Written March 3rd, 2015

The winds have been blustery this week, like blowing sand stinging your legs blustery, but we caught a break with a southerly today. Los Arbolitos and La Seranita would be protected and calmer today, so we packed up the snorkels and headed over.

I’m now eyeing every hole in the mosquito net over the bed and considering duct tape. And hoping mosquitoes don’t like tequila.

Last year we had beach bags to carry our gear, and the trail to La Seranita was narrow, winding and in some places just downright treacherous, so I invested in a backpack to use as my carry-on that would double as our gear bag. Balance is easier with hands free. My hands were totally free, as Steve had the backpack. Hence his new moniker, Sherpa Steve. So I was able to document our trek across the headlands to one of the prettiest snorkeling beaches we know. This time WITH the Epi pen, as the damiana flowers, sages and other scrubby plants were in bloom and full of bees.

And we weren’t alone. When the weather is conducive the snorkeling tour companies get busy. Day trippers from Cabo San Lucas (possibly cruise ships, probably spring breakers) make up their clientele. When we first came here a dozen years ago there were two dive companies, and they unhappily would condescend to take snorkelers out. Now there are easily six who, while they do take divers out, are really busy with snorkeling tours. And they all showed up at La Seranita while we were there.

It used to be a clear beach that a boat could get close to, dropping people off for a bit. Now there are boulders strewn all over, making a beach landing in anything but a kayak impossible. I’m not sure when that happened (or how, for that matter), but now that we know how to hike the trail over we don’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money to get there on a snorkeling boat tour and are happy the boats have to stay away from the beach.

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I’m always amused to hear the first time visitors screaming through their masks (underwater) about what they’re seeing, most of it fairly close to shore. I know I’m always in my happy place there, floating above a school of Chancho Surgeonfish and one interloping Cabrilla. Or watching a Bumphead Parrotfish finding something tasty in the reef. This time I saw a juvenile Giant Hawkfish very well camouflaged on the top of a rock. The beautiful blue-green Parrotfish are still my favorites; I’m a sucker for tropical colors.

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Another group had hiked in behind us, a bunch from North Dakota who run a fishing camp in the summer. One couple stays in Los Barilles, just up the road apiece, for a few months in the winter. Their friends came for a vacation. The woman who runs the camp with her husband was admiring my fins, which are packable wide snorkeling fins made by U.S. Divers. I let her try them out – I love their size and the fact that they work even better than my regular ones. She agreed. She mentioned she had a real lack of energy after getting over a case of Dengue Fever. Here. From a mosquito bite. Great. I’m now eyeing every hole in the mosquito net over the bed and considering duct tape. And hoping mosquitoes don’t like tequila.

We snorkeled again before we hiked out, between the boat tours arriving. There were easily six boats that arrived in shifts. We used to come to spend the day with a packed lunch and cervezas, now we hike in, snorkel, and hike back out, having lunch and said cervezas back at the hacienda. Very civilized. But perhaps if we had a back pack cooler… Hmm. Maybe next year.

Deborah