Sailing the Sea of Cortez

Mike and I met our friends Sean, Caroline, Angie and Duane in Mexico for a little Baja sailing adventure. While we had some fun land days too, I'm going to focus on the sailing days in this post.

Just before noon we pulled out of the harbor with Capitan Sean at the helm. They'd said we could have the boat at 10 as opposed to 5 because it was in port, but it wasn't quite ready. Oh well, five hours early is still way better! Since the winds in La Paz seem to die at noon and pick up at 6pm every day, we spent the first day motoring, which was TOTALLY ok, because on the way we saw ALL THE THINGS! The water was absolutely silky smooth. Our first sighting was a pod of humpback whales. This is super significant since it's not whale season. Even the guy who runs the charter company was surprised when we said we saw them. They were spouting and surfacing far away, but before long they were closer and we could see them arcing through the water. There were a bunch of them. A short time later a pod of dolphins surrounded the boat. Sean cut the motor, but I told him they like to play in the bow wake and to keep going. They were right under our boat for a while.

To cap off all of that, we saw manta rays swimming with their little wing tips on the surface. Then they started jumping into the air and belly flopping on the water. This was fabulous! As we passed the sea lion colony on Isla Partida, we saw a few of the animals out hunting for dinner. Can you say perfect day?

Sean pulled the boat into the bay of Isla San Francisco where we anchored for the night with two other boats. Duane and I used the grill on the back of the boat to make fajitas for dinner. The winds picked up at 6 pm causing a lot of movement and a ton of noise on the boat. We all sat outside and watched the amazing stars before bed. I played with the bioluminescence in the water. No one slept very well the first night. Sean was unsure of the anchor, and the rest of us struggled with the noise.

We took the dinghy out for a little hike in the hills above the bay. The dinghy had a little struggle starting which meant half the crew looked to be stranded on land while Sean and I waited on the boat for Mike to figure out a balance between starting it and paddling out away from the waves. The hike itself wasn't long, but it was pretty!

We set sail since we actually had winds. The weather was gorgeous! Captain Sean sailed us north to Isla San Jose where we stopped at beautiful Punta Salinas where there is an abandoned salt mine. As we walked down the beach, we picked up cool shells. I found a paper nautilus shell. It's so pretty and delicate.

What remains of the salt mine are cinderblock structures (one bizarrely full of old shoes), the cab of a truck, and the mechanics of a bulldozer (we think). The salt fields spread out behind looking so wild with their bright orange color and white edges. The super saturation of color in that spot was surreal. Turquoise ocean, white sand beach, bright green plants, white, red, and orange of the salt ponds, backed by cactus and scrub covered reddish hills and all framed by a rich azure sky. Sensory overload! The picture really doesn't do it justice. There was dried salt water on the case.
Since we lost our wind, we motored back to Coleta el Embudo on Isla Partida for the night. On the way, we caught a big pod of whales and cut the motor so we could just sit and marvel in their beauty. Mike jumped in to see if he could hear or see them but the vis is not good in the Sea of Cortez. One whale swam beneath us and surfaced on the other side close enough to actually see its blowhole. We were surrounded, but they kept a distance. There were also mantas jumping out of the water all around us. I've never seen this anywhere else and I absolutely love it!

The sea was ours all day. Not a single other boat after we left San Francisco until we were anchoring for the night. We set anchor having to share our cove with another boat that beat us in because we were marveling at the whales and finished the night with a game of Taboo. This was the loudest night of all. The winds were coming from the front of the boat while the current caused a huge amount of wave slap on the back of the boat. I wore ear plugs, which actually helped, thank goodness.

The wind was perfect the next morning so we went for a sail. There were mantas jumping all around us in the cove as we left. Caroline and I wrapped up in our Mexican blankets and we all enjoyed the wind on our skin, even if it was almost just a bit chilly. Before we lost the wind, we headed back to Isla Partida and anchored in Ensanada Grande which is a super gorgeous cove with white sand beaches, interesting cliffs and apparently tourist groups. We took the dinghy out for a snorkel and saw trumpet fish, starfish, crown of thorns starfish, clams, a ton of sergeant majors and some king angelfish. Cool, but not great vis. There were a couple of little swim throughs to play in. We decided to check out the other side of the cove which was also listed as a snorkel site. The vis was better, but there didn't seem to be much there. It was fun to explore anyway. The rocks were almost perfect blocks as opposed to the interesting sandstone of the other side.

A quick late lunch on the boat had us fueled for a little hike up to a saddle between peaks. This hike was super duper fun because it was so much rock hopping along a stream bed. There were cool tall cactus the whole way. It was straight out of a movie set. The top had views of the east side cliffs which were shear and abrupt. Absolutely lovely!


Duane, Sean and I jumped in the water when we got back to the boat "to get the moist off" as Duane put it. It felt amazing and was totally worth it. We cooked up some food, played more Taboo and actually slept well thanks to the fact that there was no wind overnight. That was far more wonderful than I would've thought. Girl needs her sleep.

We started the day by moroting over to the next tiny and gorgeous cove to see if we could spot any blue footed boobies, but the colony looked abandoned. Bummer. We had breakfast there anyway since the views were unparalleled. Deep turquoise water surrounded by pinkish cave-pocked cliffs.

From there we used the winds to sail south to Isla Espiritu Santo. On the way we saw one whale and FINALLY saw a tail fluke. It was our last whale sighting and we were so excited about it. We anchored at a lovely cove called Playa Gallena. We took the dinghy out for some snorkeling at Isla Gallo. There were tons of seagulls and vis was bad. When we dove deep, there were some really cool big fish down there. Sean found a huge octopus which was the big find for the day. Duane, Mike and I would have spent more time there, but the girls were cold. So we headed back and had lunch.

Mike and Duane went out on the dinghy to fish while Caroline and I drank rum and sat out on our pool floaties in the amazing water of the bay. We found ourselves invaded by a swarm of bees driving Angie off the deck to hide in her stateroom while Sean attempted to battle them with Off! spray. We finally convinced him to come play in the water with us instead.

We spent the night anchored just past Balandra in Playa Pichilingue. There were two other boats moored there. Being so close to the city made me a whole lot more edgy overnight. Yes I'm super paranoid. Suuuuper paranoid. It was loud on the boat again, so that didn't help.

We finished off the food and played a ton of rounds of act it out on Heads Up. It was hilarious and atrocious. I laughed until I cried multiple times. Duane was all in usually using a napkin shaped different ways as a prop. Sean and Mike waltzed together. Angie was trapped at the table and laughed at the rest of us. It was a great end to the sailing adventure.

The boat had to be back by 10 am. So we packed up by 8 and drove the boat back. Sean let me drive for all but pulling into the cove. It was fun. I looked like a salty old sea dog. Extra salty. We all needed showers at that point. Don't judge.

Fueling and returning the boat took almost no time. Angie and Duane went into town and picked up a minvan to take us all back. What a fabulous trip! Everyone got along well and had a great time! There was never a single cloud in the sky and we saw whales four days in a row! We spent the next few days in La Paz, but that's a story for another day.

Riding Horses in the Mexican Countryside

Last year I found out about a horse resort in Mexico that looked absolutely incredible. I followed them on Instagram, joined the newsletter and dreamed about galloping across the Mexican desert. When we planned a sailing trip to the Sea of Cortez with friends, I wanted to add on some days to go ride. I waffled on it because of cost, time, general business. Finally Mike told me he'd been working overtime and that we were going!

We flew into Mexico City and arrived at the Rancho around 6 pm. The other guests were enjoying the pool and hanging out before dinner. There were a group of five from London, a pair from New York City, and two friends from Atlanta. Dinners were impressive four course meals with a soup, appetizer, main and a dessert. We sat with the London contingency and laughed and chatted until fairly late.

The next morning came early with a lovely dawn. Breakfast is a little buffet held in a gorgeous sunroom. The manager, Shaun, came in to ask which horses we wanted and where we wanted to go. Today's itinerary was a town called Daxthi. It was a full day ride with a stop for lunch at a tiny restaurant in town. We rode with the other Americans. I started on a cute flea-bitten stallion named Diamante. Mike's horse, a big Chestnut stallion named Atila, was being difficult and we ended up switching. Both were dreamy. Diamante has a funny walk, but it doesn't slow him down a bit. Atila has a gorgeous canter that I let ride instead of running full tilt toward the end of the ride. We rode through acres and acres of farmland and a couple of tiny towns. At times we galloped, other times we walked. It was incredible!

The ride started at 930 AM. After a long day of riding, we made it back to our room to shower at 500 PM. The pool and an amazing frozen margarita were calling my name before dinner.

The next day all of the guests we knew went to see the pyramids. We opted to ride. There were a group of airline workers (pilots, cabin crew, etc) on a layover. So they came to join us. Three of them were on our half day ride. We did a half day ride to Xochitlan de Las Flores, another darling little town. I rode a palomino named Versace and Mike was on a bay called Tequila. Tequila ended up being a favorite of both of ours for the trip. Versace was a good boy, but had super bouncy gaits.

We returned to the Rancho for lunch, which was way too much food between rides, and switched horses for an hour of riding around the hills above the rancho. Tequila was an absolute joy! Mike did not enjoy his ride on Versace. Too much bouncing was really uncomfortable for him.

The Rancho has a yoga room that overlooks a waterfall. Since we were back so early, we went down and visited the falls then did some yoga on our own. It was absolutely lovely. The Rancho definitely needs a good yoga teacher. Maybe I'll quit my day job, live there and spend my days teaching yoga and riding horses.

Our third day of riding was with a fantastic wrangler named Franco who took Mike and me out to a gorgeous canyon and a rock formation called Los Organos. I rode Versace again though he was not the horse I had asked for. Mike rode a big gorgeous palomino stallion named Valiente. He rode him for half the day then switched with me but still struggled with Versace's gaits, so Franco traded him for Calypso, a stout roan gelding. That went much much better.


Los Organos is at the bottom of a canyon. It consists of a little stream winding down the canyon and surrounded by stone fingers. Franco told us the legend is that many years ago there were a lot of small villages around and they all wanted exclusive rights to the water. Each village prayed to the river god to give the water to its people. The river god told the villagers they had to share it amongst all of the peoples. They refused and resumed bickering among themselves. Later they all returned to demand the river god to make a choice among villages. He turned everyone who was there to stone, thereby creating the rock structures. Legend has it when the wind blows through, it sounds like the people whispering "help me" from inside the rocks.

A herd of wild horses including two foals roams the valley. They were curious, but unafraid. They seem to be respected and left alone by the people in the area. We climbed out of the canyon by following a little trail almost straight up the canyon wall. It was amazing! Franco stopped us for lunch at a little restaurant in a corn field before we continued back. For our last night, we stayed up talking and playing pool with other guests.

We went for one more short ride before we left. Mike rode a giant dappled gray named Bronco who was coming off a year of being out of service for an injury. He was so happy to be out. I took a black gelding named Zorro, who ended up limping the entire time. After he almost fell over cantering down the road, I took Bronco and Mike jumped on white Mariachi for some runs through a field. It was glorious! Bronco ended up being the favorite horse of the trip for both of us. Mariachi was a fun smooth ride for Mike. My phone pouch fell off the saddle and there was a mad rush to find out before we left. Thank goodness for the Find My iPhone feature.

I HAVE to go back! I had such an amazing time and can't wait to take out a few more of the horses that everyone else seemed to snatch up before I could ask. I could spend months there and not get everything out of it that's available.