's new do?

Peso pitch game

Oakies?

Magdalena Bay Field Trip

February 15-18

My forefathers hunted whales for their blubber and later made good money selling baleen for those corsets and stays that kept our foremothers’ wasp waists slender. In fact, the original Gratitude was a whaler owned by my great great grandfather. As far as I know, the gray whales were not their quarry, though. The grays have schooled to mate in Magdalena Bay for all known time. After the long coastal swim down from the Bering Sea they famously play, mate and give birth to calves in lagoons along the outer Baja coast. Ever since my parents visited San Ignacio lagoon and took movies of mating (gulp) whales, I’ve had an itch to do my own whale watching tour.

Last week in a sudden burst of energy we surveyed local tour companies and jumped on the opportunity to join a 4 day whale watching trip led by Mar y Aventuras. Generally we’ve been pretty much coast locked, that is to say traveling close to the shorelines, but this trip started with a long drive across the peninsula to the fishing town of Puerto San Carlos where we refueled on the way down Baja. The adventure started with a walk to LunaSol inn, three blocks from our La Paz marina and home to M y A offices. Over breakfast our guide Miguel introduced everyone told us what to expect. We found that 4 out of 6 of us were from Washington, the other two being Coupeville residents, Jan and Anne. Judy and her daughter Sue from the SF Bay area rounded out the select group.

Traveling in the van we watched the desert roll by, mostly cactus lands with cattle ranching. Miguel told us matter of factly that during drought ranchers burn the spines off the cactus to give the cattle forage with some water content. At a potty stop about half way we pulled up to a small stone building, a restaurant featuring machaca burritos.  In spite of the early hour, beef cooking smelled great, a delicious elevenses. We had never heard of this salty dried meat concoction, but soon located some future machaca hanging laundry style on a line outside. 

 

At Pt San Carlos we were dropped off on a beach (remember there’s a fee for docking?) and waded out to the waiting panga, a large, stable skiff that would be our whale watching vessel as it turned out. 

Charlie helps moor the panga.

Camp

Approaching the shore I wished my camera was ready. The sandy beach of Man of War Cove stretched on forever with the only human habitation our temporary little white tents in neat rows and two brown army tents, one for cooking, one for dining. I never did get a good photo, but the camp looked almost the same from the back. (3photos) We anchored off here back in 2005 with Iain and Ruth in Bizim. Never thought I’d be back, especially living in a tent on sand for three nights!  Savory hot meals three times a day, happy hour every evening and lots of reading/siesta time in a lovely quiet place made up for having to pee on the open shore.  We slept on cots with Thermarest mattresses which Charlie found more comfortable than his boat berth!

Whale Watching 

Susie ready for action

We went out every day powered by a 4 stroke 225 horse Honda motor, whizzing across the water at 25 knots or so. (At night this valuable boat was padlocked to a buried chain against possible theft.) The boat was painted blue on the bottom. We found that whales would approach our boat more than others. Maybe it was because of the quiet motor and blue color.

"Right Handed" whale, barnacles on left

Our first afternoon out we encountered groups of three whales playing together. Like raptors, the female grays are larger than the males and generally accompanied by two consorts as they swim through the shallow waters of the bay. Being 40-45 feet long they can’t dive deep here in 20-50 feet. Amazingly the grays don’t feed in these waters. They fatten up during summers in the Bering Sea and then swim about 100 miles a day using energy stored in blubber, til they get to the lagoons where the females either mate or calf. A benefit for observers is that their spout water, with which we were frequently showered, isn’t fishy smelling. These whales are bottom feeders with narrow heads, barnacled on one side, the other scraped clean by digging into the mud as, swimming on their sides, they plow up amphipods and crustaceans.

This side scrapes the bottom while feeding

Double blowhole characteristic of baleen whales

Most of the whales just swim away or play with their threesome, but a few came up to the panga to look at us, swim back and forth under it and even bump and rub up against it. The barnacles and sea lice clustered all over their backs must be somewhat itchy. The last morning on a calm sea a dozen whale watching pangas were out. One friendly whale went from boat to boat, poking its head up and inviting touches.

Surprise!

On the second day we went to the mouth of Mag Bay looking for mating whales. We quickly found the action, whales thrashing around unmindful of gawking observers, and exposing what our guide dubbed “the Pink Floyd.” Charlie’s best photo shows a joyful male exposing his stomach, flippers outstretched and PF in view. Sideways profile shots eluded us.

Pink Floyd... Let it all hang out!

We also went to the Bajo area of the bay where in 4 fathoms or so the calves are born and begin to develop. The shallows are safer for the babies. There were two we saw but most calving occurs in the northern lagoons. 

Side Trips

Our other activities included a morning paddle up the closest estuary. The lowish tide opened up mudflats for many wading birds to forage. The red mangroves here were much smaller and less robust than in San Blas or Maz.

Charlie, Susie, Sue, Judy, Anne and Jan

We also panga-ed over to the fishing village of Magdalena, a few miles west, where we observed fish skins drying, took a botanical hike and looked down at the Pacific shore. This area was once explored as a phosphate source, but the mines were never developed, fortunately, as little of the mineral was found.

Sunsets and dune walks on the skinny barrier island entertained us and exercised our cameras. Desicated sand rooted shrubs were home to huge numbers of white snails. How they survive in the arid conditions is a mystery, but I bet the hungry coyotes crunch up quite a number. Strange to say this place was hard to leave.