Back to Baja!

We left Mazatlan on April 14, sailed across the Sea of Cortez where it meets the Pacific Ocean, and arrived two days later in Los Muertos on the southern end of the Baja Peninsular. It was a good crossing, although not much wind. We were grateful all the work Doug put into the engine before we left proved effective since we motored most of the way.

Los Muertos is a bay where planned development has begun but has slowed due to the world economy so for now it is a quiet cove where one palapa restaurant sits on a sandy beach that stretches down to a magnificent enclave of beautifully designed and built villas, or so we thought.

After dropping anchor and rowing to shore we were happy to be on ground that wasn't moving for the first time in 40 hours.
We ran down the sand dunes and walked in the waters' edge to the property at the far end of the beach. After meeting an American couple on the beach who encouraged us to "check out the train collection in the hotel" further down the beach, we had no reason not to go further.

The property was originally built as a private residence but is now open to the public for use as a hotel when the owner isn't there. Once at the hotel, named GranSueno (Big Dream) we found no one except a few staff members eagerly welcoming us into the dining/game room where the model trains are displayed. We felt a bit out of place seeing we had not bathed in two days, had no money with us at the time, and looked about as scruffy as, well, sailors look.

We explained we had no money with us and therefore couldn't even buy lunch but the staff said we could look around, and even swim in the pools if we wanted to. Wanted to? YES!!! The kids raced upstairs to the train set and found an amazing tunnel system underneath it that any 9-year old kid would love to play in. The tunnels had mini-kitchens, living rooms, etc., throughout. Even Doug and I got into the act...it was just too much fun to miss.

A week later we returned to GranSueno by car, a 45 minute drive from La Paz where we were staying in a marina, and brought our friends Kelli and Robert along with their daughter, Allison.

 Again there were less then 10 other people enjoying the resort that day so we felt as though it was our private villa. This time we had money and enjoyed a delicious lunch after the kids went swimming and before they had a wonderful horseback riding lesson.