Los Frailes, B.C.S., Mexico

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Quiet Anchorage

Us in front of anchorage

10 Dec 2002, Tuesday - We pulled into Los Frailes around 7 in the morning. At the time, there were very few boats in the anchorage. Waking Dream transited the 45 miles with us around from Cabo

Traveling tienda

after hearing the weather forecast and the report of strong headwinds from Pelican, who was already in the anchorage. The trip was smooth, but there was little wind. What was there was was straight on the nose. We ended up motoring nonstop throughout the night.

Once in Los Frailes, the wind began to pick up around mid-morning and hit a steady 20-25 knots for the next several days. The anchorage was very protected from the north winds. Aside from occasional gusts, it was very snug and secure. Dinghy rides to shore were made interesting by the wind chop though! The surf was pretty good on a few days which also made dinghy landings quite fun! In one, we both almost fell onto our rear ends into the water as the dinghy was caught by a big wave as we were pulling it ashore. Suddenly the boat was moving faster than we were and we were being pulled by it!

A Hike Around Town

Eric & Michael by cactus

13 Dec 2002, Friday - On "Friday the 13th" we decided to spend the day on land and explore the area around Los Frailes. We heard a rumor that there was a tienda (store) nearby. The only one we saw was a traveling tienda out of the back of a truck (above right).

Dead eel biting Eric's nose

However, we did find many other roads and areas to explore along the way.

We found several bones and dead fish along our path. The most unusual of which was a dead and very dry eel, a ways from the water. Lisa helped it take a "bite" out of Eric's nose (right). Ish!

Along our path, we saw a waterfront hotel/restaurant. It's an out of the way town, over an hour from any airport, beautiful setting... nice place to go, right? Buy a boat! Let me tell you, this place was NOT cheap!

Beautiful bay

We looked at the brochure

One of many dead fish

just for fun and assumed that prices were in pesos. The current exchange rate for pesos to US dollars is about 10:1, so something that costs 10 pesos is about the equivalent of $1 US. (This makes it really easy to calculate, which is nice!) Anyway, the brochure said 500.00 for a double room. This sounded about right, $50 for the night. Wrong. The print at the bottom of the page proudly exclaimed "All prices in US dollars" - whoa!!! SO, we don't suggest you stay there for the night or buy their $4 beers/pops either!

National Park?

Dry river bed

We're not really sure if we were or were not in a national park that day.

Close-up of cactus

While walking around, we passed a very old and very dusty sign that read something to the effect of "you are now entering (something unreadable) National Park." This was the only item that distinguished this particular section of dirt road from the next. The same cows were grazing here as in the stretch before...

The entire area was very, VERY arrid. However, cacti and other dry-climate life thrived. There

Cactus flowers

were colors and flowers and plants galore. It was very impressive to see that so much life could exist in such a dry space. River beds in the area were completely dry and cracked (right). Seeing them like this, it is hard to even imagine them with any water flowing through.

Fairwell to the Mazatlan Crowd

Cookout chefs

Several of our new friends are now heading over to Mazatlan and then south. We hope that we will run into them down the road, but cruising plans are always dynamic so we can't be sure. Waking Dream has already lost their crew, Sean, to other adventures.

Michael & Sara at cookout

He is certainly going to be missed among this crowd. Since Pelican and us were the only boats heading south, we all enjoyed our last night in Los Frailes together with the others.

We heard about a local fundraiser event from a man out on his panga (fishing boat). He told us of a cookout for 50 pesos (about $5 US) on the beach that was going to take place our last night in Los Frailes. The food was excellent! Freshly caught and grilled dorado, salad, homemade pico de gallo and mashed potatoes. Everything was prepared right there (left) and tasted spectacular. This was a perfect way to end our time in Los Frailes and to enjoy our last night, at least for a while, with our friends.

The crowd heading for Mazatlan follows:

Lisa & Ben from Waking Dream

Earl & Maria from Dos Brisas

Penny & Jim from Alii Kai Too

Sujata & Greg from Majii Rae

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