July 7th 2011

Warm weather to HOT HOT (We are melting)

Cruising from LaPaz to San Evaristo, Bahia Muertos, Los Frailes and San Jose del Cabo

After Jim’s quick visit to Seattle for cataract surgery and to complete our 2010 taxes we left LaPaz till next year or so. Heading north to the Sea of Cortez was exciting and sad as we don’t know when we will get back to LaPaz. After spending over a month there it almost felt like home as LaPaz has a large cruising community as well as a cruiser's club that helps with all sorts of advice and recommendations. We made many friends as cursers are always coming and going from place to place and a few come and never leave. There is even an open group that plays the domino game Mexican Train every Monday and Thursday. But as with all adventures it was time to move on and we left LaPaz on Monday the 27th of June with Anthony and Nathan two of our grandsons. Our first stop was Puerto Balandra where we stayed for three days. The beaches are white with sand like fine flour. The boys enjoyed building sand castles, snorkeling and hiking. We even had fish tacos at the local taco stand and they were delicious. We went back a second day just to have more.

After leaving Puerto Balandra we went to San Evaristo about 45 north where there is a fishing village that consists of 15 families. It is on the Baha but in order for the locals to get supplies they must travel on a dirt road 60 miles from the main highway. There is a one room school house. We were hoping that the boys could visit but unfortunately it was closed for the summer. There is also a salt flat filled with ponds of salf water the locals work with piles and piles of salt that are processed for feed for animals (or at least that is what the sack said). We enjoyed the water there as it was warm and clear. We purchased two very fresh Red Snapper from the local fisher men and also bought three lobster tails for less than $5 US dollars. We left San Evaristo and headed south to Bahia Muertos (Bay of Death) or Bay of Dreams as the local developers are trying to rename it. We were there only one night as it was windy and rolly-polly and none of us slept much that night. The next night we went to Los Frailes which is about 40 miles south of Muertos. It was also windy and rolly but we put out the flopper stopper and that helped a lot. We were going to stay two nights but the surg was so great that we could not land the dinghy so we moved on to marina at San Jose del Cabo. After two and a half days of very little sleep and it being very hot we just wanted to get to the marina and rest.

We are now at the marina in San Jose del Cabo in one of the slips with power so we have AIR CONDITIONING. This is a great marina and Jim negotiated a better deal so we are here for a few days and will visit the cactus farm (Wirikuta Garden-look it up on Google) and the local beaches. We are having a lot of fun with Anthony and Nathan. They will fly back to Portland in five days on July 11th.

Around the 15th of July we will begin our bash back up to San Diego where we will spend 3 months to resupply and do a few more boat chores before we head south again to Mexico. We think of you all and love you very much.