Provisioning – We ordered just our drinking water from the charter company. Unlike European charters, water is available in gallon bottles. Mineral water is available, but, not necessary.
For food and drinks we went to the Centro Comercial Californiano supermarket in the Colima section of La Paz. This supermarket has the same scale as any large supermarket in the USA. You can read their specials of the week ahead of time on their web site. Generally, prices were about 25% less than the US.
Food – There is a fantastic selection of fresh produce, meat, and fish so going to a local market in the morning is not necessary. With an abundance of incredible local ingredients like the various hot and sweet chili peppers, tomatillos, cilantro, ecc., it is easy to favor making delicious Mexican and southwestern fusion meals on board. We also chose fresh foods over canned and packaged even for lunch, as we have learned a good trick of grilling extra in the evening to then wrap up for lunch use the next day. It’s a great way to create an excellent, but easy lunch.
With no other opportunity to re-provision for 6 full days, picking up everything and intelligently planning what fresh stuff to buy and the order of use should take some advance thinking. We got fresh fish or meats for 4 dinners and some back up canned stuff just in case we didn’t catch fish or find a fisherman to sell us some fish. Also, remember to pick some of the fruits and veggies much greener and harder so they can remain out of the fridge and mature to eat later in the week without going bad.
Drink – In addition to beer, we also picked up a couple of bottles of Mexican wine which were pretty good. Given the spicy Mexican and carib style cooking we were doing, we went mostly with whites, some roses and were pleasantly surprised.
Notes:
- Don’t get mesquite charcoal for your grill, it sparks too much for a boat. Also, in North America we use lighter fluid rather than starter cubes to ignite the charcoal
Other Baja Mexico Insights: Before Departing Living Aboard Sailing Stuff
Bareboating the World 