Puerto Escondido to Ballandra Cove on Isla Carmen

Q: What kind of food do you cook onboard? 

A: Currently, Keith’s favorite meal is chicken tacos, so we make that frequently. Keith also loves homemade chicken noodle soup, so Christi makes soup out of the bones every time she makes chicken for the tacos. Other foods Christi has made recently include: Ground Beef and Rice Florentine, Cabbage and Asparagus Salad with Tahini Dressing, Roasted Broccoli with Tomato Vinaigrette, Lemon-Asparagus RisottoCoconut-Lime Rice, and Carrot-Cabbage-Potato Soup.

Thursday (August 11) was a chores day. Eric equalized had batteries and changed the watermaker filter. He also went over to Sprezzatura to help the other Eric with a repair. 

In the evening, we had dinner with Sprezzatura Eric at the marina restaurant. We also visited with Nick (from the volcano hike) and his girlfriend, Veronica, who had also recently come into Puerto Escondido.   

On Friday, we got the boat ready to go first thing in the morning. We left the marina at 1000, and arrived at Ballandra Cove on Isla Carmen at around 1300. The seas were smooth. We were the only boat there. The first photo is looking at the mouth of the bay, with Baja and Loreto in the distance. The second two are what it looks like in the anchorage.

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Keith’s perspective on Isla Coronado/Puerto Escondido/San Javier/Loreto

In Isla Cornados, we went to the beach. We also snorkeled. We went on a walk. Dad hiked a volcano while Mom and I went to the other side of the island. I saw lots of cool fish. I jumped off the bow of the boat and the top deck. I did not like Isla Coronados because there was no civilization.

A l’île Coronados, nous sommes allés à la plage. Nous avons aussi fait de la plongée. Nous sommes allés faire une promenade. Papa est monté sur un volcan pendant que maman et moi avons marché jusqu’à l’autre côté de l’île. J’ai vu beaucoup de poissons cool. J’ai sauté de la proue du bateau et du pont supérieur. Je n’ai pas aimé Isla Coronados parce qu’il n’y avait pas de civilisation. 

The we went to Puerto Escondido. I like Puerto Escondido because it has a pool and a restaurant.

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Park Passes, Dive Compressor, and Solar Ovens

On Tuesday morning (August 9), we left Puerto Escondido at 0830 to go to Loreto to get our park pass and do some more grocery shopping. We went to the park office first, arriving right before it was supposed to open at 0900. It was a good thing we hadn’t started the process yesterday; what we thought would take five-minutes took 1.5 hours to complete.

As part of the process, we had to go to the bank in the historic town center to pay for the pass. As we mentioned in the last post, Loreto was the first Spaniard settlement in the Californias, and was the capital until 1777. This is the Capital building.  

Here is a shot of the town center plaza

Some of the streets surrounding the plaza have tree canopies

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Dive Compressor, San Javier, and Loreto

Sunrise on Monday, August 8

Eric spent the morning working on the dive compressor. The first order of business was standard servicing: changing the oil, filters, and hose. The hose completely disintegrated, so it is probably safe to say it was time to change it.

As he started up the compressor, air was not coming out of the final hose. He spent some time trying to troubleshoot the source of the problem, but at noon, he had to put the project aside. It was time to pick up our rental car and play tourists! 

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