Emerald Star

The crossing of the Sea of Cortez was easy. We had almost no wind, so it was a flat calm and we motored all the way. We had the stereo on the whole time to cover up the engine noise. There was a full moon so we could see at night. It was very beautiful and relaxing. After the crossing we anchored two nights at Isla Partida which is in a national park. We just caught up on sleep and enjoyed the view. We didn't even get off the boat.

Here are Tiki and Luna relaxing at Isla Partida.

Tiki.....

Luna......

Then we went into La Paz. We had a lot of fun and got several projects done. Bayfest was going on one weekend (Bayfest has music, seminars, and several other activities). We met and got to know a bunch of new people and we caught up with several old friends. So it was really hard to schedule leaving. La Paz is well known for this phenomena. Some people get to La Paz and never move on. We planned to stay at least 2 weeks and we ended up staying about 6 weeks. Although during that time Diane went to Arizona for a week and we also left for a week and anchored at Ballandra, one of our favorite spots.

Here are some new pictures of Ballandra....

We hiked the top of the ridge twice. Here's Luna looking at Ray off in the distance.

On the other side of the ridge is Playa Tecolote. We didn't know about it before this visit, but there are a couple of restaurants on the beach. One calm day we took the dinghy around the point and stopped for lunch and a few beverages with ice. We don't have ice on the boat, so that was quite a treat.

Another nice sunset. We never get tired of these.

We rented a car the last few days we were in La Paz. We played tourist and drove around. This was the first time we'd been more than about 5 miles from the ocean. So of course we went to another beach town. The first day we went to the town of Todos Santos which is on the Pacific side of Baja. Here's Ray and the girls on the beach. 

The second day we went up into the mountains of Baja to the towns of El Truinfo and San Antonio. This is the big attraction in El Truinfo. The smokestack was designed by Gustav Eiffel, yep, the same one that designed that famous tower in Paris. There are two smokestacks, this is the prettier of the two. Guess it just goes to show that all work projects are not glamorous.

Then we escaped La Paz. But we'll probably be back.

When we arrived on the Baja side of the Sea it was just getting light when we got close to land. We both commented on how beautiful it is. It's so brown! The mountains are interesting and the colors are very vivid, especially at sunrise and sunset.