La Paz is a wonderful place to visit. The cruisers are very social with the early morning cruisers net on the VHF radio reporting all new arrivals, departures, weather and daily events information etc. There is a lot to do in La Paz - musical concerts, cruisers organizing a jamming session in a local beer hall, yoga every morning, singing for fun at a private residence and the list goes on. We originally pulled into the marina so we could wash down our boat which was covered in salt with dirt and sand embedded - she looked beige instead of ivory. We also wanted to fill water tanks and have a looong hot shower. The long hot shower didn't happen - this area in Mexico is very short of water in fact the local residents up the hill only get water twice a week in the evening - the marina was on the bottom of the gravity pool so water was available but the hot part of it didn't seem very reliable. The weather was warm enough that it didn't really matter. We had good intentions of heading out to the local anchorage after a few days in the marina but a strong northerly came through making it very uncomfortable so we stayed firmly tied to the dock for the duration. Boats in the La Paz anchorage are known to do the "waltz". This happens most days when wind, tide and current are in conflict requiring boats to be firmly anchored - a few were known to drag through the anchorage.
We left La Paz and headed out to the nearest island - Islas Espiritu Santu and Isla Partida, a small island at the head of Espiritu. The anchorages were picture postcard beautiful with the pale golden sand, ice blue water (31 degrees) turning into green as it deepens, fish jumping, pelicans diving and being a National Park no jet skis or hookahs (motors to run diving equipment). It was a wonderful few days as we explored a new bay each day, swam and climbed around tall cacti. We went snorkeling in Caleta Partida Bay off the rocks - the fish were amazing. Hundreds of fist size yellow and silver stripped fish all around us. They were not concerned at our presence we were totally surrounded by these friendly little fellows. Other larger colourful fish swam by to check us out - it was amazing. The highlight was snorkeling with the sea lions - they inhabit a set of large rocks off the northern tip of Partida. We pulled anchor early morning and moved to the closest bay to the sea lion rocks - we had very little information about the anchorage so crept in very slowly - the water was clear and we could see the bottom easily. We managed to get in close to the tiny beach with enough swinging room for our boat only. We had to take our dinghy alongside the island towards the top then approximately 1/2 a mile out to sea to reach sea lion rocks. That was scary in a little dinghy with a new (secondhand) unproven outboard - could have been a long row back!! We had hoped to find another cruiser making a similar trip just for safety - no worries there - all the local pangas (16ft dinghies with fast outboards) were taking tourists out and a few motor boats were anchored out near the rocks. We had a wonderful time - the sea lions swam up to us and seemed to smile and play around us - the babies kissed our masks and were very playful. We were warned to keep our hands in and not to touch them as they may think we were feeding them and bite! The males could be a problem if they thought their harem were in danger or being challenged so I was very worried when Don dove down deep and a male twice his size raced over to check him out - he seemed to be nudging Don away from his females. It was a wonderful experience.
-- Don and Lee CAMERON SV White Rose I donandlee.email@gmail.com http://donandleeblog.blogspot.com/
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