(To view Album click here)The trip from LA to Cabo was and will be imprinted in our mind and will never understand why cruisers are in such a hurry to get to Cabo, missing all these beautiful anchorages. Most do it in 4 days. Why rush? Your cruising now and THERE IS LIFE BEFORE CABO!!! For sure there’s life in Cabo and after 3 weeks living in that busy tourist place, it was more than time to leave. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoyed Cabo a lot and we had a very good time. Besides who can turn down having the luxury, of electricity, cable TV, swimming pools, restaurants and nearby shopping, although we do prefer the isolation of a beautiful cove.
It’s absolutely amazing how many street vendors you'll find in Cabo. No matters where you go they are there and ready to attack the tourists. All day long you here: “HEY LADY LOOK!” - “YES” - "CHICKLETTES!” - “TAKE A LOOK, TAKE A LOOK!” - “HOW MANY” - “ALMOST FREE TODAY!” - “ONLY ONE DOLLAR!” It really starts getting to you after a few days, so I started telling them “vivo aqui” (I live here). Wouldn’t you know it worked, from then on they left me alone. We watched one tourist getting involved with a hat vendor, he didn’t seem to like anything and started to walk away. Quickly the vendor said: “Gimmi one dollar, senior!” the visitor turned around and took a dollar bill out of his wallet, gave it to the vendor hoping to get his one dollar hat, but the vendor said instead: “one dollar off, senior!” yeah, right, nice try! What bothered me most was, the Indians exploiting their little kids to sell chickelettes chewing gum. Some of them were so little they could barely walk. Really sad to see these little kids spending their precious childhood, day and night on the streets begging, while their parents are sitting by, watching. Even during visits in restaurants, we got surrounded by hundreds of these begging kids, nonstop interrupting our conversations. I made up a sign that said, NO GRACIAS, VIVO AQUI! And placed it in the middle of the table! Again, it worked, we didn't get bothered anymore. Tim on “Rooster Cogburn” had a great idea. To hire a whole bunch of these kids and have them sell the chickelettes, then have some T-shirt guys walk behind them and selling T-shirt saying: I don’t want any F*%^&#* chicklettes!
After one week we finally got in touch with “Real Lady”. Joe and Toni took us for some great fishing. Jacquelyn, Toni’s wife caught a 160 pound Marlin and mine was even 180 lb. What a thrill, now that is what I call fishing! Again we ran into some Club Members Bill and Sharon Graves on “Tsunami”. They left Marina Del Rey about the same time we did, sailed straight to Zihuatanejo and were back already in Cabo, now that’s what I call “Fast Track”.
Then there was Linda and Tim on “ROOSTER COGBURN" a very nice couple from San Francisco, cruising on their 36 foot Ericson Ron Holland Design (racing boat). I met Linda getting all the rolls of quarters for the 14 loads of laundry. Linda took the job at the Marina Office for 4 years, so they put their cruising on hold. They showed us around town and about the best restaurants and shopping. In return, we took them to Aqua Caliente which is an hour drive to Santiago. There you hike up and across the river, over boulders until you reach a deep emerald green pool with the clearest and coolest water with a waterfall splashing into it. Above the waterfall is another pool with waterfall and so on. It was such an incredible, breathtaking place we went back several times.
Imagine opening Christmas Cards on Valentines Day! That was the day we received our first mail since leaving Los Angeles. We hadn’t planned to spend three weeks in Cabo, first of all it’s way too expensive, the slip cost us over $1200. We had some major problems which kept us there. For two weeks I tried to receive e-mail on my computer. No matter what I did, it wouldn’t work. For two weeks daily, I walked back and fourth to the computer place trying to figure out, what was wrong. Even had the computer checked for bugs and viruses. Nothing! It was sooooooo frustrating. Bill, who is a computer whiz, couldn’t figure out what was wrong either. He even would get up in the middle of the night to write down ideas he just thought of, what a guy! Nothing seemed to work. Just as I told Sid I was giving up, we discovered that our Visa card wasn’t working either. We tried to call Visa, but of course the 1-800 number doesn’t work from out of the country. (By now know to dial 880!) More frustrating was the fact that every business now days has a recording playing, which on a Mexican phone was very hard to hear. We never managed to talk to a life person. Our last chance was to call our best friend K…….. (She doesn’t won’t us to mention her name!). She called Visa for us and twenty minutes later, as we called her back, she told us that they wanted money from us. For a moment, Sid was speechless and shocked. Then he asked her if she had sent the letters for Visa, we had left for her, to be sent every 1st of the month. OOPS!!! K…… completely forgot about it. Poor K……. cried her heart out, because she let her best friends down. Don’t worry K…even though that cost us a lot of money we still love you! So we stayed in Cabo until everything was back to normal again. As the Visa was working again, so was my computer, guess my e-mail provider finally got our money too!
I’m had so much fun shopping in Mexico so far, then it was an adventure in it self. From a farmer along side the street, I bought 10 kilos of oranges, a good size melon and 4 jicama for only 30 Pesos ($3.50) and found a tortilla press for two buck. In the produce store I found fresh basil, rosemary, portabella mushrooms, scallions (triple the size as we know them), grapefruits the size of a football, so juicy and tasty. You name it, it was all there and as fresh as it gets. One important thing I learned in shopping is: if you see something you usually use, or you eventually need, buy it when you see it. It may not be there next time and you may never see it again.
Sara Lee and Berry (again Club Members) sent us a note that they were coming down to their house and so they helped us kill some time here in Cabo as well. I can’t say that we were bored in Cabo at all, there was always something going on. Late at night before we left Cabo I received an email that the Mondello’s were in Cabo with phone number. The next morning at 7 a.m. early, I called the number and found out that Mary and Joe had been here for the last three weeks. Can’t believe we never ran into them, since they ate at the same restaurants we did. The reason I’m bringing Joe and Mary up is that Joe Rini reminded us so much of Joe. Not just do they look alike, they are a like, both Italian as well, like to cook and eat and have the same commercial stove at home. We told him that and funny as it was, there was Joe meeting Joe. Even Mary was taken back by it and said that they looked like brothers. We left after that short visit and Joe took Joe fishing and they stayed friends ever since.
LOS FRAILES, March 4th: wow March already! Where does time go. After a fun hour with Marie, Joe and Joe, we said our good-byes headed off to Los Frailes, 43 miles away. The wind was dead on the nose the motor was purring and it was a gorgeous day. It felt so wonderful to be out and about again. The water is so full of life and there’s always something to see. From countless dolphins, breaching whales, somersault jumping mantas, flying fish and little fish skipping on the water, chased by a Dorado. Which reminds me of my poem: How beautiful nature can be and it’s all out there for us to see. Just open your eyes and your mind, you’ll be surprised what you can find!
Anchoring in Los Frailes brought some old memories back. A few years ago, the two of us sitting on this beach, talking and dreaming about this very moment. Every day we remind ourselves that this is it, we really are doing it. Sometimes it seems like just a dream, until we wake up and the dream is still here, so we learned that our dream is reality. It’s just so wonderful.
Frailes still looked the same with several rounded, reddish, rocky points with a brilliant white, sandy beach. We enjoyed a most spectacular dark red sunset and awakened with an even more spectacular dark and red sunrise. As they say: “Red sky at night, a sailor's delight! Red sky in the morning, a sailor takes warning!” Believe me it is a warning. After about 9 a.m. the wind changed due south, turning this beautiful place into a very uncomfortable mess. We abandoned our anchorage and went around the point to the southerly protected side, across the bay of Cabo Pulmo. We were in ah's and oh's with our new surrounding. What a beautiful bay! It kind of reminded us of Badlands. If it wasn't for the southerlies we would have never anchored in this beautiful place. It was nice and calm, the water very clear and the scenery just breath taking. Full of coral reefs, it is a paradise for snorkeling and diving. We took the kayaks out and paddled along the shore from one little beach to the next. Sundown we enjoyed watching the somersault jumping Mantas. Unfortunately the next day the wind changed back to the north, which made this side now unbearable. We decided to head on to Bahia de los Muertos. Not even 5 miles out of Pulmo, the engine choked again, due to too much crap in the fuel, which gets hung up in the filter, so we turned around and headed back to Frailes. After two days of heavy winds (20 gusting up to 39), we guessed that California is being swept by Santanas and that we would experience at least 4 more days of this. Sure enough!
BAHIA DE LOS MUERTOS, 11th: the weather finally settled and was calm enough for us to head on to Bahia de los Muertos (46 miles). Our original plan was to be there for Christmas and celebrate it with our friend George who camps out there every winter. Well, we were a little bit late! It was so exciting to finally sail into Bahia de los Muertos our favorite place in the Sea of Cortez, where we spend a great six weeks camping four years back at Christmas time. We were looking forward to seeing George but surprise! There were no campers on the beach, the beach was empty. We couldn’t be this late?! The snowbirds usually hang out until at least Easter. What happened! A few days later we heard of the dispute over the property between two locals and a French woman. Nobody seems to know who owns it and who should sell it, etc., etc. They chased all the gringos out. It all happened just one week before our arrival. Our luck again! We missed George by only one week!!! Bummer! It was a bit depressing for us, to think that this beautiful place eventually will turn into another construction sight, then it is a historical landmark. Since our last visit, the beach has changed quit a bit. There is a lot more pangas on the beach and the beach has disappeared. Last summer’s storms, washed all the sand right off. The sandy beautiful beach of Muertos turned into a volcanic, rocky beach, although still very beautiful.
Actually without all the gringo campers, Muertos is pretty neat. We had it all to ourselves. All the boats that pulled in every night leave the next morning, as pretty as this anchorage is. Sid must have read four books, while we were here. I just don’t get it, while he was reading he also was listening to the fish jumping around the boat. When that happens you heard him mumble something like Dorado, then he’d jump up, run on deck, grab his fishing pole, casting once and bingo a big Dorado was on the hook. Within 6 days he caught 5 Dorado! The funniest part on this was, every time he caught one, one of the panga who took tourists fishing would return and watch Sid catch a Dorado while they returned empty handed. After a few days when they would leave, we heard and saw them pointing at our boat and talk about the gringo who catches his fish right of the boat in the anchorage. Muertos offers many reefs for great snorkeling and we of course took advantage of that. For the first time we saw a white moray eel with black markings, very beautiful. Another one was very green and so much prettier than in Catalina, not to mention the hundreds of very colorful fish. But best of all we found some delicious scallops. I read in one of my cookbooks, that limpets are edible too and found out that they sure were delicious as well. There quite tasty and a lot easier to get then scallops or oysters and so easy to cook.
One day, sitting in the cockpit, I was doing some needle point and Sid was lost in his book, all of a sudden this huge thing came flying towards me. Since the sun was in my eyes, all I could see was this big shadow rising out of the water, attacking me. Guess the pelican didn’t see me either, until we were nose to nose. I screamed a terrifying scream. Sid’s still trying to figure out who got scared most, me being nose to nose with the bird, or the bird from my awful scream. Then Sid said: “Honey, I think we’ve been here too long. The pelicans are recognizing you and are trying to sit in your lap!”
I’ll tell you how relaxed and lonely it can get, one day Sid was watching all these many people on the beach and said: “Honey look all the people, today must be a holiday.” I checked the date on the calendar and it was a Saturday! I guess close enough to be a holiday.
Did you ever wonder how cat food tastes? Just ask me I know! I used to treat our cats with Gerber’s veal or lamb baby food and after scraping everything out of the jar I lick my fingers. Now I can’t get the baby food anymore so I switched to caned cat food and out of habit …it doesn’t really taste all that bad, but just the thought of it, yuck!
LA PAZ, March 23rd: after two very relaxing weeks in Muertos, we decided it was time to head to La Paz. 56 miles. A beautiful day later, we arrived in La Paz, and immediately spotted our friends boat “INSPIRATION” (yes also PMYC). We said a quick hello, while we circled their boat and started to head over to the other side of the bay, to the Mogote. Thank goodness for Barbara asking us if we knew were the channel was to get across. No, we didn’t! Thank you Barbarita, without her tip we would have ended up on the shoals, like so many other boats still do. I think La Paz is by far the worst place to anchor. It is an estuary type place, were the tide moves as much as 2 to 4 knots at times. When the wind is blowing, it is fighting the tide, which makes it quite messy. Also in this situation, which happens all the time, you will not see any boats facing the same direction and it rather looks very weird. One never knows if the anchor is dragging, or not. They call this the “La Paz Waltz” and frankly we didn’t like it. Besides it doesn’t keep time with Jimmy Buffet! To go back and fourth to shore, we had to wear our foulies and still got soaked. Since we only had a 6 horse outboard motor and couldn’t compete with the tide and wind situation, we decided it was time to buy a new one. We bought a 15 horse Evenrude, a commercial model, sold outside of the United States and about $ 800.00 cheaper. It took us a week to finally get it. They didn’t take checks or credit cards, only cash, so for one week every day we would hit the ATM machine. La Paz itself is fun for shopping. It’s probably one of the best places to provision. Food is excellent and very cheap. The other night we had 2 hamburgers and 1 hot dog for only 26 Pesos (not even 3 bucks) and they were the best burgers we’ve ever had and went back the next night. Then we had Chateau Briand in a local restaurant. The piece must have weight 2 pounds and it was prepared at the table in a red wine, brandy and mushroom sauce. It melted in the mouth and we couldn’t believe the price, 86 Pesos (US$ 10) for the both of us. Since La Paz offered such a convenience, we decided to spend the whole month of April there. Besides, we really wanted to participate in the La Paz racing week that was at the end of the month.
La Paz is the place of the cruisers and boozers and a lot of them get stuck here, never go anywhere and still call themselves cruisers, instead of “live a’ boards”. Well, that will never happen to us, we may be slow, and we may get stuck at some places for a while, but we will not give up cruising.
For the most part of April, we had a slip in Marina de la Paz. After one week on the 9th, we had to move into the slip next to us and in the middle of the night we hit bottom. Never a doll moment! At 2 a.m. in the morning we moved all the heavy stuff (kayaks, gas can, etc.) off the boat, including our selves we sat on the dock until 5a.m., until the tide was high enough, so that Paradise didn't hit bottom anymore. What a terrible sound, hearing the keel grinding on the bottom, luckily it was sandy. First thing in the morning we went to the office to request another slip, at the same time we were waiting for our rental car, which never arrived, (it got delivered to the wrong marina)! After a couple of frustrating hours, everything got straightened out Paradise was in a safe slip again and we were underway to Cabo San Lucas to met Karen and Al Berry from PMYC.
Amazingly we found a parking spot right in front of the Hotel, which is in the middle of town, on a very busy street. It was so much fun catching up with Al and Karin and chitchatted for a while before we noticed that we were hungry. After a delicious lunch we headed back to the hotel. As we got closer and the car was in sight Sid mumbled something about a guy and our car. Then we noticed him as well. A stranger was walking around the car looking suspiciously around. Then he turned his back toward the passenger car door he’s hand behind his back and then he disappeared into the car and the door closed behind him. He turned around in the seat and started to go through our stuff, (which wasn’t much, my jacket, Sid’s shirt and a bag full of empty beer bottles). By then we reached the car and watched every single move of the intruder. Then Sid opened the passenger car door, the guy turned around and looked big eyed at him and his mouth had dropped. “Nice car”, Sid said, “unfortunately, it’s mine!” The guy came up with an immediate answer. He thought that this was his friend's car and he was just going to get a beer out of it. Yeah, right!!! As he tried to get out of the car, Sid gently pushed him back into the seat. That’s when I went and call the cops. Imagine the view that guy had out of his low seat of the Volkswagen beetle. Hulk Hogan starring down at him, with his neck veins pulsating and just behind him another guy (Al Berry) who’s a head taller than Sid. He knew he was had! It didn’t take very long either for the police to show up and they immediately arrested him. The guy told them now, that he just met us at the beach and that we were friends. It seemed to us that the cops where quite happy to arrest him. The rest of the day we spent without any other mishaps unless a little too much of the refreshing tasting Margaritas goes into this category. We were so happy to have caught this guy, we celebrated all day long so hard, that we had to spend the night in Cabo. Sid and I came to one conclusion, that this had nothing to do with our luck anymore, IT’S A PMYC CURSE!
We were told by the police officer to return on Monday the 13th, before 3 p.m. to have the thief prosecuted. On Monday back in Cabo we found out hat they let him go after 48 hours, they felt sorry for him to spend Easter in jail. We filed a report, which we were told would be shown to a judge and he would have a warrant out for his arrest. If that happens, we’ll be notified for the court hearing. We wondered how the system really worked here. We had fun and new we would never hear from them and never did.
ISLA PARTIDA, April 20th: Racing Week approached and we thought to get a head start and left almost a week before the event to Isla Partida which is 18 mile from La Paz. It felt good being out of the city again and out in a beautiful cove where Paradise belonged. Isla Partida is a sunken volcano surrounded by colorful cliffs. The water had this tourmaline green color which changed to an icy aqua green towards shallower water, a very picturesque cove. During the two weeks we learned that at 2 p.m. the wind starts blowing out of the north and can blow an easy 20 knots. By sundown it would stop and slowly shift around to the south. Most evenings were very calm and quiet you could here a mouse fart, as Sid would say. At night the water was sparkling with phosphorescence and the sky lit with zillions of stars. If you believe in making wishes when you see a shooting star, this was the place.
After four days of tranquility and making lots of wishes, the race week fleet showed up and turned this place into a party town. The first Party was “Shipwrecked in Partida”! A Pot Luck with a shipwrecked costume party. We used the frigate bird story and told them that while we tried to get the bird off the mast we hit a rock and voila her we were. To make it more realistic, we poured heavy cream over ourselves and topped the cream with the green paint ball liquid, that did the trick we won. Up to this day, people still remember us as the “bird shit people”. We had a lot of fun with that.
Other functions were games on the beach in the morning, competition in the afternoons, including Race Week Olympic, a Chili Cook-Off-Dinner and a hearty salad pot luck, with wild horse races. You should have seen the adults, like little kids hopping around on ply wood horses, it was hilarious A beer belly contest was held too, some bellies looked more like beer barrels. The more fun event by far, was the swim suit contest. I tell you Sid looked hot in my bathing suit! My favorite by far was the dinghy race. It consisted of two to a team one blind folded and rowing, the other giving direction to the blind folded rower. After the start Sid and I were the last to leave the starting line and after telling Sid left or right, I realized that his left wasn’t my left, he was facing me. So I started tapping his left or right foot, whichever direction we needed to go. It worked! We passed everybody and won the race. The most fun was the Dinghy Inn Movie. “Love Song” had three TVs on deck and at least 30 dinghies rafted up for “Captain Ron”. Popcorn and a bottle of Rum was passed around and at the part when they are I a major storm, a panga happened to come by leaving us with a wake, just perfect. Race week was finished off with a Volley ball tournament against the fishermen living on the island, lots of raffles, food, booze, games and fun.
As everybody headed back to La Paz again we needed a rest. Totally exhausted from all the fun, we decided that we needed to spend an extra day or two to recuperate. It was so nice to be all alone again. Not for long as a boat name “Arruta” called us on the radio. Who’s Arruta? Nah, couldn’t bee Gerry Zerr our neighbor from LA, he sold the boat a long time ago. No way! It was him and wife Chris on his ex-boat and so we ended up spending a few extra days there and enjoyed our company.
LA PAZ, May 6th: we returned to La Paz with the plan to re-provision the boat and to leave on the 10th. I went to an ATM machine to get some money, but that one seemed to not work! Since it was the day after cinco the mayo I figured that this ATM machine was just empty and I went to the next bank. Again the machine told me that there was no available money in the account. Odd, so I checked the balance and with horror read that we had only $97.00 left in our account. Very upset I ran back to Sid and the first thing that came to our mind was that we were ATM fraud victims, since we heard several stories about it already. Sid called his bank and found out that in deed we only had $97.00 left, and also no deposits had been made from the pension office. He called the pension office, which was a very interesting phone call. As Sid mentioned his name, he immediately got transferred to a Mary Washington the supervisor. First she told Sid that they didn't pay him for two months and secondly that he was deceased. She told him that they sent out a letter to us with some question and since they didn’t heard from us 'in a timely manner' (which was 2 months), they assumed that Sid was dead! So she canceled his direct deposit. As Sid asked her to deposit the money back into our account, she told him, that she didn’t have the authority. She didn’t have the authority!!! But she just told him she authorized to stop the direct deposit because she assumed Sid was dead. What ever happened to the poor widow me, they just cut her off too! It gets even better yet. She told Sid to send her a fax with proof of address, as in a copy of a business card or anything that shows the address, she can start the deposits again as of the first of the next month. Oh, she’s got the authority to do that, by just talking to any stranger over the phone! But in order to deposit the two checks, they needed to be signed by Sid. But of course, Mary didn’t have the authority to mail them via Fed-Ex or UPS! We even offered to pay for it. No, she could only send it via air mail, which takes 2 to 3 weeks to get to La Paz! She didn’t care that we were stranded in a foreign country! Sid even told her that there was no WELFARE here. May 24th, Sid was alive again and on May 29th the checks were in the bank.
Now we’re not just known as the “bird shit people” but also as the “widow and dead man walking”! It was a tuff three weeks, but thanks to my best friend Sue Janollari we had some money in our bank for food, thanks Sue.
Then a new problem came up. My email provider wouldn’t accept my password in Mexico only if I logged on in San Diego. I contacted Netcom and they told me that I had to download the new version. So I did but now I couldn’t even log on to San Diego anymore. Netcom had switched my password. To top it off, Boone (the computer wizard in La Paz), who helped me with the down load, erased the old version and I lost all the e-mail addresses. I wanted to kill him but luckily just a few days before that I wrote all the addresses in my book. Finally the password worked again, but now the modem wouldn’t connect. After a long three week battle I took a Taxi to the University and had the technician from the La Paz Net fix the problem. Needless to say I changed email providers. During that turmoil we met Dick and Mary on “The Dorcas Hardy”. Dick was using an acoustic coupler to do email and it worked great. I had one but it never seemed to work and Dick set me up with it. Yeah no more email problems, I hope.
While we had to wait for Sid’s paychecks, we decided to apply for the FM3 card, which is a legal residency card for Mexico. Everybody told us that it would take for ever and that it was a real hassle. We didn’t think so and within 10 days we received our Mexican Green Cards. If you plan on staying in Mexico for more then 180 days, I suggest applying for the FM3 card. The tourist visa is only good for 180 days, then you will have to leave the country and re-enter with a new visa.
One day walking through the street of La Paz I noticed a sign in front of a pharmacy saying: “Viagra sold here, come in and get it”. Did you ever think that the hot blooded Mexicans would need any Viagra!
In the mean time the weather turned very hot 100 - 110 and most of the time with not even the slightest breeze! Since were waiting for the checks, we decided to have the luxury and stay in a slip in the Marina and enjoy cable TV. Because of the cats, we had to close the hatches at night, so they wouldn’t roam the docks and get into any fights with stray cats. I tell you it got very muggy inside the boat. We spent most of the days with siestas under a cool fan and didn’t move until dark. Going into town I chased any possible shade or shadow. We couldn’t even take a refreshing shower anymore the water came hot out of the pipes. Sid at that time had a full grown beard, so the kids would call him Santa, he finally cut it off and blamed the heat (frankly I think he didn’t like to be called Santa Claus anymore, especially by the kids). Although he cut it only to a goatee, Sid now looked just like Colonel Sanders and everybody started to order chicken from him.
We were being careful in where and what we ate, but ended up with amoeba anyway. Not fun at all, especially the horrible pills we had to take. Suggestion here too is if traveling in Mexico to get an amoeba test done every 6 months or so. Impressive the health care prices here the test only cost 130 pesos which was $14.
Poor Tika, lost a nail on her left front paw and it got badly infected and had to take her to the vet. He cleaned the affected area, gave her 2 shots, some ointment and antibiotics and charged 120 pesos for all of it. Amazing!
Belinda my Mexican girlfriend, talked me into going to see the La Paz Chippendales Dancers. It was hilarious, the show consisted of three dancers who would change their appearance in-between dancing. Not just were they about 4 feet tall, but you needed a magnifying glass to see some muscles. Should have called it the Punydales Show. We didn’t stay long, because instead of them taking the cloths off, they made the audience take off their cloths, which of course were all girls. Belinda, who had also seen the real Chippendales Show was very disappointed, poor girl.
I love to cook with herbs and was absolutely thrilled to see Basil grow wild anywhere. The Dock Café at the marina even had a pot by the kitchen. I also heard that on the mainland basil can't be found and noticed that most of the boats actually had Basil plants on deck. Now we belong to that category as well. Hmmm, fresh basil at any time!
(To view Album click here)
