We were finally back to mainland Mexico and heading south toward San Carlos. Although Eitan had planned a couple weeks for us to get from Bahia de los Angeles to San Carlos/Guaymas, there seemed to be a lack of decent anchorages with protection from northerly and westerly swells along the route. The land on this side of the Sea of Cortez was completely different from what we had seen on the Baja side. Aside from having much more vegetation, the red landscape was mountainous, with cliffs and caves scattered throughout. I imagine it must be an ideal habitat for bat colonies.
We made some stops on our way to San Carlos at a few small bays. Despite not having much wind, the sea state seemed to have a constant northwesterly swell, making most of the trip a bit rollie and uncomfortable. My favorite anchorage along the way was at a place called San Pedro, which was a beautiful bay bordered by a long sandy beach. There were some fishermen camping on the shore and one other sailboat anchored there. This was our first time meeting native Mexicans out sailing for the weekend. I flew the drone a couple times and tried to take some pictures of the landscape, but I felt I just couldn’t do it justice, even with the drone. We spent two nights here then finished the trip into San Carlos.
With few protected anchorages, we arrived in San Carlos earlier than expected, but were excited to spend some time with some sailing friends that we knew were already there. As we pulled into Bahia San Carlos, we were greeted by our friends, Joe and Michelle, on S/V Soul Rebel, whom we met in Zihuantanejo back in March, and our new friends, Brett and Dilana, on S/V Bula, whom we had just met in Bahia de los Angeles weeks earlier. The following day we got together with them to celebrate Joe’s birthday at a local restaurant, which turned into quite a late night for us, getting back to the boat at 1:00 AM. We also had a couple more friends, Gary and Angie, on S/V Navasi, whom we met on the trip down from San Diego and recently purchased a house in San Carlos and invited us over. And having a car, they helped us with errands like getting propane and a few runs to the hardware store. It was great to have some social time and share stories of what has happened since we last saw each of them.
I also have family friends, Diane and Joe, who have been living in San Carlos for the last 25 years. Diane picked Eitan and me up one afternoon and took us to her ranch, where she has 7 horses, 7 dogs, 3 (maybe more) cats, and a few birds. I didn’t know much of her story, having only met her briefly a couple times, but was surprised to find out that they also originally arrived in Mexico on a sailboat. Eitan and I enjoyed hearing her stories of cruising the Sea of Cortez. Once settling back on land in San Carlos, they traded the sailing life for a trawler style power boat to chase big game fish throughout the Sea of Cortez. Their boating/cruising life eventually came to an end when their trawler sunk off the coast of one of the islands we had recently anchored at. We finished the evening with live music at a local bar called the Soggy Peso, which had an excellent band playing. Many restaurants in San Carlos had live music every weekend and we were constantly surprised at the amazing musicians coming to play in such a small town.
Only a few hours drive from the border, San Carlos seemed to be filled with Americans and Canadians. As a result, there were plenty of hip restaurants with overpriced menus catering to the North American apatite. Eitan and I enjoyed seemingly exotic foods like buffalo chicken strips and poutine fries. There was even a local brewery there where we strayed from the usual selection of Corona, Tecate, or Modelo and enjoyed some nice craft brews. Even the grocery store seemed very nice and modern until you saw a cockroach running along the conveyor belt at the checkout and remembered you were still in rural Mexico. With the beautiful landscape and all the services and accommodations of home, it was easy to see why so many Americans had come there to retire.
Anything you couldn’t find in town could easily be imported by a woman called Debbie, whom some have nicknamed “Debbie de Smuggler”. She runs an import business where you can order anything to her house in Tuscan and she brings the goods down weekly for a small fee. Eitan ordered some new solar panels for her to deliver and we arrived at a specified parking lot to pick them up. I was surprised to see some of the items she had brought down, including Listerine mouthwash and Fancy Feast canned cat food. I guess there were some things I never thought would be difficult to find here. Unfortunately, the two solar panels took up a bit too much room in her car and she had to split up the shipment, meaning we were only getting one panel this week and we would have to come back in another week to pick up the second one. She hardly charged us anything for the import fee, so we couldn’t complain too much and it just meant we would have to come back to San Carlos. But, in the meantime, we needed to get over to Guaymas to get S/V Sierra Wind into a slip at the marina.
