North again

Just making a quick post before we up anchor and leave Barra. We came back here to do some provisioning, get the laundry done and the bottom cleaned. Managed to get it all accomplished in 2 days so now we are going to Tenacatita and then to Chemala and La Cruz. Yesterday Chris & I were just hangin' out in the cockpit when a Manta Ray jumped out of the water right next to the boat! Then it jumped again about 50 ft away. Wow! What a cool thing!! We passed a couple of those guys when we came up from Las Hadas and are hoping to see more. The other thing we enjoyed seeing on the way here were Tropicbirds. We passed a big white rock that is apparently one of the places they nest and saw quite a few birds flying and in the water. They are very pretty...white with striking black markings around their faces and on their wings and they have two very long tail feathers that bounce up & down as they are floating on the water. We all tried valiantly to get a picture of one of the birds but they were just too skittery to get close to and too fast in the air. I DO have a picture of the big white rock..."Piedra Blanca" (Spanish for white rock).
We will likely be out of touch for at least a couple weeks as there is no internet until La Cruz but will be keeping my eyes open for cool things to write about!

Valentine's Day Romance

On the day the world celebrates love, my Sweetie took me for a special overnight date at the beautiful Las Hadas Hotel. What a treat it was in so many ways. Our friend, Ken from “Rosebud” chauffeured us to the dinghy dock and once we were checked in, we were taken by golf cart to our room. It was a beautiful suite with marble floors and walls, a mirror in the shower (hmmm…) and a balcony overlooking the anchorage and the Bay. We opened the special bottle of Malbec we had brought for the occasion and had a glass while we watched CNN news and took turns taking long, hot showers! I mentioned that some hors d’oeuvres would be nice and Chris immediately called room service and ordered quesadillas. As it turned out, he also ordered another bottle of wine…a $100 bottle of Chilean Merlot/Cabernet blend with a screw top! Really! At six we met Ken & Linde for dinner at the Paradise Restaurant and as the evening wore on, about half the anchorage showed up. The company, food, scenery and temperature were perfect and it was all topped off with a group of wonderful strolling Mexican musicians. As we walked back to the room we saw fireworks across the Bay in Manzanillo. Back in the room, we opened the expensive wine (turns out it was very nice) and discovered that the movie “10” was on the TV. Seems the hotel has one channel that plays this movie 24/7 (Could it be because it was filmed there?). After all these years it was still hilarious. This morning we luxuriated in long, hot showers again before going to breakfast and meeting Ken for our “carriage” ride back to the boat. It was all very romantic and I loved every minute, but I must admit that cruisers have some pretty unusual priorities when it comes to luxury. Chris & I agreed that the best part was having a night alone, but the short list of luxuries for both of us was “real” showers, air conditioning and TV (in English). It doesn’t take much to put together a perfect, romantic evening…especially when you are “camping” the rest of the time. Still...I am very happy that he enjoys spoiling me!

Santiago Bay

A funny thing happens to cruisers when they reach a destination they like. It becomes more difficult to leave every day. Once the alertness that must be kept during the passage making and the stress in getting the anchor down and set is over it is time to relax for a bit before venturing out to see what cool things the new location has to offer. Here, in Santiago Bay, as with most anchorages, there are good and challenging things both.
Good: The protection we get from the mountains around us usually keeps the rolling to a minimum. While we love the feel of the ocean under the boat, having to use handholds to get from one place in the boat to another…while we are anchored…gets old pretty fast.
The small number of boats here has given us the chance to get to know the folks on them better than at a popular anchorage where there are a lot of boats.
The water here is teeming with life so we have lots of fish and birds around all the time. We’ve also seen a turtle and, one day, a mama Humpback Whale was in the Bay all day long with her new baby.
Challenging: We seem to have regressed on our beach landing ability and have wiped out enough times that our confidence levels are a bit compromised.
There are no water taxis here so everything must go to and from the beach by dinghy (see above).
We have no internet access here so must go to the beach and ride the bus to town to get to an Internet Café to send/receive email.
There are no laundry, propane, fuel or grocery services close by so all of that must be managed via dinghy to/from the beach and taxi or bus to town and back. It is pretty much an all day project.
What all this means is that once you have done all the research and located all the needed facilities the place has started to feel comfortable…like “home”…and the desire to go somewhere new dies down. It comes back again but sometimes it takes a while. Fortunately, everywhere we go it is still sunny, warm and beautiful with soft sand beaches and swaying palm trees. Santiago is no different.

Tenacatita (19˚18.041’N - 104˚50.155’W) and Melaque (19˚13.159’N - 104˚42.665’W)

Robin arrived from Portland on Jan. 26th, Patty returned the 28th and we planned to leave the 29th for Tenacatita Bay. Manana problems again! I forgot to check out with the Port Captain, I wanted Patty to see the Iguanas in Colimilla and we still had a few last minute provisions to buy, so we opted to do that and leave first thing on the 30th. Alas, easier said than done! After being stuck in the Barra mud for a month, extricating the anchor was a chore. For starters, the snubber had proven the theory that dissimilar metals will become one in a marine environment. It took much pounding, wrenching and muscle to remove the snubber from the chain and then the real fun began. The first 20 ft or so of chain came up covered with much gross gunk that involved scrubbing with brush and water to remove. Once past that, most of the nasty mud washed off as the chain came up. The anchor itself was so stuck that I began to wonder if we were attached to some unseen cable or something. I would push the windlass button, it would grind, the bow of the boat would go down and the breaker would pop. We tried going forward and backward to work the anchor loose and Chris did some wrenching on it and finally we were free and on our way.

Tenacatita is about 12 miles north of Barra. With no wind we motored for about 1-1/2 hours and anchored off a beautiful tropical beach in the company of about a dozen other boats. This is what I’ve been waiting for! Long, beautiful beaches, clear blue and turquoise water and palms waving in the gentle breeze…just like in the Corona commercial! Once we were set, Patty & Robin tried snorkeling around the boat but it was too murky to see anything. Still…the water was warm and refreshing. Later, I asked Chris if he could get me to the beach for a walk on the sand without getting my foot wet. He was sure that if he didn’t put the outboard on and just rowed us in it would be no problem. All was well until we got close to the beach and then a wave was misjudged, caught us from behind and the dinghy went end over end with both of us getting drenched. I landed on my head and lost my sunglasses, Chris pulled a muscle in his back when he flipped and we returned to the boat looking like a couple of bedraggled rats. I was surprised to see that my foot actually was improved the next day so perhaps the seawater soaking was a good thing.

That afternoon “Arturo” came by in his panga to pick up our garbage and we arranged for him to take us on the infamous “Jungle Tour” the next day. He arrived as promised with his nephew, Oberto (age about 9), and we headed down the Iguana River. We made one stop to pick up a guy with a bicycle and ferry him to the other side and then we were off. It was like being in the “African Queen”, especially when the River got one-boat-wide and the mangroves closed in over our heads. We saw quite a few birds and crabs and one baby crocodile sunning itself on a branch. It was really quite pretty and exotic. At the end was a small village and Oberto, guided us across the short peninsula to the beach where we had a wonderful lunch at the family palapa. Arturo was to return us to our boat later that afternoon so while we waited Patty & Robin walked down the beach to “The Aquarium” to snorkel and Chris & I walked the beach.

Robin had to fly home Monday so Sunday we came back to Melaque (across the Bay from Barra) so she could get to the airport. Another lovely beach anchorage…darn! Tomorrow morning we weigh anchor again and head south to Santiago and Las Hadas anchorages just north of Manzanillo. I am using an internet café to post this so may need to add photos later. Check back for those.

We are still in Paradise but managing anyway.

Mexican Health Care

Just last night I was commenting to some friends about a story I read in Philo’s Notes concerning a non-Mexican couple who were involved in a bad auto accident. The man was killed and his wife seriously injured. At first it was thought both her legs would need amputation but she was taken to Tepic and that was not necessary. She does not have medical insurance and her bills have topped $25,000 so a fund raiser is being held by the cruising community to help. We discussed the fact that in the U.S. her bills would be well into the six figure range.

Today I learned first hand about the Mexican medical system and the generosity of the local people.

Our original plan was to remove the two dead batteries we had on board, haul them by water taxi and then cab to Melaque and pick up the 2 new ones we had ordered. Jim, from “Murray Grey” helped with his brawn and the use of a wonderful lifting device he has in order to get them into the panga when it arrived. These batteries weigh about 150 lbs each so lifting them down from our boat into the panga without it would have been exceptionally difficult if not impossible.

The panga arrived, batteries loaded and we were off. The panga driver took off at high speed (as many do) and then made a sharp left turn to pick up another fare at Comilla. This is not unusual but when he again made a sharp “S” curve to come up to the restaurant dock the batteries flew off the seat across from me and one landed squarely on the top of my left foot. There I sat with a huge, deep gouge across my arch, convinced the bones were broken and wondering how I was going to pay for it. Chris, the panga driver and a couple people from the restaurant helped me off the boat and then Ana went into action. She got her pickup truck and drove Chris & I to the doctor’s office at the top of the hill. The doctor (who spoke no English), cleaned and bandaged the wound but explained to us that he thought the tendon might be torn or a bone broken and I would need to go to the hospital in Chihuatlan (about 15 miles away). Ana’s husband returned with the truck and drove Chris, Ana & I there but they quickly sent us on to Manzanillo. We sent Ana’s husband back to work and got a cab for the next leg (about another 13 miles) but Ana insisted on staying with us as our interpreter.

The Manzanillo ER was full and there was only one doctor so we waited for about 30 minutes before I was seen. As it turns out there were no broken bones and the tendon was fine so 8 or 9 stitches later they sent me home with 2 prescriptions to get filled. Total cost? $67 pesos (about $5 U.S.) for the hospital, $370 pesos ($27 US) for the prescriptions and $600 ($44 US) pesos for the cab rides to Manzanillo and back to Comilla. Ana wanted no payment at all for spending the day with us or for the gas used in their truck but we insisted on giving her a monetary gift anyway.

The care I received was excellent and the miniscule expense absolutely mind boggling. I can’t say enough good things about Mexico and her citizens.

Barra Fishermen

Every morning between 5 & 6 a.m. the fishermen from Barra begin their day. They roar into the lagoon on their pangas to catch their daily bait. Typically there is one man driving and one who stands on the bow with a large net in his hands. When the bow man sees a fish “boil” the driver stops the panga and the front guy throws the net out and hauls in a wriggling mass of small fish. There are usually quite a number of pangas racing around the anchored boats, stopping, starting, throwing nets and hollering to one other. By 8:30 or so the fishermen have usually collected all the bait they need for the day and they head out to sea to set their lines. They lay long lines (sometimes extending several miles) to which are attached individual baited lines that hang down in the water. A black flag is attached to one end and every 25 or 30 ft an empty plastic pop bottle or jug is attached to act as a float. It is very difficult to see the floats in the ocean (not to mention black flags so when we are lucky enough to find a panga at the other end to guide you through it is a real blessing. I've heard many horror stories from cruisers who have ended up with lots of fishline wrapped around their propellers, keels, rudders, etc and that causes all manner of problems. Around here all the fishing is done during the day but I’ve been told that as you travel farther south there are lines out at night or around the clock. As hard as it is to see the lines during the day I am not looking forward to sailing where they fish at night!

2009 in Mexico!

Wow! What a rush! New Year's Eve in Puerto Vallarta!
My very special friend, Mary, came for a visit over Christmas (she made it out of Portland just hours before the snowstorm closed down the airport). We showed her around La Cruz, took her shopping in P.V., amazed her with whales, sea turtles and night watches on the way to Barra Navidad and eased her into the "cruising lifestyle" with Margaritas, dinghy rides and lounging by the pool or in the cockpit while in Barra. I think she had a great time and we certainly enjoyed having her visit. Since Mary was flying home from P.V. on New Years Eve, and we were all planning to make the bus trip back with her, I booked a couple rooms so the 3 of us could celebrate the New Year before returning to the boat. What a great idea that was!!
Our hotel is high on the hill over looking the Malacon and Banderas Bay...a fabulous view! The rooms are very large and comfortable and the balcony view is absolutely wonderful.The restaurant on the top floor (the floor above our room) was planning a big dinner and celebration but at $85 US per person we opted to skip it. After we got settled in, we walked down to the Malacon, had a great early dinner at the Chez Sabor, picked up a bottle of tequila and some mix and snacks and headed back to the room to watch the action.
We set up our "party headquarters" in Chris & my room and sat on the balcony watching boats moving in, taxis bringing revelers to the hotel and the, always perfect, Mexican sunset. As the night wore on, the noise level increased steadily from all fronts. Private parties and organized events were everywhere and there were thousands of people walking along the Malacon (walkway) and the beach...the cacophony sounded like "Carnival" and the decibel level of it all increased by the hour. Being "cruisers" we all started to fade pretty fast and by 10:00 Patty went back to her room and Chris & I went to bed. It was not possible to sleep so when we began to hear the explosions we got up and watched the fireworks from the balcony. It was amazing!! The display must have gone on for a good hour and extended all the way around the shoreline of the Bay. Every time we thought it was the finale, more fireworks would begin. Music was playing from every side, people were yelling and celebrating, boats were honking their horns and even a Norwegian Lines cruise ship came out into the melee so their guests could watch and their horn added a lovely long, slow bass note that set the whole night off. It was fantastic!
I am still in awe of the fact that I am actually IN Mexico after all the years of dreaming, but bringing in a New Year in Puerto Vallarta with my wonderful friend, Patty, and my sweetheart, Chris, is something that will live in my heart forever.