Caleta San Juanico to Bahia Concepcion

We left Isla Coranados to head to Caleta San Juanico, a beautiful bay about 20 miles north with multiple islets and amazing hiking and snorkeling.

We dropped the anchor right between two of the islets and off of a beautiful white sand beach. 

The geology in this area was amazing.  There were striated layers of sandstone encrusted with old shells and fossils.

Part of the bay was separated by a sandstone bridge that made for some fun exploring and hiking.

This islet had a huge reef all around it which made for some fantastic snorkeling.

The water was so shallow, the girls could literally walk all the way out to the islet.  They had to shuffle their feet the whole way since this bay was chock-full of stingrays!

Emma took an opportunity to get back to her gymnastic roots.

We took some nice hikes from the beach and saw some very cool rock formations and caves.

A highlight of this area was the "Cruiser's Shrine" where cruisers leave mementos with their boat name and date.  We chose a giant oyster shell to decorate with our boat name and logo.

People left all kinds of things here from carved wood pieces to dirty skivvies (ewwww).

s/v Terrapin leaves her mark!

Our next stop was only 8 miles north of Caleta San Juanico in a smaller bay protected by the towering rock of Punta Pulpito. The dark spot in the center of the rock is a giant vein of obsidian glass. Obsidian forms when lava cools so fast that it cannot crystallize and instead turns to a black glass.

We hiked (and scrambled) over to the obsidian vein to check out the cool geology.

The obsidian was mixed with granite and slate and made some very cool patterns in the side of the clifffs.

Up close, you can see that the glass is actually a dark brown and quite translucent.

Jessica found some huge chunks of pure obsidian.

Later that day we indulged in one of our favorite activities: the happy hour sunset cruise!

Around the outside of Punta Pulpito, there were some really cool sea caves that you could probably kayak into if you were brave enough.

The next day, we headed further north to the mouth of Bahia Concepcion. This was one of our best sailing days yet. We were on a broad reach for most of the 38 mile trip doing close to 6 knots (which is fast for us)!

We dropped the hook just inside the bay at Bahia Santo Domingo and were greeted with one of the most amazing sunsets we have ever seen.

Looking west across the Baja Peninsula, we were struck by size and the multiple layers of the Sierra Gigante mountains.

Even Murphy was in awe of the sight.  We plan to spend the next week or so exploring the multiple anchorages here in Bahia Conception before moving further north.