Punta Chivato, Bahia El Burro, Ghost Town

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Albert Einstein 

Mia watching her new baby brother Liam, our grandson
We are late in letting everyone know

More fair weather anchorages with no one nearby.  We are lucky in one way that the winds are so light, allowing us to anchor in places we couldn’t dream of having seen last year with the stronger winds more prevalent.  We are unlucky in another way – we can only sail when there is wind so our trek to the north is very slow this season.   BUT… as someone said to us the other day, “If you were in a rush you wouldn’t be in a sailboat”.  How true!

Our new friend - - - Nikki wasn't doing her job of guarding the boat and kayaks...

 

Empty resort on the beach

The strange thing however is that the wind is coming from the south, we put our anchor down and the boat faces east.  We cannot seem to go behind our anchor to set it.  We try hard to motor backwards with little success.  There must be a very strong tidal current and it’s playing tricks with us.  A few hours later, the boat finally behaves the way we expect it to under the wind it faces.  We debated staying here if that odd behavior didn’t abate.

In Punta Chivato, we are anchored on the north side and hike to the south side where the resorts, hotels, and vacation homes are lining nearly the whole bay.  It is like a ghost town.  We walk through two beautiful resorts and never see a soul, not even a gardener or a guard.  No one.  It was like being in one of these old westerns or a post apocalyptic movie.  We were expecting giant tumbleweeds to roll across the dusty road any time.  We saw a roadrunner, a quail and lots of canine and feline tracks but other than that, it was like the place was more a movie set than an actual community.  Other than wind and water dripping out of hoses/pipes, giving some area a little boost of green, it was a parched and dead little area although with many beautiful dwellings.

We walked nearly two miles to get there and would’ve loved to find a place to sit, relax, and have a cold one but that had to wait until we got back to the boat…


Gypsum rock - very white and fragile

Gypsum vein

Bahia El Burro is on the east side of Isla San Marcos.  We had hoped to anchor at the north end near the beautiful white arches but the lack of wind didn’t let it happen.  Colorful purple, green, and yellow needle-nose fish raced us to the anchorage and we also saw a mahi-mahi jump in the air after a flying fish (the flying fish got away).  We found a trail starting in the bay next to the one we are anchored and mosey up the hill where the trail tops off to overlook the huge gypsum mine on the southern end of the island.

Some type of old machinery - possibly a grader

View of the gypsum mine from top of island

Isla San Marcos is one of the few places in Mexico where littering is seen as bad.   It is a clean place.  We only see an old machine along the road we followed to the top of the mine.  Other than that, only animal tracks, rocks, and plants.  We were told they have been mining gypsum for 50 years and that there is much left to dig.  They powder it up and send it to China in big cargo ships.  China turns around and makes the gypsum into drywall and ships it back to North America…  Not sure why they don’t make the drywall right here.  It would seem to make more sense.

Turtle shell 'bone'... beautiful design of nature.

We are only here two days.  Somehow, even with no wind, the swells start to really build up and we have to leave the exposed anchorage for it is much too uncomfortable.