13. Loreto to Santa Rosalia

May 5th - May 13th: For the first time, we were not on a tight schedule! What a novelty! We decided to sail San Juanico from Loreto for our first destination. It is truly beautiful. As we arrived, there were about 18 boats in the harbor, with space for many more. By the next day, there were only 4 boats remaining, even better!

We decided to dive the southern pinnacles in San Juanico ... again very cold and in this case, not nearly as clear as Monserrat. Oh well, you can get spoiled. We ran ashore through the desert, and snorkeled until our skin looked like a pickle. A friend taught Bill how to find Chocolate clams, which may have been consumed with gusto that evening!

Diane learned "the art of the deal" trading ice that we had to a local fisherman for a whole bunch of dorado. Wow!

We left San Juanico for Mulege, noteworthy for many things, including having the only "navigable" river in the Baja peninsula and "El Sobrerito", shown to the left. Well, "navigable" is debatable. We grounded our dinghy many times going up the river to the town, but it was well worth the trouble. Mulege is a fine little town and the beer is cold!

The anchorage at Mulege leaves a bit to be desired. It's a roadstead anchorage (no protection) and there's a lot of seagrass to fowl your anchor if you're not careful. Net, we only stayed there one night before heading on to Santa Rosalia.

Santa Rosalia is another fascinating town, mostly built by the French 120 years ago. They build the town in a clapboard construction style which is just wierd (but it works) for Baja. We stayed in the Sinclar (gov't) marina that night and slept like babies! Do not miss Santa Rosalia ... it's cool.

Well, once again, schedules called us. It was time to leave for San Carlos, so Sunday evening, May 13th, we left.