10/15/2010 - Leaving San Carlos

Yesterday, our friends from Ceilydh pulled in and we were able to spend a nice afternoon at the pool getting reacquainted while Maia and Jake swam their little legs off.  In Bahia de Los Angeles there were tons of boats and sometimes it’s hard to spend any one on one time with folks because it’s like a giant social hour all day every day.  It was nice to just sit down and chat between the four of us for a while. Technically there were five of us, but we really enjoyed meeting Robin, someone else we weren’t able to get to know on the Baja side.  We finished the night with fresh sushi at the wine bar and more conversation. 

Now it’s time for us to move on.  There’s a good chance we’ll run into them again.  They have some options before them, but one of them is to head to the Galapagos this spring as well.  Whatever option works out best for them we’re glad to have met them and gotten to spend some time together.

I thought for my last post here in San Carlos I would share some of our favorite things and places to go for any cruiser that may be heading this way in the future as well as things that might be helpful to know.

Ruby’s Wine Bar -    owned by a fellow southerner, Lisa and her business partner from Washington, they’re open every day after 4 pm.  They have various specials throughout the week, our favorite being sushi night on Thursdays.  Lisa’s husband runs a fishing charter out of San Carlos and whatever they catch on Thursdays is what they serve for sushi.  Other nights they have a Tapas style menu.  The only item I would recommend against is the wine flights.  Andy and I both ordered one our first night and it tasted like all of the wines had been opened for quite some time.  You can still enjoy their extensive wine menu by just ordering a bottle of your own to ensure it’s fresh.  In busier times of the year, this may not be an issue.

Hertz Rental Car – You can get their phone number from the marine office and they will bring the car to you at the marina and come back and pick it up when you’re finished.  We rented a car for three days (insurance included) for $160 US .  They arrived when they said they would and had all of the paper work in order.  Very efficient and quick. If you do rent a car, you can drive to Hermisillo (about and hour and a half) and do one stop shopping… Costco, Home Depot, Walmart, Auto Zone, huge Sorianas, etc.

Baracuda Bobs – Located next to the marina office, you can get yummy ice cream here as well as breakfast and a light lunch.  This is also where you buy the tokens for the laundry and they have free wifi for an hour.  Be sure you buy something as it appeared the owner was getting a little frustrated with all of the cruisers using his wifi and either not buying anything or just sitting there for hours getting free refills of coffee, taking up space. Hiram, who I believe owns the place, also does bottom work on boats and has a few moorings for rent in the bay.  He was a very nice gentleman and very helpful to us on a few occasions.

XPRO – ok…this is not on my things that I love.  Let me explain.  There is a company at the hotel called XPRO that will sell you time on their wifi.  The antennae is on top of the hotel so theoretically you can get it anywhere.  We paid $100 pesos for a week – we thought that to be very reasonable.  However, I was able to pirate a better signal from our antennae on the boat 75% of the time.  Even when we were on shore I had a hard time getting their signal.  If you do try to use it, take your computer with you as they have to get your IP address for their system to recognize you.

Another note on wireless….anyone who has bought the Telcel Banda Ancha on the Baha side, will have to get a new card here on the mainland side.  Even if you have time left, you will not be able to use it here.  We’ve ran into two folks who needed it for work and had lots of time left on their current card and both had to go into the Telcel office here to buy a new card. 

As for getting around on the buses…very easy if you know which bus to take…any of them.  As I wrote in my previous post, you don’t have to wait for a bus that says Guaymas to go to Guaymas.  The San Carlos buses go there too.  5 pesos for going around within town, 12 pesos for the ride from San Carlos to Guaymas (another 12 pesos to get back).

If you’re using the Cruising the Sea of Cortez guidebook (which I can’t say enough good things about) and you go to Guaymas, Los Barcos, the 3 story palapa restaurant they mention is closed.

If you’re looking for good shrimp, there’s a guy, Alejandro who sits in front of the bank on the main road in San Carlos.  His shrimp was delicious and he always threw in some free veggies too.  We kept getting better deals every time we went back to him.  He also brings in homemade tamales once a week (Fridays for us, but you may want to ask him to make sure).  We weren’t able to get up there for these, but we did eat the salsa he gave us and it was delicious.

Finally, the marina charges $2 US a day to use their dinghy dock, but this will also get you use of the bathrooms/showers if needed and a place to dump your trash.  We found the folks in the office to be very helpful and extremely nice.

Time to head out on our 125 mile passage back to the Baja side to Isla Carmen.  We hope to explore the east side of the island this time as we didn’t get to see that part coming up.  We’re also looking forward to a little diving with our friends on Zepplin.

We’ll be out of range for a few weeks…don’t worry about us J.

(apologies for the lack of pictures...in a hurry before I lose this connection...I'll try to add some later)