Sailing Tips 2.2. Sea of Cortez traveling South from Santa Rosalia to La Paz DEC 2016/JAN 2017
Santa Rosalia
Fuel dock.
There is space to anchor in the port at the far side. We heard that there is a lot of debris on the harbor bottom and anchor retrieval might be difficult. There is also a protected bay outside the port. We didn’t anchor here, please research.
There is a sunken panga near the end of the ferry jetty. Be alert when crossing the harbor.
Cell service.
No bees, no noseeums.
Fonatur Marina is the only marina left, after a hurricane took out Marina Santa Rosalia. So far there are no plans for rebuilding it. Make reservations for May as this is the jump-of point for many cruiser who haul out for the hurricane season in Guaymas or San Carlos or Puerto Peñasco.
Cheap, laundry, showers, pool, situated between the malecon and the center of town.
Wifi at the marina office and ok to spotty at the docks.
Small charming, mining town with a landmarks as the Mahatma Gandhi library, a museum, several good restaurants, the best seafood taco stand in front of the library, banks, hardware stores, a Ley for provisioning and Coppel, a department store and plenty of vivid city life.
Tonk’s Grill a restaurant for grilled meat and fish, good salads, take the left street from the city sign, Calle Manuel F. Montoya, follow until the restaurant is on the right.
Across Fonatur the restaurant has good chicken wings (lemon-pepper), burgers and generally good fare and fair prices.
In town are two good supermarkets: one on the street up past the mayor’s office and then on the left hand side carries Kirkland products which come in every Friday and fresh cheese and meat. The other is one street over to the north, painted blue outside also good fresh fare.
Best ice cream store in town is kitty-corner from the Iron Eiffel Church.
Taxis cost 40-50 pesos in town, no matter where you are going and how many in your party.
Emergency room at hospital is free of charge for doctor’s visit and medication. Take the road up the hill from the iron church.
Mulegé
Charming town with only a open road stead anchorage. River too shallow for cruising boats, but you can take the dinghy up. We anchored at Playa Santispac and hitched rides into town, which is very easy in winter with all the snow bird tourists and ok in summer. There are two bridges: one brings you to the main square, the other to the heroes’ arch, where we stood across the road from to hitch back to the beach.
Walk past the arch into town, past the kindergarten on the hill, past the post office until you reach ‘the’ intersection. There are tourist shops and a bank with an ATM on the left. There is a 99 cent store at the corner, Mago’s is straight ahead, further down a dive and clothing shop on the left. The owners know everything about diving in the sea.
If you follow the road, there is a church and way down an internet cafe with desks, computers and wifi for 20 pesos an hour. The parallel street next to the church brings you back and to the main square.
Most restaurants have wifi and let you sit for hours.
Mago’s Cafe has good wifi, baked goods and chicken soup. She closes after Easter for the summer months.
Check out the diving store across from Mago’s for fun T-Shirts and good books
‘Los Equipales’ is Mulegé’s casual but upscale restaurant with yummy food, large portions, low prices and great view of the town and the surrounding hills. We sat for hours enjoying their hospitality and their wifi.
Three supermarkets: One at the main square, one on the way from the heroes gate and the best is on the next street after the bank, take Calle Montezuma to the right until you see the orange building.
Bahía Conception with many small playas within its inner gulf
Playa Santispac
Large bay for many boats, 30′ shelf nearly the whole bay.
Sand bottom.
Chubascu squalls at night in summer so set the anchor well. Good protection against northern wind and swell in winter.
No cell phone reception.
Situated right at the Mexico highway No.1, busy, noisy road, easy access to get to Mulege.
‘Armando’s Restaurant’ for strong drinks but not so much for food except for the good guacamole appetizer. During the winter months: Tuesdays happy hour half price drinks at Armando’s
‘Ana’s Restaurant’ charges 20 pesos for one hour of internet, which very poor at times, so we hitched into Mulegé for wifi and cell service. They bake good bread and rolls every Wednesday and Saturday. They also have a small tienda in a corner and cold showers in the back for 15 pesos per 1/2 hour. The food is ok and the owners are very nice. During winter months: Wednesdays and Saturdays fresh bread and cinnamon rolls at Ana’s.
Also during the winter is a laundry service on Mondays and weekly a vegetable truck comes to the beach.
Easy hitchhiking from the beaches to Mulegé with expats and Mexicans, no need for taxi, some RVers listen to VHF 16 arrange rides into town.
Playa El Burro and Bahia Coyote
both beautiful coves with white beaches, palaces and houses on the beach, good snorkeling, restaurants, Coyote also has a tined. There used to be 4th of July party hosted by Geary (was the weather man on the net) at Bahia El Burro, but sadly Geary died in May of 2019.
Playa Coyote
Large shelf of 30’
a couple boats on moorings behind the point next to a oyster farm
There are supposed to be a line of rocks in along the 20’ shelf but we drove by with the dingy and couldn’t see them.
There is also supposed to be a sunken boat in the bay good for snorkeling but we don’t know where.
Beach dinghy next to the ramp at NOLS or further south, highway access only through NOLS or south of the houses
Berta’s tienda and restaurant across the highway, open every day except Sundays, good food , not expensive. Wifi can be bought by the hour, slow but works when the generator is running
Isla Requesion
We anchored on the North side of the island in 17′, in sand with good holding.
There is a restaurant and ‘resort’ on the beach nearby, more of a biker bar, American prices, skip the food. Apparently they have Taco Tuesdays in winter and sell 300 Tacos a night…
Caleta San Juanico
Beautiful large bay with dramatic rock formations. Plenty of room for many boats, we counted 8 and there was still plenty of room left.
Shelves between 12′ and 35′. Sand bottom.
Not very protected from the swell from the east, but offers protection from north, west and south winds. Leave plenty of room around the rocks which divide the bay and the beaches.
Sandy beach, turquoise water, a rock beach section.
Ísla Coronado
Anchored at Bahia de Loreto, the south west bay.
Large bay with two beaches.
Large anchoring shelf, sand, 20′-35′. Sand bottom.
Protected from Southern winds, anchorages on the East side of the island are better in North West winds.
Beautiful white sand beach with palapa shade covers and light turquoise water. Great for snorkeling. Nice short interpretive walk with sign of the plant. Didn’t do the hike up the volcano, over 900 feet high.
The Baja side of Isla Coronado has good cell phone reception from Loreto.
We had bees scoping our boat for fresh water and also no-see-ums came after sunset. Come prepared with screens and bug repellant and don’t rinse the boat or cockpit with freshwater just use saltwater.
Bahía Ballandra/ Isla Carmen
Very secluded from Northern and Southern winds.
Cell reception from Loreto.
No-see-ums in summer.
Loreto
Open road stead anchorage outside of the commercial port, exposed to winds and waves from all directions. We anchored in offshore winds, which was comfortable, until the wind changed to the north and the rolling started.
Large shelf of 20′-12′ just to the north of the harbor jetty. Sand bottom.
Dinghies are allowed inside the harbor, we tied ours onto a commercial dock out of the way of the commercial pangas. Nobody said anything. The gates to the harbor are open from 8 am – 10 pm. North of jetty is a beach, probably you can beach your dinghy there also, we didn’t try that.
Cell service all along the shore as far as Bahía Ballandra across the bay at Ísla Carmen and Ísla Coronado.
Lovely town. Pretty malecon and beautiful historic small town behind with the oldest mission on Baja California, which is worth the visit.
A couple internet cafes are N off the main square, Cafe Ole has good breakfast and bad coffee, next door is a coffee house with great coffee. Free city wifi at the main square.
Across the street of the mission is a courtyard restaurant, ‘Mi Loreto’, excellent, authentic, regional Mexican food at good prices. More on this restaurant here.
Provisions of fresh vegetables depend on timing when the food truck arrives. Farmers market is on Saturday. Supermarkets: El Pescador and Super Ley.
Puerto Escondido
Mooring balls inside the inner bay, anchoring outside the bay.
Fuel dock. Portable water from the mountains at the fuel dock.
Marina Puerto Escondido bought Fonatur recently and runs the docks and also the mooring balls. Prices are higher now, for our 37′ they charge $15 per night on a mooring ball. Includes pool, showers, coin laundry (open from 9-5 with tokens 50 pesos each). The marina has wifi, best on land, spotty on mooring field. Cell reception further out on the mooring field.
Upstairs pool and restaurant are lovely. New market opened June 2017 (see pix below).
Nice pool side restaurant, Tripui, is half way to main road. They come and pick you up if you call for reservations.
Loreto for provisions is 20 km away or 500 pesos by taxi one way.
Great hike right across the highway up Cañon de Tabor (also known as Steinbeck Canyon) over river rocks to natural pools fed by rains in winter and spring.
Bahía Aqua Verde
Good shelter from all wind directions, position accordingly.
Large anchoring shelves along all 3 beaches.
The anchorage near the N beach is quiet shallow, room for 3-4 boats.
Small fishing village with 3 tiendas, 1 goat dairy, 2 churches, 1 school, 1 restaurant on the beach.
South beach dinghy sand landing left side of boat ramp. Follow the Southern Rock to find the tienda up the road on the right, past the goat pens. Goat dairy sells goat cheese across from the tienda. 2nd tienda is further up in the center of valley (we didn’t go there).
We had dinner at a small restaurant on the N side of town’s beach. Very good fish tacos, not cheap. Follow path next to restaurant back to 3rd tienda.
No cell, no wifi.
Puerto Los Gatos
Very remote bay and beach.
Very beautiful scenery with petrified red sand formations.
Anchorage on a large 20′ shelf.
Shade structure on one of the beaches.
No people, no wifi, no cell connection.
Bahía San Evaristo
Large bay with shelter from all winds. Large 20-27′ shelf right in front of the village to hide from Coromels.
Small fishing village.
Lupe Sierra’s and Maggie Mae’s restaurant was open this time. Fresh good food, great coffee and a small tienda selection. Lupe is a character and the place is appointed with true creativity.
No cell service.
The village has a wifi tower and the restaurant give the password to costumers, which was 321 654 19870 in January 2007.
Potable desalinated water next to the wifi tower in a small white building with a blue stripe.
The tienda housed in a salmon colored building 150 yards inland from the wifi dish/water building, gets fresh vegetables from La Paz once a week.
Ísla Coyote
Inhabited by about 20 families working in mining the island. Will sell fish and jewelry from a panga, we heard but didn’t try.
Ísla San Francisco
There is a perfect crescent beach in the south if the island, but due to the Coromels we chose a close by and more protected beach on the north side.
No cell service and no wifi.
No bees, nor noseums.
Isla del Espirito Santo and Isla la Partida
Park permit is required, you can buy it from park rangers in speed boats or in La Paz.
Ensenada Ballena
as most anchorage on the West side of the Isla del Espirito Santo not protected from Coromels.
Caleta Partida
very nice, sits between two islands connected by a beach. During high tide, ride the dinghy to the bay on the other side. Tuck into the Northern cove during northern winds. Anchor along the south side during southern winds, a shelf of 20′-27′ close to the main beach.
No cell service and no wifi in the whole park.
La Paz
Diesel at the first marina, Costa Baja, when entering the La Paz channel or at Marina Palmira, half way down the channel.
In June 2016, we chose the Marina de la Paz for their laundry mat and own desalination plant for their drinking water. Close to the Malecon and center of town. Family like atmosphere. Good docks and nice and big showers. Good Mexican/American Restaurant on the property.
Dinghy dock at Marina de La Paz costs 20 pesos a day, includes drinking water fill ups and dinghy security. Showers 20 pesos per person. Propane service (not cheap) Fridays and Tuesdays, drop off tanks before 11 am in front the office.
Club Cruzeros at Marina de La Paz is very helpful for any kind of info (local services pdf here) and meets Mo-Sa around 9 am for coffee. Cruiser’s Net is daily at 8 am on VHF22.
Plenty of boat services and chandleries available: one chandlery is across the street from Marina de La Paz, a couple others in town. Bill Lee, watermaker parts & services, lives at Marina la Paz.
Many supermarkets: Chedraui, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Home Depot and two markets (one ‘Mercado Nicolás Bravo’ on Bravo at Prieto – we like this one for daily stuff, the other ‘Mercado Madero’ near the cathedral on Revolución at Ocampo. The La Paz Farmers’ Market has organic vegetables, artisan bread and fresh cheeses etc and is on Tuesdays & Fridays from 7:30 am – 1 pm at Jardín Velasco, Calle Francisco I, right at the center of town at the cathedral website
Favorite restaurants: ‘Sortis’ Italian & Pizzas in a lovely courtyard, on Constitución corner with Revolutión past the cathedral in the center of town website and ‘El Mezquite Grill’ fish & steaks, very big portions, a few streets up from Marina Cortez on Calle Francisco I. Madero 612 158 4881
Favorite cafes: ‘Doce Quaranta’ with a lovely courtyard and bookstore near the cathedral on Calle Francisco I. Madero 1240 and the ‘Bagel Shop’ around the corner on Belisario Domínguez 291 with real American Bagels and great breakfast dishes.
No visit used to be complete without the introduction to the Sea of Cortez at the Museo De La Ballena (Whale Museum La Paz), which unfortunately closed due to rent raises. Watch out for updates and if it is moving to a different town/location website
Good medical and vet services (Dogtor House) available.
The second time, January of 2017, we anchored a little further East of Marina de La Paz on the West side of the channel. Protection from swell, although little wind protection. Anchoring here was a bit nerve wrecking at first because the tidal current pushes the boats on anchor around like toys, depending on size and keel shape all swing differently and not like we are used to with all boats pointing in the same direction. It’s called the ‘La Paz Waltz’ with every boat moving to their own tune. Leave double the swinging room as normal and 360° because your neighbors could creep up on you or you on them, as it happened to us and we re-anchored very fast.
The third time, April 2017, we stayed at Marina Cortez overlooking the Bahia La Paz. Same prices as Marina de La Paz, good facilities and closer to the malecon and a great view of the bay from our cockpit.
Please note that weather conditions make a big difference for anchorages. Also there is personal preference. This is what worked for us.
We traveled here from 12/11/2016 – 6/30/2017. Updated MAY 2019.
