Taxi Stop
When a microbus isn’t micro enough
Baja Buggie
Can’t even tell what the base car is
Anything goes if its VW-based
Real chop top
Chopped AND shortened
Note bottle opener under door handle
Downtown La Paz
VW Centipede
Just don’t try to park it anywhere
One of the greatest aspects of travel is the people you meet. You become fast friends with fellow boaters because you are experiencing this strange new lifestyle together and can completely relate to one another. You become friendly with locals at each stop and benefit from their knowledge and eagerness for you to experience their hometown. You meet folks on their vacations who are perplexed by your strange way of boat life. These interactions are the brightest part of our travels, but our stay at Casa Raab was somehow different. It didn’t seem like we were meeting new friends; it was more like coming home to old ones.
Casa Raab courtyard
Casa Raab is a B&B 20 miles outside of Oaxaca in San Pablo Etlan and we went there for a few days simply to balance out our time in the city and see what the countryside had to offer.
Rebecca, the owner, lives on this 40-acre ranch that her husband’s family built in the 1960s. Now she, her husband Tony and her mother Coralie run the inn/boutique mezcal farm/animal rescue center.
Crushed and roasted maguey awaiting distillation
Mezcal bottles waiting to be filled
Rebecca with her rescues
Yes, you heard me right, animal rescue. When we pulled into the gravel driveway we had to slow down to avoid hitting any of the dozen or so dogs that were running to greet us. Lucy was happy to see the other dogs and even happier when she learned that the humans carry treats in their pockets. Rebecca is a true inspiration to me as she has rescued hundreds of local dogs over the years. In fact, just the day before we arrived she had taken in 8 puppies. And no, dad, I did not take one home.
New arrivals
Tom, his wife Judy and his other wife Jane (LOL, just kidding), long-stay guests at the inn but really honorary assistant managers, made the introductions to all the dogs and gave us a tour of the grounds.
Judy & Tom
Mud puppy
Jane and her rescue Tallulah
The stunning scenery and charming home includes horses, cats, turtles, donkeys and of course the dogs, as well as acres of agave plants they grow and use to brew their own mezcal.
Lucy, don’t make an ass of yourself
We met with a varied cast of ex-pat characters staying in the main house and casitas on the property as well as neighbors, all of whom welcomed us into their little family and turned a sightseeing trip into a special treat. We quickly learned that Casa Raab is a place where people come to stay for months at a time and come back year after year. Yikes, I’m making it sound like a cult, but seriously it is a group of wonderfully interesting, funny and kind people who know how to enjoy themselves. We all sat around gabbing and drinking and within a few hours, as we sat down to a marvelous homemade Mexican dinner, we weren’t sure if we’d checked into an inn or arrived at the home of long time friends.
Melanie, Deb, Tom, Judy, Jane and Rebecca
Tom and his wife Judy from Richmond have been coming here for years and stay for several months at a time. You think we are crazy to travel with Lucy by boat – they drove to Mexico from Virginia, so their two dogs, whom they adopted from Rebecca’s rescue, could be with them. Their friend Jane who also is from Richmond was there and we immediately bonded, as she became by fashion consultant. And Rebecca’s friend Debbie was using the house as a home base for her buying trip for her store in Texas. She really knows her Mexican folk art and crafts and taught us a lot and even was kind enough to let me have the pick of the litter from her collection of hand woven bags. We met Melanie and Norman from Brooklyn, and they gave us a much-needed dose of NY. And, of course, Coralie, Rebecca’s mom, was a delight. 
Every morning at 7am, everyone is welcomed to join in on a hike with other visitors, neighbors and the dogs through the 40+ acres of Casa Raab grounds. It is a beautiful setting, feeling much like the hills of Tuscany, only with agave fields instead of olive trees and in the distance Mayan ruins instead of old forts. Tom kindly offered for Lucy to stay under his watchful eye one day so we could more easily explore Monte Albán and head back into Oaxaca to explore museums and have dinner. We love Lucy to death but this is a rare treat as visiting museums, nice restaurants and shopping can be difficult with Lucy in tow. 
Monte Albán lives up to its reputation as a fascinating archaeological site.
The next day we were treated by Jane serving as our first tour guide of the day and she took us to a small organic market and helped me pick out an embroidered blouse made by man from Mixes (MEHAYS), an area so remote it isn’t even mapped yet.
Jane buying flowers
man from Mixes
She also took us to a local artist’s studio, which had a beautiful home and workshop where we saw the most impressive alebrije (colorful wooden folk art sculptures) we’d seen in Oaxaca. 
It was fascinating to see the precision of their artistry and skills, far surpassing the brightly colored traditional figures we’d seen throughout the area. This is one of those places we’d have never discovered on our own and were so grateful to Jane for the insider’s tour. But, the fun didn’t stop here, in the afternoon Judy took the lead and drove us to an incredible artist space known as El Centro de las Artes San Agustín Etla, or simply CASA.
CASA
Interior of former weaver factory
CASA is located at an old weaving factory that now has been restored into Mexico’s first eco-arts center founded by famous Mexican artist Francisco Toledo. The building itself seems like a work of art and amazed us that a factory would be placed in such a grand edifice.
Hand made paper kites
Paper jewelry
Artist working in felt and alpaca
Artists making paper and print making
Love the bathroom signs
Love the bathroom signs
Old water pipes from a former hydroelectric plant were utilized to bring water in for Arte Papel a handmade paper facility. The grounds alone would have been worth the visit, but we were also treated to a Toledo exhibit and the opportunity to watch artists in residence working on intricate fabric creations, printmaking and papermaking.
Francisco Toledo wild creature
We returned to a farewell dinner of the most interesting dish I’ve tasted since we came to Mexico. Judy and Jane made Huitlacoche (weet-lah-KOH-chay) served over pasta. What is Huitlacoche you ask. Don’t worry, I asked too. Well, simply put it is corn smut or fungus. Oh yes, nothing but the best for us, LOL. Seriously, it was so delicious and is considered a delicacy to many, now including us. You may see it in the states marketed as Mexican truffles, but really there is no need to spin it, it’s fungus and it’s fabulous.
Huitlacoche
Finally on the morning of our departure, we said our teary goodbyes as if we had known this group for decades. Loaded down with gifts (beautiful bread from Tom and Judy, mezcal gourds from Rebecca, a belt from Jane and the bag from Debbie) we aimed the car back to Huatulco and those windy roads.
Morning hike
Our stay was way too short, but this was definitely a quality trip and truly called for a hasta luego and not an adios to our new amigos. If you are reading this, guys, we want to thank you SO MUCH for a wonderful time!
Crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec is one of the most dreaded pieces of sailing in Mexico. The gulf is a narrow isthmus separating the Pacific from the Gulf of Mexico. When northerly winds are blowing in the Gulf of Mexico they cross the isthmus into the Tehuantepec and a narrow gap in the mountains funnels and accelerates the wind. What may be a pleasant 15 knot breeze on the eastern side can become a 40 knot gale on the western. This is an example of a prediction of the Tehuantepec winds (thankfully, not for our crossing of it).
Tehuantepec grib
These are GRIB files – raw government weather forecast data displayed graphically. This one shows 40-45 knots of wind in the middle of the Tehuantepec. (I keep writing Tehuantepec because I like the way it sounds, although not as much as Topalabampo in the north). That’s enough to create 15 – 20 foot seas at very short periods – ie, boat breaking stuff.
We download these images, along with other weather resources to see what we will get whenever we go anywhere. We looked intensely at weather predictions before leaving on the 250 mile (2 day) trip across the Tehuantepec. We were hoping to leave Monday morning and our predictions varied but some showed very light winds for the entire trip and some showed a short period of heavier winds Tuesday morning. We decided to brave it and left with one other boat, Wanuskewin with Mike and Holly aboard. Sure enough Tuesday morning, well more like Monday night, just as we were approaching a shallow sandy bar clogged with large fishing boats, the wind piped up. We saw a max of about 35 knots, which is a lot of wind, but we reefed (reduced the size of our sails) and carried on. It only lasted a few hours and for the rest of the trip we had little to no wind.
25lbs. yellow fin tuna
Calm enough catch and filet this crevalle jack on the back of the boat. So those weather forecasters were pretty close to spot on.
By Tuesday morning (and by that I mean about 3 am – we sail the boat 24 hours a day, taking 3 hour shifts) we were ready to get into port. It was only about 2 miles away and we were motoring right for it in calm weather. Arrivals after a few days at sea are really rewarding. However, our trials were not quite complete. Suddenly, the boat lumbered to a halt and the engine stalled. Looking over the side, I could see that we were snagged in a large and long fishing net. What was this thing doing strung right across the main channel into a large port? Who knows but the fishermen were soon on the scene and, characteristic of most Mexicans we’ve met, they were not angry and took their loss in stride. They helped me cut the net away and left to salvage what they could of their catch. This left a large chunk of net tangled around our propeller, daggerboard and rudders like a fly in a giant spider web. Mary and I anchored the boat in the calm ocean to figure out what to do. Mike and Holly from Wanuskewin witnessed the whole thing from a mile behind us and were super kind to anchor near us and help.
Pete and Mike dive to free the prop from the fishing net
Mike and I dove with snorkels and knives to saw away the remainder of the net that was so tightly twisted around stuff under the boat, being careful not to let it tangle us. After about an hour we had every last bit of it off. We saved what we could to throw out so it would not catch any more sea creatures and mourned the fish who were caught in the discarded net. I kept some of the floats from the net as a reminder of this little battle.
The culprit
We stopped for a few days in the isolated anchorage of Ensenda Carrizal, just a few miles north of Manzanillo where we heard the snorkeling was good. A lot of the guide books proclaim places as “a snorkeler’s paradise” but often are far from it.
San Luciano ship wreck poking out of the water.
Carrizal coral reef
If the water is murky and you can’t see 2 feet in front of your face, who cares how many fish are there. Sadly this was our experience at a site close by in Bahía Santiago where the cargo ship “San Luciano” sank during a hurricane in 1958 and is now an artificial reef. Although it was interesting to see the top of the 300ft. ship sticking up out of the water, under the hazy waters, we saw nada . But Carrizal certainly made up for that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much live coral in one place and it was reassuring to know that there are still thriving coral reefs in this world.
I found Nemo
A whole lotta fish
“Kia Ora” was the only other boat in the anchorage and one morning Ken and Julie came by to introduce themselves and told us to jump in our dinghy and follow them to some rock caves they had discovered on a previous visit. 
Rock Cave
So off we went around the bend thinking we’d see a cool rock arch (which we did) we could zip through, but to our delight (ok and yes, my hesitation) they lead us to a real cave about a 100 yards long. It was absolutely beautiful and our own little Pirates of the Caribbean ride sans mechanical pirates and the “yo ho ho” song. The first time through was a little unnerving as you weren’t sure if the surge was going to push you against the wall, or we’d hit a precarious little rock or my shrill screams would deafen Peter, but alas, we survived and round and round we went back through again and again, no E-ticket needed. click here see video (ok, I’ll admit after watching the video it doesn’t look that scarey -LOL)
Also in Carrizal is a little fishing shack floating on a raft like contraption. All a quaint little scene until I heard the bark of a dog.
Floating fish camp
So of course I grab the binoculars and sure enough their are two young dogs on the platform portion of the raft and no fisherman in sight. The next day still no fisherman. I know they are there to do a job and guard this area, but it was hot and god knows when they were fed last. So, not being able to stand it any more, we take a big bowl of water with ice cubes and a few scoops of Lucy’s food and head off to the raft.
Hungry hounds
Initially, the dogs go bananas barking at us as we get closer, but as soon as we pull up next to their raft they slink behind a barrel (some guard dogs). We leave the food and water and as we drift away, slowly we see them inch forward and gobble it up. We made another trip over there the next day to do the same, this time leaving a lot more water for the poor pups. Fellow boaters/animal lovers, if you are in this anchorage and see them and no sign of the fisherman, please drop off at least a bowl of water for them.
To see the photos larger, just click on them!!!
Just like living in Paradise
Actually it was just one, but that is all that we needed. Sailors often dream of having a tiny palm-fringed anchorage all to themselves. This is what they sell cruising dreams on. With the boat floating quietly at anchor and a soft breeze providing just enough cooling, we swim and paddle and just enjoy the solitude. This little bay, Bahia Paraíso, is surrounded by magnificent rock formations with little caves and blowholes that the waves continually
bombard and retreat from. It made for perfect nature watching. The anchorage was just big enough for one boat and had a idyllic little deserted beach for us to let Lucy stretch her legs and sniff at stuff.
Champion hermit crab
The sand was overrun with hermit crabs and each of us picked one for a race – Lucy’s won when mine and Mary’s refused to participate.
It was all exactly as you imagine. That is…until a swimsuit photo shoot broke out at the small seemingly deserted hotel on shore. I kid you not. It doesn’t get any better than this 🙂
A man and his dog
Neko at anchor
Wait, what??? Swim suit models
Coming into Banderas Bay, we saw a bunch of whales out feeding. This is a big whale migratory route so we see them quite often – usually it is just a hump, fluke or spout off in the distance. This time they came close enough that I had to throw the boat in reverse to avoid getting too close to them.
Whale tail
Boats have been damaged by whales bumping or rubbing up against them so we wanted to avoid that. So the video is not the best but it was pretty cool to see them in person. Enlarge the video with the bottom right button for best viewing.
We had a jam packed week moving from the Baja peninsula across the Sea of Cortez to Mexico’s mainland. We started with a quick 11NM sail from La Paz to Espíritu Santo, a beautiful 7.75 mile long island full of marine life and quiet coves. Because it is part of the national marine park system, the island is protected and uninhabited by humans apart from a handful of fishermen.
Neko in Espíritu
We’d stopped here in Partida Cove on our way to La Paz and wanted to return to check out another one of the quiet coves. Our friends on “Celebration” were the only other boat in Raza Cove which made for a perfectly peaceful evening and lovely way to say, “hasta luego” to Richard and Audrey. We look forward to seeing them again later in our travels.
Sidebar: Our first time to Espíritu Santo; was with our first “hitchhiker”. What the what, you ask???!!! Yes, I felt the same way. When we were anchored in Muertos Cove on our way to La Paz, Peter took Lucy ashore to get some land time. On the beach Peter met Alex, a young Canadian traveling around Baja on foot after his mountain bike suffered repeated flats from the tough terrain. Peter radioed me to say that he had invited Alex to travel on our boat back to La Paz. I of course thought this was nuts and we would be killed in our sleep, tossed overboard and the latest sensationalized murder story to fill up the cable news shows.
Lucy, Mary, Peter and Alex
But the moment Alex stepped aboard I could tell all would be fine (isnt’ that how all those stories begin LOL). He had never been on a sailboat, but immediately jumped in to help, learn and could not have been a nicer guy.
Espíritu by land
He wanted to see wild Espíritu, so we stopped there one night before dropping him off in La Paz. Oh Canada, you raised him well.
So back to Espíritu part two, you could spend a week+ here exploring all the coves, but after only one night, the positive weather report was the ticket for us to start the 300 NM crossing of the Sea of Cortez from Baja to the mainland. The winds the first day were perfect for sailing and we buzzed along day and night. The second day, the winds died down, so we had to do some motoring.
Mary off the clock
Luckily there was a full moon, making it much easier to spot the odd boat and sea turtle swimming by on night watches. We do 3 hour watches, which means I am on duty for 3 hours while Peter naps and then we switch off and I try to get a little shuteye. After 2 days of this your sleep pattern is off and you catch zzzzs whenever.
After 50 hours of sailing, we were thrilled to see the stunning island of Isla Isabel and happily dropped our anchor behind the picturesque Las Monas rocks.
Las Monas, Isla Isabel
Soon after we were hailed on the radio by “Heavy Metal”, another sailboat nearby inviting us over for sunset cocktails. Peter, Lucy & I dinked over and met Rigo and Deborah who were our link to meeting several other boats who welcomed us into their band of merry pirates.
Isla Isabel was the perfect place to catch up on some sleep, chill out, snorkel and see something I haven’t seen before – blue footed boobies. I’m not much of a birder, but these little guys were so comical I couldn’t help but laugh. And yes, they really do have bright blue blue feet.
Blue footed boobies
The males do this funny “dance”, swaying from side to side lifting their feet to attract females. It is so damn cute, I can’t believe Pixar hasn’t made a kid’s movie about them. (more Isla Isabel photos)
Matanchén, was our next stop and first official mainland port. We traveled the 42NM within the small fleet of boats we met in Isabel and spent the next few days getting to know them and exploring the area.
Matatchén Bay, Mexico
Matanchén is a large shallow bay perfect for easy anchoring and dinghy landings on the beach. The only downside is the infamous Jejenes (“hay-hay-nays”) which are tiny no-see-ums that inhabit the beaches especially at dusk and really throw a wrench into sunset happy hours. The restaurants burn coconut husks and the smoke somewhat helps to keep them away, but those annoying little bastards loved me and almost a week later my legs still look like I have a case of the chicken pox. Oh, the price we pay for living the life of leisure.
Matanchén is just a short drive away from San Blas, a charming little fishing town of Longfellow’s famed poem “The Bells of San Blas” (never say I didn’t teach you anything in this blog). Luckily the fleet of boats we met back in Isabel had given us the inside scoop on taking the early morning panga tour through the mangroves for first crack at seeing the wildlife. And we joined the crews from “Heavy Metal”, “Destiny”, “Sand Dollar”, “Cat2Fold” and “Ayla May” for a jungle tour.
Crocodile on the banks of Rio Tovara
It was absolutely beautiful (thankfully bug free) and full of birds, iguanas, turtles and crocodiles. Even this Florida Gator was impressed with the size of these suckers. At the end of the trip down Rio La Tovara you end up in a fresh water spring that is fenced off so you can take a dip without being lunch for the crocs you just saw. Everyone knows rusty chicken wire will keep out even the most determine croc 😉 We all had a great time swinging out into the river, showing off our best cannonballs, back flips and belly flops. (see more photos)
Peter swinging into La Tovara Spring
Fish monger in San Blas
Next we went into the town center to tourist around and hit the markets for fresh produce. But what seemed to be the highlight of the day was our ride back to the beach. Now it was our turn to be the hitch hikers. As we waited for the bus a local family pulled up in their pickup truck asked, “La Playa?” and motioned for us to jump in the back. So ten of us along with two locals already back there jammed onto wooden benches and held on for dear life while we whizzed down the road. I don’t know what was more dangerous swimming near crocodiles or riding in the back of a pickup going 70mhp, but I do know they both were a blast. (click here to ride with us)
Hitching a ride back to the beach with crews from Sand Dollar & Cat2fold
We rented a car (ridiculously cheap at $14/day) and drove about an hour SE of La Paz to the small beach town of La Ventana so I could do a little kitesurfing and Mary and Lucy could do some beach walking.
Kite Guard
La Ventana is a funky little town plopped down on a desolate and beautiful piece of Sea of Cortez beach. Its anything goes and there is a large camping area right on the beach where people stay for the entire season in everything from tents cobbled together from tarps to lux RVs.
Camps at La Ventana Kite Beach
For those familiar with 3rd Avenue, its got the same side-on wind attitude, very similar waves and an L-shaped layout. But its much bigger, the water is clear and warm, the launch is a wide-open sandy beach, there’s no mud in sight and the downwind shore is more sandy beach and not unforgiving rip-rap. Other than that, its the same.
I hadn’t kited much in the last year so it was good to scrub some rust off. I got two good sessions in and had some fun in the waves. Now I can’t wait to get to the next kite spot – probably Bucerias in Banderas Bay.
close up
Whale sharks are the largest living species of fish. They are docile sharks that feed on plankton and can grow to 40 feet. That’s a big fish.
Shark Size Comparison
When feeding they swim slowly and suck water into their very big mouths to filter out the tiny organisms they eat. We heard there were several of them feeding out in the bay here in La Paz so we went out in our friend’s dinghy (Richard & Audrey of Celebration) to check them out. They don’t appear to mind divers getting close to them and we were determined to see them in the water. From the boat you first see that familiar dorsal fin shape moving straight ahead with the tail fin swishing side to side.
Whale dorsal fin
Whale hunters
Its clearly a very big shark, so you definitely have to repress that human shark-fear instinct to force yourself to dive in. Plus, you’ve got to jump in right near it because even though it is moving slowly and deliberately, its still moving too fast for you to catch up to if you don’t start out close. So you dive in, get your bearings, open your eyes and see a 20 foot shark close enough to reach out and touch. Even though the thing is generally harmless (although you wanted to stay away from its tail) there’s something about being that close to such a huge animal in its own environment that is a little awesome and scary at the same time. We all did a couple of swims with them and then left them to feed in peace.
See for yourselves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RapDkfgZlM8
To join or not to join (the Baja Haha), that was the question we asked ourselves as we started our adventure. Normally we aren’t “joiners”, but this trip is also about broadening ourselves, not just from the challenges of living on the boat and traveling to other countries, but to get out of our comfort zone and say yes to the the scarey, the cheesy and god forbid the small talk. So we signed up and joined in on the reindeer games. And guess what, we survived LOL.
Captain Pete
The one thing they say about the Baja Haha rally is it gets you going, and boy did it do that. It was time to stop all the putzing around and start this trip we’d been planning forever. We sailed from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas at the bottom of the Baja peninsula (about 800 miles) in 11 days, with two stops along the way. For those of you who don’t sail, that is A LOT of sailing in a short amount of time.
About 130 boats left San Diego on a foggy, rainy and chilly morning.
Start of the 2013 Baja Haha rally
Apart from the crappy weather everyone was in good spirits and ready to roll. Happily our friends Mark and Lori joined us on this adventure.
Lori & Mark, true friends and fantastic crew
We stopped in Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria for some rest and aforementioned group activities 😉 Turtle Bay is a tiny dusty town in the middle of no where full of friendly folks. We arrived on Halloween and the local kids trick-or-treated by just saying “candy” and were thrilled to get candy or better yet money from the gringos.
Angel, Ezekiel and Alan in Turtle Bay
The Haha also set up a baseball game for all the sailors and the locals (who are actually excellent at baseball) and a good time was had by all.
Peter at bat. Turtle Bay baseball game.
Lucy was THRILLED to hit terra firma and fit right in with the local dogs, just like the good old days in Belize.
Bahia Santa Maria
Next stop was beautiful Bahia Santa Maria. The opposite of Turtle Bay’s desert-like landscape, here the hills were alive and green and looked more like Ireland than the Mexican coast. There are only a few fisherman and the lighthouse keeper and his family who live here, but they were ready to host a party, complete with band (who drove 400 miles for this), food
Peter on high
and of course cerveza. We did a little exploring in the tide pools, kayaking and Peter went up the mast to repair a shackle that sent our spinnaker into the ocean during leg 2 of the sail.
Look out below
Tide pools, Bahia Santa Maria
Finally we arrived in the big city. Cabo is exactly what you think or know it is (Disney, Vegas, Fort Lauderdale and Bourbon Street rolled up into one Mexican-accented frat party.) Don’t get me wrong, the locals are extremely nice, but did we really come all this way for Señor Frogs, jets skis and 2-for-1 Coronas? (Ok, maybe the 2-for-1’s) But, we also needed to clear immigrations, check in with the port captain and wait out some bad weather before moving on. We said goodbye to our fearless crew and yes, even attended the Haha closing ceremonies where we came in 3rd in our division (more photos)
On the hook
Sha, sha, sharrrkkkk
If you have only cleared into a country through the airport, never complain about long customs lines again. The immigration office is about a 15 minute walk from the harbor, where you wait on line, pray you have the proper paper work, then walk another 10 blocks to the port captains office to let him know you are here and who is on your boat, pay a fee and blah, blah, blah. Long story short, computers were down, so credit cards didn’t work, they won’t accept cash and after 3 hours of waiting we have to go back on Monday. Ahhh, the beginning of not sweating the small stuff. We’ve got nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there.
Watch Dog
So, as I type this entry -after a long warm day of swimming, and fixing the boat – the good and the bad of this life, Peter and I settle down with a cocktail to watch yet another gorgeous sunset and to quietly reflect on the day and the trip. The ice cubes clink and the surf breaks and we hear the approaching roar of a power boat towing a giant inflatable banana and the rider’s war cry, “Cabo, bitches!!”
Cabo, bitches indeed…
Neko crew in Bahia Santa Maria
Sailing on Neko 