We returned to Puerto Escondido to hook up with friends and pick up our guest, Jack from the airport.  The morning of Jack’s arrival, Eric, Courtney and Matt from Yolo hiked Steinbeck’s Canyon.  I’m having a hard time finding exactly why the trail is named after John Steinbeck, but my hypothesis is that this is the area he and Ed Ricketts visited in 1940 when they collected marine specimens and explored the Gulf of California as documented in The Log of the Sea of Cortez. They met a rancher who took them out to hunt big horn sheep.  In the end they had a great trail ride and camp out even though they never saw any sheep.

Cow, goats and even horses can be found wandering free in this harsh land.    The trails took them over pools of water.

Scrambling over boulders.

The terrain is tough, but a little soil and a little water in enough for this beautiful palm to sprout out of a rock.

The day was hot, but the views were worth it.

This was a quick stop in Puerto Escondido, now we have to get out to the islands and enjoy the water.

When I moved aboard our first Makai in 1991, Jack was our neighbor at Cabrillo Isle Marina in San Diego.  He had returned a few years earlier from cruising in Mexico and told us all about this area in Baja.  Jack’s stories inspired us to head out on our cruises in 1997 and again in 1999. Its nice to have him here and listen to the stories of his adventures.

Jack was kind enough to gather up our mail and a few supplies.  Be aware when cruisers ask you to bring mail, it’s not just Christmas Cards and bank statements.  He brought us things like new dinghy propellers, outboard engine parts, mail order bathing suits, several months of Reader’s Digest (our favorite magazine), and even bread yeast.   Thanks Jack for all the presents.

Our dinghy prop had a difficult year.  The first blade got chipped in Atlantic City, NJ, then there were rocks in Zihuatenjo, Tenacatita, and lastly Ballandra Bay had a hidden hazard.

Jack traveled Mexico and Central America by boat and camper several times.  It was great having a tour guide to teach us more about the area.

The Cholla cactus was blooming these barely visible little pink flowers.  Jack showed us how its mean little needles shed their outer skin which embeds into the victim leaving the needle to live another day on the cactus.   When the plant dies the wood has an interesting Swiss cheese pattern.

The beach in Marquer, Isla Carmen, had other interesting treasures like this trigger fish skeleton.

How about this stag beetle.  There is always something new to see at the beach.

The Hobie has been our best toy ever.  In Mexico the wind is either too light for Makai to sail or from the wrong direction.  Once in the anchorage the wind always comes up in the afternoon and Hobie gets to zip back and forth exploring the bay.

Topaz Jump

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Topaz gets clipped to her swim line in the morning, her ladder goes in and then she takes care of herself all day.  After her evening bath she is done, beat, spent, pooped out, don’t try to sit in her spot, she will wiggle her way in to put herself to bed.

The next stop is Isla Coronados, our first new anchorage in several weeks.  We arrived at the end of the day, sailed the Hobie around, took showers and had dinner.  Everyone was settling in for relaxation when we spotted Topaz out swimming.  Hey, she jumped off the bow to chase the jumping Manta Rays.  I always remembered them jumping in the Sea of Cortez, but this year has been amazing.  We all jumped into the dinghy and chased Topaz who was chasing the rays.  They gave us a spectacular show with a dozen in the air at any given time.

The next morning Roy and I were on the bow pulling up the anchor when he looking into the water and saw the school of mantas swim by the boat.  What is a few more minutes, lets go swimming!

Swimming with the Manta Rays

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Normally the Hobie is hoisted on the deck any time we move to another location but the weather has been so calm, we have been towing it from anchorage to anchorage.  Today we left a little later in the morning, the wind started to pick up and the Hobie was getting beat while trailing Makai, so Marie and I volunteered to sail Hobie the rest of the way.  The waves were a little big, the wind a little bit on the nose, and we were really cold, but we made it the 12 miles up to Punta Mangles.

I never saw so many pretty little shells.  We spent the rest of the day collecting a large baggie of shells for future crafts.

Mangles is also home to abandoned buildings.  Between the unfinished abandoned houses there is also an abandoned unfinished swimming pool.  This type of neighborhood isn’t unusual, it always leaves us guessing about the story behind the ghost town.

Several pangas were cruising around.  Instead of the usual fishermen, these were full of tourists out on paid fishing trips.  One boat was fly fishing.  They got a few little fish here and there, not quite the success Roy has with hot dogs for bait in the evenings.

Around the corner is a nice snorkel reef.

Watching the animals go about their day leaves me wonder what it would be like to live in a neighborhood as diverse as theirs. There are some relationships where they actually swim together, but others that don’t mingle at all.

We experienced cold water in some areas, red tide in others, but where it was clear the reef full of sea life to keep us entertained for the morning.

Of course Roy is always hunting. One of these fish makes two meals.  We gave one fillet to our neighbor and cooked the other up for Baja fish tacos. Leopard Grouper is our new staple for seafood. Roy puts forth more patience and effort to get these fish than he did in the Bahamas.  First of all the water visibility is fair to good at best and hard to find and chase the grouper. They are fast and swim out in the open, deeper water.  If they make it to the safety of the rocks, their color blends in and they can disappear so far into the reef you can’t dig them out. Roy is determined and the best I can do is to keep and eye on him and assist if he asks for help.

The next anchorage up is San Juanico, a large and beautiful bay with several beaches and reefs.

One tree here hosts the cruiser’s shrine where sailors passing by leave a plaque or paint a rock or shell with their boat name and date.  We saw a few from 20 years ago, but no sign of old Makai on our previous trips.

Driftwood bonfires with our pals on the sailboat Friday were fun each night. When the bigger logs heat up, scorpions come crawling out.  Ewwww, it’s creepy and scary, no one wants to step on one of these guys as they’re fleeing to safety away from the fire.

It’s time to turn around and head back to Loreto so Jack can catch his flight back to LA tomorrow.

Isla Coronados hosts yet another hot, dry, rocky, steep hike.  A perfect challenge for Eric and Jack.  The kids and I made up some excuses and then disappeared when it was time to leave.

The trail started out well marked with signs to describe the flora and fauna along the way.

Oooo, pretty flower!

And another.

Then Jack headed back to the beach telling Eric to take a picture from the summit. Yikes, there are no switch backs, just scramble up the side of the hill.

High above the anchorage, the summit is the top of an ancient volcano.

Eric called us on the vhf radio from the top.  After a half hour or so we went to the beach to watch the steam come off him when he finally made it to soak in the water.

All that hiking deserves a beer at the beach.  We saw a few schools of some type of brown ray swimming by.

After months of cold water, the clear, warm, shallow water along this beach was like a big Jacuzzi.

Our Christmas card from 2000 is a picture of Eric, Teak and Me taken by Mike Gebb on this very same beach.

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The next day we anchored in front of Loreto and did all the usual chores.  We hiked around town for dinghy fuel, beer refills, tortillas, flashlight batteries, and groceries.  We made new friends, a family on vacation from the Pike’s Peak area in Colorado, and had lunch and ice cream with them.  Then the anchor came up and we motored up to San Juanico to meet up with Yolo and pick up where we left off.