Even though Mag Bay is certifiably ginormous, there’s not a lot of buildup, so to speak. It’s chock-full of scenic wonder and amazing wildlife and not much else. Awesome for relaxing and recharging your soul and all, but kind of inconvenient when your frickety-fracking whatisit finally gives up the ghost and there is NO HOPE of replacing it in the town you’re anchored off of. We decided to anchor off of Puerto Magdalena because blah blah sheltered blerrg bleh quaint blippity bloop and so on and so forth. Also because the channel leading into San Carlos, the only actual “port” in the bay, goes through super shallow water and looks like it was made by a couple of kindergartners. Who were falling down drunk off of some fermented Capri-Suns they liberated from under the couch cushions.
The isolation was not such a big deal until I lost the broom. Well…half of it anyway. Stupid metal handle had been secretly corroding away on the inside. There I was, briskly sweeping the decks in preparation for swabbing the decks. Frequent saltwater swabbery is very important on a boat with teak decks, otherwise you end up with 152 leaks on all your beds, electronics, and basically anything else that isn’t totally waterproof. So yeah…Sweep. Ah lovely day! Sweep. Getting the decks squared away! Swee–rrrk! WTF? Aaaand I’m watching the sweeper part of the broom catapult itself between the railing and plunk gracefully down, into the water. Really?
Thank the Sweet Baby Jesus that Robin on Pioneiro was there to bail me out. “Don’t worry, there’s a market in San Carlos,” she said. “It’s great, we can get there by panga. It’ll be fun!” It was. We were zipping across the water, just kind of hanging on for dear life, with huge doofy grins on our faces. The open air market had exactly what I needed. Spent like 50 pesos on the best broom I’ve ever owned and got to eat excellent street food, to boot.
Somehow, I love this so much more than the McMansions that infest so much of California.
Shacktastic
Kenny (Pioneiro) and Hans (Lifee P. Baker) in the back of a pickup truck, racing to get back to the panga before the tide strands us on San Carlos.
Steve and Petra (Lifee P. Baker) and half of Robin (Pioneiro) getting jostled around in the back of a pickup truck.
Me and Eli in the back of the pickup truck.
Blue
Strangely peaked roof on a church in San Carlos.
Robin and Kenny (Pioneiro) underneath a papaya tree.
Weathered bronze looking wall in San Carlos.
No internet today. Hans (Lifee P. Baker) looking for internet in a cafe.
One of the schools.
Huge outside oven
Insanely cool truck and house.
The park had a lot of murals, like this one.
And this one.
And another...
Even school murals!
The open air market.
You can get just about anything here.
The trash guys have already come and gone.
