Early morning Sept25 we left Puerto Escondido and headed for Loreto, about 14 miles north, planning to anchor, dinghy in to town and pick up our friends Frank & Lisa (Peggy’s cousin and his wife) at the airport. About an hour out, we get a message that their flight had been cancelled! After much back-and-forth with the airlines, Lisa was able to get another flight that arrived in Loreto at the same time. Disaster averted – well done Lisa!
We anchored and met them at the airport as planned, came into Loreto for a bit of site-seeing and a late lunch at Orlandos. Much thanks to our friend Don for driving us around when we were wilting in the heat. The dinghy ride back to Calista was rough, as the wind had come up quite a bit. Getting onto Calista from the dinghy was a challenge, but we all made it.
We headed to Isla Coronados, about 4 nm north where we dropped anchor in a wide sandy bay. We stayed two nights, did quite a bit of snorkeling, appreciated the clear night sky full of stars and generally relaxed.
On Sept27 we headed south, first stopping at ‘V Cove’ on the north end of Isla Carmen. We dropped anchor and went to check out some sea caves in the dinghy.
Back on the boat, we were being invaded by bees so we pulled anchor and headed around the east side of Isla Carmen to Bahia Salinas, a wide bay with a ghost town that used to support salt ‘mining’ from large evaporation ponds.
There are a number of decaying buildings with big machinery rusting away to nothing.
We saw the old school, medical office, store, etc.
There were also a number of buildings currently being used – a church, two hunting lodges and a couple small homes.
Omar, the care taker was very friendly. The only problem was that the ‘jejennes’ (no-seeums) were also happy to see us and we had not brought our bug spray. Frank and I got tons of bites on the hike to the salt ponds and around town. A week later (I’m writing this on Oct4)and they are finally mostly gone!
Back on the boat, we went to check out the 180 ft tuna boat that had sunk in 1980 in 35 ft of water. Some parts are within 3 ft of the surface. What a great place for snorkeling or diving!
The wreck was amazing for the number and variety of fish. Huge schools of Mullet, Goatfish and Sargent Majors. Colorful King Angelfish, Parrotfish, Jack, Groupers, Snappers, Bass and even an eel. Great place to spend an afternoon.