It's official. . . lil' Rumiko has room enough for four adults to sit, eat, do "their business" and, perhaps most importantly, sleep fairly comfortably. During the past month we've had two sets of guests -Alan&Laura and Anthony&Julia. In both cases, we let them sleep in our "big" bed (55" at the head, 42" at the feet), while we tried a couple of different sleeping arrangements.
We finally realized that we could in fact both fit in the port-side salon berth (which measures 30" at the head and 23" at the feet) and be relatively comfortable. It was more comfortable after we added a lee cloth (which is a cloth that stops you from falling out of bed). We acknowledge, however, that sleeping two people in the small berth worked only because the nights were cool. As much as we like snuggling, in the heat of the summer there is no way that we would be able to endure the closeness imposed by such close quarters. At least not all night long.
We had a great time with both couples. Bad weather kept us in port for the first few days of both visits, but we made the best of it a
nd went on land-based adventures.
With Alan and Laura we went on a road trip to El Triunfo, an historic silver mining town south of La Paz. It's a beautiful place with its 100-year-old brick and stonework and decaying mining infrastructure. The town also boasts a piano museum, which, sadly, was closed, and a fantastic cafe-bakery called Caffe El Triunfo. We bought some of their cranberry-walnut sourdough bread to add to our picnic lunch.
With Julia and Anthony we headed to the Sierra de la Laguna Biosphere Reserve to go hiking. 
There's an open pit gold mine proposed in the reserve that could affect sensitive ecosystems and water resources in the area. We had heard about local opposition to the mine, and on our hike we passed a number of rural residences with signs opposing the mine.
Hiking the southern Baja in the Spring is very comfortable - not too hot, not too cold. We had a great hike, spending the day meandering up a canyon and then along various human, cow and goat trails. It soon became obvious why the local residents are fighting so hard to keep out a destructive open pit mine. It's beautiful, wild country. To find out more about the efforts to keep mining out of the Sierra de la Laguna, visit VISTAGOLDNO.com.
Finally, the winds settled down enough to hit the open seas. We toured the islands of Espiritu Santo and Partida with Alan and Laura and Julia and Anthony. Many sea critters - whales, turtles, dolphins, sea lions and somersaulting manta rays- made appearances . With Anthony and Julia the sea critter highlight was at Los Islotes where we were able to swim with the frisky sea lions. Turtles were the featured creature for Alan and Laura (Alan has a way of charming these wise old creatures of the sea).
We did some great hikes, shared fabulous meals, celebrated Alan's 50th birthday, had great conversations, sang some songs, and laughed a lot. Below are a smattering of photos that show a bit of the fun that we had with our friends. (We'll post more detailed photo albums on our fotki site when we have more time).
Alan and Laura
Anthony and Julia
Both Anthony and Julia have keen eyes for photos, and during their visit they borrowed our camera to take pictures. Some of the photos above were taken by them. We'll post more on our fotki photo site in a few weeks. Here's a little series that Julia took of Lisa cutting Dan's hair (and the end result).
Next stop, Puerto Escondido
Dan's dad, Dick, arrived yesterday. Weather willing, we will be bidding our farewell to La Paz and heading north tomorrow. We will be buddy boating with dan's cousin Bill on Barnacle. Our plan is to make it to Puerto Escondido by April 7, in time for Dick to catch his flight home. We will then sail around the Sea until mid-May, when we will haul out the boat in Guaymas and head back to Durango.
We finally realized that we could in fact both fit in the port-side salon berth (which measures 30" at the head and 23" at the feet) and be relatively comfortable. It was more comfortable after we added a lee cloth (which is a cloth that stops you from falling out of bed). We acknowledge, however, that sleeping two people in the small berth worked only because the nights were cool. As much as we like snuggling, in the heat of the summer there is no way that we would be able to endure the closeness imposed by such close quarters. At least not all night long.We had a great time with both couples. Bad weather kept us in port for the first few days of both visits, but we made the best of it a
nd went on land-based adventures.With Alan and Laura we went on a road trip to El Triunfo, an historic silver mining town south of La Paz. It's a beautiful place with its 100-year-old brick and stonework and decaying mining infrastructure. The town also boasts a piano museum, which, sadly, was closed, and a fantastic cafe-bakery called Caffe El Triunfo. We bought some of their cranberry-walnut sourdough bread to add to our picnic lunch.
With Julia and Anthony we headed to the Sierra de la Laguna Biosphere Reserve to go hiking. 
There's an open pit gold mine proposed in the reserve that could affect sensitive ecosystems and water resources in the area. We had heard about local opposition to the mine, and on our hike we passed a number of rural residences with signs opposing the mine.Hiking the southern Baja in the Spring is very comfortable - not too hot, not too cold. We had a great hike, spending the day meandering up a canyon and then along various human, cow and goat trails. It soon became obvious why the local residents are fighting so hard to keep out a destructive open pit mine. It's beautiful, wild country. To find out more about the efforts to keep mining out of the Sierra de la Laguna, visit VISTAGOLDNO.com.
Finally, the winds settled down enough to hit the open seas. We toured the islands of Espiritu Santo and Partida with Alan and Laura and Julia and Anthony. Many sea critters - whales, turtles, dolphins, sea lions and somersaulting manta rays- made appearances . With Anthony and Julia the sea critter highlight was at Los Islotes where we were able to swim with the frisky sea lions. Turtles were the featured creature for Alan and Laura (Alan has a way of charming these wise old creatures of the sea).We did some great hikes, shared fabulous meals, celebrated Alan's 50th birthday, had great conversations, sang some songs, and laughed a lot. Below are a smattering of photos that show a bit of the fun that we had with our friends. (We'll post more detailed photo albums on our fotki site when we have more time).
Alan and Laura
Anthony and Julia
Both Anthony and Julia have keen eyes for photos, and during their visit they borrowed our camera to take pictures. Some of the photos above were taken by them. We'll post more on our fotki photo site in a few weeks. Here's a little series that Julia took of Lisa cutting Dan's hair (and the end result).
Next stop, Puerto Escondido
Dan's dad, Dick, arrived yesterday. Weather willing, we will be bidding our farewell to La Paz and heading north tomorrow. We will be buddy boating with dan's cousin Bill on Barnacle. Our plan is to make it to Puerto Escondido by April 7, in time for Dick to catch his flight home. We will then sail around the Sea until mid-May, when we will haul out the boat in Guaymas and head back to Durango.
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