We have made three visits so far to Santa Rosalia. This is a cute town of about 10,000, very non-touristy; it originally grew because of copper mining that has recently resumed after many years of closure. There is a lot of fishing activity here. During our first two visits, fishing pangas (the small ubiquitous boats of Mexico) would exit the marina (a hundred or more) in early evening to catch giant/Humboldt squid. There are three processing plants (Korean & Chinese) in town to prepare this meat for export to Japan. Some boats are still going out in late August, but there seem to be fewer now.
It’s a nice place to stop; we’d recommend it for the scenery, adequate marina facilities and shopping. Folks around town are very friendly, but very little English is spoken compared more touristy areas. A lot of the local architecture has more of a Caribbean feel, many buildings have brightly painted wood walls. The town has two small marinas of about 20 berths each, and one of the rare fuel docks in the mid- & northern Sea of Cortez. We have stayed at the newer Marina Singlar exclusively – they have a small swimming pool, (sometimes) adequate Wi-Fi internet, nice laundry facilities, and it’s a short walk to town relative to other Mexican marinas we have stayed in.
A nickname for the town is El Infierno, as some days reach into the low 100s. Unlike many marinas down here, Singlar includes electricity in the (reasonable) slip rental price so we are enjoying running our air conditioners 24-7. We’re very happy to have added A/C to the boat a few years before we left CA (we often used the “heat” mode in the Bay Area), quite a few boaters down here don’t have it. We were docked next to some folks who have been down here four years on their sailboat (from WA) with their lovely kitty and no A/C. I suppose she must be acclimated by now but the cat loses weight over the summer and they have to make sure to always encourage her to drink lots of water.
We do our shopping/errands in town early in the morning when it is cooler. There are several decent grocery stores and produce stands here (but nothing one would call a supermarket). This town is right off a main highway (#1) so they get regular deliveries from parts north and south. The town is also a ferry port (50 yards from our dock) that goes back and forth from S.R. to Guymas on the mainland coast. We have recently been enjoying some nice stone fruits from Central California. Obtaining quality meat items is easy here (albeit mostly frozen) – we had some great burgers the other night. Ordinary staple items are abundant; I even saw sushi rice available in a couple of stores and various Kirkland (Costco) items show up in small shops.
On our first visit we were docked next to a couple from Southern California who we had originally met back in March in Manzanillo/Las Hadas. They have been driving their car back and forth down here over the summer and were kind enough to collect a few needed West Marine items for us (plus a couple bottles of California Sauvignon Blanc and Torani sugar-free vanilla coffee syrup, the latest New Yorker and Economist) during one of their trips back to the U.S., what a treat! Then, some other friends drove down with other goodies (including more fans!) about a month later. It’s just like Christmas when this stuff shows up! There ARE several items one cannot find up here so we keep a running list of items to locate when we return to La Paz/chain store land of Wal-Mart (cheap Argentinean & Chilean wine), Home Depot (5 gallon bucket) – there are several hardware stores in town but no joy in this department, Office Max, Auto Zone, etc.
There’s a nice little coffee shop (no Starbucks, no chains around here!), and the eating places are laid back and economical (right up our alley). Several street vendors have great fish and shrimp tacos, empanadas, and the locally famous “deep fried bacon-wrapped” hot dogs, yum!
A few nights ago we finally encountered our first real rain since leaving CA last October. There was a squall that went through here late at night (winds up to 25-30 knots) with some lighting and thunder, and the rain came down good for at least a half hour. We were able to look at a radar (Doppler?) image online and this particular storm reached all the way down to the Mazatlan area (300 miles?). What was nice (besides being securely tied to a dock during this event!) is that we got a good wash for our mast and rigging (the deck had quite a bit of dirt on it the following morning that had run down from above).
Bill had a birthday during our first stay in S.R. The night before, six of us visited a waterfront seafood restaurant and finished off the evening with ice cream bars. Daughter/crew Pari from (2010 Baja Ha-Ha boat) Safety Cat had her seventh birthday simultaneous to Bill’s, so about of a dozen of us cruisers celebrated poolside at the marina (Pari’s mom Andrea even made a cake).
Two other sailboats/couples we know from the San Francisco area (who were also on the 2010 Baja Ha-ha rally with us) are right down the dock from us so we have been catching up with them. We’ll stay here ‘til approximately 9/1 when we will take 2-3 weeks to head back south the approximately 200 miles to La Paz, making several stops along the way…we missed many places on our way north in June.