We had a shorter day up to Agua Verde with little wind and calm seas once again. The spectacular mountains around Agua Verde, green waters, options for hiking, snorkeling, and other activities, as well as a tienda to top off provisions and three, small palapa restaurants make this anchorage a popular spot. We found a protected area in the north lobe tucked behind a reef, a swims-distance from the beach. We launched the dinghy right away to check out the anchorage. As we headed into the main beach, we saw a dark mass in the water and were alerted from shore that there was a whale shark only 4’ from the beach. We slowed down to check out the shadow and sure enough, it was a juvenile whale shark and it swam right up to our dinghy. Our first whale shark! We were ecstatic. We could not believe the sighting or how curious the shark was.
We walked the beaches and up the dirt road behind the boat to get a bird’s-eye view of the anchorage. Apparently there was a goat dairy in Agua Verde at one point and ways to buy local goat cheese from the farmer; we did not come across it on our walks or any goat cheese. We jumped in for a swim with a large school of fish under the boat, they didn’t scatter or move much even with us in the water. Our entire visit at Agua Verde the depth instrument was at 0’ because of this school of fish – they never left the boat. By late afternoon we got ready to head in for fish tacos. We’ve heard from many cruisers that Agua Verde is the spot for great fish tacos and we confirmed that to be true!
The next morning we saw two, ~4’ yellowtail swimming under the boat. We could not believe pelagic fish like this were hanging around in the shallow waters near the beach. Our boat neighbors in the marina had recently caught a yellowtail from this anchorage. We are leaving the fishing for deeper waters. There are many goat and hiking trails in Agua Verde and, ready for an excursion off the boat, we started out towards the cave paintings a relatively close distance away. Jim had been there before with his younger brother and knew the general direction but was uncertain of the turn. We reached a small ranch along the way and stopped to ask the man tying up his horse about the direction. He offered to take us there by car. In that moment Jim realized this was the same man that he met in the Agua Verde anchorage 15 years ago who brought him tortillas when he was running low on food. Amazing! We accepted the ride from Javier and hopped in his car. Before long we were at the trailhead and climbed .25 mile up to the cave. Javier did not have a lot of history about the cave paintings, except that they were “very old”, and we are not finding much online. We have read these paintings could be from the Cochimi Indians and possibly hundreds to thousands of years old. We have not been able to confirm that information from a reputable source. Nonetheless it was a fun excursion and the interest from visitors seems to be bringing Javier some extra pesos.
By the end of the afternoon there were five Island Packets in the anchorage. We haven’t seen so many IP’s in one spot, the other cruisers we spoke with took note of the same. Back in the cockpit, we had a local woman paddle up to our swim step that afternoon. Her name was Fatima. She was paddling on a dilapidated stand up paddleboard. She asked us for a new paddle as hers was broken in half. Lorin went down below and reappeared with duct tape and Jim fixed her paddle with what we had. Fatima appeared unmoved by the gesture and then asked us for money for her mother who was having a surgery; based on the english words written on a manila folder she pulled from her back pack. Who knows what is the truth here but we were happy to offer a local some pesos. Fatima then handed Lorin her water bottle, “necessito agua”. Alrighty, down below again and a water delivery back to Fatima. Then, a request for candy for her ninos. We didn’t have candy and so with that answer Fatima was on her way to the next opportunity.
The next day we joined other cruisers for a snorkel outside the anchorage at Roca Solitaria. On the way out in the dinghy, Lorin’s iPhone Emergency SOS went off in the dry bag; the side buttons must have been pressed when we closed up the bag. In a bit of a panic, we realized we are out of cell range and likely a notification had not been sent. We were hopeful there was nothing else we were missing as there was no way we could find to cancel the call; possibly there are more options if a notification had actually been sent. We don’t know much about this feature and turned it off completely. When we reached the snorkel spot, we learned one of the other cruisers had this happen to them a few years back when they were out scuba diving. In their case they were in Key West and the Coast Guard did come to their boat because their emergency contact received the alert and proceeded through next steps. Out on our snorkel we saw reef fish, many large starfish, and large urchins. One of the cruisers we were with shot a grouper with his speargun. While he headed back to his boat to prepare ceviche, the rest of us reconvened on the beach for a restful afternoon. We made a homemade jambalaya on the boat that night. The moon is almost full and we are leaving in the morning. Agua Verde is our furthest stop north this season, we spent three memorable nights and are ready to make our way back to La Paz.
SV Solitude 