April 15, 2005
Isla San Francisco, Baja California del Sur (24o 48' N 110o 34' W)
We made a long run up from San Evaristo to Agua Verde with Megabyte on Tuesday. It's quite a little place, a small fishing village connected to the main highway by 20 miles of dirt road. The scenery is incredible, high precipitous mountains all around. It almost looks like we're in Lake Powell or something.
The first day at Agua Verde we took the dinghies to a hot springs which Tom on Rasa Manis had told us about. It's about 6.5 nm away from the anchorage over open water. Normally this would be a pretty risky run in our dinghy but the weather was so settled that the sea was like glass for the ride over. We had precise GPS coordinates for the hot springs and were pretty confident in finding them. When we got to the general area I walked around looking at the GPS trying to locate the spring. Of course Dave just looked around at the ground and found the big steaming pool of water. TMT, too much technology.
We did our best to sit in the springs but they were really too hot. If we'd been there a little later in the tide the sea would have been washing into the pool which would have made it bearable. Maybe next time.
Our second day we took a hike with Dave and Debbie from Megabyte and Mike and Kay from Finisterre. The hike was up an arroyo (dry river bed) which ended in an incredible box canyon. At the head of the canyon shear rock walls rose to about 800 ft. We could see several waterfalls, all dry, cascading down from the heights. We tried hiking into the head of the canyon as far as we could, with Linda taking the lead while the rest stopped to take a few pictures. Linda got just out of sight around a few boulders when we heard a shout followed by Linda hopping back down the rocks yelling "Rattle! Rattle!". She must have disturbed a rattlesnake in the boulders. She never saw it but heard it clearly enough, as had Debbie. Dave and I took a careful look into the area but neither of us saw or heard anything. Linda must have scared the poor thing. After that we were extra careful and made sure to throw a rock or two and/or shout as we made our way around the rocks.
Today we are moving back to La Paz, first stop Isla San Francisco. I can't wait to post pictures of this incredible desert island. The cove is beautiful and the water is swimming pool clear with a perfect crescent shaped white sand beach. Mexico Rev 2 is pretty nice!
John and Linda