On Saturday morning (November 5), it was still rolly in the anchorage. The wind had calmed down some and the rolling had also improved improved a bit, so it wasn’t quite as bad as it had been the day before. 

Eager to get to dry land, we skipped our morning chores and headed out on a hike right away. As soon as we got to shore, Christi sat down on the beach to put on her shoes and socks. Lola came running and jumped into her lap.

We’d decided to head south of the big sandbar on a hiking trail that we’d scoped out the day before. Here’s a view of the Sea of Cortez (and the islet we’d hiked yesterday) taken from the trail head. As you can see, it’s still wavy, though not as bad as it had been yesterday afternoon.

Lola went hiking with us. The terrain was similar to yesterday’s hike, hilly with lots of loose rock and shale, but the trail was well-defined.

It was a mostly clear, sunny day and the temperature was close to 80, so hiking was less comfortable today than it had been yesterday. The cool breeze would have been nice, but this hike was protected from the wind everywhere except at the head of the trail. Here is the view of the anchorage from near the summit.

Here is the view from the summit

The men walking down towards the valley.

At the edge of the valley was a cemetery. Since Dia de Los Muertos had just passed, we’d expected to see the cemetery at its peak — freshly groomed and the graves adorned with flowers and mementos. Only one grave had flowers. Most of the graves had been overtaken by weeds, and the few that had been cleared were crooked, like they’d been displaced by an earthquake. Dates we saw were in 1930s and 1950s. We didn’t see many other dates, but we’re guessing most of these graves were about 100 years old.

At the cemetery, the walking trail intersected with a sandy/rocky road, which had tire tracks that indicated it was actively used by off-road vehicles. Lola was sitting at the cross-road. We decided to turn back. We told Lola to come. She took a couple of steps down the sand road, then sat and waited expectantly for us to follow her. We again called Lola to follow us. She took a couple more steps down the road, then sat down and waited for us to follow her. Lola clearly wanted to take us someplace and Christi decided to follow.

Within a few hundred feet, she could hear the ocean, and the ocean got louder with each step. She figured that Lola was taking her to an ocean viewpoint. She was surprised when we the road ended at a lagoon.

It looked like there were hiking trails that led around/beyond the lagoon, but Christi wasn’t comfortable exploring off the road, where it would be hard for the men to find her should something happen. Instead, she turned back around and followed the road back. Lola happily followed, so Christi knew the lagoon was what Lola had wanted Christi to see. However, at the cross-road where the hiking trail met the road, Lola sat down and refused to move. Christi’s guess was that this road led to the village, and that Lola was waiting for someone.

We were pleased that rocking in the anchorage slowly and steadily got better as day wore on. Some cruisers who were on their way back from the village stopped by to chat. They confirmed that the building at the end of the beach was a restaurant, and it had choices beyond fish. They also reported that there was a goat farm next door to the restaurant that sold goat cheese. Here is the moon glowing brightly well before sunset.

Sunset

In the evening the wind died, leaving the boat to do circles around the anchor. However, the swells that had been created by the earlier winds were still coming in, so as the boat moved around, the swells were hitting us on different parts of the boat, causing Kosmos to move in erratic ways. It was quite uncomfortable and that pattern lasted all night. None of us slept well.