Recap: Avalon, Catalina Island (w/ pics and vids!)

We had a great 6 days moored in Avalon at Catalina Island (for the price of 2!!). We had a very fast sail from Marina del Rey to Avalon on a beam reach with 15-20 kt winds. Just before arriving at Avalon we caught a very nice sunset over Catalina Island.

We spent our first day at Avalon walking all over town, since our habit is to invest some time up front to scope out a new place. We walked up to the Botanical Gardens, and over to the beaches neighbouring the harbour. We found some awesome $1 tacos and Matt made a delicious prawn curry dinner at the boat (complete with home-made mango lassi!).

The next day we took a shuttle from Avalon to the Catalina Airport, and hiked the 10 miles back to Avalon along the Trans-Catalina trail. We disturbed the slumber of a wild buffalo resting along the trail TWICE, a bit of an adrenaline rush as we tried to casually walk away and appear as unthreatening as possible. The funniest incident was when we were about to walk past a buffalo who appeared to be on the other side of a fence, only to watch him walk through the fence right in front of us!! Lots of great pictures of these guys and the views from the different ridges along the island.

We spend the next few days doing chores: laundry (basically washing everything we own before heading to Mexico, apparently on a once a month laundry schedule!), internet research about crossing into Mexico, boat chores, wedding chores, and taking care of some loose ends.

We did manage to squeeze in our first snorkelling experience at Lovers Cove, which was pretty great, since we just walked over to the cove and into the water and were able to see plenty of fish and kelp beds. We also managed to get in some karaoke and dance partying in Avalon's bustling night life (there were 2 bars open on Saturday night!).

Avalon, Catalina Island Album