Friday, November 29, 2019

Blissed out in Baja



     What a month or so this has been! I promise the Kyrie crew hasn't fallen off the face of the earth. I've just, honestly, been enjoying myself too much to sit down and share it all with you. We left San Diego with about 120 other boats on the Baja Ha-ha on November 4th. Our friend Wade flew down to San Diego to join us on the trip and having another adult on board was wonderful! We've known Wade for about seven years through the sailing club in Juneau, plus he has done the Ha-ha before. Wade helped us with trimming the sails better, as well as taking turns on watch so we all could have some more sleep! It made the multiple-day passages much more palatable to have had six hours of sleep, instead of four!
     All in all, I think our favorite stop on the way down Baja California was Bahia Magdelena. We got there a day ahead of the rest of the fleet, choosing to only spend one day in Bahia Santa Maria, and were very happy we did. Bahia Magdelena, or “Mag Bay,” is gorgeous. I think we could have spent a month there, just exploring. The first day, we went ashore to the little village there and wandered around. A lot of the landscape near the water was made up of uplifted seafloor. The kids (and the adults too, frankly!) got a kick out of seeing so many shells embedded in what looked like sand, but was actually about as hard as concrete.
     Mag Bay also has a beautiful palapa that some wealthy individual built years ago and gave to the village. It has a roof made from woven palm fronds, lights hanging from it, a wood-burning oven with a giant turtle shell as a decoration, and a huge kitchen area. There are platforms surrounding the palapa, designed for people to set tents up on. I could handle that kind of camping—waking up each morning with the beach directly in front, and then going down to the palapa to make and enjoy a cup of coffee before breakfast.... Wait a minute! Isn't that pretty much what I do every morning, minus the waking up in a tent?!
     I still have to pinch myself, realizing that this is my life now. We have been saving and working and delaying treats and telling ourselves for so long, “We're doing this for a reason. We have plans we're saving for.” Now that we're enjoying the fruits of our labors, it still almost seems like a dream. People, Kyrie is finally in MEXICO! Oh my gosh, this is has been so much fun. I know we were in Mexico almost the entirety of the Ha-ha, but it finally feels like it now. We stopped in Cabo San Lucas long enough to drop Wade off so he could fly back to Juneau and to pick up all our paperwork for our official arrival in Mexico, and then we got out of there. A storm, dubbed Tropical Storm Raymond at the time, was bearing down on the Capes and we wanted to be out of the area and somewhere safer by the time it arrived. La Paz was our destination!
     We stopped in La Paz for nearly two weeks. The stop gave us some much needed down time to just stay put and explore the town. Can I say that I love La Paz? Population-wise, it's about the size of Anchorage, for all my Alaska friends. It's a lovely mixture of locals, expats, and cruisers, and I can see why so many people come to La Paz and end up staying for years. We fell in love with the Mercado Bravo—an indoor market full of produce stands, a seafood counter where a kilo of warm water of shrimp cost us less than $20 USD, and loncherias with the best empanadas I've ever had. We've been eating grapefruit and avocados until... no, I can't say we're stick of them by any means. Everyone we have encountered so far has been super friendly. Of course, it helps that Megan has said “Hola” to everyone we walk past, and no one can resist smiling at her and saying “Hola” or “Buenas dias” back to her.
     And now, it's time to say good-bye, for at least a week and a half. We walked to our favorite grocery store this morning to restock, filled our water jug in preparation for deck showers, and checked out with la capitainia del puerto. We're cruising past Isla Espiritu Santu, bound for Isla Partida, just to the north, along with a bunch of other boats we know from the Baja Ha-ha. The kiddos are excited about seeing some friends again, as well as swimming in the water. I'm looking forward to being out of town for a while. Joe already managed to catch dinner for tonight—a lovely dorado!
     We've been in Mexico for nearly a month already and I still can't get over the fact that I'm sitting here in the cockpit in shorts and a tank top and I'm totally comfortable. We talked to Joe's parents on my birthday a couple of days ago (side note: am I really 40 now?!) and they said it was in the teens and snowing in Juneau. At the moment, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be—chasing the sun with my family and thinking about making a margarita after we drop the hook in whichever bay we decide to hang out in for a while.


Sunday, November 17, 2019

La Paz at last!

Just a quick update here. Kyrie is safe in La Paz after cruising all the way down Baja California, and racing around Los Cabos to stay ahead of Tropical Storm Raymond. Raymond turned out to be no worse for us than a windy rainy day in Juneau! In the meantime, we have seen a little bit of La Paz and love it! I can’t wait to explore this corner of the world and share our adventures!

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Slow Updates

Sorry everyone, we've been running non-stop for the last few weeks and haven't had any time to update the blog. We'll get caught back up when we get further south.

Kyrie is in Mexico! We are with the Baja Ha-Ha fleet and having a wonderful time. We arrived two days ago in Bajia de Totugas and the whole crew has been thoroughly enjoying the beaches, fish tacos and swimming!

More to come later.

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