6/13/2011 - another fine agua verde day

Today we got ambitious and decided to hike from our beach to the beach adjacent to the "choice" anchorage. We had dinghied there previously but thought it might be fun to walk it and we also felt like our legs could use some exercise. Because of the vertical cliffs between here and there, you can't just walk along the beach. Instead you have to follow the road around the backside of the hills between here and there. Of course this meant we had to walk a couple miles to go about 1/4 mile. It was quite warm today and the road was hot and dusty. We were both quite sweaty but it sure felt good when we'd catch a breeze. There are many roads around here, all dirt, and none marked in any way. So, even though the route was pretty obvious, we set up stone cairns at any junction that even had the slightest chance of ambiguity.

When we got over to the other beach we were awed by the color and clarity of the water. We weren't, however, awed by the smell, at least not in a good way. There's a beach between a couple of big rocks that had a couple piles of drying fish remnants. YEESH! Once we got upwind of the piles, it was fun to explore the tidepools and beaches. We saw desiccated triggerfish corpses as well as the dried up skulls of a couple of small sharks.

Eventually we had our fill of poking around and hiked back to our side of the bay. Stopped in at the tienda to get something cold to drink and see if they had any queso de chevre yet. No goat cheese but we got a couple cans of mango juice and some more refried beans and then returned to the boat.

Spent most of the afternoon loafing. Lulu read and I finished putting together a couple of iTunes playlists to use on the iPod. About 5:00 we loaded the snorkels, etc. in the dinghy and headed over to the beach on the other side of us. We spent an hour or so swimming and snorkeling. The snorkeling was less than spectacular. We saw a few brittle stars, some sergeant major fish and, of course, puffers. Lulu went further than I did and saw a couple skates (or rays) and some scallops. But the main thing is we cooled off which was the real purpose of the dip. Dinghied back to Siempre Sabado and jumped in again to wash our hair followed by a freshwater rinse. The solar shower wasn't quite as hot today but it was still plenty hot. Going to try to remember to put a towel over it tomorrow in the early afternoon.

We had nachos for dinner again tonight. We've adopted Marj's approach to nachos. Instead of piling all the stuff on top of chips which get soggy, she just used the nacho makings as a dip. Works way better for us. Probably not technically nachos anymore but, who cares?

I'm sitting in the cockpit as I write this. I just looked around and noticed it's really dark all of a sudden. Time to tie this up and set up the Mac for watching a couple shows in the cockpit. The current plan is to stay one more day and then head out again on Wednesday morning. Not sure if we'll go to Isla Santa Catalina, Isla Monserrate, or Bahia Candeleros Chico. Guess we'll know when we get there.

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