The snorkel spot at San Evaristo with the Sierra de la Gigantes in the background.
San Evaristo was a relatively short stop for us, though, like most all places, we would have liked to stay for longer. Our front water tank (under the v-berth) had run dry and we were already a day into our portside water tank (which is smaller). San Evaristo has a desalination plant, so purchasing water was top on our list.
Our fresh produce had also dwindled down to several peppers, some carrots, potatoes and a grapefruit. We were in need of more onions (we use them in everything) as well as eggs (didn’t know how much I’d miss them once they were gone). Jeff was also bemoaning our lack of snack foods aboard.
Fortunately, there’s a little tienda in town that had a surprising amount of food. We were afraid that the cruisers who got stuck in San Evaristo during the last blow would have cleaned the place out, but there was lots of canned goods, some aged (but totally serviceable) fresh produce and gobs of processed foods (chips, cookies, candy, etc). I even found a big tub of lard so we can start making some homemade tortillas.
We wandered around the tienda identifying the things we needed and the nice to haves, putting them in our trendy reusable grocery bags. When we checked out, the owner weighed our fresh produce on an old scale and tallied everything in a notebook. We also picked up two fresh chicken legs for dinner. The very heavy dry bag full of groceries set us back $639 pesos ($51 dollars). Not sure if that’s a good deal or not. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a “gringo” price.
We asked the owner if there was a good place to throw away garbage (not sure how we amass so much garbage) and he said no. I asked him where the nearest place to toss garbage is. He called out to his wife, saying something I couldn’t decipher and asked how much garbage we had. “Dos bolsas (two bags)” I replied, miming the size. He informed us that there was a white “tanque” down on the beach where we could toss it.
When we asked about water, he told us to return at around 4pm when the manager of the desal plant would be around.
Then commenced our journey for a place to toss our trash. A fish shack on the beach had “No Trash” scrawled on its side in black spray paint. Obviously someone had dumped their trash there before. Trash is a problem that we haven’t quite figured out, especially when we’re in remote places without proper landfills or a collection truck to move it from Point A to Point B. We really don’t like saddling these small towns with our trash and it’s apparent that they don’t really like it either.
We approached a group of fishermen on the beach near a white can marked “basura” (trash) and I asked them if it was okay if we put our trash in the can. One guy waffled, said I don’t know, then looked at his comrades (with full black masks covering their faces) for some confirmation. They didn’t look so sure (thought it’s hard to read facial expressions through full face masks). I was getting the distinct impression that it really wasn’t okay and they didn’t want to tell us that…so they just started avoiding us.
With trash bags still in hand, we approached another group of fishermen cleaning fish at a palapa. l asked this group if it was okay and got the same cold shoulder. Jeff tried to tell them that it was okay if they told us it’s not okay to leave our trash in their community. I then inquired about the nearest place to bring trash and they replied 5km up the road. That would be a-okay, except for the fact that we don’t have a car. After another awkward minute of trying to figure out the trash situation one guy told us to just leave it and he could bring it to the dump if we paid for the gas. It seemed like a fair enough deal to us, so we paid him $50 pesos (~$4 dollars) to help us out and thanked him for the help.
When we later talked with Ian and Leslie on SV Fandango, they told us that, during a walk on the beach, they had discovered where many people presumably throw their trash. Plastic bags and scraps of paper were impaled on giant cacti along the beach. I hope our trash doesn’t just end up littering the beach – I have to believe that this man actually took it up to the dump…if there is a dump (though dumps here, like most places, are little more than holes in the ground).
While we were waiting for the manager at the desal plant to arrive we went to the point to do some snorkeling. The snorkeling was excellent (by my standards). Lots of angel fish, many giant damselfish protecting their territory (they are described as “aggressive herbivores”), an azure parrot fish (which is by far my favorite), a zebra moray, among many others. It’s a busy spot, with pelicans hurtling themselves at the water most hours of the day (I think this is how they fish?).
At about 4:30 we hopped in the dinghy to row back to shore against a northern wind. No one was there so we returned to the tienda and the owner called the desal manager on the radio.
In San Evaristo the radio is used in place of of a telephone since there isn’t good cell reception (though we did see one guy talking on a cell phone up on a hillside). It’s really quite cute to hear young kids call their parents on the radio “Adelante, papi!”
The wife of the desal manager, along with her kids, met us at the plant in ten minutes time and filled up our three garrafones (5 gallon jugs). Total cost for water was $30 pesos and we gave her an extra $10 pesos just for coming out to help us.
All in all it was a productive day. We re-provisioned, put 15 gallons of water into our tanks, de-trashed our boat and went snorkeling. I got a couple of hours of work in and Jeff finished his book while lounging in his newly purchased hammock. We topped it all off with barbecued chicken and a couple episodes of Arrested Development. Not too shabby.
Sunrise over Isla San Jose. 
Fishing with a handline outside of San Evaristo.