On to Agua Verde

The next morning, 4/9/2013, we got under way fairly early, leaving Isla San Francisco for an anchorage on the bay of Aqua Verde, about 52 miles away.  (25 deg – 32.150’N, by 111 deg – 01.000’W)  The beautiful, protected waters of Bahia Agua Verde, together with the dramatic backdrop of the Sierra de la Giganta range have long been a popular destination for boaters.  The bay has good snorkeling and diving as well as excellent hiking along the various goat trails and dirt roads leading out to the main highway.  This area is  known for its superior goat cheese and Cave Paintings.

The weather was cold and the wind was blowing at about 12 knots from the NE.  We motored until the wind built to about 17 knots from a direction that allowed us to put out some canvas.  We arrived late in the afternoon, and while touring through the bay starting from the south we received a call on the VHF radio from “Voyager” Bill and Julie, friends that we had known for sometime in La Paz.  I could not even see their boat yet they recognized us across the bay.  These folks have really good eyes.   We told them that we had run out of beer and needed to go into the village to the tienda, and would they join us later over a cold one.  They agreed, and we anchored beside them in about 30 feet of water.

We took the dingy off the davits and cranked up the engine.  The temperature had gotten so cold that the inflation of the dingy was below margin, in fact it was almost flat, but rather than pumping it up now and having to let air out of it when it got hot again, I decided to leave the dingy a little to a lot soft and we struck out for the small fishing village, which I guess is the village of Agua Verde.  The beach was crowded with pangas all tied to lines that were run out to moorings from the beach, and I did my first ever surf landing of a dingy.  I thought we would just ride the surf into the shore and get out and pull the dingy up on the beach.  Didn’t work just like that.  As I approached the beach the outboard dug into the sand and stopped the boat right in the surf line.  There we were stuck in the breaking surf with the engine down.  Sharon had the good sense to go over the side, but I thought I should stay on board to hoist the outboard.  The surf was tossing us about and I lost my balance and fell, taking out the two seats from their straps of the under-inflated dingy. With water coming over the stern I managed to regain my footing and raise the engine though with great effort.Then in the same form as a wounded Walrus went over the side and together Sharon and I pulled the dingy up on the beach.  All of our clothes were wet and I felt miserable.  But my mood had not bottomed out yet, for I discovered that I had left my wallet on the boat, and had to go back to get it.   A more optimistic soul would have welcomed the opportunity to improve on his dingy surf landing skills but that’s not exactly how I felt about it.  It did give me a chance to drain some of the 2 -3 inches of water that now covered the bottom of the dingy.  I had left Sharon at the village, and I was determined to improve on my next dingy surf landing.  I guess it was a little better; I did manage to get the engine up such that it didn’t dig into the sand, but the whole episode could well be described as ungraceful at best.

The little village of Agua Verde was indeed a delightful place.  The whole village was spread out, and there were cattle grazing next to the unpaved main street and village dogs coming up to us to welcome us to their home.  It was all quite picturesque.  We found the community center where there was a paved soccer field and two teams were doing battle.  During a lull in the action, I asked one of the players where we could buy some beer and the entire two teams came over to help with the instructions.  I don’t think these guys saw gringos every day, and they wanted to see some close up.  Sharon with her long blonde hair receive a great deal of very respectful attention.  After a whole lot of hand gestures, each of us trying to find common words that the other party would understand, we learned that there were three tiendas (small convenience or grocery stores) in the village, one with a hand painted sign on the front.  The soccer teams went to a lot of trouble to direct us, and we showed our appreciation with big smiles and warm handshakes.  They went back to their game, and we followed the pasture toward a small grouping of buildings that we could see.  We found all three tienda, and discovered that only one sold beer and of course that would be the last one.  We were told to look for a goat that would be tied up next to the end of the pasture, and turn left, and we should see it straight ahead.  We found the goat, turned left and sure enough, there was the little store, sitting back under a growth of old trees, very shady and comfortable looking.

We asked for an 8 pack of Modela Especial, but after searching, the tienda lady only had 6 Modelas and 2 Pacificos, would that be OK?  Sure!  We bought the beer at a most reasonable price along with a few other supplies, and headed back to the dingy.  The dingy launch was a little more dignified than had been the landing, and we headed back toward Voyager.

We sat with Bill and Julie and tipped several beers, catching up of their travels and our plans, and sharing our knowledge on where our common friends were and what they were doing.  They planned to stay in Aqua Verde for another couple of days before heading up to Puerto Escondido themselves.  We told them that we hoped to see them there.  We then retired to Milagro for some well earned sleep.