The Loreto area, Baja California Sur, Mexico
05/07/2003 - 05/12/2003
The "Waiting Room" outside Puerto Escondido, or "Hidden Harbor". A narrow channel in the distance on the right opens into a huge protected bay (large enough for a few hundred boats).
Our first order of business -- laundry day. With "servicio", Robin wheels 8 loads of laundry to the lavandaria to be done for about $15US. MJ & John (Island Sonata) and Robin (center) head down the lonesome highway to the Tripui Trailer Park.
More Great Sailing!
The trip up from Candeleros Chico was a slow upwind beat in less than 10 knots of breeze, but Whisper (and crew) loved the light winds. The mellow day-sail could take as long as we wanted -- we had the entire day to go 8 nautical miles!
Upon arrival in Puerto Escondido, we entered and explored the inner harbor, but in the end, decided to go back outside the harbor to "The Waiting Room". About 80 boats still remained in the inner harbor -- stragglers after Loreto Fest. We did not want to be "in the crowd", so we headed back out to the waiting room and anchored with about 10 other boats. The waiting room bay is deep, and the water is crystal clear compared to the inner bay. This allows both swimming and water making. As a bonus, the views from the waiting room are spectacular too!
First things first
Upon arrival in the Waiting Room, we organized a rendezvous the next day with MJ & John on Island Sonata. MJ and John had been in Puerto Escondido for Loreto Fest and were chock-full of local knowledge they were willing to share. The first order of business was to get several weeks of laundry done and find some fresh provisions. The Tripui RV park is less than a mile up the road (inland) and offers a restaurant, a pool, a store (with great provisions), and laundry servicio.
The Tripui (Tre-poo-eee) RV/Trailer Park in Puerto Escondido. Where is the RV?
The Tripui RV Park
One of the businesses in the Puerto Escondido area that is thriving is the local Tripui (Tre-poo-eee) RV/Trailer Park. Each (gringo) resident has a "palapa" building under which they park their motor-home or travel trailer.
The other half of each palapa building is there for each resident to customize as they please. While some were austere, some folks went all out with tile floors, full kitchens (with side-by-sides and islands), entertainment centers (with stereos and large screen TV's), luxurious "outhouses" (Mexican tiled and full walk-in showers). Ron Pearson was nice enough to give us a tour of his "home away from home", and he shared some herbs out of his herb garden too!
Ron (and Chris) Pearson's Palapa-House-RV set-up at the Tripui RV Park.
First, you pull/drive in your RV. There is no requirement that it moves again once in -- this one is on a nice brick foundation.
Then you go for atmosphere. This great living space includes tiled floors, room rugs, nice sofas surrounding the big screen satellite TV and stereo system.
The kitchen is outdoors, next to the living area and an herb garden. It features a full size fridge, microwave, tile counters, dual-stainless sinks, and an island.
"The Puerto Escondido Project"
Fonatur (National fund for Tourism Develomment in Mexico) is an agency formed by the Mexican government in 1969. The organization was tasked with the development of large tourist resorts and vacation property/housing communities in Mexico. The idea of these communities was to promote the development of tourism and investment and directly/indirectly spur economic development.
Unfortunately, Cancun, as the model for this type of project, has been one of thefew successful ventures of this type. Many of the other large development projects in Mexico (even the private enterprise ones like Marina Mazatlán) have not been successful, and lie in some state of partial completion and decay. Puerto Escondido is an excellent example. In the mid 1980's, roads were laid, sewers were built, and lots were parceled. Street lights illuminated the empty streets, and to some extent telecommunications, and electric lines were installed. A breakwater and boat ramp were constructed, and canals were dug to provide "waterfront" property to select home sites. An anticipated 30,000 people would eventually settle in the great Baja resort community. A huge marina would service up to 1600 boats.
The beautiful Baja mountains in the morning light. Maybe an "Eco-community" might have worked for Puerto Escondido? Does this political comment now make Duncan a "Cactus-hugger"?
Needless to say, Puerto Escondido has -- at least for now -- flopped in a big way. One partially completed condominium project, sits empty and on the edge of a collapsing canal, which runs into a huge bay and an empty breakwater where a marina was to have been built. Jack Williams, the author of "Baja Boater's Guide Volume II", points out that many of the "... people north of the border come to the Baja to get away from the very type of monster they are creating."
Today, no one lives here (except some of the boaters that have "moored" here permanently). The main economy for Puerto Escondido is visiting cruisers -- and typically they (we) are a frugal bunch. That darn "supply-and-demand" thing -- you just can't escape it.
Now, nature slowly reclaims the eyesore of the 20 year old construction. However, we still found the natural beauty surrounding Puerto Escondido stunning. Maybe a much smaller (ecologically sensitive) community, focused on living in harmony with these natural surroundings would be more successful?
Loreto, Baja California Sur (B.C.S.)
Site of the first Jesuit Mission and first European settlement in the Californias' (1697), Loreto is a small, beautiful, old Baja town. It was from Loreto, that Franciscan Padre Junípero Serra headed northward to found the chain of missions throughout California (USofA). Loreto was also the original site of the Baja capital until it was hit by a hurricane in 1829.
The (long and lonesome) Mexican Route 1 -- the highway to Loreto.
Our prime objectives in Loreto were to have lunch, find a Farmacia (pharmacy), tour the mission and museum, and get a few more provisions.
At 11 am, we took a cab (about 15 miles) into Loreto for $25US. We arranged with the driver to pick us up at 5pm in front of the mission.
We had lunch at the local Cafe Olé, then visited the next door Internet cafe to check email.
Once off to explore town, one of the first sites we encountered was the beautiful Posada de las Flores Hotel. We snapped a few photos with the commitment to return at 3pm -- when the roof-top bar opened -- to relax and have a beverage.
The Posada de las Flores Hotel on the square in Loreto. The roof-top pool has a glass bottom, so from the lobby/atrium we can look up into the pool.
The beautiful atrium, with the glass bottom "pool" illuminating the floor.
The Mission at Loreto.
Touring Loreto
We toured the mission and the mission museum and re-learned much of what we read in Baja Burro and the Lonely Planet Baja California. It was interesting to see the textiles, pottery, tools, and religious artifacts from 300+ years ago as well.
We then walked down to the beach, bought a few provisions, poked around a couple of dive shops, and headed back to the Posada de las Flores for an afternoon beverage. Our cab driver was scheduled to meet us in front of the mission at 5pm, so we had a couple of hours to relax and enjoy the view from their roof-top bar and restaurant.
The promenade to the square.
The nice Posada de las Flores bar settees at sunset.
Just a quick beverage before we go...
We headed up to the roof-top bar at the Posada de las Flores and ordered a great margarita. As we relaxed on the comfortable settees, enjoying our beverage and a snack of spicy tortilla chips, Robin asks, "I wonder if they have bathtubs in the rooms here?" After many years of marriage, Duncan quickly translates this to the real meaning "Wouldn't it be fun to stay here tonight?"
Duncan went down to the font desk and asked to see any rooms they might still have available. During the room tours, he realizes that they do not in fact have bathtubs, but their showers look great and there is a virtually unlimited supply of fresh, hot water!
Duncan rented the room and returned to the roof-top to continue the evening. At 5pm, we walked over to the mission where the cab was waiting, and asked him to return at 10am the next morning. No problemo. Whisper spent the night alone at anchor -- a first for us.
We had a great night in the hotel, watching CNN and a couple of movies on TV, taking multiple showers, and resting fairly well (Duncan's Mexican Coffee kept him awake until 3am).
After living for several weeks on Whisper with limited hot-fresh water, it was very nice to splurge on a hotel for a night. It is one of those "little extravagances" we allow ourselves to keep cruising fun and comfortable.
A collage of room photos. Note the comfortable queen-size bed, the shower, and the unique square toilet.
The Posada de las Flores atrium at night.
Robin and Duncan enjoy dinner at one of the hotel restaurants.
Sunset over the Loreto Mission.
Where to next?
According to the plan (formulated in Isla San Francisco), our time in Puerto Escondido is coming to a close and it is time to move north. The next pretty anchorage looks like it will be Bahía Ballandra on Isla Carmen -- so off we go.
This is the end of the fun section, and unless you are into "geeking out" on boat systems, you can probably safely proceed to the next log (once it is published).
The best of Puerto Escondido's beauty. Goodbye (for now) to an area that will probably be very different in another 20 years!
Systems Update
It has been a few logs since we mentioned how our various systems were behaving. Being out at anchor for several weeks is always a good test of systems that are otherwise idle at the dock. We are stressing these systems hard right now and testing their limits.
The watermaker's water production has slowed to ~7-10gal/hour. It works reliably, but has been having trouble keeping up with our 20-30 gallon a day water usage (lots of use of the freshwater deck shower after every swim!). We're having our friend Todd (Rickard @ Sound Rigging and Yacht Services, Seattle) check with Spectra to see what our production issue might be. This two-pump Spectra Santa Cruz is rated at 18gal/hour, but has never produced more than 13 gal/hour -- even in warmer water where production is supposed to increase. Maybe the high salinity levels in the sea are impacting our water production? A complete filter/strainer replacement has provided some improvement over the low 7 gals/hour we were getting, but it still only averages less than 10 gallons/hour.
The genset "over-voltage" has been temporarily "fixed" by inserting a plastic washer and lubricating the throttle control screw. It occasionally jammed in the wide-open throttle position, driving the batteries to very high voltages. It has behaved consistently (and correctly) since making this change Puerto Vallarta. Our 250-350Ah/day usage is easily replaced in 1-2 hours of genset run-time (which includes water making and electric water heating). The genset back-pressure has been reduced with the refurbished exhaust/cooler, but we still have the problem where the exhaust water makes it past the water separator into the exhaust run. The exhaust produced is still "sooty", and Todd is contacting Fischer Panda to determine what might be causing this.
We have a new and un-diagnosed problem with our separate "start" battery for main engine starting and have had to jump it with the house bank a couple of times. We can't let the engine sit for a week without the battery discharging (to somewhere?). Even though the volts are still high, there are no cranking amps. Daily genset charging does not seem to top up the start battery through the "Echo Charger". We hope our 2 year old AGM start battery is not going bad already!
All for now on the "Systems Update", we just don't want anyone to think that we don't have some worries out here!