The next day, Claudia, Sophie and I decided to hike east across the island to Bahia Salinas which was once a major salt production facility, but is now something of a ghost town. After a quick look at the map, I announced that Bahia Salinas was only a couple of miles away. This was a mistake. It was more like five miles and it took us over three hours to get there. It was a hot day and we had not brought enough water.
Here Sophie and Claudia look down on Bahia Salinas from the mountains we hiked over.
Here is some abandoned equipment from the old salt operation.
And here is Bahia Salinas, which has powdery white sand and a huge, shallow bay.
On the way back we missed a turn and hiked up the wrong arroyo. When we reached a saddle at the top of the mountain, we realized we had come the wrong way. We were tired and thirsty, and we didn't want to hike back down the mountain to find the right path, and then back up again. So we set out along a ridgeline in the direction we thought we should go. This was nearly disasterous, as we were going the wrong way and soon ended up on a narrow, rockey ledge, baking in the hot sun. Luckily, we looked back and saw, in the distance, the trail we had come on. So we worked our way back, over rough ground to get to it. It was a long thirsty walk back to Ballandra, down a dry arroyo. We were dehydrated when we got back and vowed to be more careful in this remote desert area.
Here is what the arroyo looked like. The sticks at the base of the trees were washed down the arroyo during a rain.
The next day we decided to stay at Ballandra to wait out some strong northwest winds. Seth and I went fishing on his dinghy and had some luck--which led to a fish dinner with Seth, Sohphie and Casey, who are becoming our best cruising friends.
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