Puerto Escondido

Los Gigantes!!

Last year at about this same time we had wandered through Puerto Escondido on our way north. In fact, we dropped off crew at the airport and had rented a car for the trip into town because the taxi rides here are a staggering equivalent to US$40 each way. That is about what it costs per day to rent a car and they will bring the car to you so you are already saving money if you need to go to town to provision! Of course, Loreto is a great town but it is not a place we need to go everyday. This year we are waiting for Patty and Hank to join us so we are just hanging out doing “boaty” sorts of things and passing the time visiting with the many friends we have met along the way as they come through the bay on their way north.

As it happens, last year I had not really made up my mind about this place. Was it a good place? I have been here many times now but I just could not make up mind about it. The first time I was here I had actually anchored across the channel at Isla Danzante in Honeymoon cove and dinghied over to make the walk up to the little tienda at Tripui RV Park. There were a few choices of things to buy; limited veggies, beer, canned goods, chips and the like but truly not much there at the time. That was eleven or so years ago. It looked, at the time, like there would someday be development but it was a failed port with boats anchored in the fantastic bay. A French company had attempted to build a Med tie mooring basin and there were signs that they had tried to build a hotel or some such but it was just a place where some derelict boats hung out on the anchor along with some nicer boats. There was not much here on that visit.
A few years later I was here and anchored in the “Cement Pond” of the old Med tie basin. I dragged anchor that night and made the walk up to Tripui for supplies only to find that there was not much there. There was an active Port Control (API) office at that point but the rest of the place was pretty much as it had been a few years prior… not much going on. A couple of years along and another visit showed that the port was becoming more active. A bunch of boat stands sat idle in a yard but the Fonatur / Singlar office was open and they were about to begin construction of a marina building or two. Way back then (2005 or 6) I had not seen the Singlar marinas and did not yet know that they are all exactly the same. The buildings are nicely done with the same lay out no matter where you are. The showers are good (although the water is almost never hot) and the people running the marina have a great attitude. Often they have some sort of internet arrangement and a way to contact the outside world via phone or some such along with a Laundromat and small pool. The one at Puerto Escondido also has a small store and a restaurant that gives an option for some goods and services. There is even a boat yard with regular haul out services available. The boats here are allowed to anchor out if preferred but most of us now use the excellent mooring ball system that has been upgraded and maintained extremely well. It is just about as good as being at a dock. In fact, in some ways I like it better for the privacy it also affords us.

Looking toward the "Window" at sunset.

As I started all this chat off with the, “I had not really made up my mind,” about this place last year I believe I have now decided that this is an incredible place to hang out. It is quiet, the weather has been wonderful, the mooring is as near perfect as you can get; what is not to like? Of course last year the one issue for being here was that the windlass had started to pack it in and we had put the anchor down instead of grabbing a mooring ball. I cannot say why we did that, but we did. Hauling chain by hand is never a “good thing”! It might have been that since we were not going to be here a long time we opted for the lower rate to anchor since the daily rate for the mooring is a bit higher for the first week rather than the rate if purchased by the week or month… I just do not recall precisely. Anyway, Escondido is a solid place to be for awhile and I have actually had time to relax for this period. Naturally, when we got here there was a boat project and it got completed swiftly. Our friend Dan, on Rosinante, was here and had a car available so we were able to pop into Loreto a few times with him to take care of getting a new alternator, do the laundry, buy a few items for the larder and generally enjoy the town. He later moved the car up to Santa Rosalia and departed this morning for El Burro cove in Bahia Concepciόn, yet another great place to tell you about some other time. The new alternator was part of the cascade failure that occurred when we were in Isla San Francisco but did not realize it until we on our way north again from La Paz (after replacing the refrigerator, the main power switch and the controller for the inverter/charger, not to mention fixing the aft head). So life is GOOD again. When that happens I get to read some and just sit and watch the day go by on the mountains to the west of the anchorage. It can be very satisfying for the soul.

This is a rare moment this year in other ways as well. The weather has been a perverse mix of too much too often this season so to be in a place where the breeze comes up for welcome cooling off during the afternoons and the night-time temperatures are as near perfect as you can get is almost too much to be believed! I will have to add more later but I think that you might be getting the idea that this will be a place we will return to. Maybe next season we can make it in time for Loreto-fest (which actually takes place here in Escondido)!