Arbolito

Cabo Pulmo 191116

We woke up before dawn. I felt a little better and surprisingly, Amanda did too. We walked out to the lagoon with Kayla and Rian and checked out the rocky beach. The sky was overcast and the forecast was for rain over the next few days.

Joy and Karen went out to buy more groceries. They left around 10 and we were told to come look for them if they weren't back by noon. I took note of their grocery list because it was indicative of the food we were eating and craving.

cheese
milk
tortillas
fruit
advil
coffee
tomatoes
limes
beans
peanut butter
onion
cilantro
beer
chicken
garlic
chips
pineapple
tea
throat lozenges
eggs

They drove north to La Ribera, the nearest large town looking for a supermarket but found only mini marts. Still, when they returned at noon they had everything on the list except tea, peanut butter, and throat lozenges. During their trip they came across a tortilla factory and discovered you could buy a stack of 24 tortillas for $2 so they bought four packages. Then Karen pointed out we could make our own tortilla chips so they went back and bought two more packages. The stack of 144 tortillas was two feet high.

Kayla and Rian headed out on a walk down to Arbolito beach and we planned on driving out to meet them later. I wasn't too interested in paying the toll to visit Arbolito beach but the wind and surf was coming from the south which meant that beach would be a little more sheltered. Kayla and Rian had just arrived when we drove up and we met Sarah and Andrews party.

I tried to do some snorkeling but there were stinging jellyfish in the water. The first indication they were there was when you started getting stung on any exposed skin. I was wearing a full sleeve rash guard and had a several days growth of beard but even with this protection when you swam into a cloud of jellyfish you quickly turned around and went the other way. They were stinging me even through the rash guard. Joy said her lips were still swollen several days later.

I wanted to explore the sandy bottom to look for rays and turtles but the jellyfish were too painful so I turned and swam around the rocky point. Once around the corner the visibility increased, the jellyfish went away, and the fish and coral came out. The coral reef was alive and under only a few feet of water and this pushed the fish closer to the surface. I poked around until I got cold and then back to the beach.

On my swim I saw Sarah and Andrew's party, with Amanda in tow, climbing up the rocks heading out to the east side of the beach and when I got to shore I put on my sandals to find them. I ran into Rian coming the other way and asked if he'd seen Amanda. He said no but said she was with the rest of the party. I then passed Andrew and he said she was with them but when he went around the right side of the rocks she went around the left and he hadn't seen her since. There were some snorkelers in the water but none of them were Amanda so I climbed around in the rocks for a while looking for her.

At the tip of the peninsula the rocks were carved into smooth shapes with sweeping lines and the rocky beach is covered in bowling ball sized granite boulders. The boulders were unlike anything else in the area but it seemed too remote to have been brought in for erosion control.

Amanda came and found me as I was walking back up the beach. She'd gone on ahead of the other snorkeling group.

We all drove back together to Tito's to make a reservation for the night. We were told they had a community buffet every Saturday night but when we arrived the scene was pretty subdued and the selection was not very extensive. They had four different dishes; beef, chicken, fish, and zucchini with tortillas and a few side dishes, beans, rice, and mashed potatoes. The fish was served with a sweet and spicy jelly and was delicious. I had four servings and Karen had flan.

Though it threatened to rain all day it didn't start until 10 that night. We had to get up and shut the sliding door because it was blowing in through the screen and the rug was soaked.