Friday, 23 March 2012

The harbor of Puerto Escondido is almost landlocked. As you enter the harbor there is a small anchorage area to the right called the “Waiting Room” with a number of long term sailing residents. To the left is a jetty for medium sized tourist cruise boats like the National Geographic Explorers. Beyond that and on the left, is a large circular area, also used to anchor sail-boats.
The entrance to the main mooring and anchorage area is narrow but quite navigable with a depth of at least nine feet. The main bay/harbor is then before you, with its anchoring areas and many moorings. There are hills surrounding the anchorage on the right and two hills with gaps between them at the far end of the bay. To the left, the Sierra Gigante rises up providing a nice backdrop to the whole area. This harbor is considered the “Hurricane Hole” on this side of the Sea of Cortez and makes a secure and pretty setting.
The marina is run by the Government with a nice restaurant, small store, sometimes WiFi and a Pool/Jacuzzi; neither of which are heated and therefore quite cold. There is also a boatyard with a Traverlift. Although Puerto Escondido is about 15 miles from Loreto, the car rental agencies will deliver and pick-up cars from the Marina and therefore do a steady business with visitors. Cruisers often share auto rental expenses and long-term sail-boat residents will often give you a ride into town. We did one pump-out while we were in the marina which was an interesting operation that took over an hour to set up and complete.
The moorings are not well maintained and it can take some work to get attached to one. This is because there are few moorings left with trip line floats so the main mooring line just hangs under the mooring ball. We finished up lassoing the ball and pushing our dock line down over the ball to snag the chain underneath. We then found the mooring line and got properly attached to the mooring; other boats had similar problems. Because there is some uncertainty as to the reliability of the moorings, I did attach an extra line to the top of the mooring ball ring which turned out to be a mistake. This line eventually became entangled with the chain under the mooring ball and it took almost a half hour of free diving to untangle the mess. In the end, we just lived with the main mooring line attachment and used our anchor alarm overnight as a safety precaution.
There is a morning VHF Channel 22 Cruisers net and a clubhouse (Hidden Harbor Yacht Club) with a well stocked book exchange and DVD library. The club also provides mail services to and from the US. Loreto is a nice small town with a number of restaurants, banks and stores. It is very limited for sailing products; these are best bought in La Paz. We enjoyed the town and had the best Tacos of the trip at El Rey, a small kitchen style eatery on a side street. Grocery supplies can be had at three or four different stores although each is better for certain grocery products. One store called “Dali” had cases of frozen meats from the US.
We enjoyed our stay here as there is much to do from visiting the missions in Loreto and the Loreto area as well as lots of good hiking. To the south is a new resort, the “Villa del Parma” where we spent a very enjoyable afternoon using their pool and Jacuzzi facilities. They do offer “day-passes” which include all drinks, food and pool facilities. They were very hospitable and although we arrived too late to make use of a day pass, they allowed us to use the pool and order drinks from the bar.
There are many islands around the Loreto and Puerto Escondido area, so it is a worthwhile place to linger and try the many nice coves that dot the islands. These Islands are all part of the Mexican National Park system for which you need to purchase an annual pass.
We could certainly have used more time to explore the area using Puerto Escondido as a base. The area is home to many “Gringos” who have homes and live here permanently, some in very choice beach-front locations. As development expands, we wonder how secure their property rights are, especially as other areas of coastal Mexico have seen resort and marina developers usurp the ownership rights of both foreigners and Mexicans alike.
We would certainly return to this area and spend more time cruising around the many coves and islands.