Trip to the islands

Sat. Dec. 31 2011 – sailed from La Paz, out to the outside of El Magote, to see the whale sharks. At first we weren’t having much luck, but by staying near the tour boats, we finally heard one of them say “Here they are!” So, we took the boat over, and voila, there he was…in all his HUGE glory!  Unfortunately, though, the water was a little murky, so we don’t have the greatest pictures to share, but, it will have to do.

A large Whale Shark, they call "Ramone"

Manta Rays, that like to hitch a ride on the whale sharks, these two haven't picked up their bus yet.

Neil had a great time getting into the water with the whale shark, he said it’s mouth was about 3 feet wide…don’t worry though, they have no teeth.  We then sailed up into the bay of Caleta Lobos. Our engine started to overheat, just about an hour or so before arriving into Lobos, and Neil took out the strainer from the intake, and it was clogged, so he got out some wire, and poked it thru, that did help the water to flow again, although it still was not working, so Ed, got in his dinghy and came over to our boat (all of this, while we were still at sea) and he tried to help Neil figure it out.  They surmised that most likely our water pump is bad….boo!  So, it looks like Neil and I will be staying in Lobos for two nights, then on Monday morning heading back into La Paz, so we can install a new water pump.  Then we will join SeaMoore again, once it’s fixed.

Menu: Pozole, we had SeaMoore over to enjoy it with us.

Neil, gettin' down and dirty again!

"Where did I put that darn crescent wrench??"

Ed, from SeaMoore, after his dinghy ride over to us.

Making Pozole

Sun. Jan 1 2012 – First thing we did today...I use the word "we" loosly, because it was actually Neil that did it, I took the pictures...hey, that's hard work too!...Neil cleaned the bottom of the boat.  See how beautifully clear the water is!

look at my hard workin' man!

After our work was done, Neil and I kayaked over to shore. Over to the north side of the beach, there was large section of mangroves with a fairly good sized fresh water stream right thru the middle of it.  We decided to drag the kayak the 30 yards over and put it in the stream to check it out.  It didn’t go in very far, but it was really nice. We saw plenty of fish, and several small crabs.

lighthouse, just outside of Los Lobos

a view of the beach and water

on our way to the mangroves!

almost there!!

woot woo!!!

draggin it to the stream...

Here we go!

a view looking back out of the mangroves

there's nothing sexier than a kayak on the beach baby!!

this is how clear the water was

Afterward, we played on the beach for a bit then headed back to our boat. Later on, Teri and Ed from SeaMoore, hailed us on the radio inviting us to go on a day sail with them over to the next Bay, called Balandra.  Balandra is the bay that houses the famous to Mexico “Mushroom Rock” It’s a balancing rock, similar to those you would see in the states, in Canyonlands National Park. Balandra was a really neat place, and we had a lot of fun. The kids would love it here, the shallow water goes out at least 200 yards or so, so there’s plenty of space for them to play in the water, without the danger of an under toe, or water that’s too deep. Most of the shallows are covered with only about 6 inches to a foot of water.  An hour or so later, we headed back to Lobos, as we needed to be sure to get back before dark, so Ed could re-anchor his boat again…it’s not much fun to do in the dark. We had so much fun today. What a great way to start the new year! That evening, Teri and Ed invited us over for dinner, BONUS to an already great day!  Oh yah…earlier in the day, Ed checked out the bottom of our boat, (he has diving weights…we don’t L ) and sure enough it ends up being, it was still clogged.  So, he cleaned it out for us, and the intake was now pulling in water, as it should again.  Yay!! Now we don’t need to go back to La Paz, so we can continue on our journey, as planned.

Headed for Balandra, with SeaMoore!

our first glimpse of Mushroom rock

the huge bay of Balandra

all the water in this shot, is 1 foot or less in depth, and this is just the 1st 50 yards of the shallows.

This person is a good football field out, and as you can see, the water is barely up to his knees

Mushroom Rock

a really beautiful sunburst starfish!

Menu: Teri made goulash and a cake, we made a salad

Mon. Jan. 2, 2012 – Stayed in the third finger of Puerto Ballena, called Ensenada de la Raza. Pretty place, it reminded us of Moab. 

Menu: Achiote chicken, with tortillas, and roasted potatoes (Teri made the potatoes/carrots, and leftover cake)

Tues. Jan. 3, 2012 – stopped in Ensenada del Candelero.  Beautiful place!  Neil and Ed went snorkeling, and exploring, and Neil tried his hand at spear fishing, although, nothing really worth catching here, he had a hard time getting close enough to get anything anyway, we really need to find some diving weights, it would sure help.  

Menu:  home made pizzas, and I also made a pumpkin pie.

Wed. Jan 4, 2012 – we will stay one more night here, and leave Thursday. Neil and I took a little kayak trip over to the little island, and walked around.  There were lots of these little cock roach looking bugs, but other than that, it was really cool. We then kayaked over to the beach, and wandered around.  Lots of really cool stuff to see.  This place totally reminds us of Moab/Canyonlands.  There were several rock formations, and a little “arch”/opening to the other side of the beach, where a camp for tourists is. We found the fresh water well, and that was kind of cool. Later in the day, I snorkeled with Teri, Ed, and Colleen, lots of really pretty fish, and scenery.  This is a fun place!

Menu: had dinner at SeaMoore’s but I made “machaca” and fresh tortillas, and refried beans, Teri made rice.

the little island

these crabs were actually so pretty, they had this sort of little neon blue strip around their bottom edge.

from this angle, it looks like an elephant seal...

the well, made by the indians native to this land sometime before the 1700's. The bricks were added to the outside of it sometime in the 1800's by local settlers.

...now, it's a recliner...

...and finally, a chaise lounge! LOL

the archway to the other beach

tourist camp

 

Thurs. Jan 5, 2012 – sailed over to El Mezteno, which is just the next bay up from Candelero.  We weren’t planning on staying overnight here, but it’s windy enough, that we think we’ll just stay put for tonight.  Tomorrow, we’ll be checking out Caleta Partida.  As soon as we were anchored, Neil and I took the kayak over to the beach to check it out, another pretty place, a really, really long stretch of shallows here.  We probably were in 1-2 feet of water for over 200 yards.  This bay is a bit barren compared to the others we’ve stayed in so far, but the water is clear, and cool…It’s still great to be in Mexico!

just a really cool picture

our first really pretty sunset of the trip

Menu: Spaghetti with meat sauce (Teri’s making on her boat) Neil and I are making a napa cabbage salad, with asian dressing, and I made fresh dinner rolls.

Fri. Jan 6, 2012 – Caleta Partida is a very pretty place. Like Mezteno, a little windy, but not as bad, but much, much better scenery.  We had a nice day just kind of taking it easy, didn’t really do much of anything, but we’ll do some exploring tomorrow.  We did have a wonderful surprise though. Colleen from SeaMoore, had met a couple on a boat called Pyxi, a few days back, and they showed up here in Partida today, with a nice sized grouper in hand, that he had just speared.  He brought it straight to Colleen and Teri and Ed on their boat.  So…guess who got invited to dinner…or to cook it rather…LOL.  Neil and I went over to SeaMoore, and Neil helped Ed to finish filleting it.  It was so fresh, it was still twitching while they worked.  After the filleting was done, Neil and I got promptly to work.  We had a wonderful dinner (menu below) and ate it with an absolutely MAGNIFICENT sunset as a backdrop. It was a truly breathtaking sky!!

Menu: Blackened Grouper, with Louisiana red beans and rice, and a fresh vegetable platter that Teri made. Gingerbread with a creamy butter rum sauce for dessert.

the most breathtaking sunset, we've ever experienced...everywhere was touched by it's color!! 

Sat. Jan 7, 2012 – Did some exploring today on the island of Partida.  Really neat shoreline. We really wanted to kayak over to the sea caves on the north east side of the island, but because we had a pretty hefty wind we were unable.  So we took our kayak over to the other side of the island, instead.  It was really nice, some very cool things to look at.  They had all kinds of cactus, really tall ones, and very healthy looking.
We also found a fossilized sea shell, neither of us had ever seen one before, so that was really really cool. We hooked around to the other side of the beach, and as we were walking across the beach, we couldn’t help but notice, that the sand appeared to be moving. Thousands, upon thousands of teeny tiny little sand crabs just completely covered the ground! It was too cool. We got a couple of close ups. They looked like they would be aggressive little buggers, because they had this massive claw (compared to their little bodies) only on one side. But, as we began to try to mess with them a little bit, to see if they’d bite us…crazy, I know, the stupid things we tourists do, right?...other than place their massive claw up in front of them, sort of like a shield, they didn’t really do anything. Huh? So, we have no way of telling you if it hurts to be pinched by one of those crazy big claws or not, LOL. After our exploration on the island, we headed back to the boat, so we could get ready to leave for Candalero again. We’re going to spend one night there on our way back into La Paz.

We were underway, by around 11 am, our plan was to head all the way up to the end of the island, to go around the point that’s called “Los Islotes.” There is a beautiful natural arch there, and it’s also home to many, many sea lions. The tour boats will even take tourists out to swim with the sea lions. Apparently, they’re really people friendly. The island is very beautiful, and though we didn’t get out to swim with the sea lions, we really enjoyed it. We plan to go back out and do it sometime soon.

Now that we’ve rounded the island, we’re on our way to Candelero once again, then home to La Paz.

Menu: Mus-go (everything mus go)

fossilized sea shell

look closely...every single dot you see is a crab...I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE! It was crazy!!

close up of one of those "crabby" little fellows

Sun. Jan. 8, 2012 – We left Candelero around 11:00 am, and headed back to La Paz.  Neil took a nap, pretty much the whole way back, as he was feeling a little under the weather L  So, Teri was so nice to come sail with us on our boat, so she could keep me company.  We put the boat in autopilot, and played games in the cockpit, at the table, while we enjoyed the scenery.  By the time we were almost into La Paz, Neil was feeling quite a bit better, and was able to come and join us outside. We arrived in La Paz around 3:00 in the afternoon.  What a great trip we had, and we can’t wait to do it again!!

Blackened Fish
(we usually use red snapper, or any kind of white fish)

Mix the following spices together for the cajun blend. This will be enough for about 4-6 fish fillets
1 T. smoked paprika
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. dried oregano (crush it really well)
2 & 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. white pepper
1/2 tsp. dried thyme (crush this as well)
mix these spices together, then store in an airtight container, and keep in a dark and dry place (inside my spice cupboard, is where I keep mine)

For the fish:
Be sure to wash then pat dry, with a paper towel, each of the fillets. Now rub a generous portion of the cajun blend, on both sides of each of the fillets, then set aside.  Get a heavy duty skillet, and place about 1/4 C. vegetable oil, and 1/4 C. pure butter, and melt on high heat, stirring constantly, until the butter has completely melted. Then let the fat heat up for another 2-3 minutes or so. *the fats need to be very hot.  Now you may want to do this in your bar b que, or on an outdoor stove, because once you add the fish, it's going to smoke a lot...but it's oooohhhh so worth it.
Add the fish fillets, one at a time, and cook for about 3-4 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fillet.  You want the fillets to be very very dark brown/black on each side, but NOT BURNED so really watch it.  Do not overcook the fillets, as dry fish is totally "no bueno!"  Enjoy!!