THE HOLIDAYS IN LA PAZ

We spent 5 days at Ensenada del Candelero as chilly north winds blew; sometimes stronger, sometimes milder, but ever present. These cooling winds affected the seawater temperature too, and for the first time this season we snorkeled in water below 70 F (21 C) as we snorkeled around the small islet that divides the bay. We must be acclimated to Mexico again, because that felt COLD!

On the north side of the bay there is a canyon to explore that has some delightful Tafoni formations, these are shallow caves and curves in stone created by the effects of wind and moisture (at first we thought it was a real cave, but then we realized it was just Tafoni. Boom!). Baja sunshine lights up the local orange sandstone brilliantly, which made for a picturesque time exploring the formations and watching feral goats wandering around the rock faces surrounding the canyon.

Like that sandstone, we were eventually worn down by the wind and unanimously decided that it was time to head into La Paz for Christmas and to prepare for our crossing to Banderas Bay over on the mainland. Departing Candeleros on December 18th, we rode the north winds down to Baja Falsa in a nice but chilly sail with just the genoa out. We dropped anchor in much warmer, calm conditions and toasted the end of our island time with a lovely sunset over the Baja Penisula.

We’ve been regular visitors to Falsa over the past couple of years, it’s a great spot to wait for a flood tide to ride up the long channel into La Paz. There are strong tidal currents in the channel and all the way into the anchorage in front of the city, catching the tide right can make a big difference to the time it takes getting in and out of the city. With this in mind we were up promptly the next morning to ride the tide into Lapaz. We dropped anchor just before 10am and have spent the last couple of days getting reacquainted with the pretty waterfront, locating a freshwater leak in the bilge (a chafed hose), and lugging jerry cans to and from a gas station near La Paz Marina to refuel Tino Pai. We’ve watched the La Paz Christmas lighted car parade and enjoyed spending some fun time with Bruce on SY Bob, he’s a Kiwi sailing around the Pacific on his Tashiba 40.

We spent 9 days in La Paz, catching up with friends, celebrating Christmas, and preparing for our crossing over to the mainland. It was great to reunite with and spend time Paul on SV Zeus, and to meet his partner Chris. A fellow alumni of Marina Village in Alameda, we’d last seen Paul way back at Santa Cruz Island in 2022. He’s now resident in La Paz and he and Chris very generous in their hospitality and driving us around La Paz.

Christmas itself was quiet, we’d booked dinner at a local restaurant, only to discover that their special Christmas dinner was on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day! We made the best of it with a nice meal at a waterfront hotel, with an elevated view of sunset over the anchorage. We toasted our families with cocktails back on Tino Pai, with our little Christmas Tree in the cockpit, and mused over the fact that our next Christmas will be in the southern hemisphere!

Another friend from Marina Village arrived on Boxing Day to visit Paul and Chris, and we were able to catch up with Oscar (of SV Ocean Devotion) and his girlfriend Megan. We decided to do some buddy boating, and on December 28th sailed Tino Pai up to Espíritu Santo with Paul, Oscar and Megan sailing on Zeus. We had a nice meal with them on Tino Pai that night, a fitting way to see out our time in the islands of Baja.

We set out the next day for Los Frailes, our jumping off point from Baja to the mainland. There was a nice wind forecast to cross on New Year’s Day that we planned to catch after doing a bit of diving at Frailes - which is also a great place to see Humpbacks. Not expecting much wind, we had the usual bumpy passage through the northern part of Canal Cerralvo, before the se state settled and we were able to have a lovely run with just the genoa out through the late afternoon and evening. The winds lasted through to 2:15am, when we had to finally start the engine, motoring through the night and dropping anchor at Los Frailes at 7:30am.

And here we are. While we’ve not yet seen a Humpback, we were serenaded to sleep last night to the sound of whale song through the hull. They are definitely about! As we’ll be up early tomorrow, New Year’s Day, to make the 3 day crossing, we toasted out the old year last night. It is after all already 2025 in New Zealand! While we’re sad to close out this magnificent time in Baja, we’re excited for the year ahead and the start of our Pacific crossing. For now, we wish any and all of you who may be reading this a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.