Los Gatos to Nopolo to San Evaristo

Up to clouds again, which we like!
Coffee & weather.
Manuel came by ~ anyone who has ever been in Los Gatos knows of Manuel!
He is a local panga fisherman, who will take your "order" for fish, clams, scallops and lobster and will deliver it to your boat the next day.
He had helped a 22 year old, single-handed, female cruiser on a tiny boat with no engine into the anchorage the day before. He had a spare outboard that he was going to give to her, but needed to get it from Loreto (or get it fixed in Loreto), but was short fuel, so we donated gasoline to the cause. He wanted to pay us for the gas, but we said no.
Karma bank deposit.

Headed South towards the San Jose Channel and Nopolo.
Completely calm, flat and glassy ~ reminded us of buddy boating here 10 years ago with Alan & Susan on "Toshal"!Had a great sealife show of dolphins casually swimming by, dolphins jumping, rays jumping, marlin swimming along, birds in formation and diving and the best ~ a sperm whale spyhopping to take a look at us! A first! But of course, didn't have the camera ready...We motored into Nopolo and saw this too looked very different. Most of the houses were now located at the North point instead of at the base of the canyon - Hurricane John damage...



We anchored in the South "bay" by the canyon.
There were less houses here than eight years ago.
Less trees too.

Three little girls waved from the beach.
We dinghied in, as I wanted to walk up to the tiny, old cemetary.
The girls came along.
I had taken a bag of toys ~ squirtguns, pencils, whistles, parachute men, finger skateboards AND some of our Easter decorations...
Sorry, Pam, but I gave your flower away to this really sweet cute little girl...Jim and I decided she looked like my sister, Elizabeth when she was little!
What do you think Liz-beth?











They were really cute walking down the beach with their ears and flower petals on.

Up the small canyon to the old cemetary ~ lots of water damage here.Walked around for a bit, then back to the beach.The kids came back, along with a boy around 12 or 13.
They went about 20' further down the beach to throw and skid rocks into the water.
Of course they couldn't act like they came down the beach to play with us!
So after a few minutes, they all came closer and sat down right next to us.
We chatted and Jim showed them how the parachute guys worked.Time to head further South...
So said "adios" to the kids and headed back out to the boat.
Took a float under the boat to cool off ~ this had to be the clearest water yet!
Then headed another 6 or so miles down the coast to San Evaristo.

Being Sunday, and "Mother's Day" the day before, the town was closed up completely.
The store was closed, the beer place was closed, the water place was closed.
We did not see one person around.
Dinghied around the South point to the beautiful clear "aquarium" water.
Lots of fish here!
Then beachcombed on a rocky beach for a bit.
Back to the boat for a nice bottle of chardonnay I found hidden away.
Watched three dogs play on the beach for an hour.
Watched three groups of people (finally some people in the village!) to up to the North end of the beach in one particular spot for cell service!
Now we know...
Tuna melts and leftovers.
We slept in the nets (trampolines) on the bow until 1:30 am when a little breeze came up.
Then to our bunk!

Agua Verde Morning and Los Gatos Afternoon

On Saturday, May 10th, we first thought of Jennifer (niece) and Tim (Timay our crew member) as it was their birthday!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JENNIFER & TIMAY!

Up, coffee, weather, journal & books - typical morning on "Meerkat".Grabbed a few fishing lures and took them over to the stalkers folks on the charter cat we kept seeing. Stu only had a couple of lures with him, and Jim has a million or two good stockpile.

Over to the North beach to hike up the hill that Susan of "Toshal" and I had hiked up years before.
Absolute beautiful views of the bay!Thought I would prove I was there once again...We heard a lot of bees at the top of the hill, so didn't hike down the other side to the old cemetary.
Back to the beach instead.On the beach we met some of the crew from the Seawind catamaran - one being the Seawind builder!
Small world!

Dinghied over to the South anchorage to see who was anchored there and how the beach looked.

Back to "Meerkat" to give the stalkers on the charter cat Stu and Anita a tour and arrange to meet in La Paz in a week.

Then time to head back South...

HOT! Had to rinse off on the transom as we motored along.

Stopped out by the reef to fish and Jim caught two large leopard groupers!

















Motored along the beautiful coast back to Los Gatos.
Swam in the 77-78 degree water once again.
Prepared a to-go wine cooler and went to explore the North pink rock beach.
Pictures are worth a 1000 words, right?
What an incredible place!Then saw this...
Cows on the beach!




Alex and Louisa from "Dancin" had to walk through them to get back to their dinghy.





They actually were drinking the water!I guess it saves the rancher from buying salt licks...

Back to the boat for taco chili with tortillas and a little red wine.
Sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the incredible calm night!

Agua Verde!

Up to watch the sunrise (me).
Couldn't hear Dave on the Amigo Net, so made breakfast instead.
Cleaned up, and Alex of "Maitairoa" came by to let us know he had told Dave where we were - thanks!

Up anchor and up the most incredible, beautiful and awe-inspiring coastline ever!
Calm, calm seas...Watched a gull with a small fish in it's mouth be tormented by a frigate bird for awhile. The gull was using our boat as a distraction and kept flying around and around the mast. Finally the frigate gave up and the gull had it's breakfast.
Fished around the point for awhile, but no luck.
And back to beautiful Agua Verde!
This is Roca Solitaria.Anchored in the North cove along with four other boats.
Jumped in the 77 plus degree water - always feels great after traveling!
Let's go to "town" (village)!
This village too looked very different than it did 8 years ago.
Turned out that a hurricane had done major damage to all of these places - wiping out trees, houses and buildings...
Still lots of animal life here!
Pigs on the beach...









A dog guarding a turkey...

It growled as I got close to the turkey, so we assumed it was telling me it was his turkey...
Or maybe the dog was thinking I was going to use it's outhouse?


"Puppy Goats" too!
The locals will put puppies out with the goats.
The puppies will then learn to live with the goats and be their protectors and herders.
This one wanted to be pet, play and chew on my watchband.And real goats!Last time we were here the small goats would come and up and let us pet them. This time they pretty much ignored us.

Finally found the road that went from the goat area over to the church, tienda and "restaurant".
I use the word "restaurant" lightly, as it really is just a couple of plastic chairs and they will sell you cold beer (last time it was warm beer...).
The garden in front of the "restaurant" was lovely.
So we had a couple of cold beers and enjoyed the flowers.
Since I couldn't send any to my Mom for Mother's Day, this one is for her~We told Socorro, the lady at the restaurant that we had been here eight years before and had taken pictures of the kids here. The two boys were her nephew and the girl was her's, so we went back to the boat, printed the pictures and took them in for her! They had grown...

Finally found the tienda and bought some fresh veggies, goat cheese and tortillas.

Back to the anchorage where we saw that 40' Moorings charter boat again!
Third time they have shown up after us.
So we dinghied over to say quit stalking us hello!
We were happy to finally meet Stu and Anita ~ had a couple of beers with them and talked catamarans.
Watched a Seawind cat come in.
We really are multiplying!
Back to "Meerkat" for appletinis!Yum! A fun change!
The cloud cover behind the martinis was a welcome change ~ sure helps keep the heat down.
Chicken quesadillas with our fresh tortillas ~ also yum!

No fish off the back of the boat, so just sat and enjoyed the evening.
Then off to bed...

Los Gatos - Anchorage of the Pink Rocks

Up to a beautiful calm morning in San Evaristo.
Coffee and Amigo net for weather.
Let's Go!
Headed North through the San Jose Channel.
Passed along Nopolo to the left with it's beautiful canyon and green trees.
Started getting a Southerly!
Very strange ~ blows like stink one day from one direction, then completely clocks around the next day...
Passed along Dolores and Timbabichi (one of the many places in Mexico with cool sounding names ~ Timbabichi, Topolobampo, Tenacatita, Telaquepaque, Tepic - wow, Fritz would like all those "T" words ~ actually I think it was "B" words he liked ~ beach, beauty parlor... more cool place names later)...
Had a hard time seeing the anchorage at first (hey, it's been 8 years!) and then there it was ~ the beautiful reddish pink cliffs and yellow cliffs inland!
In and anchored with four other boats.
Time to get wet!
Floated around in the 77-78 degree water, then put the kayaks in.
Yakked over to the South beaches ~ amazing!
Really beautiful place!










Then kayaked over to the next few beaches to the East to go shelling.
Found three sea biscuits, lots of sea urchins and a couple handfulls of shells (yes, Susan and several of those small pink cowries that look like footballs, but not 100 of them like that one day!)...Watched two more boats in, one being the smaller Moorings charter cat we saw yesterday (more about this boat later).
Back to the boat to finish our books.
Got sangria and fishing gear ready and hopped in the dinghy.
Talked to "Maitairoa" ~ a boat we have heard on the nets a lot.
Talked to "Polar Bear" ~ a boat we vaguely remember from Zihuatanejo (another fun name to say) from eight years ago.
Fished up past the North point, beautiful, but no fish...
Back to the South point and caught a few trigger fish and one spotted bass type fish.







Back to the big boat for some wine and to watch the beautiful yellow sunset!Yellow sunset, so made a "yellow dinner" of pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes and corn.

Sat outide and watched the fish swim around between the transoms (again).

Rinsed off on the transom with fresh water (hot!) and off to bed with books.

Windy Day in Evaristo

On Wednesday we stayed in San Evaristo due to a "Norther" blowing down the Sea of Cortez.

We still had a good time!
I made bacon and eggs with corned beef hash.
Cleaned up.
Watched the white caps march down the San Jose Channel.
Watched a charter cat come up the channel.
Read.
Tried Sudoku.
I think I lost my Sudoku talent if I ever had any Sudoko talent.
Watched our "dogs for yesterday" go for a walk with some other cruisers the traitors.

Time for a walk!
To the beach where we ran into a group of people off of the charter cat that just bashed up the channel ~ they were in search of charcoal, as the Moorings people neglected to tell them the BBQ was not propane...

Walked the flats South of town and then up and over the hill to a beautiful view!The water was really clear here and gave us a view of another charter cat coming up.

Sometimes I have to take a picture of the two of us, so other people know I was there.












Walked out on the South point to the lighthouse and view of the anchorage.
Just in case you didn't remember the trail as you went in...








Back to the beach where we ran back into the charter cat people who had found beer!
So to the "not the tienda" to see if they had beer to sell.
Yes.
Back to the boat for pesos.
Back to the beach and the "not the tienda" and now Jim is happy!

Then back again to the boat for happy hour with smoked oysters, cheese and crackers and beer.

Then four of the charter cat people came for a visit - very funny people from Michigan and Canada. Told us how they had to collect wood on the beach to put in the BBQ to cook their tuna - it worked!

Had a great dinner of chicken, pinto beans, avocado and tomato salad.Watched the fish swim around the back of the boat in the dark and eat each other.

To bed!