los frailes

We got Kim offloaded to the airport to catch her flight back to the States and were happy to put Cabo to our backsides. Colin, Kristin, Christy and I made a 4AM exit in hopes of avoiding the afternoon sea breeze out of the north. We had an uneventful motorsail to north to Los Frailes. We saw a bit of wind in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 knots but nothing too terrible. Colin trolled a line in hopes of catching some more tuna or dorado. We were all craving some sushimi and ceveche but no joy. Our Mexican Flag squiddie proved no temptation to the local fish population. We did catch a plastic bag with it so the day wasn't a total loss.

We anchored in Los Frailes with a significant part of the remaining Baja Ha Ha fleet. Watching the weather, we learned of an impending "norther" in the next few days. As we don't really know how serious these northers are, we chose to stay put in Los Frailes rather than try to run to anchorages further north. During our stay here, the four of us have partook in several beach fires, snorkeling off the boat, spear fishing, laying about in the sun and all sorts of typical lay-about laziness.

At one of the bonfires, we caught rumour of a palapa bar ashore. Since we aren't using refrigeration on board, the idea of cold beer was too much to resist and we organized a shore party the next afternoon to seek out said palapa bar. We joined forces with Megan and Luke from s/v Sapphire and Amber and Jeff from s/v Rock Star in search of frio cervezas. After walking through the village and over a road and stopping a gringo who gave us vague directions, we ran across a shaky sign that promised cold beer, just a mere 600 meters to the right. In the back of a man's house, about a half mile off the beach was a fantastic little palapa with room for three or four tables, a beer cooler, and a grill. A couple old Mexican guys sat in the corner nursing Pacificos. This finally feels like Mexico. Compared to the excessive neon, expense and glitz of Cabo, the dirt roads, remoteness, and 15 peso ($1.15) beer of Los Frailes is heaven.

We had the crew of s/v Sapphire over for drinks and a friendly game of Rage. Mostly because we really like them but also because they have an icemaker (ice is the new currency amongst Mexican cruising boats). While they were over, we pulled out miracle fruit tablets that supposedly turn sour food into sweet that Casey gave us when she visited us in Catalina. We set up a smorgasbord of limes, onions, chocolate chips, tequilas, and rum & juice to taste test the power of miracle fruit. Here's the results:

Limes: taste like candy. I could have eaten limes all night.
Onions: taste like onions. Not good.
Chocolate chips: taste like chocolate chips.
Tequila: taste less like tequila but enough that it still sucks.
Rum & juice: WAY too sweet to finish, sadly.


The anchorage of Los Frailes. If you look at the beach in the foreground, you can see Colin's kite.


Colin busily updating Facebook whilst poaching wifi in Los Muertos.


Kristin studying Spanish.


Christy chillaxin' after taking a dip in the water.


Luke and Megan from s/v Sapphire hanging out in the palapa bar.


Enjoying some cold Pacificos.


Luke partaking of a Pacifico Ballena (whale size). Yum.


Eating limes like they were candy.


Uh, Megan? You have something in your teeth.

23°22.749'N 109°25.551'W