Mexican Riviera!

And now we are on the Pacific Coast of Mexico! We left La Paz last Monday and went back to Los Muertos, buddy boating this time with our new friends Julie and Mike and their son Ben on Sea Otter. For the projected 40+ nautical mile trip (around 8 hours), I was feeling a bit brazen and decided to try the ear plug method since it was going to be a day sail. What a mistake! I could not get the foam ear plug to stay in my ear and since I wanted to test that method, I did not take anything else and so I was caught unprepared. I was SO SICK. I vomited 3 times. And I learned that the patch has really been doing a lot for me. Once we arrived, in the evening and set the anchor, I was fine. But YIKES. That was hard. It was lovely to be back there. Such a lovely anchorage! Some great snorkeling for everyone.

This time in that bay, I did not fall and hurt my ankle, we had calm nights for sleeping and it was all around a lot less stressful than the time we were here before. We stayed 2 nights while we watched the weather and waited for the perfect time to make our crossing of the Sea of Cortez. Went to the crazy Gran Sueno resort again. Deserted. A lovely place full of good intentions but falling to ruin.

Since the crossing of the Sea of Cortez would take us 48 hours or so, we decided with Sea Otter to leave late afternoon on Wednesday and do 2 overnights and one full day. I put on a patch, took a Zofran, put in an ear plug, put on the pressure wrist bands, some Advil and had a healthy dosage of chocolate. This seems to be the strange cocktail that works for me! I was not sick for the entire trip to Isla Isabel and even was able to cook and eat food! Amazing. I am still scared to take the Sturgeron (Cinnazarine) so I think, for now, that I will stick with the above noted cocktail and hope for the best! The trip was lovely. And weird, too. We had a bird land on the top of our mast just before dinner on Thursday night and for 14 hours he just sat there. Hitching a ride! I thought it was eery. For my 3-7 watch, I kept looking up at him and wondering what it all meant. I did not feel like I was alone... it was odd. He left us before we got to our destination so we must have helped it along!?!

Just sitting there. Pooping on the deck, of course.

We had so much fun in Isla Isabelle. Thousands of birds, breaking surf and an empty anchorage. We had great sleeping conditions and met up with John and his son Will from Alouette again and we all had a great time there swimming and snorkeling and visiting the birds and iguanas on the island that is a national nature preserve. The boys both came back to the boat with Geckos. I was not in favor of it but they are all so desperate for pets these days…

At the time I am typing this, Ben’s gecko, Rico, just reappeared in our head after we were sure he was lost, and Max’s Cinnamon is nowhere to be found. Apparently, they are good animals to have on a boat as they eat the bugs. We will see. So far, although San Blas is known for being incredibly buggy, we have had nothing! Something about a "quarter moon"? We may force them to release the geckos soon. If we can find them on the boat! We spent a night in Mantanchen bay which was also lovely. We arrived at night from Isla Isabel and so when we awoke this morning, we were treated to an amazing sight of a bay with lush foliage and palm trees. Compared to the dry, hard landscapes of the Baja California, it feels like Hawaii or the Caribbean! We motored into San Blas and arranged to take a ponga tour this afternoon into the jungle to see crocodiles and swim in a fresh water spring called La Tovara with Sea Otter. We had such an amazing day! So exciting. Invigorating. We saw turtles and birds and crocodiles and the most amazing mangroves.

Fresh water spring, La Tovara. A haven.

Perhaps being from Seattle, all this green and lush is doing me good. Perhaps all that dry was wearing me down? Here are some other photos from today in San Blas.

That boat (a wreck!), next to ours, is from Wilmington, Delaware?????

Appa and Sea Otter at La Marina Fornatur San Blas

Sailor Ben

 If my previous postings had you worried about me, thank you. I am fine. I just needed to vent and not just paint pretty pictures of rainbow pixie land. Lest you think all this is easy!