| |
|
|
Monday, November 17, 2008
The "must do" list of things to finish up before we head back to the rain is almost done. On Wednesday we should be ready to get our Zarpe from the Port Captain so we can go back to Manta on Thursday to Immigration. High tide on Saturday morning is at 11:52 am, so we should be on our way out of Bahia by 11 am. Once we leave here we'll essentially be on the road for a year, with no nice long stops like this one.
We're glad we made the decision to come to Central America and South America for a year. The Latin American people are marvelous, the sights gorgeous and the weather beautiful. I would recommend to any cruiser headed south to take the time and enjoy this part of the world before hurrying into the Caribbean or South Pacific. And of course we've met some great folks on other boats along the way as well. The social scene here in Bahia has been been busy with progressive happy hour parties, girls nights, pizza parties and card games here on Yohelah, boys night poker on Hello World, celebration of German Carnival on 11/11 at 11:11 am, and lots of going away dinners out.
But now it's time to move on. We'll sail south into Panama to the Darien River jungle for our first stop. Then into Panama City and the Pearl Islands in Panama. After Maya's rabies blood test is done for New Zealand we'll travel north into Western Panama and up through Costa Rica. T2 (Teresa Lennstrom) and family are coming to Costa Rica in February and we'll rendezvous with them in Playa del Coco where we first stopped in Costa Rica last year. Hopefully we'll get to do some diving and sailing with them. Then it's time for our crossing.
We'll leave Playa del Coco and sail out 200 miles to Cocos Island, a Costa Rican national park. The diving there is supposed to be spectacular and we'll meet up there and dive with our friends from Hello World. Then it's back across the ITCZ (intertropical convergence zone) again to the Galapagos, which should be about a 5 day passage. We'll stop and tour and dive in the Galapagos and provision for the Marquesas Islands. The 2900 mile passage to the Marquesas should take 20 or so days.
The French are very fussy about visitors in French Polynesia and only allow non-European boats to remain in their waters 90 days without a long stay visa, which is impossible to get from here. In those 90 days we travel through the Marquesas, Tuamotos and Society Islands. A straight line course through the area is nearly 1,000 miles which means lots of time sailing to places with names like Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea, which are all on the must see list. Hopefully Leslie & Fred will make it down for a trip through the Societies with us.
Then it's on to the Cook Islands, with stops at Raratonga and Suwarrow and possibly others. After that we may go up to American Samoa and visit Pago Pago. Then it's on to Niue where Jeffrey & Nicole will join us for a passage to Tonga. My brother John and his wife Christine are planning a visit to Tonga. We'll stay there until the beginning of cyclone season and then we'll find a weather window for our crossing to New Zealand. Unfortunately that's a 7 day passage for our boat and a low pressure system travels through every 5 days so the timing is tricky.
I know we're both ready for this upcoming year, as is the boat. And hopefully Maya is as well.
Today on Yohelah we're finishing up chores and eagerly thinking about the year to come......
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Well it's been a very interesting couple of weeks, to say the least. The topic for this log update was going to be about crossroads, and how Ecuador is truly one for the folks here. We were getting ready to head south for a month for a change of scenery and preparing to say goodbye to friends, many of whom we likely won't see again as people leave here literally headed in all directions. But we discovered a completely corroded heat exchanger in our engine and realized we weren't going anywhere for a while. Then the stock market imploded and things just got even crazier.
Today Rob headed back to the states for a couple of weeks. We were hoping he was going home to pick up a repaired heat exchanger and bring it back, but it was too far gone and we had to bite the big bullet and buy a new one. Either way he gets a chance to see his family for a visit, which is always good. While he's home our good friends Bill & Jean on Mita Kuuluu will leave and head north to Panama, then up to Mexico where Bill can play music for a while. Robin & Jean on Winter Trek will head home to see family and we'll leave before they get back. Here in Bahia folks are beginning to say their goodbyes as people head off to travel South America or home for a bit and realize while they're gone boats are starting to leave here and move on. The rainy season in Central America is ending and boats return there to cruise, or head into the Caribbean, or like us head into the South Pacific.
Other cruisers frequently ask us if we're retired, and our standard answer has been "no we're not retired, we're just irresponsible". Well, we're irresponsible to a point. We came cruising with the blessing of our financial advisor who believed like us that the savings in our retirement account would grow in the coming years, we could work enroute to supplement those growing savings and have enough for retirment and a little house. After this week it appears all bets are off on that one. So we're trying to decide now what to do. My first instinct was to point the boat north and hope we could find work back in the Northwest. We know if we can it'll be the best pay we'll make and hopefully offset some of the losses to our savings from this market meltdown. And Rob wants more than ever to build that little house for us to hang out in when we're just too old to climb into that bunk in the forepeak.
In the immediate we're still going to transit the South Pacific this coming season. But which direction we point at the end of the season is going to depend on how we're feeling financially. Are we done cruising? Absolutely no way. We love this life, but have to be practical about retirement at the same time. If we do head back to the northwest it'll take us 18 months to get there, making a big loop into the North Pacific and arriving into Alaska. For now we're getting ready for our highly anticipated South Pacific passage, including getting Maya microchipped and vaccinated so we can take her to New Zealand if that's the way the boat points in November 2009.
Today on Yohelah I'm making bagels and plans for the South Pacific while Rob's heading north on a 767....
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
One of the benefits of cruising is the opportunity to get off the boat and travel inland to see the countryside away from the coastal areas. We haven't done too much of that yet, but did take advantage of the opportunity this month and spent two weeks traveling in Peru. The trip south on the boat from here is a hard bash to weather. Some friends recently had to sail 1,800 miles to get to Lima (which is 800 miles away), so we took the easy route and caught a 767 out of Guayaquil.
We got to our hotel in Lima about 8:30 at night and asked the taxi driver if he would take us back to the airport at 4:00 the next morning to pick up Brittney. Sure enough we walked out of the hotel and he was waiting for us asleep in his car out front. Brit had left Seattle at 9:00 the morning before and was understandably a bit tired when she got there. We spent two days checking out Lima and the suburb of Miraflores where we were staying, then headed south on a bus. We took the overnight bus to Arequipa, which left Lima around 6 pm and got into Arequipa around 9 am the next morning.
Arequipa is a very large city in the lower altitudes (7,700 feet) of the Andes Mountains. 13 years ago an expedition unearthed several sites where they found 500 year old remains of frozen humans they believed had been sacrificed to the Gods on the mountain tops. Like the Mayan people in Guatemala the Incas had no written language, so all the history is speculation based on archeological findings and interpretation. In the case of the sites on the mountaintop, the remains were covered and frozen for years and remained very well intact. The best specimen was named Juanita, a girl estimated to be a young teen when she was sacrificed, whose remains included even her hair, teeth and clothing. Today Juanita'a remains are on display at a museum im Arequipa, likely not the destination intended by her tribemates making the sacrifice.
Also in Arequipa is a huge monastery that was home to cloistered nuns. The monastery has been restored to resemble original living arrangements in many rooms and is open for public viewing. The facility is enormous, encompassing 20,000 square meters and took us a couple of hours to tour one afternoon.
Unfortunately Arequipa is where my altitude sickness problems began. Our trip was planned to gradually increase in altitude, allowing us to acclimate as we headed higher towards Machu Picchu. I had a persistent headache in Arequipa the three days we were there, which is only at 7,700 feet above sea level. Our next stop was at the end of an 8 hour bus ride uphill into the Altiplano (high plains) of the Andes, ending at Lake Titicaca. It was amazing to be up at 12,500 feet above sea level in rolling plains, not mountainous terrain, with a lake a 100 miles long. But I contracted all the typical symptoms of altitude sickness and ended up in bed for a day and a half feeling like I had a bad flu and a head that was just going to completely explode. Fortunately Brit found Machu Pizza in town so Rob & her were able to eat while I was sick. And luckily some serious doses of medicine in the form of caffiene and ibuprofen proved succesful and I got to go on the daylong tour of the lake.
It started at the Uros islands near the town of Puno where we were staying. The islands are floating, and made completely of reeds. They are constructed of sections of the reed root structures lashed together and anchored to the bottom of the lake in the shallows near shore. When we stepped from the tour boats we felt the surface flex under us as we walked around. It was a very interesting place. The locals have lived like that for 500 years on both the Peruvian and Bolivian sides of the lake. Recently the Bolivians all moved ashore but the Peruvians remain on the islands where they now welcome tourist boats during high season to supplement their fishing income.
Our second stop that day was at a real island in Lake Titicaca named Taquile. We had a 45 minute walk to the top of the island where the town square was at 4,000 meters above sea level (13,123 feet - nearly the TOP of Mt. Rainier which is 14,410). The locals were dressed in their traditional attiture, which you can see in Rob's pictures in the Peru album. Their costumes are a hodgepodge of styles worn by outsiders to the island since the Spanish conquistadors. The colors of the men's hats signify their marital and social status, and the women's skirts are up to seven layers thick. I don't remember what the layers signify, but I'm sure it's important. The women are spinning yarn as they walk and the men all knit, as you can see in some of the pictures. Unfortunately they have an intended income stream from tourists taking photos and we object to that strategy. We had a nice lunch on the island and headed back to Puno on the boat.
The next morning we boarded the Andean Explorer, a Peru Rail train headed to Cusco. It was our biggest financial splurge of the trip, but worth the high price. It was an 8 hour ride and included lunch and snacks along the way. We traveled north across the altiplano and down into the valleys of the Andes mountains. We passed through the highest point of our trip at 14,172 feet and started a descent into Cusco that my head was greatful to feel. Cusco is known as "gringo central" in Peru because of the number of tourists visiting the Sacred Valley area, and we stayed 5 days.
Our first day there we took a trip to the town of Pisac where they have a Sunday market that we believed would rival the one we had enjoyed so much in Chichicastenango, Guatemala. We weren't disappointed at all by the size of the market and the quality of the goods for sale, but were surprised at how calm and quiet is was compared to Chichi. We all had fun shopping for souvenirs, including Brittney who realized she didn't need to know Spanish to barter, just how to convert US dollars to Peruvian Soles and punch numbers into a little hand held calculator that was passed back and forth between her and the vendor.
The second day we took a Sacred Valley tour to see the Inca ruins in Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. We were at a much lower altitude than Lake Titicaca, but we quickly learned the Incas liked to build their temples high on the hills and we still had a significant amount of climbing to do in the mountains. The ruins were fascinating though, and the quality of the Inca stonework is amazing. The next day we just poked around Cusco and had a quiet day before the climax of our journey, the trip up to Machu Picchu.
We scheduled Machu Picchu as our final stop to ensure we were acclimated to the altitude and because we wanted to save the best for last. And we were not disappointed; it is incredible to witness in person. Perched high on a mountaintop, surrounded on three sides by the Urubamba river running below and mountain peaks in every direction, the setting is absolutely magical. It's understandable why the Inca rulers treked three days from Cusco to this retreat (or rather why the Inca rulers had their slaves carry them for three days on the trail). Our first afternoon Rob & I hiked up the Inca trail towards Cusco to a spot they call the Sun Gate, where you first enter the valley that Machu Picchu is in. It was about 45 minutes up the trail and the views along the way were incredible. And since we chose not to make the three day hike up the real Inca trail, it was fun to walk on it a little bit. The next morning we joined 400 of our new best friends (a la Tikal) to see Machu Picchu at sunrise. Again, like Tikal, it was worth the 4:00 am alarm. We had a private guide who showed us through the ruins and pointed out the sights we had read about in the "Self Guided Tour to Machu Picchu". It was a great day and we were blessed with incredible sunshine for our photos.
Now we're back in Ecuador onboard the boat and settling back in. The customs agent at the airport in Guayaquil stamped our passports with another 90 day visa, so we don't have to leave for Panama before the rainy season is over. But we're ready to move on so I think we'll head south to Salinas and check out the Puerto Lucia Yacht Club for a few weeks. It's about a day south of here near Guayaquil, and a good location to explore southern Ecuador from.
Today on Yohelah we're glad to be home with great memories of the wonderful people and beautiful sights of Peru.....
Sunday, August 31, 2008
"The Secret O' Life is enjoying the passing of time." It's the first line of the James Taylor song Secret O' Life, which is also the name of the boat sailed by Terry Bingham for many years. Everyone who knew Terry knows he did an exceptional job of honoring that name. Sadly, Terry passed away this week after a battle with severe pancreatitis in La Paz, Bolivia. He was on an inland trip exploring South America with his girlfriend Tammy when he became ill.
I only knew Terry for a short time in person, but his website was one I had read for years while we were preparing to go cruising. He was a "home boy", and Secret O' Life was in the same marina in Eagle Harbor with Yohelah when she was known as Vita. The tragic news is that Terry was young and healthy and strong; but Terry got to live the life he wanted cruising aboard his boat for many years before a very untimely passing.
Today in Bahia we had a rememberance ceremony at Siananda. Usually I don't talk alot about other boats in these logs because friends and family reading at home don't know these folks, but I will now because I want to remember. It was organized by Nakia, and memories were also shared by Sarana, Blew Moon, Batwing, Che Bella, Mita Kuuluu, Encore, Shared Dreams, Taremaro, 9 of Cups, Diesel Duck and Jubilee.
Sometimes I think we should be at home being responsible and putting money in the bank for retirement. And then we get a very sad reminder that life can be short and living your life the best way you know how is sometimes far more important than being responsible. Terry had just started receiving his social security check and said there was no way he could possibly spend that much money every month.
Today on Yohelah we're remembering that the Secret O' Life is enjoying the passing of time....
Monday, August 11, 2008
Well we are definitely enjoying our stay here in Ecuador so far. It's impossible to believe we've already been here a month. It took 10 days to get checked in to the country, including two 4 hour / $40 each taxi rides into Manta (a large city south of here) to visit Migracion. The first time we went the President was there for a groundbreaking on a new refinery and they were closed, so we had to come back later in the week.
Speaking of the President, we're paying close attention to the politics while we're here. We knew coming in that Correa (the pres) hates Americans. That was confirmed by Rob's sister Lynn who works for our State Department (it's very nice to have a sister at State). He's very left and a good pal of Chavez in Venezuela, who not surprisingly was in Manta that day. He's also trying to convince the Ecuadoreans to let him rewrite the constitution and change the term limits for his office. He's taken control of the local television stations, claiming the owners were corrupt "enemies of the state". So there is constant media pushing his agenda on the people as the vote date approaches.
Last weekend Rob & I took a three day trip down to Guayaquil just for fun. It's the biggest city in Ecuador and about 4.5 hours south on the bus (more on that later). On Sunday we were in a taxi going across town and Correa was on the radio again. The look on the taxi driver's face was not positive at all, so I asked him if this new constitution was good or bad for the people. He gave the PC answer and said "I haven't read the entire document yet so I don't know". And who knows, maybe it's just not a good idea to discuss politics at that level, particularly with foreigeners.
The good news is that the vote is September 28th, so we'll be back from Peru and onboard. I totally doubt there's going to be trouble, especially way out here where we are in the boonies, but it's just good to be aware and prepared. Our boat is fueled up and ready to go and I'll keep an eye on the weather before then so we can decide if we should go north or south. Our friends Jeff & Debby on Sailor's Run (another Baba40) left last week to head south to Peru for a while and are bashing into headwinds and a 2.5 knot foul current for 800 miles and I just don't think that sounds like fun.
Our trip into Guayaquil was nice, but a bit of a culture shock. After months of being in small coastal towns, a city with millions of people was a big jolt. The most surprising thing was the constant barrage of noise from all the stores selling expensive consumer goods. Guayaquil is the industrial center of Ecuador, and obviously people there are doing well financially. We stayed in a nice $25/night hotel right in the city and had a really nice dinner out one night. Unfortunately it was at an Italian restuarant that had no Italian wine. I asked the waiter, and he said it just was not possible to buy imported goods. So I guess even if you're doing well financially you have to remember it still is a third world country and you can't always get what you want!
The bus ride to Guayaquil cost $7 each on an "executivo" bus. On the way in we had the front seats and occasionally I would look up from my book and see how we were doing. Eventually I decided it was just best not to know. On the way home we sat back further and I kept my head in my book the entire time. Rob was leaning out into the aisle to watch just for amusement. He told me when we got home that at one point our bus passed another bus who was passing a truck at the same time, so we were actually passing on the left shoulder. I've decided I definitely want the buses with the older drivers, hoping that's some sign we'll survive the trip. I also would pay triple if we could take the bus that got there in 7 hours instead of 4.5, but they all drive like that. And the roads are so bad out here you can't rent a car and drive yourself (besides, then you'd just be on the same road with the buses passing).
We're in our third week of having a local named Ariosto helping us onboard. He's just an absolute treasure. He's 33 years old and has a wife and three kids who he supports on the $60/week we pay him. He said he likes to work on the boats because it's more secure than fishing, where he often comes home with no money in his pocket. He's cleaned all our stainless, waxed the gelcoat, is helping refinish lots of wood and helped me grease winches and is just a really hard worker and handy guy. And he's a really nice guy, but he sure does lose patience with my horrid Spanish (BTW, he speaks absolutely no English at all). On Saturday he comes to work for a couple of hours and we send him home for the day with some treats I've baked or bought for his kids. I'm hoping to have the boat all spiffy and shiny by the time we head to Panama in the winter.
I've gotten most of the travel arrangements for Peru settled finally. We're very excited about our trip there with Brittney. After we get back we may coast hop south a bit just for something different. There's a marina south of here we could stop at and do some travel into southern Ecuador and the Amazon basin. Seems kinda wrong to be this close to the Amazon and not go visit the area. Unfortunately there are no roads in so you have to fly in and pay big bucks for tourist places, so we'll have to decide if that's in the cards for us.
Today on Yohelah we're totally enjoying Ecuador......
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Our planned two day fuel stopover in Costa Rica didn't quite take a month, but almost. After our colds were gone we moved south to the Gulf of Nicoya and visited a few anchorages there, including a ten day stay at the Costa Rica Yacht Club in Puntarenas. It's simply amazing how the days can roll into weeks without noticing.
Costa Rica looks really pretty from the outside, and the folks are certainly nice enough, but the problem with theft is just a constant annoyance. The police have publicly taken the attitude of "watch your stuff", which means anything is fair game and I was in a constant state of paranoia about having things stolen. Rightfully so, I believe, after hearing reports of a boat having their dinghy and motor stolen from off the boat at night. We locked everything everywhere we went but I still worried about the hassle and expense of replacing our dink.
Now we're in a river estuary in Ecuador where we're told it's very safe and nobody's going to bother us. As long as we stay here. Once we're out of this area the thievery becomes a big problem, particularly on the buses. Our friends on Sailor's Run were asked last week how their recent trip was, and Debby's response was "Great, we only got robbed once!".
That being said, we're still very excited about seeing some of South America. I came rather unprepared since we had planned not to come down here when the Ecuadorian President was making things difficult for yachts last year. But now I'm hearing about trips that others are making and doing some research and looking forward to some exploration. There are several "cat boats" here in the bay, so we'll have our turns watching other cats and know that Maya will be well cared for while we're away.
We're also working on a huge "to-do" list. With five months here we hope to get a bunch of chores done. The weather is perfect for boat jobs - usually overcast but warm and not raining. When the sun is out it's pretty hot, but that's only happened once in the week we've been here. Our friends from California complain about the overcast, but we're feeling right at home. And the price of help can't be beat - we have reports from another boat who had someone helping them who did a great job for $10 / day. We're hoping he starts working with us early next week after we get finished with customs and immigration and start our jobs.
I'll skip a repeat whine about the passage south and leave the reports in the passage blog. We're just about done cleaning the salt water off the boat, sails and from inside where we discovered some new leaks. Good news is that there are several boats here who travel between Ecuador and Panama annually, spending 6 months in each respective dry season, and we're told the passage back to Panama between seasons will be very easy.
Upriver from our anchorage is a private park called Saiananda where boats are also at anchor. Apparently the owners have built a beautiful park with animals and gardens. Unfortunately there's a big controversy here between where we're at and Siananda. The owner here did the work to become an official port of entry with the government and believes that if boats are coming in here and using his services to check in they should have to remian here and patronize his other services (bar/restaurant, dinghy dock, laundry and water delivery, etc). Rumor has it that the Port Captain agrees and won't let boats move once they're anchored here. But as Joey on Friends once said it's all a "moo" point anyway, because they're beginning to drive pilings for a bridge across the river here which will block boats from going upriver to Siananda anyway.
Today on Yohelah we're putting the final touches on the project list and getting ready to do some boat chores, and we're sad that we're missing Jeffrey and Nicole's wedding today......
Sunday, June 08, 2008
On the street outside the Hotel Bahia del Sol in El Salvador is a small tienda where we could buy paper products and some fresh vegetables. One Sunday afternoon we heard from our friends on Mita Kuuluu that they had kittens that needed a home - in particular the sweet yellow type. We wanted another cat but had planned on waiting until after we traveled in Peru so we didn't have to find a cat sitter. And of course we didn't want a sweet kitty, we wanted another feisty calico. As we walked into the tienda and the tiniest little furball of fleas and bones with calico markings came running right to me.
The next morning Rob was on the chicken bus into San Salvador looking for cat supplies, a tougher task that you might think since the Salvadorians don't generally keep cats as pets. Monday night we went back to the tienda and picked up our new crew member, who Rob named Maya. We took her to the vet two days later and found out she was 5.5 weeks old and weighed less than a pound. Her fleas were gone by then thanks to some Advantage and she was starting to put some meat on her bones.
Her first trip offshore was our passage from El Salvador to Costa Rica less than a week later. Crossing the bar to get out of Bahia was extremely calm, but the seas were lumpy and confused outside because a hurricane had formed a few days earlier and gone ashore further south. Maya did marvelous the entire passage, even when the boat was pitching and rolling as we sailed through one squall and electrical storm after another.
We stopped in Bahia Santa Elena three days later and immediately loved Costa Rica. We were the only boat in the bay and it reminded us more of home than anyplace we had been in the last two years (except the howler monkeys and parrots of course). The next day we had a spectacular sail across the Gulf of Papagayo and moved down to Playa del Coco to get checked in to Costa Rica, where we're now on anchor in Bahia Culebra at a little beach called Playa Panama. In another day or two when we've both shaken the colds we brought from El Salvador we'll move south through Costa Rica. We're definitely looking forward to coming back here in the winter when it's not raining every night. There's a dive shop on every corner in this little town and we're certainly interested to see what's underwater.
Today on Yohelah we're having tons of fun watching Maya grow and play and learn to climb.....
Thursday, May 22, 2008
We've just returned to the boat after taking our first inland trip in two years of cruising. We went into Guatemala for two weeks of Spanish classes in Antigua, and took some short trips from there. Originally we had planned to take a weeklong road trip after classes ended but we were both ready to get back to the boat, and I was even more anxious after having been gone for two weeks to Seattle immediately prior to this inland trip.
Antigua was a great little town and we enjoyed it immensely. The Lonely Planet guide says "Antigua is almost impossibly cute ... cobbled streets, mustard and ochre-colored houses with colonial fittings, the leafy central park... Some people love it, some people hate it, but you'd be silly to miss it." We're definitely in the "love it" group. The fascinating thing to me about Antigua is that all the blocks are completely walled in. There are doorways everywhere that open into hotels, restaurants, homes and shops, most of which have lovely little courtyards. I was always curious about what was behind the door as we passed by. From above you can see what look like jumbles of disorganized walls, roofs and gardens inside each block. There were also church ruins all around the city, which was leveled by an intense earthquake in 1773. Prior to that earthquake Antigua had been the capital, but it was moved to Guatemala City afterwards. There was also another earthquake in 1976 and you can see in the ruins relatively new damage from the latest "terremoto".
We studied Spanish with private instructors for four hours every day and spent several hours daily doing our tarea (homework) and memorizing new words in the park or in a courtyard cafe. We chose not to do a homestay with a Guatemalan family, and instead found a lovely little hotel that had shared kitchen facilities where we cooked breakfast and lunches. That left us evenings to explore and enjoy the many restaurants and bars in Antigua. The town definitely caters to tourists, most of which this time of year are from Australia, Central America and Europe. I would highly recommend Antigua to anyone traveling in Central America. The people couldn't have been more friendly and the climate is absolutely perfect - it claims to be the land of eternal spring.
One afternoon we went on a tour to a live volcano about 2 hours from Antigua (Volcan Pacaya). We were in a van with about ten other people, none of whom were American and all of whom were about 20 years younger than us. It was an absolutely grueling climb up from the van to the crater, at about 8,000 feet where I'm not used to traveling after so many years at sea level. But the rewards were plenty. I've never stood and watched volcanic lava flow right in front of me before. It was hot as the dickens in there, but really fascinating. The most interesting thing to me was the contrast of the area around that volcano to the area around Mount St. Helens at home, where nearly 30 years after the eruption little has grown back. At Pacaya there were flows of cooled lava right through lush green treed high mountain meadows. Listening to the rumble of the volcano was a bit intimidating, espcially since the Lonely Planet warns that people do die when it erupts unexpectedly. But it was fun to see.
Another trip we took was in a van to the mountain village of Chichicastenango (tenango is Mayan for town). There is a huge Mayan market there on Sundays that is great fun. We had our stack of Quetzales (the Guatemalan currency, not the bird) and were ready to bargain. The market was noisy, crowded and exciting, and ended up being as much fun just sitting above watching during lunch as it was shopping. We found some beautiful treasures, but did pass on buying any live chicks for the boat. The most amusing sight was the huge basket a Mayan man carried on his back with a larget net holding live turkeys inside. The turkey heads were bobbing high above the crowd as he pushed his way through. A few hours was definitely enough and we were glad to have the van driver take us back to Antigua afterwards.
Our last trip was up to the ruins at Tikal, which is on a low lying hill in the lowland jungles of northern Guatemala. We took a first class bus out of Guatemala City overnight on Friday after our last day of school. Riding the buses in Central America is easy, comfortable and cheap. And overnighting on the bus worked out great - it was definitely more comfortable than flying a red-eye, just a little noisier and bumpier, but we slept great! We arrived in the town of Flores early Saturday morning and decided to rent a car for our two day stay. I had a room reserved at the Jungle Lodge Hotel, which was out of town inside the National Park boundaries, so it was easier than arranging shuttle trips back and forth.
The Jungle Lodge was fun to stay at, and a nice splurge after being at the little local place in Antigua for two weeks. It has duplex bungalows and was originally built for the archaelogists who were unearthing the ruins. We were hanging out in the pool to escape the opressive 104 degree heat after visiting the ruins on Saturday and could watch the spider monkeys in the trees nearby and hear the impressive sounding howler monkeys in the distance. A very cool spot for the last night of our trip.
The ruins of Tikal are fascinating. The Mayans built an amazing and impressive city beginning as far back as about 600 BC, with building conuining steadily for nearly 1,100 years. The building was all accomplished without the use of any metal tools or beasts of burden. The park consists of 6 square miles containing over 3,000 structures, only about 20% of which have been completely unearthed. As you walk among the ruins you see excavated temples and buildings alongside mounds of dirt that contain ruins yet to be cleared. The main temples tower nearly 200 feet (20 stories) overhead, and are made of limestone blocks sealed with a mixture of tree sap and limestone to preserve them.
One of the many fascinating facts about the Mayans is that they created a perpetual calendar and most ruins can be accuratley dated using glyphs and radiocarbon dating from some wood beams. Another sad fact is that there is no other written history about the culture; what little writings and glyphs they do have has not yet been understood and no "Rosetta Stone" is known to exist at this time. The biggest mystery is why Tikal was completely abandoned and never repopulated, and what caused essentially the collapse of Mayan civilization in the lowlands around 900 AD.
The guidebooks and tour guides suggest you should see Tikal at sunrise "as the Mayans did in their time". Of course we bit into this idea and set the alarm for 4:15 so we could get into the park before sunrise and for, as they suggest, some quiet and meditation. Unsurprisingly, they sold this idea to another 150 people. So it became a sprint across the park and a hike to the top of Temple IV (remember that 20 flights up) in a crowd. But listening to the howler monkeys in the trees as we passed by in the dark was pretty impressive. And truly, watching the sunrise above the jungle was a beautiful sight.
Later on Sunday we turned in the rental car and toured around Flores and found dinner in the 100+ degree heat where there was not even a tiny whisper of wind. We pretty much just sat on a terrace and watched each other drip for a couple of hours waiting for the time when the bus left. Again we went in a first class bus for an overnighter into Guatemala City. We arrived there 8 hours later and took a cab to the other bus company for a bus to San Salvador, which was leaving in 45 minutes. Another 4 hours later we caught a last cab to the local bus station in San Salvador, where a chicken bus to Costa del Sol left 2 minutes after we got on. Two hours later we were opening up the boat after an amazing trip of 700 or so mountainous miles by bus in 16 hours.
Now we're getting ready to leave El Salvador after a wonderful 6 weeks here in Bahia Jaltepeque. We'll head down to Costa Rica for a short stay where we'll refuel and wait for a decent weather window for our passage to Ecuador. What I think I know is that as summer arrives the ITCZ (intertropical convergence zone) moves north and we end up in the southeasterly trade winds for longer of this trip than we'd like. It'll be a bit of wind on the nose, but it's less than 600 miles so we should be able to motorsail a bit if we have to. After the summer rainy season is over in Central America we'll return to cruise Costa Rica and the Pacific side of Panama.
Today on Yohelah we're reacclamating to the heat and are very very happy to be home after our first wonderful inland trip......
Thursday, April 17, 2008
We're anchored in an estuary that the yachties refer to as "Bahia". The El Salvadorians call the area Costa del Sol (Sun Coast). Usually by 8:30 in the morning it's over 80 degrees inside the boat, but generally a breeze will blow during the day and cool it off a bit. The tropical sun is relentless and staying out of it is absolutely necessary. The evenings are cooler, but the lightening storms are occasionally a little too close to the boat for comfort. The storms can be spectacular to watch, but the results of a strike to the boat would be disastrous and take out all of our new electronics. We're insured for it, but the hassle of buying, shipping and replacing nearly new instruments would be painful.
Our transit of the Tehuantepec from Mexico to El Salvador couldn't have been any better. I was wrong about feast or famine; we had wind during the day to sail with, except the second day when we were way out in the middle. At night it was motor boat time, but that was ok because it was so much better than it could have been. We even got to fly our spinnaker the third day while we were trying to catch the boat ahead of us (which we never did). As usual, after worrying about the transit for the last year, it was actually a nice sail.
El Salvador is a marvelous place to be. The Salvadorians are incredibly friendly people and couldn't be more welcoming. While cruising Mexico we never got off the beaten path and out of the tourist areas, and found no opportunity to meet the locals. In Bahia we've had local visitors out to the boat twice already and been given a tour of the area with a family from San Salvador on thier boat. It's so refreshing to be in an area where the people are happy to meet new visitors and not just burned out by massive groups of people offloading from a cruise ship for 3 hours of shopping.
The day after we arrived we took the "chicken bus" into the town of Zacatecaluca, which was quite an adventure. A ride on the El Salvadorian buses is a trip not to be missed. The notion that the bus is full never exists, no matter how tightly you're packed in. It was nearly two hours each way with a transfer in the middle, and our timing was poor as our return trip was during the after work and after school period.
One of the benefits of being in a poor country is inexpensive food. Meals out average in the $4.00 range, which is very convenient when it's so hot you just don't want to heat the boat up any more by lighting the stove to cook. The Salvadorians don't eat spicy food like the Mexicans and it's often a bit bland. The local specialty item is called a pupusa, which is a fried corn tortilla filled with beans, cheese and/or meat. At $.35 each for a pupusa and $1.00 local beers, dinner out at a local pupuseria is pretty simple and cheap.
We're planning our first inland trip since we started cruising two years ago. We're going into Antigua, Guatemala for some immersion Spanish. Not being able to converse in the native language of the locals is frustrating, but the further we get from the tourist areas the more practice we get. Hopefully a few weeks of intensive study will boost us beyond the basics and give us some much needed confidence and ability. We'll also travel a bit in Guatemala and explore some of the Mayan ruins and tourist areas.
Today on Yohelah Rob is puttering with some boat projects while I'm home in Seattle taking care of my sister for another week.......
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
We've stopped in Marina Chauhue in what we thought was the town of Huatulco in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico to wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Upon arrival we were welcomed by the other cruisers here in the "waiting room" who are also heading south into El Salvador. Today it's blowing 40 knots in the Gulf, making it a very dangerous place to be, so we wait.
The Gulf of Tehuantepec is the body of water adjacent to the lowlands of southern Mexico where the winds from the Gulf of Mexico cross out into the Pacific. The winds blow extremely hard when there's a high pressure system on the Atlantic side and funnel out for three hundred miles. The seas are on your beam and quickly become very steep (easily 15') and close together, making it a dangerous crossing. We're told by the Enrique, the marina manager here, that about 20 people die every year in the Tehuantepec. The Tehuantepec is also the only place that weather systems from Africa can cross into the eastern Pacific and all of Mexico's hurricanes begin here.
Fortunately with the advancements in weather forecasting it's easier now to predict when the winds will blow and when they'll be calm. And we're traveling between seasons when the occurrence of high winds is lessened significantly. According to all forecasts, the current gale will finish up tomorrow and by Thursday we should have a weather window long enough to scoot across before another system develops. It's 450 miles to El Salvador, so we'll be 3 nights and 4 days out. Unfortunately it's feast or famine with the winds in the Tehuantepec, so we'll likley have to motor the entire crossing.
Tomorrow we'll check out of Mexico and get our Zarpe for El Salvador. The Zarpe is our official exit documentation from this country that says we left in good standing, and is required by the next country we enter. It takes about 5 hours tomorrow to get all the clearances and checkouts done.
I mentioned that we thought this was the town of Huatulco because Rob found out from Enrique yesterday that it's the area of Huatulco and the town of La Crucecita, and before 1984 there was nothing here. This is a tourist area developed by the Mexican government at the same time they built Ixtapa near Zihuatanejo, Cancun on the Yucatan peninsula, and Loreto in the Sea of Cortez. There are four areas of lovely beaches here and a small town with lots of restaurants and tourist shopping. It's by far the cleanest city we've seen in Mexico, and somewhere I'd definitely recommend for folks wanting a lovely getaway to warm weather and warm water.
And if you happen to be an investor with $30 million US dollars to spare you might want to know that they're trying to sell off the marina which is currently government owned. They're hoping to find someone who can develop the area around it with more facilities for the boaters and make it more of a destination for the yachties and not just an in transit stopover.
When we arrive in El Salvador we're going into Bahia Jaltepeque where the Hotel del Sol resort welcoms cruisers. It's the worst bar crossing in Central America, so we have to time our arrival with a high incoming tide and wait until it's calm enough to get safely inside. The hotel sends a panga out to guide you through the channel. If the waves are breaking too hard to get in there is an area we can anchor and wait a day or two for a safe crossing. But it's a great place to leave Rob and the boat while I come back to the states to take care of my sister after some surgery. He'll have full use of the resort including the pool and facilities for a very reasonable fee.
Today on Yohelah we're preparing the boat for what hopefully is a very calm and boring crossing of the Tehuantepec. Then I can quit worrying about this one and enjoy the year in Central America......
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Quick update from Zihuatanejo. Yesterday we got to go see the school that the funds earned at SailFest last year helped build. Unfortunately it's Easter week so there were no kids in attendance, but it was really quite incredible to see the result of all our hard work last year. There are some pix posted in the Southbound 2008 album in Gallery. We'll be leaving for Huatulco in the morning.
Today on Yohelah we're kind of restless and ready to go.......
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
We're on anchor in Las Hadas this morning getting ready to head south. Our trip from La Paz to Tenicatita was not as uneventful as we prefer and got interrupted by a stop in La Cruz (near Puerto Vallarta) to do some repairs to the boat. We've been fortunate that all the hard work we did in Seattle and Port Townsend has paid off and we've had few mechanical issues to deal with so far. But on the way out of La Paz we first discovered that our hydraulic vang had leaking seals when I found hydraulic fluid on the decks while dousing the sails at Las Frailes. Then on our second day of passage out of Frailes I was trying to unfurl the jib early in the morning while Rob was sleeping and discovered the spinnaker halyard wrapped around the swivel at the top. Rats. Later that day as dark was approaching and the wind had died we decided to speed up the engine and try to push for Tenicatita the next day and discovered low oil pressure in the engine. Double rats. No headsails and a questionable engine. Hmmm - time for a stopover.
Luckily with the help of our mechanic in Seattle Rob discovered the oil pressure was just a bent sender from his oil change before we left La Paz. One problem fixed. Then with a trip aloft we had the spin halyard back in place and second problem fixed. On our way again. Only to discover that the roller furling still didn't roll out. In Barra we pulled down the sail and found a broken spring clip which with the help of our rigger in Port Townsend we discovered will get us to El Salvador and we can get fixed in April when I come home.
So then it was time for a big PSCC (Puget Sound Cruising Club) outstation meeting. Tim & Cindy were in Barra with us and hosted Steve & Elsie from Osprey (who we house sat for last summer). Rob & I hosted Mike & Nita from Odessa (another Baba 40 in Seattle). Also in Barra were Patty & Frosty from Angelfish for a couple of days, Roger & Karen from Meridien, and Jake & Sharon from Jake. Quite the gathering of Northwest sailors. We spent a week sharing the Gold Coast with our friends from the chilly Northwest, then put them all on a plane yesterday.
Friday at 4:00 am we'll leave for Zihuatanejo, where we should arrive mid day on Sunday. We'll spend a couple of days, then make a passage down to Huatulco, which is our last stop in Mexico. We've had a lovely time in Mexico and the Mexican people couldn't be nicer, but it's time to move on. We're sad to be saying goodbye to friends we likely won't see again, but are both looking forward to some new adventures. I'm going to come back to Seattle in April to help my sis after some surgery, then Rob & I will go to Guatemala for some Spanish immersion and to explore Mayan ruins. After that we'll cruise Central America and take an inland trip to Peru with our niece while it's too hot to stay on the boat over the summer.
Today on Yohelah we're relaxing and readying for a 1,000 mile jaunt south to El Salvador......
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Well it's February now and we're still in La Paz. But the good news is we're getting ready to head south soon. Last week Rob finished up at WaMu and flew into San Diego where our new vacuum panels for our refrigeration were waiting for us. I flew up and met him and we rented a car in Tijuana to drive across the border and down to La Paz. We have worried for months about how to get the new vacuum panels here without the customs folks wanting to "open" and inspect them. We had asked everyone we know for advice and finally had come up with what we thought was the best plan.
We had been told that the border crossing at Tecate, about 25 miles east of Tijuana, was the "easiest" to cross. We had also been told that if you use the "something to declare" line and go in and pay duty on a couple of cases of wine they won't bother searching the car to see what else you had with you. Knowing that neither of those ideas were going to work 100% of the time, but believing they constituted a plan, we set off for Tecate with 2 cases of wine and our vacuum panels in the back seat of the Mexican rental car.
As we approached the Tecate border crossing we discovered there was no "somthing to declare" lane. Only two lanes saying "nothing to declare" and the always present in Mexico pass or stop green-light/red-light. With no other choice we drove through and got the green light. OK good, but we also needed to get Visas. So we pulled into the inpsection lane where the customs officers were chatting and rolled down the window to ask about Visas. There we were with 2 cases of wine and us knowing we had intended to pay duty but no way to do it, and they couldn't have cared less. After getting instructions from the officers we parked the car, got our visas, and were on our way!
We spent the next two and a half days driving down the beautiful Baja peninsula. The drive was both spectucular and terrifying at the same time. The speed limit is 50 mph but everyone, including the semis, go at least 70. For much of the highway they built the road exactly the width of the white lines, with not an inch of shoulder on either side. Where they had actually put in guard rails they were usually destroyed at the mid point of the curve. The Mexicans use topos (speed bumps) liberally to slow down traffic, and they are present at the outskirts of every little town along the way. Between the cows wandering in the roads and not knowing which vados were full of water from the rains, there was never a dull moment along the way.
But we're home now safe and sound and ready to get on our way. Leslie was down for a visit the week before Rob got here and we had some most excellent sister time together. This weekend is our birthday weekend and Rob's celebrating his big 50. Tomorrow we haul out and put a new bottom on the boat, then provision and head for the Gold Coast. Mike & Nita from Seattle are coming down to join us for a week there, then we'll jet for Huatulco at the southern end of Mexico and wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec into Central America (more on that later).
Today on Yohelah we're celebrating Rob's birthday and trying to find somewhere to store two cases of wine.....
| 2007 |
