It’s Friday, February 16th, and we’re anchored in a picturesque cove called San Evaristo. We’re sharing the beautiful view with about 20 families who live in homes spread along the beach and the land just up from the beach. There’s a restaurant called Marco’s – and to us who haven’t actually been to it yet, it looks like a very old roof with royal blue tarps wrapped around the walls – there’s no sign of life today but there is a ‘Pacifico’ sign so there’s hope. We’ve heard the food is good and the woman who runs it is nice. There’s also a tienda (store) but there’s no sign of life at that either. And, there’s water available from their very own desalination unit, housed in a small white shed on the beach – but Antonio, the ‘water guy’ isn’t around. He lives in the small lime-green shack on the hill and his truck is there, but he’s not workin’. It’s possible many of the folks have gone to La Paz for Carnival this weekend and/but that’s ok. This bay is beautiful and well worth the visit. The scene along the beach is quite sureal (I’m not exactly sure what that word means, but if it means kind of unbelievable or something different than my reality… then that’s the word). The shacks are spread out along the beach and range from crazily leaning stacks of poles to reasonable shelters with signs of life. Up the hill behind there are larger homes, at least large by mexican standards. Most of the structures sport colours like yellow, pink, royal blue, lime-green and white. Several are used by the panga operators (fishermen) and their crews. The pangas run back and forth all day…some fishing and bringing back their catch, and others obviously visiting other communities to pick up cargo and passengers. Now before you get to assuming we’re filling our faces with fresh caught fish and lobster from all these panga/fishermen… let me tell you that we have yet to score even ONE lobster or fish. There’s a Co-op in place that has these fishermen literally tied to their rules… no selling of catches to travellers like us… they’re all spoken for. We’re told there are indeed those that will trade tho’, and we’ve got a stash of trade goods all ready. I just have to convince Kathy to put on her two piece and get out there looking ‘come hitherish’…. apparently my legs and luring looks aren’t quite what they’re after. None have stopped by!
There’s a flock of ‘local’ red-headed vultures (they look as big as or bigger than Sophie) that kind of hang out on the beach. I guess they’re waiting for the left-overs from the fishing panga’s but if their presence didn’t dissuade us from trolling Sophie along the beach, a few of the local ‘panga dogs’ certainly have. If the winds tomorrow morning allow, we’ll load all crew (PS included) into our little dinghy and go explore around the point looking for a sandy, empty beach for play.
We’re here because we’d been told it was a safe anchorage in a ‘norther’ and, indeed, there is far more protection here than anywhere else in the area. None-the-less you have to learn to be carefree and comfortable with your boat swinging at anchor in winds gusting to 20 and 25… and that’s at the best spot in the bay, in the shelter of a large rocky prominence. Luckily there’s no fetch so it’s all about the wind, and we’re getting used to that. The sun is marvellous and, because it’s too windy to bother going to town today (and because there doesn’t seem to be anybody home in town) we’ve declared this a day of rest on the boat.
We’ve tidied a bit, re-set the snubber on the anchor chain, changed the lines on the kayak to floating lines, read our books (I’m finally getting used to reading an electronic book… it’s a bit weird tho’), fished a bit off the boat (no luck), added some velcro to our heads curtain, redid the hand-line set up and generally relaxed as we’d been dreaming of doing. We’ll be here for the weekend as the northers are supposed to blow quite heavily all weekend as opposed to the light 25 we’re feeling right now. So, we’ll hang out tomorrow.. hopefully we’ll be able to get ashore for a little visit… apparently they serve ‘huge’ beers at Marco’s :-) and a walk about… Then, all going well we’ll wander further north on Monday morning… it all depends on the wind… and they call this wind… a ‘norther’. Later… CJ
