Our fishing adventures in San Lucas Cove

We continued trying our hand at fishing while at Bahia de Los Angeles, after watching 3 Mexicans catch a pail full in short order. They showed us where to go and even gave us their leftover octopus for bait but all we came home with was one good sized triggerfish, caught by Robin before the fisherman gave us advice. We were lucky enough to see dolphins and even a whale, plus frigate birds and blue footed boobies. We also found a lot of agates and a few more shells.

 

great little museum

Robin & his triggerfish

cleaning fish & feeding the pelicans

my first shell creation

our shell collection from one beach

We had a fire one evening and invited the “neighbors”, a Spanish couple, new Baja campers from Kelowna and a couple from Seba Beach, AB. Fun to swap stories and learn about the adventures of other campers. Needing socks and a jacket in the evening was too cold for us, so we decided to leave there after our week was up, hoping for less wind and warmer weather.

We were all set to call our kids and to wish Rosemary a Happy 1^st Birthday on Nov. 28, but it seems that there is a problem with our phone service. I spent an hour on the phone with AT&T trouble shooting and in the end I was told that it seems to be a frequent issue and they blame the Mexican cell network! We will have to wait until we get to a larger town where we may get someone who can speak English to sort it out, or we may get a Mexican Sim card. So far we are OK with the WiFi but it’s nice to hear your kid’s voices.

We continued south to Guerrero Negro, passed another military check-point and gave out another deck of cards to the soldier who checked our RV. This seems to be a welcome “gift”/good gesture.

The RV park there had full hook-ups so we took advantage and used our washer & dryer all afternoon, love them! Found the main grocery store in town, very busy, strangely staffed by the military, where we were a bit out of place, but we got stocked up for our next stop. I even remembered how to ask for chicken breasts without having to pantomime.

Onward thru San Ignacio where we stopped for a late breakfast at a roadside café, pretty primitive but good food. Nice drive through greener areas, past volcanoes and hills of lava, watching the Mexicans do grass cutting along the hiway with machetes. Not much machinery used here, but lots of manual labor.

closest thing we've got to snow drifts, sand drifts!

lunch stop

We arrived at San Lucas Cove RV Park and were warmly greeted by Eric and Vi, the couple from NWT that took us fishing 3 years ago. The campground is quieter, less regulars here, but still lots of friendly folks. We set up near some trees so our fridge has some shade, within view of the water. Nice place - bathrooms with hot showers, water taps and WiFi at the little beachside restaurant for $10/night. Signed up for a week, hoping to get out fishing and kayaking, along with some exploring. As usual we set up our hummingbird feeders, one was soon visited by a hooded oriole, along with the Costa hummers. The other fun bird that isn’t seen very many places but here is the Vermilion flycatcher, very colorful!

We were invited to a camp wide happy hour that included a lot of delicious smoked fish, as well as a vast array of appie s – we took my standby of stuffed jalapenos.

We have been out kayaking twice, did some fishing both times, mainly from shore out on a spit across the mouth of this bay – caught halibut – no scale but one was 20” long, the other 22” long and 9” wide. We also caught a small yellowtail and 3 sculpins (scorpionfish) that have poisonous spines – those we very carefully took off the hook and released. Seeing lots of birds and taking lots of photos.

view of the camp from the kayak

Robin working to clean up the place

reddish egret

hooded oriole

Costa hummingbird

Snowy egret

Vermilion flycatcher

Oystercatchers

big ugly turkey vultures

scorpionfish

osprey

It has been quite windy but we were able to get out fishing with Eric out of the bay and in open ocean, in a 14 ft. aluminum boat – a bit scary!  We trolled along these amazing rock cliffs, catching fish like crazy – I was actually apologizing for catching so often as he had to stop the boat each time! Robin and I brought in 9 fish and released at least 12 – in about an hour and a half! We caught flag cabrilla, triggerfish, spotted bay bass, leopard grouper, ribera cabrilla and sculpin. While we were out we saw a turtle, bat rays and a pod of dolphins, a wonderful day! We would have kept fishing but Eric said we had caught the boat limit. Somehow we managed to fit it all in our freezer.

trolling along these cliffs

dolphins

our catch!!

We spent the afternoon wandering around in Santa Rosalia, the small city nearby and got our car hand washed in the parking lot while we shopped in the grocery store – for about $3.50.

Apparently it doesn’t often rain here in the winter, maybe twice or not at all – but we got a downpour. Huge puddles everywhere and the dirt surface turned to slippery slime.

The small restaurant here in the park opens only on weekends, doesn’t look like much from the outside or inside but serves amazing food! Very decorative plating, worthy of a photo! We ate a shrimp meal, a scallop meal and had 6 beer, all for $33 Can. They even had live entertainment on Sunday, a singing duo, not my style of music but you can’t get too fussy here!

 

Delicious & looks great!

inside the beach resturant

after the rain

the beach resturant

We did a road trip up to a small village and beyond down a “goat trail” to arrive alongside the wide mainly dry river bed. Lots of cool rocks, had to cross the water on stepping stones (beyond my comfort zone) and got some exercise. Good view of the riverbed and out to the ocean on the way back. Also saw a small herd of burros.

view of the riverbed and out to sea

On to Santa Rosalia again after finding out that they have a black sand beach – fine black and red sand along with chunks of obsidian scattered about, something different. Of course we have “souvenirs” – lucky this motorhome can handle extra weight!

black sand beach

We are leaving this lovely place today, Dec. 7 and moving on to Bahia Concepcion and Santispac beach. We were lucky to get out fishing with Eric this morning, since the wind wasn’t howling, we can stuff a little more fish in our freezer. Good morning brought in 11 fish, 4 different kinds, lots of fun and we thank Eric immensely for his generosity & hospitality. It was 8C this morning, the high was 24 but kinda chilly for us, so we will continue south in search of heat. Still living the dream!