Explorations around La Paz

Wow, the last two weeks have been a blur -- first we took the boat out to an anchorage between two islands, called Caleta Partida.  There we spent a few days enjoying the bay & its wildlife (dolphins and turtles), trying to snorkel in freezing cold water (i would get numb after 5 minutes even with my wetsuit!), and exploring the sea caves on the back side of the island with some other cruisers.

Caleta Partida Anchorage

Almost Full Moon at Caleta Partida

Sea Caves back of Espiritu Santo

From there we decided to head back to La Paz to try to get some repairs done on our leaky engine.  Tim was concerned that with the lack of wind around here, we'd end up motoring a lot and the transmission has been losing a lot of fluid.  So that resulted in hiring mechanics that Tim worked with all last week to get the transmission out of the boat -- lots of pounding on the coupling, and heating and greasing was involved before they finally succeeded! 

Transmission is out!  Off to the shop for new seals!

Once the transmission was safely installed back in the boat, Tim and I rented a car and headed out to visit friends and check out some surf spots.....  It was super fun to see our old friends from Punta Mita - Dean and Yumiko and their two kids and explore the East Cape area near San Jose del Cabo with them.  

One the way back to La Paz, we stopped on the Pacific side of the Baja, near Todos Santos to check out a surf break called Cerritos -- we found an adorable little hotel, but were reminded of the importance of checking on whether the room would have hot showers (it didn't!).  Luckily there was a hot tub so we were able to warm up when we got out of the water.  Tim surfed a short session in the AM and then I took the longboard out to play in the shorebreak -- I was able to paddle around and even to jump up and ride a few *mini* waves, so I think that my hip injury is getting slowly better!

Here's a map showing the loop that we did... heading south on Route 1 from LaPaz, we took the route over the mountains to Los Barilles, and then south to San Jose del Cabo, and then came back along the Pacific side...

Now we're back at the marina in La Paz, Tim's back at work with the mechanic, while i hang out in the coffee shop doing computer work!  Best news today is that we've got an appointment for Tim to get vaccinated here next week.  Fingers crossed the supply of Pfizer vaccine holds out and that he is able to get the shot!