Bahia de los Muertos-Bahia de los Suenos

Made it to Ensenada de los Muertos and are very happy to end a 36 hour trip that took us 73 ½ hours; 3 days and 3 nights. We didn’t have enough fuel to motor the entire way across the Sea of Cortez, so we ended up sailing much further south before being able to turn north.

We are really happy to be in this quiet bay with clean warm water, and you can see the bottom! Marcus has already been swimming. Temp around 80 and sunny. NICE!

Pretty secluded bay, but it is starting to be developed, and has a restaurant where I can get wifi! It has been known as Bahia de los Muertos, or "Bay of the Dead" but it has been renamed "Bahia de los Suenos" or Bay of Dreams. I guess the ultra fancy resort built here believes people would rather visit the bay of dreams rather than the dead.

This particular spot has great meaning to us. Five years ago, Marcus and I vacationed in La Paz and came to this bay to go snorkeling. There was a sailboat anchored in this lovely secluded spot, and we talked of being in our own sailboat anchored in that bay, someday. That was one of many seeds that were planted and germinated in this trip to Mexico, and as we sailed into the bay, we were moved at the realization of a dream come full circle. Bay of Dreams indeed.

Foggy Start

So looks like today is the day. Bittersweet as we have grown to love Mazatlan. I realized I have not done much posting about the city, so I plan to work on a few observations on living in Mazatlan.

Waiting for the fog to lift, then we join 3 other boats heading towards LaPaz.

We are excited, and a bit nervous as we try to remember what we need to do to head out on a passage. I have been cooking since yesterday, prepping fruit, making soup and potatoe salad, it is much easier to have everything ready to heat up than to cook while underway.

The minimum it should take us to get to Los Frailes/Los Muertos is 30 hours, so I figure 45 hours is about right. Even though we have checked several weather reports, you just don't know what the weather is going to bring. Supposed to be very light winds, which, unfortunatly means motoring. However that is better than high winds and choppy seas.

Off to make one more water run!

Vineyard Church Mazatlan

We have been going to church here, it is a "gringo" church at 9am with Spanish church at 11; it's focus is reaching the poor of Mazatlan. This allows the people who come here, Canadian and US alike to reach out to the needy. There are scores of people who vacation here regularly and thousands that have retired here, heading North for a couple of months each summer to escape the heat.
There are "tours" of the dump ministry and the childrens feeding centers that we have been able to go on. It is wonderful to see the work they do and the strides they are making in helping the poor here.
There are a segment of people here who live near the dump who live in primitive homes and are called "dump scroungers" They go through the trash salvaging bottles, plastic, cardboard, and anything they think may be of value. It is hard work in a hostile environment. Smelly, dusty and dirty with very little to show for it, but they eke out an existence.
Every Tues. and Thurs. visitors and members of the church make 300 sandwiches, and 220 bottles of clean, cold water. We passed out all the sandwiches and water in just a few minutes. I cannot speak for the people that work there, but it felt good to help in some small way.

Another day, we went to a small village very near where our boat in anchored and visited Isla Piedra where a building has been built for the feeding center for some of the children of the village, I believe they feed 90 children there every Sat morning. We were there on a Thurs afternoon, and they were having a childrens church with a few of the children. It was hard to follow what was going on as it was naturally in Spanish, but kids are kids all over the world, the squirmy boys, and the eager to please girls.
As we were watching the women teach the kids, we became aware of a group of women outside the front doors and realized they were having a Bible study.

They have 12 centers currently and the goal is 30. What a great work.