Days Well Lived – Isla Coronados BCS

Hello from beautiful Isla Coronados just 6 miles north of Loreto.

The past couple of days have been very busy. We left Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante and headed over to Puerto Escondido for the day to do some much needed chores. Oh that ugly word (chores) that strikes fear in any young persons’ mind. The fear of the complete drudgery of chores. I remember back in my younger days how my mother had to hound me to do some of the most basic chores like just taking out the trash. It wasn’t difficult and only took a couple of minutes but for some reason I always found ways to put it off which resulted in my mother having to wake me up early on trash day just as we could hear the trash truck approaching. My mother truly was and is a Saint for all she had to go through while my brother and I were growing up.

And now for us, simple things like taking out the trash are much more involved. Everything is more difficult and takes more energy when you live on a boat. I could provide many examples but we all do what is necessary to live the lives we choose.

Perhaps for us, even though the chores are very hard work, we have the benefit of knowing that after their completion there are many amazing and wonderful experiences that await. Also, there is a sense of satisfaction in working until exhaustion when you know what you want. I read an article in (The Atlantic) magazine a while back that basically said you can identify the vocation you truly want, and will ultimately be successful at in life as that which you enjoy the struggle for. That is multiplied when you are fortunate enough to have a partner that is there to enjoy that struggle with you. This then leads to the true answer to the question we often get from many people that ask us how long we plan to continue sailing and living this lifestyle: Until we come to the day when we no longer enjoy the struggle. When that time comes we will move on to the next vocation on the list that meets that basic need.

So to start completing our list of chores, we rented some space at the dock for the day in Puerto Escondido so that we could do our laundry and clean the boat which had become extremely filthy. Also, we needed to fill up on gasoline to run our generator, outboard engine, and dive compressor. It was a lot of hard work but at the end of the day we were clean and ready for another month or two exploring the islands with the exception of food.

To solve the food shortage problem we left Puerto Escondido early in the AM the following day and headed 15 miles North to Loreto. We dropped the hook, launched the dinghy and headed into the marina with our soft sided Yeti cooler and two other tote bags to tote our stuff back to the boat. We headed into town on foot and had to stop at our favorite restaurant Islas which is right on the water. They seriously have the best huevos rancheros we’ve had anywhere in Mexico or the U.S. If you’re ever in Loreto we highly recommend you check it out.

After satisfying our need for huevos rancheros we set out to pick up dive and fishing supplies before heading to the grocery store.

On the way to the grocery with dive and fishing supplies in hand, we stopped at a small roadside tortilleria for some tortillas. When I was asked what we wanted, I told the man that we wanted tortillas de maiz (corn tortillas). He then asked how much we wanted and I told him that we wanted cincuenta (50) tortillas. This produced a puzzled look on the man’s face so I resorted to asking for the same amount as the person before me had ordered. I then realized that they didn’t sell them by the (each) but by the (kilo) instead. There was a stack of packaged tortillas de harina (flour tortillas) so I grabbed one of those also and added that to our order. The total was 28 pesos which is just over one dollar U.S. Tortillas are seriously cheap here in Mexico. The other thing that is quite cheap here in Mexico is beer. In fact, it is cheaper to buy beer than it is to buy water in Mexico. If only we could live on just tortillas and beer. Perhaps if we were younger we would give it a go.

Now that we had checked tortillas off our shopping list we headed to the grocery store where we proceeded to buy way more than we could stuff into the bags we brought so we caught a taxi outside the store for a ride back to the marina and our dinghy.

When we first arrived in the marina with our dinghy there was a group of three young locals ready to help us find just the right spot at the dock for our dinghy. We let them assist and they offered to watch our dinghy for us while we were away (for tips of course). I gave them 20 pesos and said that we would pay more when we returned. As a result, when we got back our dinghy was waiting for us and the young locals along with the cab driver helped us load all our goodies into the dinghy for the ride back to the boat. The cab ride was only 60 pesos and I gave the young locals another 50 pesos.

For the ride back to the boat with all our goodies Neptune was gracious and calmed the wind and the seas for us making the ride back to the boat dry and the transfer from dinghy to boat fairly easy. Once we had loaded and stowed all the groceries the wind picked up again and we were off to Isla Coronados which was nice because it allowed us to sail. However, the combination of the ebbing tide moving South and the wind coming from the opposite direction created some very confused seas and a slow bumpy ride. Then the wind died down making it even slower. So since we don’t like to pull into an anchorage we don’t have any experience with at night, (for safety reasons because it is easier to see shallow reefs and other navigation hazards during daylight) we turned on the engine and began motor sailing.

We arrived just about an hour and a half before dark which gave us time to complete all of the work necessary to prepare the boat for being at anchor, and take a trip to the beach in the dinghy to watch the sunset. The sunsets here in the Sea Of Cortez are amazing with the water and the mountains in the foreground and all of the orange, pink and purple colors in the sky in the background. This coupled with the fact that we were the only boat in the anchorage and the only sound was the lapping of the clear green and blue water on the white sand beneath our feet made for a truly unique, peaceful and beautiful experience. A great end to a long day that started at 6:30am and was non-stop until 6:30pm.

A couple of days well lived.

Peace, Love and Islas huevos rancheros.

Mike.