Los Muertos is one of the bays around La Paz where sport fishermen come to get their bait fish. Instead of having pens and farm raising their fish they catch them in the wild in tributary bays. We were woken up at around 5am when the pangas started speeding around the bay in search of schools of bait fish. It was hard to tell if they were avidly competing against each other or if they were working in unison to try to corner schools of fish. All we could hear were wild shouts and gesticulations in Spanish as pangas took off with a person manning the tiller and someone in the front. The person in the front has two different tools for catch the fish. They either use a circular net that is weighted on the ends that they throw it out like a pizza, it sinks, and then they pull the ends together to snare the fish. Another method that we saw utilized was to locate some bait fish and then drop a straight net in a line for about 20 feet. They would then take the panga and do doughnuts on one side of the net which would in turn scare the fish into the net where their fins would become entangled and the fishermen could haul them up.
It seemed like a lot of work when we saw that they rarely caught anything in their nets. This activity continued till around noon when they finally called it quits. During the course of the morning we saw other pangas and larger sport fishing boats come racing up to the bait fish pangas and buy their catch off of them. I have no idea how much they made per fish but it certainly seems like a hand to mouth existence if you don’t find a good school of fish. The pescadores also had to contend with pelicans, seagulls, and cormorants that would oftentimes swoop in to snatch their catch or just attack and disperse schools of fish before the nets could descend.
We watched this action for a few hours and then Joe decided to finally shave while Mike decided it was about time for a haircut. This was all done under the auspices of, “It was just about time to do that.” Next thing you know we are hauling out the dinghy and preparing to go ashore. It seems that every time they decide they should groom that signals the need to go out into town. Not that I am complaining, I just find it funny to watch. Los Muertos does not have a town at all, nor does it have a fishing camp. The local fishermen drive here from the outskirts of La Paz, only a few miles down the road. It does have a very nice resort that we decided to explore.
The Giggling Marlin is a famous bar in Cabo. It is famous for the fact that if any patron enjoys too much of a good time then they haul them upside down into the rafters as if they were displaying a big fish. This establishment opened a restaurant in Los Muertos for cruisers that are waiting for the slack tide to make their approach to La Paz. It is a much classier establishment that does not see the crazy crowds of Cabo. We landed the dinghy at a floating plastic dock and offloaded our garbage. The restaurant was conveniently located right in our path to exploration so we decided to have an early lunch. Food was good but prices in comparison to local Mexican restaurants are a bit steep. That being said, a burger with fries and a beer ran to a total of 10 dollars. Food is still cheaper than in the States.
After lunch it was time to do some beach walking and we struck out along the bay towards a golf course that we could see from the boat. The golf course is actually part of a first class resort that is aesthetically tucked away in a grove of palm trees. There were actually young people there! They were lounging along the beach, playing volleyball, and had also set up a slack line that people were trying their hands at. For those of you that do not know what a slack line is, it is basically a piece of nylon webbing that is set up between two trees and tightened till it only has a little bit of give in it. People then try to get up on it and walk the distance. I have tried doing this at Loyola with Laura but it is a lot harder than it looks. These young folks were struggling just as much as I did when I tried. Their other family members were looking on and enjoying the hilarity of the scene. Mike, Joe, and I toured the resort and then walked back to the dinghy. Along the way we noticed that there were signs for protected turtle nests. This is one of the major turtle breeding grounds in the Sea of Cortez and the Mexican government is actually trying to preserve it. That was a surprise to all of us.
As we were walking back to the dinghy Mike proposed that we should go snorkeling later. We went back to the boat to pick up our dive gear and then went south in the bay, dropped the anchor, and went snorkeling for the next half hour. There was actually some live corral and baby fish were taking cover underneath. Since it is a shallow bay that is very close to the shore there were no large fish that were worth spearing for dinner so it was a good thing that we left our fishing gear on the boat. It was a good time as we ducked and dove through all the outcroppings. The corral is not the healthiest that we have seen but it is actually alive and there was no trash to be seen. Hopefully it recovers.
When we got back to the boat we decided it was time for a shower so we took our soap, hopped back into the water, and had a nice salt water bath. The water is so warm that it really does feel like a bath. While Mike was still in the water he noticed that there was some growth on the bottom where the paint had been messed up due to the dry dock’s slings. Thankfully there are a few coats of paint underneath that are serving to protect the hull a little bit from growth. Since we are turning into amphibians it shouldn’t be too hard to clean the bottom quickly every time we are in the water. If we do this than we will probably have the cleanest boat that anyone can have unless they are coming right out of the yard.
Right now Joe and Mike are down below doing some reading and writing a few emails. We plan on going in to the restaurant tonight and enjoying the free Wi-Fi. The establishment gives us an hour of free internet after we are done eating. I am sure that since it is not busy and we were in there already we will be able to use the internet to our hearts content. This is good because we have decided that since this is such a good anchorage and a majority of the boats are gone we are going to take our time and stay here for a few days. We are not in too much of a rush since we will be in the La Paz area till New Years since we are having the first round of visitors come at the end of December.
A question for all of you that are following my blog-(the bold is for the people that skim) I have quite a few books off of BBC’s 200 books to read before you die. Most of these are very heavy books and are valued for their impact on humanity, their allegorical quality, and the quality of the writing. That does not mean that they are the most scintillating or captivating books. I have some money on my Amazon account and am looking for suggestions for light fiction that I can sprinkle in to my other reading. I just finish the Steig Larson series and on my brother’s suggestion am starting in on the Game of Thrones series. Any thoughts? I look forward to hearing feedback. I am also writing very free form with these blogs. If there are any other things that you want me to incorporate, I am open to suggestion. Just let me know.
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