Places We’ve Been: Playa la Bonanza- (Isla Espíritu Santo, Baja Mexico)

We only stayed in this gorgeous anchorage twice, but we loved it both times and stayed multiple days.  Here’s the info on Playa la Bonanza on Isla Espiritu Santo, Baja Mexico.

* Before I go on with my post, I need to make sure you don’t use my story for navigational purposes.  This post is meant for information and excitement only, but I would highly, loudly encourage you to go visit this place if you can.

Just so we start with the same references, this post is about one of our favorite anchorages just outside La Paz, Mexico in Baja California. For exact reference, I’m using the book I used when we cruised on Tulum, the 3rd Edition of Sea of Cortez, A Cruisers Guidebook by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer.  This is most commonly called…the Shawn and Heather book.  The information we used then and the info I am referencing for this story is found on pages 84-85 and I am using my own handwritten ships log from Tulum-5, specifically from Easter of 2021.  This is when we stayed at Bonanza for 2-3 days before heading into La Paz to buy and install our new lithium batteries.  This was also right after we had wrestled a huge ship anchor off our own rode early one morning in Mazatlan; the article I wrote for that story was published in Latitudes and Attitudes.

Playa Bonanza

This wide easily navigated anchorage is on the east side of Isla Espiritu Santo and wide open to wind coming from the south or the east.  The anchorage has protection from wind coming from the west and some protection from northerlies, but not the greatest as there might be wrap around swell.  In the event you do want to get protection from anything from the north, I recommend going as far up into the curve of the island/bay as possible, exactly as described in the Shawn and Heather book at waypoint BCS110.  We were not able to get all the way up in there due to our draft and aversion to shallow water under our heavy boat, but we were perfectly fine where we did park, a bit farther south from BCS110, but still great holding and such a gorgeous view.

On this trip, we had just crossed from Mazatlan to Muertos and then hopped up to Playa Bonanza, to hang out a few days for Easter and then go into the big city in La Paz.  So we did the run from Muertos to Playa Bonanza (43 miles) in about 6 1/2 hours and found an anchoring spot in the big wide bay.  The entire bay has clear water and a wide sandy bottom with no shelves so we anchored at 1pm, in 19 feet of water over sand.  In the end we put our usual 150 feet of chain out and did our usual procedures for setting a strong hook.  The beach is probably two miles long and we’ve never seen surf there at all.

On the afternoon we anchored, we met friends from Descanso on the beach and the kids played, snorkeled ect.  Since we knew we would be moving into La Paz on Easter Day itself, we planned our own Easter Celebration with Descanso the next day and did a boat feast…with meat on the Big Green Egg and everyone feeling thankful for our blessings.  And so after three days of sitting in this calm gorgeous anchorage, we up anchored and took Tulum (and Descanso) the 21 miles through the channel into La Paz.  Tulum would reprovision, get a taste of the big city again and get new lithium batteries on this stop, before we took off to spend hurricane season/summer in Baja.

Here’s more info: 

Ease of anchoring:  We anchored in 19 feet of water over sand and we had good holding.  We put out our usual 150 feet of chain.   

Noise at anchor:  None, unless my reggae was too loud.

Provisioning:  None.

Cellular reception at anchor: None.

Wifi in the anchorage:  None.

Water Clarity:  Fairly clear in the morning, more hazy in the afternoon when there’s wind.  I dove on the anchor and was able to clearly see it and the chain with no problem. 

Protection:  Protection from the North and West.  Little protection from the South and East- both wind and swells. 

Bugs:  None. 

Beach:  White sandy beach on a wild island.  Not a resort beach.  Beach has a slope on it and in the late afternoon we had some sand fleas but we played on the beach for hours and loved it. 

Would We Go Back:  Yes…totally.  I would make a special trip to go back here, as long as there’s not a northerly or southerly blowing. 

I’ve waited awhile to start writing about some of the places we went in Mexico and Central America, but it’s time to tell those stories. 

Wanna read about our Mazatlan anchor debacle? Click the link and read away: 

Catch And Release In Mazatlan’s Old Harbor