Crossing the Sea of Cortez

Sorry, it's been a while! I think something in me changed somewhere along the way as we crossed the Sea of Cortez. I went from counting the days until we might return to San Diego to... (get ready for this one) simply enjoying myself, enjoying being on this amazing trip and simply living in the moment.

Could that explain why I've neglecting writing on this travel blog? Maybe...

In my last days in La Paz and in Baja California, a wonderful friend of mine, Rocio, dropped in for a visit. Since she's actually from La Paz and needed to visit her family and establish business contacts for the scuba diving store she manages, her visit was not for us. Yet we still totally took advantage and had her bring us our mail. Crazy things happen when you go through months and months of mail in one sitting - over 80% of it goes straight to the recycling bin!

I'd never realized how much junk came in!

With a hitchhiker we crossed the Sea of Cortez. This took nearly 3 days. She was nervously headed towards Guadalajara to meet up with her boyfriend. Why was she nervous? She hadn't seen him in over a year! Long time to be away from the one you love...

As we got closer to Mazatlan, two things startled me to no end. The first was the humidity. Baja is a desert. Mainland Mexico is a tropical area. The difference is overwhelming! More trees, more birds, more flowers, more insects, and much much more moisture in the air. Suddenly everything in the boat felt wet.

Our final morning as we neared the crossing, we discovered a dozen new hitchhikers on the boat.

They didn't make it.

Squids! I stopped counting at 10. It was a mass suicide. They were everywhere. I kept finding them until days later hidden and tucked under boat parts.

Mazatlan is a cool town. A big town. We spent 3 days harbored near the Old Town of Mazatlan. This harbor is also conveniently located where the city spits out its sewage. Although we thoroughly enjoyed  taking the bus to the public market, our prime goal of being able to jump out the boat and enjoy the water was simply never going to come true here. So we headed South in search of warmer waters, and a place to anchor and play in the water maybe even the waves.

We visited la Isla San Isabel. A small island for the birds and fisherman. An island where the birds have no prey and allow you a bird's eye view of their hatchery. I will leave you with chirpy pictures...