Puerto Balandra to La Paz - November 18-23

We had a nice motorsail from Ensenada de los Muertos to Puerto Balandra.  The pictures in our cruising guide had enticed us to visit this anchorage.  We figured the pictures had been touched up, because no place could be that beautiful.  Well, the photos were spot on.  This place was truly amazing!  The light aqua water that led into light green, clear water.  The snorkeling was fantastic!  The coral was very much alive with greens, yellows, and pinks.  We saw bunches of trumpetfish and needlefish, porcupine fish (Annie even found a dead washed up one on the beach with her foot- ouch!), king angelfish, panamic sergent major,various wrasse, and bunches of sea urchin.  We even saw a tiger snake eel washed up at low tide.  (can you tell we recently purchased a fish guide?!)  It was almost perfect at this anchorage.  The only issue with it here was the open exposure to weather.  We had some wind and more importantly, waves from the SW entering this anchorage which made for some pretty rolly days and evenings.  Our anchor held us just great though, so we weren't too bothered.

 Paradise!

Many times we  have the beach to ourselves.

After 3 nights of rolling around at anchorage, it was time to move on.  Besides, we were out of milk, tortillas, and beer.  We headed over to the lovely town of La Paz and anchored in the bay for the first night.  We were able to get a spot at one of the local marinas for the rest of our time here(Marina de la Paz).  We plan to leave the day after Thanksgiving and visit some more of the beautiful anchorages around this area.  While in La Paz we've been able to reprovision.  We walked a ways to the local "Mega" store.  There we were able to find most everything we needed.  (and one thing we didn't- a headache from the pulsating techno music blasting from the electronics section of the store!).  We've enjoyed seeing the town and visiting a couple of public mercados, coffee shops, local book store, and beautiful Cathedral. Unfortunately, we haven't been to good about taking photos while in la Paz.  We'll try to get some today. 

Enjoying coffee, cookies, and internet at a local coffee shop.