We are anchored at Agua Verde, just 23 nautical miles south of Puerto Escondido. This place is called Agua Verde for its turquoise waters–but it must have been named in the winter, since the hot summer water seems to have made the bay truly green. We haven’t ventured to the tiny town yet, as we spent the day yesterday making sealable screens for the boat. In our previous anchorage, Los Gatos, we returned to the boat in the evening after exploring the beach were invaded by bees. It went from three to at least 100 bees in a matter of seconds. Usually bees are interested in any fresh water, but these seemed interested in sweets like traces of pineapple juice in a glass. We closed the hatches and companionway door to keep them out, leaving us dripping sweat inside without any breeze. But bees are quite adept at finding entrances, and they would crawl right through a tiny gap between the hatch and the slider on the companionway door (the door we walk in and out on the boat.) However, I soon discovered a hidden talent: I can catch a bee in a jar. Perhaps motivated by my desire to keep Josh safe (he’s allergic to bees,) I used the recycled pasta jars we use for drinking glasses to trap the bees, then release them quickly through the companionway. This sweaty, frenzied, bee tango mayhem went on in the cabin for about an hour until the bees finally went to bed after sunset. Needless to say, we were up and out of the anchorage by 7:00 AM the next morning, before sunrise here in Baja, California.
We now have a sheltered cove all to ourselves–and Don José and his dog, Cascabel. Conglomerate cliffs drop into the water on our west side, and a white sand beach is the low strip of land to our north, only about 100 meters wide, then a protruding bluff extends to the northeast.The road to town, about a half a mile, leads up the western cliffs from the beach. Last evening Josh called me outside to see a strange site: the old man who lives in the shack on the beach was slowly walking through the water along the cliffs to our west, carrying a shopping bag. It broke my heart, I couldn’t bear to watch him cling with one hand to the cliff walls and hold his groceries over his other shoulder as he slowly an tentatively made his way over slippery rocks through the water in his jeans. I hopped in the dinghy as fast as I could and rowed over, and though I think he appreciated the offer of a ride, he smiled with a twinkle in his eye and said he could make it the rest of the way back to his casa. But this morning I brought him a homemade granola bar I made, and we took his big, blockheaded, goofy dog on a hike out the point. This afternoon or tomorrow morning I will go interview Don José. In the meantime, thunderclouds are building over the Sierra de la Giganta, and hopefully they will provide some much needed coolness on this sweltering day.