BajaNomad

Loreto to La Paz boat trip

honda tom - 7-28-2021 at 10:46 AM

Drove from Calexico to Loreto... got shook down for 40 bucs crossing (my fault on some paperwork on my boat trailer) he was nervous trying to make sure no one saw him take it... and in san felipe I found it on the back seat where he told me to leave it!
got to Loreto with about 40 minutes of night driving... got a room at the Oasis for 2 nights. Prices are double here from my 2019 trip!

My friend and Captain Alejandro was supposed to make the trip to La Paz with us (me and 1) but work came first and he had to pull out. We launched and left the truck and trailer at the Oasis.. 250 pesos launch fee and we were off.

We skipped a stop at Timbabichi... and continued to the area of Los Dolores. The beautiful building i saw here 30 years ago was gone. only the stone floor and outside stemwall remained. there was a home about 100 yards inland with a vehicle but no signs of people and noone came out, a few very large bulls were roaming.

We continued south to a small cove with a point on map as Puta Colorado. Beautiful palms right up to the beach hiding several structures. Anchored and had lunch and saw a few people watching us. After lunch we swam ashore with gifts (cold beers and beef jerky). We drank and ate with Juan, he was the caretaker for the owner that lives in Constitution. The property had 3 very nice condo style buildings (looked like a mini hotel) balconies, palapa style porches, and many boats and tractors. They were also constructing a mini style protected harbor using a natural rock jetty as the basis. Juan said the homes were for family and freinds and that the drive in was 4-5 hours! Juan stated that there was a family at Los Dolores and he was suprised "Lucio" did not come out to greet us.

A cruise by Los Burros... not much going on there.. however more structures than bot of the other spots and more pangas.

Next was the mangroves at Isla San Jose. We trimed up the outdrive an motored right in. about 100 yards in we went to the kicker motor as the water got to about 3 feet in depth. Beautiful place.. as seen in JZs video.

headeding south to our overnight cove we passed by Isla Coyote...Its a very small rock island covered with buildings painted many different colors. Kind of strange if you dont know the back story.... cruising by I thought of Pirates, anti govt. cults, but it turns out theres a very nice guy there that has lived there 50 years and raised his kid there.

Isla San Francisco was our overnight. The bay was full of multi-million $ yachts and their play toys. Breeze was nice ... Barbque and beers and mixed drinks, full moon, Great night!

In the morning it was on to La Paz with many stops along Partida and Isla Espiritu Santo. Docked the boat and headed to the hotel. La Paz malecon was very busy.. resturants packed until 8pm when alcohol sales end. tried to get some beers at an OXXO to take back to the hotel, nope.

Return trip was more of the same... with a day of fishing in Loreto.

Hotels are packed in Loreto. Beaches are crowded... more people than i have ever seen in late July. Usually it is quite easy to get a spot at any beach at Conception this time of year... not so now. Mask were worn everywhere we went in BCS not so much in San Felipe.

Nice resturants in Loreto were open with inside seating.... however the smaller type outdoor places (taco stands with tables) were all to go.

60 bucs to overnight the boat at Palamira Marina La Paz.... 48 bucs in Loreto.

Left Loreto after breakfast and arrived in San Felipe well before sundown with a lunch stop at tacos el pablano Guerrero Negro.

1 hour at the border with the secondary check... no detours... follow the old way.

AKgringo - 7-28-2021 at 11:16 AM

I'm jealous! I have never had the pleasure of touring by sea while in Baja.

I have been flipping pages in my Almanac trying to locate the points of interest you mentioned. I think you may have dropped an 'n' on one of them, or this was a different kind of trip than I imagined...

Quote; "We continued south to a small cove with a point on map as Puta Colorado"

[Edited on 7-28-2021 by AKgringo]

JZ - 7-28-2021 at 11:28 AM

Woww. Fantastic report.

Do you have GPS coordinates for the cove around Punta Colorado? I'd like to check it out.

4x4abc - 7-28-2021 at 12:30 PM

Punta Colorado palms and houses 25° 4'14.78"N, 110°50'54.48"W

JZ - 7-28-2021 at 12:30 PM

A couple questions for you Tom.

- how many days/nights going from Loreto to La Paz
- what size boat do you have?
- how much gas did it take?

Last time we made the run I fueled up at Puerto Escondido and we rolled into La Paz on fumes.

4x4abc - 7-28-2021 at 12:33 PM

"4-5 hour drive to Punta Colorado"
I always suspected one can drive to Punta Colorado (mining roads from Timbabiche)
that means one can drive to Mision Dolores (you missed it David)

David K - 7-28-2021 at 12:38 PM

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc  
"4-5 hour drive to Punta Colorado"
I always suspected one can drive to Punta Colorado (mining roads from Timbabiche)
that means one can drive to Mision Dolores (you missed it David)


Yes, indeed... It has always been reported that to get a truck there you needed to ferry to the ranch from Los Burros on pangas! How about a map?

4x4abc - 7-28-2021 at 01:01 PM

.

Screen Shot 2021-07-28 at 1.59.00 PM copy.jpg - 288kB

David K - 7-28-2021 at 01:37 PM

Thanks Harald!

Upon close inspection, the new Benchmark Baja Atlas shows the road from Timbabichi to Los Dolores (a tiny line):

honda tom - 7-28-2021 at 08:14 PM

The boat is a 22 foot starcraft aluminum cabin cruiser. Mercury in/out with 4.3l v6. 57 gallon tank. I had a Mercury 10hp kicker with 4 gal. tank... and brought 5 more in a jug I poured in about an hour into the trip.

Loreto to SF island day 1 (many stops plenty of light)
SF island to La Paz day 2 (3 to 4 stops more light)
RETURN
La Paz to SF island day 3 ( 3 hours food and beer at Tecolote)
SF to Loreto day 4 (cruise thru Villa d Palamar and escondito)

Each day we had time to burn and no worries about light.... I was pretty sure that fuel would not be a problem... but I ran the kicker motor on day 1 a few times to make sure.



honda tom - 7-28-2021 at 08:34 PM

There might be some lines on a map somewhere... but I doubt anybody has been driving from Timbabichi to Los Dolores.... And... if they have... it would probably add 10 or more hours to their trip from Constitution to Colorado.

JZ - 7-28-2021 at 10:51 PM

Quote: Originally posted by honda tom  
There might be some lines on a map somewhere... but I doubt anybody has been driving from Timbabichi to Los Dolores.... And... if they have... it would probably add 10 or more hours to their trip from Constitution to Colorado.


Awesome. When do we get to see some of the pictures!!

Tioloco - 7-28-2021 at 11:57 PM

Thank you for the trip report! Sounds like a great time!

JZ - 7-29-2021 at 12:41 AM

Here is Tom's general route. About 140 miles one way.




David K - 7-29-2021 at 07:37 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  
Quote: Originally posted by JZ  
Here is Tom's general route.

Nice graphic, thanks.

Point of detail, does anyone know whether it's "Punta Colorado" or "Punta Colorada"?

On David's shot of the Benchmark map, it's "Colorada", which makes more (grammatical) sense, but since it's right by "Cerro Colorado" it seems possible that they carried over that gender.

Tom, does it actually have a distinct (reddish) color observed from the water?


Here is the INEGI (Mexican Gov't) Topo, close up:
https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=25.0697,-110.84965&z=14&...

David K - 7-29-2021 at 08:45 AM

Benchmark is using INEGI maps, which do have errors... and I corrected all the errors that I could find (and added a couple things), when I had the work-maps from Benchmark.

There are (no doubt) more errors and that is why the next edition will be even better... thanks to all you map-loving Nomads who have or will submit your findings!

Feel free to send your findings to me, or u2u me if you want the Benchmark editing dept. email.

Punta San Evaristo on INEGI

AKgringo - 7-29-2021 at 08:47 AM

I notice that there are two puntas with that name. One in the bay of the village that we can drive to, and another one about five or six miles north of there.

4x4abc - 7-29-2021 at 09:07 AM

that is how it is on the INEGI map

Tioloco - 7-30-2021 at 12:22 PM

Quote: Originally posted by honda tom  
The boat is a 22 foot starcraft aluminum cabin cruiser. Mercury in/out with 4.3l v6. 57 gallon tank. I had a Mercury 10hp kicker with 4 gal. tank... and brought 5 more in a jug I poured in about an hour into the trip.

Loreto to SF island day 1 (many stops plenty of light)
SF island to La Paz day 2 (3 to 4 stops more light)
RETURN
La Paz to SF island day 3 ( 3 hours food and beer at Tecolote)
SF to Loreto day 4 (cruise thru Villa d Palamar and escondito)

Each day we had time to burn and no worries about light.... I was pretty sure that fuel would not be a problem... but I ran the kicker motor on day 1 a few times to make sure.





How much fuel did the boat use down and back?
I would love to do this trip

honda tom - 7-30-2021 at 01:12 PM

57 gallon tank + 5 added on the way down. the distance is 140 as a crow flies. I Imagine we traveled close to 175 mi. Boat was still at 1/8th+ when we got to La Paz. On the way back with less sightseeing we had close to a 1/4 tank when we arrived in Loreto.

So... usage seemed to be about 54 gallons.

175 miles / 54 gallons = 3.25 MPG

Typical cruise speed was 25MPH @ 2900RPM

4.3L V6 Aluminum boat (light)

The last time I did this was in a heavy 24 foot Bayliner Trophy with a 305CI V8 ... I thought I remember us getting 2.5 MPG. 63 gallon tank and we carried 10 extra.

I have not purchased fuel there but I think JZ said that in a pinch you could find fuel at San Evaristito.

Working on the pictures...

Tioloco - 7-30-2021 at 02:06 PM

Quote: Originally posted by honda tom  
57 gallon tank + 5 added on the way down. the distance is 140 as a crow flies. I Imagine we traveled close to 175 mi. Boat was still at 1/8th+ when we got to La Paz. On the way back with less sightseeing we had close to a 1/4 tank when we arrived in Loreto.

So... usage seemed to be about 54 gallons.

175 miles / 54 gallons = 3.25 MPG

Typical cruise speed was 25MPH @ 2900RPM

4.3L V6 Aluminum boat (light)

The last time I did this was in a heavy 24 foot Bayliner Trophy with a 305CI V8 ... I thought I remember us getting 2.5 MPG. 63 gallon tank and we carried 10 extra.

I have not purchased fuel there but I think JZ said that in a pinch you could find fuel at San Evaristito.

Working on the pictures...


Thank you, cant wait to see the pictures

honda tom - 7-30-2021 at 02:29 PM







at punta colorada houses in palms





sign at the mangrove entrance





beach wth mangrove entrance in background





Bay at Isla San Fran overnight stop





Tecolote beach




From the bar at Tecolote boat anchored in background. Cool breeze with a light chop.... a great place to hang!




honda tom - 7-30-2021 at 02:31 PM



Colorada from farther out

JZ - 7-30-2021 at 09:43 PM

Great photos Tom.

Want to check out Punta Colorado. Those are some impressive palms. Never taken the boat to Tecelote. That would be fun to anchor and swim into the bar.

honda tom - 7-31-2021 at 07:25 AM

When we arrived at Tecolote there were about 6 pangas... five were loaded with people and gone within an hour. I found that this is where many sightseeing boats leave from for trips around Partida and Espirito santo. They snorkel and serve lunch on the islands... about a five hour trip.... and leaving from here saves about a half hour or more from leaving from La Paz.

Tecolote had maybe 6 restaurant/bars 3 were open at this time.

The caretaker at Colorado was very nice guy... he likes to talk, I would have no reservations about dropping in.

David K - 7-31-2021 at 09:07 AM

What nice photos, Tom! Good job with Postimages.org

We wouldn't mind seeing more! ;)

4x4abc - 7-31-2021 at 09:30 AM

honda tom, do you recall whether the palms at Punta Colorada were dates or coconut?

motoged - 7-31-2021 at 09:46 AM

A great trip....thanks for pics...brings it to life:saint:

HeyMulegeScott - 7-31-2021 at 10:11 AM

Nice! Looks like a great trip.

honda tom - 7-31-2021 at 10:44 AM

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc  
honda tom, do you recall whether the palms at Punta Colorada were dates or coconut?



sorry man... I dont. But if they were coconut do they bear fruit this far north?

4x4abc - 7-31-2021 at 11:20 AM

they sure do