So boat plans and timelines are so fluid it makes me wonder why we make plans at all. If this trip south has taught me anything..it should be to not have expectations and plans need to be liquid – pun intended.
I am writing this from an anchorage with no cell and only sketchy wifi from a restaurant on shore so not sure when I will upload this post. As our regular readers already know it took much longer to splash in Puerto Penasco than planned…so why should leaving Santa Rosalia be any different!? The dock lines at Santa Rosalia felt like they were made of velcro because the held us there for nearly three weeks waiting for the strong ‘northers’ to ease.
But let’s not sell Santa Rosalia short…we loved this town and with all the time we had there we explored it thoroughly. We hiked the old mine sites, the local cemetery and explored the shops and restaurants. It is an amazing historical site rich with history and culture. The pics really don’t do it justice..but I will try.
We also took a road trip via bus to the town of Mulege. It was like a trip down memory lane for Brian and I. We travelled some of the Baja by car with our kakaks over a decade ago. It is fascinating how little things have changed. We had a great lunch in the courtyard garden restaurant of the hotel we stayed in all those years ago. Fantastc food and lovely setting. Highly recommend you check out Las Casitas Hotel if ever in Mulege. Here are some of the pics from around town as well as the historic mission built in the 1700’s.
So after lots of fun hiking and good company (thank Iris and Cliff) we finally had a weather window to head south. We set sail along with several other boats and ended anchoring at Punto Chivato. We spent two nights there before moving on.
Our next “velcro” stop has been Playa Santispac in Bahia de Concepcion. The strong northers keep blowing and even though it is downwind sailing…the waves stack up here and make it uncomfortable. So why push on when you have this lovely safe and pretty anchorage.
Santispac has a large contingent of RV campers on the beach. Similar to boats the sizes range from small tent trailers to massive motorhomes. There are two restaurants on the beach but we would only recommend Armandos. The food is great and the beer is cold.
Further down Concepcion bay there are a series of playas/anchorages to explore. Most are not great for anchoring in north winds but we took Puff the dinghy down for a day trip to El Burro. There is a good hike there that Brian wanted us to try. It was a tough hike in the heat …and of course I forgot my hiking poles on the boat! But the views from the top were spectacular. The rock formations on the top were quite interesting. The rocks look rusty in colour and when you tap on them they sound like a bell. Apparently this is because they have such a high iron content.
We did move the boat for one night of our over 2 1/2 week stay here. Predictwind was showing a night of southerly winds and this would make Santispac a lumpy anchorage overnight. We motored 45 mins south to Playa Santa Barbara and enjoyed a calm anchorage with dolphins to entertain us while we tried to fish…no fish caught again.
We have met some love other cruisers…Caleb from Taos New Mexico and Marcia and Peter from Chile. We have shared lots of laughs, dinners, trips to town together …and of course lots of sailing and life stories. I think it is on of the blessings this cruising life affords us. We meet and share great times with people we otherwise would never meet.
After such a long gap since our last post I was struggling to know how much detail to include. Suffice to say I hope the pictures tell the stories. The days run into each other and we stay busy it is hard to describe the day to day life. We have been kayaking, dinghy sailing, swimming, fishing (unsuccessfully) and even a few boat jobs here and there.
SV Cariba 