San Jose del Cabo

December 13th - 21st, 2018

We left Bahia Santa Maria with a gorgeous sunrise that I posted in the last blog. It was a glorious morning and one of my favorite things on this sailing journey. I have been fortunate enough to appreciate many beautiful sunrises and sunsets. They happen every day of course but this lifestyle affords the TIME to stop and appreciate Mother Nature’s glory. This transcends to multiple elements including the wind, the sea, the sun, the moon, the stars, the flora, the fauna, the marine life… Life is always soo busy that to “stop and smell the roses” gets more challenging than ever. I am a busy body and a planner. Stephen kindly calls me a “forward thinker” but that means I get so wrapped up in planning the next thing that I don’t enjoy the current moment. Back to that mindfulness talk again. Anyway, I am learning. 

Our sail to San Jose del Cabo was a motor and a sail. We had a mix of everything but an amazing display of marlins jumping out the water - we saw a ton of them and sea turtles drifting by.  We purposely did not put out our hand lines, scared we would hook one and when we tried, we did hook one - it bent the hook and we saw its huge tail slap the water and I was thinking “please break the line, please break the line!!”  It got away and I was grateful! Not sure if anyone has seen a boat with an aft cockpit?  There is not a lot of room for a tiny fish murder let alone anything proportionate to human size like a marlin.  SV Luego hooked 2 marlins on their sail down with their hand lines and lost their gear on each time.  But the did catch a dorado too - yummy. We had no luck even after passing marlin territory but some big wind/swell discouraged us from leaving lines out. It is also hard to complete the fish murder/clean up with a boat rolling back and forth/heeling over. 

We did buddy boat with SV Nanatuk on the way down. SV Luego was a 1/2 day ahead of us as well. We had some boobie birds hang out on the whisker pole for a ride down. We had 1, then 2, then 3. They rode for several hours with us and since they are pelagic birds they were able to move on when it got too rolly due to large seas instead of the poor birds we had on the way to Eureka that exhausted themselves and didn’t make it. 

We did get to San Jose del Cabo a bit too early around 3am and so we hung out outside the breakers to await daylight. We do not like going into a marine in the dark. We ended up having another big wind event during this time as well. Uggh. Stephen woke me up during his watch to hand steer while we made some sail changes. The autopilot couldn’t handle the switchy winds/swell direction.  Eventually, I went back to sleep and awoke to him hove to and he did all the dishes, straightened up the boat and made it look like a nice place to be again. He is a smart man and I realized how much he liked sailing and wanted me to like it too even when I am sleep deprived. 

Once we arrived at the marine, SV Arctos, Madrone and Luego were all there. We celebrated with some good margaritas and the Thursday Art Walk downtown. The town center was decorated for the holidays and each street had a simple string of white lights to make it very quaint. We did not stop in Cabo San Lucas on purpose.  We wanted smaller and quainter and San Jose fit the bill. There was great art and a town of cute shops/restaurants. Definitely more “gringoesque” ( i made up that word) but that was ok. We had a table of 14 for dinner and there were some serious tequila drinkers in this group. 

The next couple of days were filled with some good runs on the beach, fishing, snorkeling, attempts at spear fishing and lots of taco eating ( we did find a local joint for tacos for $25 pesos or $1.25 a piece that was soo good and flan there too was awesome). We did split a 2-day car rental with Nanatuk to get us to El Chorro Hot Springs in Santiago with a coastal road trip back around.  We did drive through the Tropic of Cancer:)- there was a sign -  so that was cool as we sailed through it as well. We had a great time seeing the inland sights. I do want to plug The La Marina Inn with an attached restaurant called Georges, it is FABULOUS and walking distance to the marina! Amazing jalapeño margaritas, mole sauce, and creamy poblano enchiladas - so good. Not the cheapest but certainly the best! I almost forgot we enjoyed the farmers market on Saturday and Stephen was able to acquire a recipe for tuna tacos that really was a tomato based stew and an epicurean delight. We noted that green olives are used in cooking here more than we knew and adds a saltiness that we personally like. The market had music, art, jewelry, big glass jugs of aqua de frescas and some fruit and veggies, but it definitely was more crafts than local produce. There was a stand of papel amate ( paper art) from the nuju villagers of the San Pablito mountains. If I was flying home or had more room on the boat this would have been a purchase - it is beautiful! 

This destination we realized was where different future plans were being thought out. All of us wanted to get to this point, some starting from as far north as Alaska and others just leaving out of Ventura. But beyond this decisions were not concrete.  Anyway, each boat has different time frames for travel - some limited for returns to work and others with no care about time or destination. Stephen and I originally had plans to go the Marquesas the end of March/beg of April but we feel like we would be rushed seeing Mexico now. We feel like we just got here and realized how quickly time can pass especially when weather affects your travel plans significantly. Additionally, we figured we would just head into the Sea of Cortez after Cabo before realizing the winds up there during this time of year are no joke and often get 30-40 knots and blow like that for several days. It is advised to go to La Paz in Spring and Fall by the guide books ( whoops - we felt so good about our planning but missed that). Dave and Kelly tried to go to La Paz after leaving Bahia Santa Maria and turned around due to getting 28 knots on the nose and decided to go to San Jose del Cabo. So now we decided to head to the mainland, do the traditional cruising itinerary which is head to the mainland and then head up into the Sea of Cortez in the Spring when the winds chill out and then slowly make our way up with plans to leave the boat in June 2019. 

We did decide to do a 2nd cruising season here returning to Mexico in November 2019,  and we are happy about it. We feel like we will get a good chance to see Mexico and not feel rushed and then head to the South Pacific in March 2020. Again, this is all tentative as life happens along the way. We say if we still having fun, have the finances, and good health we will continue the journey. Happiness is having someone to love, something to do and something to look forward to - I stole that from Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart book by Gordon Livingston. 

Hydrovane plug - Ha! Nanatuk in the background

Our Yukon friends Heather and Mike - we grew fond of these guys! They did leave and head to La Paz as they only have a year and plan to go Marquesas, Hawaii and back up to Alaska where the boat resides in Skagway. 

1 boobie

2 boobies

and 3! 

Entering the breakers to the marina entrance after a LONG night

Celebrating arrival with Dave and Kelly from SV Arctos

This church was beautiful inside and I was lucky enough to hear the children's choir practicing. It was heavenly to listen to. We did hear a story about a priest who attempted to bring religion to the local people. He was murdered by the local people and this is noted in the a picture in the tiles above the entrance. He tried to tell the local people that polygamy was not ok. We learned this on a tour from a dedicated local named Chris who is 5th generation and does free tours to get folks interested in San Jose del Cabo. He was very articulate and captivated the audience for an hour and 30 minutes no problem! Highly recommend!! We walked all over town and learned so much about the history of San Jose.  

Beach next to the marina - great to run on. Nasty shore break FYI

Fun  night out with lots of other cruisers. We played the sentence game after dinner - one of my favorites. The Montana folks and Canadians are gamers for sure. I learned this game in MT and it was the Yukon folks who presented it. We laughed a lot! 

Farmers Market day! 

Shopping at La Comer - more of a gringo store but had everything we needed! We had 2 carts - yep! We had not shopped since Ensenada. Now...how to fit all this on a boat - oh yeah and wipe down all fruits and veggies with Microdyn and get rid of ALL of your packaging!! Shopping to me is fun and not fun - just like at home but worse. 

This cross lights up at night with fun colors! Stephen's mother Renee is very religious and used to be a Nun. I let her know this cross was right next to the marina to reassure her of her prayers! 

This sandy road was the type of road we drove for our entire drive after leaving Hwy 1 to head to Santiago. There was no pavement we encountered except for a random section about 100 ft. We drove from San Jose del Cabo north to Santiago and then headed east to the coast and then south to make a loop drive back to San Jose.  It was an easy to drive for the most part and yeah for google maps that works offline! 

Our rental! 

El Chorro Hot Springs area in Santiago.  There was also Santa Rita hot springs in the neighborhood but they were closed on Wednesday and it happened to be Wednesday. This is at base of Agua Caliente Canyon. 

This is part of a biosphere and there is a local fee of $20 pesos per person. We got some local honey as well from the local Ejido. 

Our Yukon friends Heather and Mike on SV Nanatuk! We spent a lot of time with these guys.

The temp was not too hot - most of the hot water was coming out the rocks behind Stephen and Heather. I'm guessing 102 ish from the rocks. I actually liked it because I usually get too hot and you could move around in the pool and pick your temp. If you dug in the sand where you were sitting you could get hot water too. My heels were getting hot just being buried in the sand. 

Heather and Mike are birdies so they break out the bird book and we learned a lot from them about the local birds. We think these were the white faced Ibis. I did download the Audubon app. 

Outside of Santiago, San Jorge Valley area. 

Palomar restaurant in Santiago

Crested Caracara falcon on top of cactus

North of Los Frailes - beach off the coastal road