Mainland Baja California Sur – Night of the Solstice

In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved,

How gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go

Of the things not meant for you.

Buddha 

Small town of San Evaristo with the Sierra Giganta in the background

A quick jaunt in San Evaristo hoping to perhaps find some eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables. We have been 12 days away from any store and our supply of fresh goods is running a little low although not desperate by any means. Thankfully we grow sprouts and it truly helps stretch out times between needing lettuce again.

It’s a very bumpy sail coming here with upwards of 25 knot winds through a narrow 4 mile channel acting as funnel and waves hitting the boat sideways. Thankfully it is short lived for we only had to sail 10 miles to get here.

The small village of supposedly 20 families with 30 or so houses/shacks at various levels of completion is quite a sleepy little hollow at the base of some great desert mountains called the Sierra de la Giganta – a most striking backdrop. Most people here seem to have more invested in their vehicles (mostly trucks or SUVs) than their homes. The only things the village has going for itself are a school, fishing, and a desalination plant for drinking water. We do not see any power lines but each house has a “dish” – we assume they use generators and batteries for electricity as we do not see solar panels but they could be hidden. At night we only count a handful of bare bulbs sprinkling the beach – things are very dark and quiet.

We are saddened to see the conditions here; after spending time in parks where everything was clean and pristine; it’s difficult to come back to trash littering everywhere you look: beach, water, yards, etc. Although not as bad as most Mexican cities, it is still a little heartbreaking. We wouldn’t swim in this bay like we had in the others located in the park for here they throw all the fish remains and blood and many other items as if it were a normal thing to do. On the other hand we like to hear the sound of roosters, cows, donkeys, and goats and Nikki gets to see some dogs making things interesting for her as well. She hadn’t seen any for the same 12 days!

We walk around briefly for there is not much to see and find the tiendita where all they have ‘fresh’ are eggs, cucumbers, peppers, onions, oranges, and zucchinis – better than nothing, a little less than expected although even if we had no real expectations we had hoped for avocados, dates (since they grow around here), tomatoes, tortillas (they carry white bread but no tortillas!) and perhaps some more fruits… The next stop with groceries is less than 20 miles away so we have no worries, we mostly like to support small places when we can but there was not much for us to purchase here no matter how hard we tried.

The only other boat present is another sailing vessel with a single hander aboard. Speaking with him, we discovered that he visited the Ericson manufacturing company back in the early 1970’s about the time our boat was built. It is interesting to meet someone with a little bit of history relating to our boat. He said his first boat was an Ericson and that he is fascinated by them.

Kids play soccer on the beach as dusk settles in. Pangas are returning and it seems the day's catch was good. We observe several dozen two to four foot fish being carted out of many pangas and immediately put on ice. We also note quite a few people heading to a promontory at the south end of the bay not sure why so many people seem to be heading that way for there are no buildings there. Maybe they are just going for the view. The next morning we find out that this is the only place their cell phones can seize the tower signals so if they need to make calls, they need to walk to that spot…

There is definitely a predominance of men here since this is a fishing village but two ladies seem to run the tiendita where we purchased our goods, and another place where one can get a cold beer and possibly a bite to eat is also tended by two ladies. I saw one young lady towards dinner time walk on the beach in high heels – not sure where she was heading but it was quite incongruent to see such shoes in this location…

Well the night ended up a little bumpy with 32 knot winds – We blamed it on spring leaving with a bang! Yesterday was solstice, the longest day of the year.

Cave and cactus by the aqua water