Our Salish Aire: Stuck in La Paz

4-20-19

I often find it harder to start writing after I have “played hooky” for a while. More out of embarrassment that I haven’t kept up than anything else (kind of like slipping on a weight loss resolution and then getting back into it). My official excuse is that we kept hanging around La Paz and nothing much happened but that really isn’t true at all. In any case all I can say is, “blog on!!”

First in the way of closing some stories from the previous chapter:

I flew back up to Seattle for my younger brother, Tim’s, memorial service the beginning of March. It was a lovely service with an SRO crowd in the church he and our family had attended for many years. It kept making me feel a bit off balance when someone would introduce themselves who I hadn’t seen since they were Tim’s playmates in junior high school and they were suddenly middle aged. It’s very clear that he had made an impression on a LOT of the kids he was in school with and been on sports teams with and that he had kept in touch with them in various ways. We were initially very upset that we had to delay the service because of the snowstorm but in hindsight it really was better as we all a bit more time to absorb the shock of his death. As we work through his affairs we learn more and more about his life as an adult after he pulled away from our family somewhat. He will always be missed by many more people than I had ever realized.

Frequently we have to just say, “It’s Mexico” when we hit a cultural barrier we don’t expect and that is exactly what happened with the Esparanza school. We found out that our $US 1200 check had been accepted by the local bank who had to send it on to their Mexico City headquarters because it was “such a large amount” (we suspect anti money laundering rules may be part of the reason). The headquarters said they would take a $US 300 fee!!!! to cash the check at which time the local Rotary in La Paz demanded that the check be returned as they could not see ¼ of the donated money go to overhead in good conscience. On further review they learned that if instead we had donated two $600 checks they would be cashed without a fee so the original check was torn up and we wrote two $600 checks which were promptly cashed without problem. The next issue was that friends we had known in Snohomish (now living in Florida) and staunch Rotarians had offered to match our contribution and we had hand carried a $1200 check from them which we now knew would not clear without a ridiculous (“It’s Mexico”) fee. We contacted them and they agreed that if we tore up the original check they would send down two $600 checks with Carol and Charles who were going to see a new grandchild in the States. NOW the good news: We received word that the national Rotary agreed to add $US 1000 to the pot and work has resumed on the school. It is expected to be completed in time for the next term!

Stucco is added over the rough block walls

Pipes are laid to the sewer tank

A lot of what happened since the past note was we continued to explore the islands, remote anchorages and villages north of La Paz so we could make the highly anticipated visit of our grandson, Etienne, and his mother Elise’s visit as enjoyable and varied as possible.

When I returned to La Paz from Tim's memorial service Mardi Gras was in full swing. A parade runs first from one end of the Malecon to the other then the next night it goes the opposite direction and on Tuesday night it turns around and heads back for a final (almost) hurrah. The final hurrah occurs the following week when the same floats are filled with children for the Children's Parade.

YouTube of La Paz parades (low resolution)

On one of my previous arrivals into the airport in San Jose Del Cabo I had taken photos of the maze one has to transit in order to get from the plane to the La Paz shuttle. This includes going through a room filled with hundreds of people waiting to check in with immigration which itself takes only a couple of minutes. The airport is rapidly expanding but currently experiencing severe overload in the early afternoon when planes are parked out on the tarmac and visitors shuttled in and out on busses. Once through immigration you pick up your baggage and after letting the customs officer know if you have tobacco or liquor to declare. If the answer is “no” then you are instructed to push a button and if you get a green light (so far we have only gotten green lights – knock on wood) then you are free to enter Mexico. BUT first you have to pass two rooms full of taxi and shuttle drivers who are all trying to convince you that you are going the wrong way and that you really would be better to use their services. Once past the gauntlet of shuttle drivers you exit the building and move on to looking for the correct shuttle company representative under the VERY crowded “umbrellas” (AKA awnings). The company we use to go between La Paz and the airport has an agent with a sign under umbrella 5. Once you find the agent the world gets better as he speaks excellent English and has the ability to put you on an earlier shuttle if you get out in time or a later shuttle if you got out later than you had planned (both of which have happened to us). Elise and Etienne arrived at a very busy time but using our guide photos and getting a green light they were able to get to the shuttle an hour before we expected and were put on an earlier bus which made everyone happy.

Immigration waiting area La Paz airport

"Umbrellas"

La Paz shuttle representative

Etienne’s high school Spanish class has an extra credit opportunity for students who visit a Spanish speaking culture during the term and so we had planned to give him as many cultural learning opportunities as well as amazing scenery opportunities as possible during his stay. Once off the shuttle van he and his mother were immediately swallowed up in a holiday crowd as there was a huge bike race being staged down main street in front of the bus station. We then walked to the boat and deposited luggage before heading to a restaurant at the head of the dock for dinner. I instructed the waitress that Etienne was in school for Spanish and if he didn’t order is Spanish without help he would not get fed. She laughed and helped with his learning experience. I have to say he immediately demonstrated that he has learned a lot in his Spanish lessons and continued to help us with translation throughout his visit!

Etienne and Elise

The winds were cooperative while they visited so after spending two days introducing them to “big city” La Paz making sure we visited everything from the street vendors to the bigger stores as well as the Gringo community, we headed out to the islands but not before we paid a tour operator to take us snorkeling with whale sharks. For the past couple of years whale sharks have chosen to bear their young in the waters just outside of the peninsula that protects La Paz Harbor. The locals have instituted a very strict plan for snorkeling with the juveniles which requires that you ride on a licensed guide boat. We were able to swim with two of the fish (whale sharks are the largest fish (NOT whales/mammals)and filter feed from the plankton rich waters). We all decided that the experience was well worth the costs and tipped the guides well after they went out of their way to help water-timid Etienne have a great experience.

Swimming with whale shark

On our way to the islands Elise was totally delighted when a pod of dolphins swan a couple of feet from our bow long enough for her to catch a video of them. We visited a number of our favorite anchorages and made it as far north as tiny fishing village of San Evaristo where Etienne could get a chance to be immersed in rural Mexican culture for a short time. After a week that went very quickly we waved good bye as they headed back to the airport on the shuttle van so they could return to the clouds and rain of Portland Oregon.

Elise in her favorite spot on the boat

We had planned to head out as soon as they left but recognizing we needed a few days to provision and upon learning that the cruisers’ club would do their annual Bay Fest the next week, we stayed on in La Paz for a few more days. We also were taken up on our offer to do a presentation on cruising to and in Alaska which was well received. We will post the link to the PowerPoint program here http://ncgregory.larper.com/Chapter-Pages/Cruising%20to%20and%20in%20Alaska.pdf .

As I write this we have just moved north of our previous most northern exploration within the Sea of Cortez when we pulled anchor at the village of Agua Verde this morning. We have “joined” an informal group of friends that have gotten to know each other as we move along. Tom, Sandi and kids we met when we moored directly off of their bow on the way south in the port of Dana Point only to learn that Tom is a Physician’s Assistant who had practiced at the same hospital where I worked as an RN (we were both there at the same time but don’t recall meeting previously). We met 9 year old twins “Isle” (pronounced with a silent s, as she is quick to point out) and Lily on the dock and at the cruisers’ club in La Paz and they live aboard the boat Saare Lill which translates into “flower island” so it is named after the girls. Habe Hoba and Habe Hoba II are slowly working their way north as well where they hope to sell Habe Hoba which has been their home for the past three years but is now protesting the plan with engine breakdowns and other maritime pouting. In any case we have lots of time to get to our eventual goal at the very north end of the Sea so instead of staying for a night at most in an anchorage we are often staying for several days and taking time to explore.

Our explorations include diving in ever increasingly beautiful dive sites, visiting the villages and trails on shore, and taking time to watch a whale shark swim around the bay collecting its diet of plankton. As we move north the islands are becoming more common and the Baja mountains steeper and more scenic. All we can say is that everyone who has been north in the Sea reports it is “amazing”.

Clarice here – I decided to add a little entry to this latest update. We’ve worked hard on keeping the bottom of the boat clean as the sea growth occurs quickly in these southern waters. Also realized one of our Ultrasonic hull cleaner transducers had separated and thus was not performing. We’ve reattached it and will see if it helps keep the “garden” on the keel cooler a little less abundant.

Norman taught me how to splice Dyneema so that makes me pretty happy. We realized we needed to replace the straps on the sling we use to lift the dinghy to the upper deck when one decided to break abruptly ( not while raising thank goodness) and another one was almost cut through one layer. We made a nice Dyneema hoist system so hoping that will last a little better.

We’ve done a lot of “work” dives on the bottom of the boat, but now we are doing some fun dives. We went to a pinnacle outside of Agua Verde and dove while a friend tried to spear fish. We stayed around 35 to 40 feet and saw huge schools of fish – Beautiful Cortez Angel Fish, Sargent Majors, Parrot Fish, Cortez rainbow wrasse and multiple others. Circled the whole pinnacle and it was beautiful. The coral is present, but bleaching. Multiple fans were present as well.

Fresh fruit and fresh variety of produce is becoming more difficult to find in the fishing villages. I’m working to be creative with the meals to keep from eating getting boring.

Jarvis has decided he is going to be highly anxious when we run the generator or wing engine. He doesn’t like rolly anchorages, but then neither do we. He also gets stressed out when we get the dive gear set up…some of these are new anxieties, but we’ve noticed his age is showing more and more. He appears to have some arthritis in his hips and aspirin helps that.

It’s getting more and more remote as we venture farther north. The water is sort of warming up, finally. Love the clarity of the water – it’s fun to be able to check your anchor from the surface.

Just some final notes on how things are going after nearly 6 months in sun and warm water:

Clarice already commented on Jarvis getting more nervous with engine noise and boat movement. I think he dislikes rocky anchorages even more than I do. We have also purchased rubber shoes for him to see if we can reduce the number of burrs he picks up and other injuries to his foot pads from sharp rocks and shells when we take hikes. Finally we have not yet tried his new carry sling but since he is very eager to go hiking with us but sometimes tires out and needs to be carried home we are hoping it will help.

Clarice also mentioned our bottom cleaning woes. In the Pacific Northwest and Alaska we would clean the bottom of the boat every 2 – 3 months whereas in these warmer waters we need to do it every couple of weeks. We are learning to stay ahead of the harder to remove growths by checking places where the growth starts frequently while a brush with a dive glove is enough to disrupt the growing garden patch (any unpainted metal fittings such as intake ports, keel cooler and propellers seem to be the quickest to start showing growth on them). Our new favorite tools for removing the scum that develops on the hull is a pair of stainless sheetrock knives from Home Depot. The scum peels off in sheets but releases hundreds of krill into the water that seem to be attracted to our wet suits for some reason.

We have read that in this part of the world your water maker will become one of your most used appliances and we are finding this to be true. Ours requires that we be connected to shore power at a dock or running the generator. At 25 gallons an hour we seem to need to run it for a couple of hours every few days. Our sailboat friends can’t imagine using that much fresh water but since we have fresh water flush toilets, fresh water showers, rinse the anchor chain with fresh water, etc. we use a lot that we don’t have to in survival mode but once again we remind ourselves that we chose to make this our house rather than “long term camper”. Most marinas don’t guarantee their water is safe to drink so even sitting at the dock we fill our tanks from our water maker. Our other choice is to fill the tanks and add a tiny amount of bleach but chlorine is a threat to the water maker membranes and we have gotten used to the very pure taste of the water we produce ourselves. We are concerned about the age of our water maker and have replaced and upgraded a number of parts already. The good news is that it is made up of parts scattered under our bed rather than a single unit so we can replace and upgrade pieces more easily. The bad news is that when it was built the membranes that are the heart of reverse osmosis water makers were all priority to each manufacturer whereas the new ones are more generic. We believe our membranes were last replaced in 2009 which makes them about 10 years old and beyond their expected life span. Replacing the membranes will mean we need to change the high pressure vessels to ones of standard size and this one-time costs is about $1000 total for the two vessels we will also need two membranes at about $200 each.

We are also starting to see how quickly fabrics and ropes fade and deteriorate from sun and constant motion. I’ve also joked about trying to make money selling sea salt made at sea by scraping the layer of salt that coats everything whenever we transit rough water. This is especially frustrating for Clarice who takes any substance other than boat wax on the hull to be a personal affront and requires scarce fresh water to make it completely go away.

Overall we are loving the weather. Virtually every day is sunny with temperatures in the 80s. We are both quite tanned and getting used to wearing wide brimmed hats, avoiding walking in the heat of the day, and drinking a lot of fluids.

Since we seem to have reasonable internet here in Puerto Escondido we will stop at this point and get this posted.

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