Our week with Tom went so quickly! It takes an adventurous traveler to meet up with us the way Tom did. He flew into Loreto, took a bus about 70 miles and then got off on the side of the road at a certain beach in Conception Bay. Then he had to walk about 300 yards down the beach to Ana's Restaurant which is a small house-looking structure without any outdoor signs. Now our friend Ben made this exact same journey in May, so we were pretty confident that a seasoned traveler like Tom would have no problems. Imagine our concern, when Tom does not arrive on the 5 o'clock bus, the 8 o'clock bus, or the 10 pm bus on the appointed day. We held a "Tom Watch" all that evening, but no Tom! We decided to hold our panic down until 6 pm the following day. If he didn't show up then, we were going to notify his family!
Thankfully the next day, the 2 pm bus pulled over and one lone traveler with lots of baggage began huffing it down the dirt road toward the beach. Jack and I jumped in the dinghy and got to the beach before Tom had to fumble through too much bad Spanish asking the campground attendant confused questions. All the attendant did was point to the beach and Tom saw us waving from our dinghy. (We had put the word out to the denizens of the beach to be on the lookout for a confused looking gringo with luggage!) From that time on, we had a blast.
Our first few days were spent in Conception Bay visiting some of our favorite spots. We were sad to go to Coyote Island and see the devestation that Hurricane Jimena wreaked. The tiny beach where all the scallops lived was wiped off the face of the earth, along with the scallops and chocolate clams. Every partical of sand from that beautiful beach was gone, and only the large rocks remained. The bottom of the bay was littered with thousands of shells of dead scallops, chocolate clams, butter clams, and pen scallops. Some pen scallop shells were a monsterous two feet long! It was so sad. Our entire trip down the coast has been a sad tour of Jimena damage from Santa Rosalia to Mulege, but the loss of the beach we loved was more personal to us. The damage in Mulege was incredible. People are still working so hard to clean up and repair. Many, many homes were lost there.
From Conception Bay, we sailed to San Juanico with Tom. A Norther was coming and we knew that San Juanico would be a good place to sit out a wind storm from that direction. The next morning, the winds hit and continued for three days. We were pinned, but it was a beautiful place to be stuck. We snorkeled, visited the cruiser's shrine where Jack immortalized Tom's visit, and we hiked for miles. By the time the storm was over, we had enough time left to spend one night at a beautiful little island near Loreto and then we dropped Tom off in the Loreto marina the next day in time to catch a taxi to the airport. Hopefully he is safe at home.
After dropping Tom at Loreto, we hustled to Puerto Escondido where we reunited with Third Day. We planned to stay long enough to get laundry done, refuel, and clean the boat. Oh, and hike the Steinbeck Canyon. I am so glad we took the time, but this morning when we were walking the 45 minutes just to get to the trail head, I was wondering why we were bothering to do this. About 10 minutes into the hike from the trail head, I stopped wondering. I have never been on such a beautiful hike. We had Third Day's Amy and Jason along as guides to show us where to go. We had such a great day together. The scenery was breathtaking, as was the plunge in one of the canyon's pools. Tomorrow we leave on our epic dash to La Paz. We hope to be there in three days, so there will be no lolly-gagging done.
Laura
Thankfully the next day, the 2 pm bus pulled over and one lone traveler with lots of baggage began huffing it down the dirt road toward the beach. Jack and I jumped in the dinghy and got to the beach before Tom had to fumble through too much bad Spanish asking the campground attendant confused questions. All the attendant did was point to the beach and Tom saw us waving from our dinghy. (We had put the word out to the denizens of the beach to be on the lookout for a confused looking gringo with luggage!) From that time on, we had a blast.
Our first few days were spent in Conception Bay visiting some of our favorite spots. We were sad to go to Coyote Island and see the devestation that Hurricane Jimena wreaked. The tiny beach where all the scallops lived was wiped off the face of the earth, along with the scallops and chocolate clams. Every partical of sand from that beautiful beach was gone, and only the large rocks remained. The bottom of the bay was littered with thousands of shells of dead scallops, chocolate clams, butter clams, and pen scallops. Some pen scallop shells were a monsterous two feet long! It was so sad. Our entire trip down the coast has been a sad tour of Jimena damage from Santa Rosalia to Mulege, but the loss of the beach we loved was more personal to us. The damage in Mulege was incredible. People are still working so hard to clean up and repair. Many, many homes were lost there.
From Conception Bay, we sailed to San Juanico with Tom. A Norther was coming and we knew that San Juanico would be a good place to sit out a wind storm from that direction. The next morning, the winds hit and continued for three days. We were pinned, but it was a beautiful place to be stuck. We snorkeled, visited the cruiser's shrine where Jack immortalized Tom's visit, and we hiked for miles. By the time the storm was over, we had enough time left to spend one night at a beautiful little island near Loreto and then we dropped Tom off in the Loreto marina the next day in time to catch a taxi to the airport. Hopefully he is safe at home.
After dropping Tom at Loreto, we hustled to Puerto Escondido where we reunited with Third Day. We planned to stay long enough to get laundry done, refuel, and clean the boat. Oh, and hike the Steinbeck Canyon. I am so glad we took the time, but this morning when we were walking the 45 minutes just to get to the trail head, I was wondering why we were bothering to do this. About 10 minutes into the hike from the trail head, I stopped wondering. I have never been on such a beautiful hike. We had Third Day's Amy and Jason along as guides to show us where to go. We had such a great day together. The scenery was breathtaking, as was the plunge in one of the canyon's pools. Tomorrow we leave on our epic dash to La Paz. We hope to be there in three days, so there will be no lolly-gagging done.
Laura
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