Visitors!

Our friends Anna and Naresh arrived in La Paz on Monday, April 12, bringing goodies from home, and the sweetest delivery of all: Sequoia! In short order we’d eaten at Rancho Viejo, Koiya had a swim on the Mogote, we saw dolphins, and we hit La Fuente for ice cream, knocking four big items off Sequoia’s To-Do list.

Naresh has a tendency to fall asleep at 9pm no matter where he is: on our couch, at the movies, during parties. This has earned him the nickname “Pumpkin”, because he turns into one. Luckily, 9pm is known as “Cruiser’s Midnight” down here, so we knew he’d be fine as long as we gave him a comfy place to nap. But we were a bit worried about how Anna would fare on the boat, as there is a Lil Pumpkin on the way!

Despite a bit of sea-sickness on our first day out, Anna was a real trooper and took to sailing gracefully. Not so graceful is her diving; when we took an evening swim at Playa Bonanza, she did a full-on belly flop from about 4 feet off the water. This had the odd effect of turning Todd and Naresh into Mother Hens, who flapped about the decks clucking “The baby! The baby!” Anna turned to me and just rolled her eyes. “As soon as you’re pregnant, no one cares if you’re hurt, it’s just all about the baby,” she sighed. I told her to quit whining and get out of the water before Lil Pumpkin got chilled.

The next day we swam to shore and made shell and wood sculptures on the beach. Then we sailed up to the Back Door of Caleta Partida. Anna was intrigued by the lee cloth on the settee, and scored some “sailor cred” points by napping there while we were under way. Unfortunately, she lost all those points and more by asking if we could crack the hatch so she could get some air.

Anna and Koiya did some kayaking, and Todd and Naresh worked on the outboard, which has had a bit of gunk clogging the jet. Of course, after taking apart and cleaning the carburetor, they had to go “try it out”, which looked a lot like joy riding around the anchorage, drinking beer.

Our next stop was at Los Islotes for a swim with the sea lions. Most of the adults just ignore people, but some of the juveniles seem to get a kick out of charging straight at you. As Sequoia describes it, there were two youngsters that were particularly interactive: “the huggy one” and “the nippy one”. Huggy is sweet, and wrapped her flippers around Anna and laid her head over Anna’s shoulder. But Huggy draws you near, and then Nippy pops out from behind Huggy and nips at your fins. Nippy was also drawn to Anna, and in a rare display of bravado, Capn Human Shield placed himself between Nippy and Anna to fend off the pup. (Question for Uncle Bob: If the naughty pup were on the Hollywood Squares, would he be called “Nipsey Rus-seal”?)

There was much speculation as to why the sea lions were so attracted to Anna. Did the brown rash guard she wore make her look more like a sea lion? Could they tell that she was “with pumpkin”? Maybe they sensed that while Koiya was a bit afraid and Toro was stand-offish, Anna was more open? Or could it have something to do with the sardine oil that she rubs into her hair to keep it shiny? Further study is needed!

We spent two nights at Caleta Partida, and knocked off another To-Do item: grilled fish tacos. We went on our favorite hike, and got to see both the owl and the endemic black bunnies. Later that afternoon, we cooled off with a quick swim and saw a skate and an eel. Naresh took one look at the eel and suddenly he was cold and needed to get back to the boat.

The Pumpkins had a hotel reservation for Saturday night, so we set off for La Paz around 11am. The south wind was still blowing, so we decided to anchor at Ensenada La Gallina for lunch. By the time we were done eating, it was much calmer, so we went and snorkeled on the wreck of the Fang Ming. Just as we left, we took advantage of the light winds to bag another To-Do item: getting dragged behind the boat.

Luckily, just after we all got back aboard, the wind really picked up and we had a super fast sail back to La Paz. On Sunday, we took a trip to the water slides at the local beach park. It was a lot of fun until we saw a woman hit the bottom of the slide and instead of stopping safely, she was pitched over onto the rocks below and injured her back. That was the end of sliding for the day; we sure hope that woman is ok!

As a thank you, the Pumpkins treated us to dinner at Las Tres Virgenes. It was super yummy, with treats like fresh oysters, quesadillas with rose petals and strawberry sauce, and huge margaritas. The guys had steak in various forms, and Sequoia had a smoked chicken dish with bacon sauce and mint mashed potatoes; she said it was the best chicken she’s ever had.

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye. We squeezed in lunch at the local vegetarian restaurant before putting everyone in a cab to the airport. It was great to see our friends, and get to share a bit of Mexico with them. It was so hard to see Sequoia go; though we’ve enjoyed our trip this season, it just isn’t the same without her! See the photos here:

20100419NareshAnnaSequoiaVisit

2 Responses to “Visitors!”

  1. uncle bob says:

    ok, been a bit slow to catch up with the last 3 posts. officially, that would be “nipsey roughseal.” fortunately, he didn’t become nipsey nip nip. and as for “hugsy,” wrapping flippers around and laying the head over the neck is prototypal prebuscent pinnifore posturing prior to pornicating. next time you visit you’ll call him “pokey.”

  2. Sequoia says:

    It was so much fun!
    I also saw a shark and we saw turtles and a whale!
    The water was so nice and warm!