Dec 2012, La Paz and the Local Islands

Mermaid and Dolphin statue on Malecon

Strata of the Islands

Going ashore with Kyanos crew for hike

Stuff washed up on beach on hike.

Dried Boxfish with beach on hike.

Huge cactus on hike

Hike through arroyo.

Another beautiful sunset

My birthday party on Kyanos with friends

rafted with Kyanos

Bikers Stephanie and Kim sailed with Kyanos to Mainland

Maya and Dylan on paddleboards

Hike above Ballandra Bay

Another sunset

Dylan with fish skull on beach

Ken and Dylan preparing to do BATTLE!

Campfire on beach

Snuggle to stay warm at campfire

Young sea lions coming to play

View from above

Ballandra Bay at low tide

Family's last day in La Paz

La Paz and Local Islands

From Thanksgiving to New Years Mariah and I have been based in La Paz and have visited the local islands 4 separate times. So, I will review the different areas and experiences in each area. Some of this may be review from previous logs.

La Paz (the peace) is a lovely city to visit. It is a tourist town but 80% of the tourists are Mexican so it retains its Hispanic feel.  There is a great tiled walkway (“Malicon”) along the waterfront which boasts various statues, piers, beaches, restaurants, and other art.  There is a bronze statue commemorating Jaques Cousteau (?sp), a 25’ long whale shark made of plastic water bottles, and other statues of tuna, hammerhead sharks, and mermaids. Across the street from the Malecon are restaurants, shops, ice cream parlors, mellow bars, and even an Applebees and Burger King. Further in town I visited a Wallmart and home Depot. There is a Costco in Cabo but only a Sams Club in La Paz.

La Paz is a relatively large city where one can find almost anything.  There are also tourist police on bicycles and I have never seen any disturbances. I even feel safe walking the back streets in the dark; something you wouldn’t want to do in Cabo San Lucas. Again, Cabo is like the “Vegas of Mexico” where La Paz is more of a family friendly Mexican tourist city.

Marina La Paz is a welcoming hub for cruisers whether paying for a slip or anchored in the bay. There is a daily 8am radio net where cruisers can announce events and ask for advice. There is also daily 9:30 coffee and sweet bread for a 50 cent donation where cruisers can socialize. Local cruiser events include dominos, easy doubles tennis, cards, boat swap meet, beginner line dancing, and “open mic” at a local club for local talent (every Monday). At the swap meet, I bought a cabin fan and an inflatable surf board for cheap. Visitors cannot officially sell for money so its called “trading for coconuts”. The marina also has “Club Cruiseros” that has a clubhouse that receives mail, trades books, and loans DVDs for free. What a great place!!!

Anchoring in La Paz bay is interesting. Opposing forces include wind and current from the tides. The “La Paz Waltz” is when the tide changes and all the anchored boats switch direction at different rates and sometimes gently collide. Also the anchor can pull out with these switching tides so caution is important.

Ballandra Bay

Ballandra Bay is about 10 miles north of La Paz on the mainland. The bay is accessible both by boat and car and is famous for its “mushroom rock” which reportedly has been reinforced with rebar to prevent it falling over. Only on the outer third of the bay is deep enough to anchor and the inner two thirds are shallow enough to walk across at low tide. The water is very clear with a sandy bottom so low tide is quite impressive. We harvested clams off the beach to eat later in butter and garlic sauce. There are various rock and coral reefs to in the surrounding the bay for snorkeling and the occasional visits by dolphins and jumping manta rays.  On one dive spot there was suppose to have an 8 foot tall bronze statue but it was too deep for snorkeling. The occasional cruiser gets stung by a sting ray when walking in the shallow water so it is recommended to shuffle while walking but the treatment is to place the limb in hot water to deactivate the venom. There are surrounding hills for hikes and exploring the views. I have visited this bay 5 times total with different crew and alone and never tire of Ballandra Bay. It’s a magical place and definitely on the top of my favorite list.

Isla Espiritu Santo (Island Spirit Saint)

Heading north from Ballandra Bay on the baja mainland and crossing the San Lorenzo Passage  leads to Isla Espiritu Santo which is 7 miles long with a rugged windswept east coast and a more protected bay filled west coast. The island has long ago risen from the sea with various strata decorating the mountains.  There are reportedly day anchorages but nothing for a safe evening anchor.  We tried snorkeling off Isla Ballena which is a small island off the west side on Isla Espiritu Santo. There were suppose to be 3 sunken ship wrecks creating a reef for divers but it was too deep and rough to see much other than the fish in the shallows.

We anchored one night in Puerto Ballena on the way back to La Paz. It was a bumpy night from the local evening winds (Coromeuls) but too bad. At disk, I tried some spear fishing with the Hawaii sling but there were no game fish. However there was great coral and a multitude of other fish worth watching. There was a sandy beach that we never got around to exploring.

Isla Partida

Isla Partida is the next island north of Isla Espiritu Santo and used to be connected until a volcano separated the two islands.  The bay between the two islands is reportedly the best overnight anchorage and has a shallow winding pass from the protected west coast to the rougher east coast.  We passed through this pass by dingy to explore the caves that were reported but the only caves we found were small and unimpressive. However, it was a beautiful and calm day and we enjoyed exploring the more rugged coast by dingy. The pass winds around a white sandy spit where local fishing shacks stand and appeared disserted.

Isla Parida is only about 3 miles long. I visited Ensenada El Cardonel on three occasions which is a deep bay with 2 sandy beaches to explore and have campfires on at night.  My crew of Mayne and Matt explored the arroyo with the folks on Kyanos  (Ben, Jorry, Maggie and Brian). I later did the same hike with my family which seemed much shorter the second time. It is a great hike past mangroves,  a low wash with flowers and cactus, and over to the other side of the island which was more rugged and rocky.  Washed up on the beach, Brian found a sea lion corpse, a separate sea lion skull intact, a can of bug spray which we needed at the time, a leopard skin purse, various fish skeletons, a fishing lure and hand line real, and other plastic debri.  I also found a dead squid in the mangroves which was about 3 feet long.  It was a stormy rainy day but we seemed to dodge the downpours during this 3 hour hike.

That night we tried rafting the 2 boats but as the wind and swell rose we had to anchor separately again. As the wind howled into the night we had a nice dinner on Kyanos which consisted of stuffed bell peppers for our crew and the Kyanos gang had pasta with zuccini/cheese sauce.  YumJ

Another bay we explored with my family on Isla Partida was Ensenda Grande. This is another large bay with a white sandy beach at its base. The shore was lined with interesting eroded sandstone shapes. One shape looked like an aardvark. Dylan and I played on the paddleboards and explored the bay. At night we had a campfire on the beach and cooked marshmellows over burning driftwood despite the windy conditions.  One cruiser at the evening campfire told us about the ancient fish farm that lined the north corner of the bay; the fish swim in but cant get out.

Los Isolotes

Los Isolotes is a rocky outcropping just off the north end of Isla Partida, famous for its sea lion rookery. This is my absolute favorite experience in these islands even after visiting about 4 times because of this truly unique sea life experience. There are small mooring balls for the pangas filled with tourists but have to anchor Mariah in the lee of the small island in 60’ of water and then dingy over and tie to a mooring. While anchored we can hear the various sea lion calls from deep tones to sheep like sounds adding to the wild experience.  The snorkeling is incredible due to the friendly and playful sea lions. The adult sea lions leave us alone but the young ones will swim at you and turn at the last moment curiously watching your every move. They will even gently nibble and tug on your fins with their mouths which is startling at first but great fun when you get used to it. There are also masses of bait fish which part as the sea birds swim after them underwater. I have never watched birds swim under water and they appear oblivious to our presence.  While diving underwater I also saw a pelcan dive after a fish then viewed his backside floating on the surface while he ate his catch. This must be similar to a Galapagos island experience where wildlife and man can peacefully interact. How cool is that!!

New Years Eve and What’s Next

Its getting colder (in the 60s during the day…burrrrr) and we even had a rainy day where the ¼ inch of rain lightly flooded the streets. After replacing my old wood spreaders for aluminum, I walked the Malecon on New Years eve and took in the local flavors. There was a big stage and live band blasting a mix of popular Mexican music and the occasional American classic (like “play me a song you’re the pianoman”).  There were fireworks and dancing at the stroke of midnight. While I was on my own, I didn’t feel alone and enjoyed taking in the new year in La Paz.

 After spending a wonderful month in La Paz and the Islands its time to move on.  I will likely seek warmer climates at Puerto Vallarta and Banderos Bay prior to heading North toward home.

So HAPPY NEW YEARS to all!!!  and cheers from Ken and Mariah.