Sailing Endurance

A photo collage

2011-05-13T17:19:00.000-07:00

Thank You!

2011-02-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Before I loose my audience, I wanted to thank people who one way or another helped us accomplish our goal:

Karen and Earl Wilson, they managed to keep our mail in order, acted on our behalf for all the tedious tasks while we were out playing and kept me motivated to keep writing by offering constant feedback on the Blog posts. Karen also help me with my editing for the Articles I wrote for the local newspaper. It sure needed it!!

Sharlene Peters, she was my number one fan and supporter. She encouraged me to write and to publish. She would constantly supply me with useful advice on different topics; motherhood, writing, editing and photography. She had faith in me.

Richard and Melissa Chellemi, they open up their home in Costa Rica, modified theirs schedules and went all out for us. They took care of Matt when he was sick and fed us the most delicious Tuna I have ever tried!

John and Ginny Shasky they helped me edit the latest article for The Tubac Villager and John took the family pictures on board Endurance that I used for articles, web, blog and boat card.

Our family, friends and people I never met for writing to me with feedback on our blog, with encouragement and generous words of admiration; Nancy Bohman, Celeste Wisdom, Matt Dienes, Tod Harrison, to name a few.

The Tubac Villager for letting me share our experience with the community.

My Blog follower, you made it fun and challenging for me to write about our trip.

Our friends who put together the farewell party before we departed, they gave us the Kindle book that, at times, it was my only connection to the rest of the world.

Our Cruiser friends, for making our experience so much richer, for helping me endure the difficult times by being around, by sharing their frustrations, happiness, water toys and their wine…

My kids, for putting up with our gipsy life, they adjusted easily to the discomforts of a moving home, the lack of friends, the luck of THINGS, they followed safety instructions, they made this adventure so worthwhile.

My Husband who made it all possible, he planned it, he pushed for it, he made it happen, he took us safely away and brought us safely back.

My mother who made me feel safe and looked after from Heaven.

God for providing us with life, health, will, resources, Nature and all the people above!

A view from land

2011-01-13T23:29:00.000-08:00

It has been a few weeks already. I want to hold on to all my memories tight, but the force of time and the need to move forward weaken my ability to grasp them. Places, people, sights, it all begins to fade into one flat vision. It’s “just something we did”. I know pretty soon people won’t ask much, I will have to bite my tongue not to brag about how brave, how lucky, and how strong we were. I will have to wait for opportunities to bring some remembrances to life and heavens forbid, I may even have to make the storms bigger and multiply the amount and sizes of the sharks we saw

Re-immersion into the “traditional” “old” “natural” “typical” “common” or however we call this lifestyle is like jumping into a running treadmill, no one stops it for us, we just have to jump in and keep running, no time to look back, no time to look down we can only hope it will slow down or we will get more in shape. There was a house to put back together, there were utilities to set up and there were festivities to plan; Samantha’s Birthday and Christmas.

It was nice to be back for the holidays, but I was not prepared for the chaos at the stores, physically and emotionally was a painful experience; crowded, messy, long lines, simply overwhelming. On the other hand, how nice it was to be “home” that morning after Christmas; the cold day, the tree lights twinkling to the music, the rug on the floor, the girls in their cozy robes, the smell of cinnamon rolls in the oven and the freshly grounded coffee brewing. It was a traditional Christmas setting, no adjustments were necessary, no swimming or sliding down the mast for Santa.

The Tubac Villager Article

2010-12-21T22:27:00.000-08:00

The Tubac Villager is the local newspaper who published this in August while we were still adventuring in Central America and our plans were to cross to the Atlantic Ocean.

So many times we heard the saying “there is no better time than now”. My husband; Matt Beemer, my daughters; Samantha and Trinidad, and I took it seriously. Confronting all the fears and anxieties we jumped into a long-time dream; the dream to go sailing.

A weak economy and the age of our two little girls; Samantha 7 and Trinidad 5, is what it took for us to set sail. Finding the boat was a challenge, a very intense and emotional search, after all this was going to be our “new home”. We found the right boat in California; a Morgan 38 sailboat, equipped with some important gear and spacious enough to accommodate all of us with no real danger of suffocating each other.

On November the 10^th, 2009,all of the contents of our home in Tubac, AZ were reduced to a pick up truck full of our most necessary belongings and things we couldn’t detach ourselves from, such as “Purple Baby” (Trinidad’s doll), “Beeni” (Samantha’s stuffed animal) and those that seemed important at that time, but later got in the way. We prepared for a month living aboard our new home; s/v “Endurance”, before leaving the safety and the comforts of a San Diego dock. On December 16^th I woke up to the sunrise on Mexican waters. Matt, our captain, had taken the most difficult step of the adventure; he untied the lines!.

In the past six months we have sailed the entire Pacific coast of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and now Costa Rica. The adventure over all has been beyond our expectations.

We have seen nature at its best; incredible colors in the sky, full moon, sunrises and sunsets, the perfect combination of sand, palm trees and cobalt blue or turquoise green water, the amazing rock formations sculpted by wind, water and sometimes volcanic activity, the intimidating movements of the ocean, the beaches that glow at low tides, the mangroves that lure us into exploring, the spray of the break as the waves smash onto the rocks, the endless shades and sounds of the jungle and best of all, the sea life. Nothing could ever compare to the excitement of the girls when a school of dolphins come to play around the boat or when the whale blows, breaches or slaps its tale, or when a booby bird observes the world go by in the middle of the sea while resting on a turtle’s back. Nothing compares to the emotion of seeing a light show presented by the interaction of dolphins and bio luminescence at night or the girls’ giggles of seeing these microorganisms find their way into the bathroom and revealing themselves at the moment of flushing.

We have met people at their best; cruising families, couples, single handlers or groups of friends all looking to fulfill a dream, to test their endurance, to live differently. We are all eager to share our experiences, to help each other and naturally to enjoy a margarita during sunset. We have met the locals who with the little they have, opened up their doors, shared their food, toys and time to assist us.

We have been socially and culturally immersed with the people; their traditions and lifestyle. We have learned about their food; “tostilocos”, “mangos con chile”, “tacos de camaron en rajas” in Mexico, “Papusas” in el Salvador, “Patacones”, “Casados” and “Gallo Pinto” in Costa Rica. Just to name a few. We have learned about their art, their dances, their ways to meet basic life demands; transportation, health, shelter, hygiene, work and education. I will never forget the impression on the girls’ faces when we had to fill a bucket with water to flush a toilet in Mexico, or Samantha’s, excitement when she was invited, along with Matt, by a local fisherman to go and lift the fishing nets at 6 in the morning or when she went around the tables of a restaurant selling mangoes or when Trinidad wanted to know how to say “May I have a tour of the house” in Spanish while visiting local children who lived in a house with dirt floor and tin walls. Experiences like these make me think that they will never take for granted the “luxuries” we have at home.

As much as I would like to pretend it’s all wonderful, as wonderful and easy as we planned, it is not. The sweet flavor of the adventure lasts until we are confronted with fear; fear of not having the money, fear of being isolated, fear of loosing our good health and, most importantly, the fear of death. We have been tested by the weather, by the tight spaces, by the solitude, by the inconveniences of unorganized and/or corrupted nations, by nature, by rough living, by mechanics, by technology, by our own bodies. Yes we have been tested.

One moment of great concern was the night when Matt asked me to make sure our ditch bag was in place. It was night time, I remember well the motion of the ocean, I could see the shapes of the waves over Matt’s head and the speed we would reach while surfing down these enormous waves. I quickly prepared the bag with our survival items including chocolate and peanuts for a sweet distraction to disaster. However, I had plenty of confidence in Matt’s ability to maneuver wisely and faith that it was just not “our time”. Another one was the time we had to return to Mexico because there was water coming into the bilge.. ALARMS!! This could potentially put the boat under water or the time in Acapulco when we found that our dinghy (inflatable boat) was gone. Horrible feeling!. We did find it with the help of a marina employee, but had to pay a “rescue fee”, or the time when we were warned of a possible tsunami wave coming our way after the earthquake in Chile or the time Matt had to be hospitalized as a result of complications with parasites. The worst moments of all have been the times we have had to say goodbye to friends to follow our own journey.

There are plenty of challenges in this lifestyle; not only having to deal with contingencies, such as weather, illnesses, unforeseen expenses etc., but those we assumed the moment we decided to buy a boat to travel overseas; space, provisioning, water, bathroom and sleeping arrangements.

Regarding space, it did not bother me to reduce a large walk-in closet to just a cubby, but it does bother me that at the moment of cooking I must move all the ingredients to side B to get a bowl from under side A and then back to A to get the butter from under B. The moment of real frustration comes when I realize I forgot something from side A.

Provisioning is always fun; fun to see what we can find at the local stores. All essentials are easily available; sugar, coffee, eggs, milk, flour with or without weevils, the difficulty is not finding food, but getting it into the boat while at anchorage. We must load the dinghy, push it through the break and jump in without getting the groceries or the kids too wet (they hate that) and without flipping the dinghy over the break (they hate that worse).

Making the water last is critical; “Endurance” can hold 100 gallons that must last from one port to the next one with potable water, not as easy as it sounds. Most typically, we ended up buying bottled water to refill the tanks. The rationalization of the use of the water can be difficult, but we have managed to conserve it by brushing our teeth without leaving the water running, by not using the shower as a SPA, in fact, we have learned to wash in salt water and spray a little fresh afterward, same procedure for washing clothes and dishes. In some instances we were unable to use the bay water due to its questionable cleanliness so we had to use only fresh or look for showers elsewhere.

As far as the bathroom goes, I look forward to being able to flush a toilet with the minimal motion. Most marine toilets consist of a handle that must be pumped up and down at least 20 times to flush. It is a real work out! Plus there is always the issue that if someone leaves a valve open the boat would sink. I have walked into the bathroom (AKA “head”) and have been surprised by the “splash” my foot makes as I step into it. Oops!

The sleeping arrangements in our boat are disarrangements. We rotate beds according to weather conditions or who is on watch. No matter where we sleep, it is always uncomfortable to have to hold on while asleep when the seas are rough and the boat slams the waves or rolls furiously from side to side. On the other hand, nothing compares to the cradle motion when the seas are calm.

Most people have asked me about schooling for the girls; Samantha was in first grade when we left and Trinidad was not in school yet. I made sure I had enough material to continue a somewhat “formal education”. I purchased a few curricula on math, plus Samantha’s school gave me the books she was working with when we left. We finished 1^st grade and are currently working on 2^nd. Trinidad is working on kindergarten activities and she loves it as long as we don’t do “school”. We combine the book work with art, reading, practical life and first hand experiences in geography, history, language and natural science to hopefully, educate them well.

Our plans for the next few months are to explore the Pacific coast of Panama, go through the Panama Canal, and sail the Caribbean side all the way North to reach the coast of Texas. However, our plans tend to change with the weather and the circumstances. It’s all part of the adventure in which we decided to take part.

As I have written before in our website, we may experience fear and trepidations, but there is no worse than the one of not living our dreams. I feel extremely blessed to be here and grateful to all those who encourage and support us one way or another.

If you would like to follow our journey visit us in www.sailingendurance.blogspot.com

Crossing the US-Mexico Border

2010-12-12T21:12:00.000-08:00

On Friday the 10th at 7:05 PM, we were presenting our documentation to the immigration officer at the US-Mexico border. I wanted so bad to tell this nice man in uniform about my feelings of pride with a statement like “we just did the craziest thing in the world”, but I knew it would not be taken the way I meant it. Instead, we limited ourselves to answer his questions with a very casual look on our faces. No big deal! We are coming from Mexico and we are heading home!

After a short stop for dinner we drove to my mother-in-law's house; Karen Wilson where she and her husband Earl Wilson have been waiting for us for a while. The girls run to their arms. Their happiness was contagious. We sat and chatted for a while before going to bed with a glass of wine on our hands in a cozy and comfortable sofa. So cozy and comfortable it was that we have extended our stay at their house a few days giving us the chance to visit, go over paperwork delegated to Karen prior of our departure and that she is happy to hand back to us and given the girls the chance to receive a well deserved (or needed) SPA treatment.

Thank you Karen and Earl for the hospitality!!

Packing the leftovers of a voyage

2010-12-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

We are at our final destination, no more provisioning, no more radio calls, no more route plotting, no more fear of storms, no more anticipation to see who we’ll meet at our next anchorage. Endurance is stripping its sails, the deck is clear of all obstacles; no liferaft, no dinghy, no water jugs, no kayaks, no snorkeling gear, no shells drying, no flip flops left behind, the covers are empty just barely a left over coffee, a pineapple, a beer in the fridge. Our friends are all gone, some went south and some went home. We had just finished packing the leftovers of a voyage, she is coming out of the water and we will let her rest for a while.

She looks beautiful, she gave herself life by taken us as far as Panama and back, by delivering us safely to every port, by surviving every storm, swell, currents and the hits and bumps of floating logs, by sailing smooth through pods of dolphins, breaching whales and floating turtles, by looking always gallant as we moved forward. She gave herself life by being our home and by her ENDURANCE.

It will be 7 hours before we cross the border and make just a memory of the most amazing experience of our life.

I refuse to hurt the dentist feelings!

2010-12-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

A visit to the dentist was never my favorite activity. I was traumatized as a kid; the pain, the sounds, the smell, the tools and, worse of all, the constant threat of taking my candies away. They were all the perfect combination for the most terrifying nightmare. As I got older and dentists became more sensitive to the comfort of their patients, I must admit, there were times when I look forward to sitting in that reclining leather chair with the soft tunes in the background, no matter how hard they drilled into my teeth I felt relaxed especially because I had a nice break from tending to the needs of my adorable family. Unfortunately, yesterday my dentist experience took me back to the years of terror and this time I did not have my mother holding my hand as I used to.

A few blocks away from the marina was his office, the dentist’s office. I met him a couple of days ago when he checked the kids in the hallway to his office, he seemed nice, his prices were reasonable and I was not too concern about the quality of his service, I just needed a cleaning. For US$20, why not?... well, after my experience today, I have many reasons as to “why not?”; possible attacks, torture with pain, exposure to 100 different kinds of germs, possible breaking of the teeth or ripping of the gums and certainly, the doubt of “are my teeth clean now?”

I walked to his office at the end of the dark alley, open the door, hoping to find a room full a patients and a secretary holding the sing up sheets and offering a seat. Instead, I found him with his head down, his arms crossed and the signs of active dreaming. It was a few seconds until I startle him and realized it was too late for me to leave. The room was quite, bold and dark. No much in there to keep anyone awake and no one there to make me feel more comfortable with my decision to visit ”any” dentist.

He was so happy to see me, as if I was the first or only patient in a while, he thanked me for coming back and invited me into the examination room where I found the old leather chair with the crusty stand for the tools. They looked sterilized. He made me open my mouth, placed the mirror and the probe and started to dig into my gums. “Nice, nice… very nice” he says. (I would never expect those words from a dentist). As he cleans he talks to me in his broken English despite knowing that I am a native Spanish speaker and that it would be impossible for me to reply with tools in my mouth. I did manage to smile for a while, until I told him my gum was sensitive and he dug deeper, I repeated it and so did he; he dug even deeper. I realized it was better to forget about sensitive gums and let him finish quick. I needed to run out; especially after I let my brain dragged me into the deepest paranoia. It was only me and the dentist, in a room inside the room, all doors were closed, I was buried in a leather chair with sharp poky tools, I was vulnerable!

The final step of the cleaning was the polishing; he walked a few steps to the back shelf, grabbed a white jar of paste and scrapped the corners of it with a little brush that connected to a drill. He placed the brush onto my teeth and realized it didn’t work, therefore he must finish the job manually, by moving the brush up and down hard, hoping I wouldn’t notice.

“Beautiful!” he says, I stand quickly and paid the bill. “Please bring your kids and your husband!”… mmm “Ok” “I will see”, I said “Never” I thought.

Although I wanted to run from the moment I stepped into that office my heart fell sorry for the man, I trusted my fate.

Good bye to good friends!

2010-12-09T00:25:00.000-08:00

Our friends from Ceilydh hoisted anchored in the morning and sailed down to La Paz.

I am grateful to them for making our time in Guaymas so memorable. Samantha got to celebrated her 8th birthday on board their boat which included another sleepover, a tasty cake, games and fireworks.

Thank you for the fun, the good talk, the good plays, good meals and of course, the projects.

The grass looks greener from here; Mexico is a good place!

2010-12-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

The media is scaring my family, they tell me to please exit Mexico as soon as possible, they try to warn us about the violence, but the truth is that not only I feel safe, but I am very comfortable! In the whole time I have been in the country and of all the places I have visited, I have never felt slightly threaten and never seen signs of a possible conflict.

I know the number of people that have been killed this year is more than 20K, which is about 20 times the population of the town where we live. It sounds atrocious!! But proportionally, how big is this? How this percentage does compares to cities in the US? Canada? Chile? England? Japan? China? I don’t know. Does anyone wonder? I am not going to doubt the numbers given, or the potential dangers, but out of 100,000 people 11 died due to drug related violence in opposition to, for example, El Salvador or Honduras where more than 50 people die for every 100,000.

Mexico in general has been a wonderful experience, from a cruiser’s point of view it is amazing; beautiful bays, nice anchorages, good medical, inexpensive provisioning, delicious food and very refreshing drinks!!! I still consider Mexico a safe place to wander.

There are sad sights to experience such as the lady in a wheel chair selling "chicle" for $1 peso, the 4 year old kids selling lady bugs with bobbling heads, mentally disturbed people walking the streets, animals in precarious state with no owners. There are, also, annoying situations such as; the merchant who when foreigners approach, inflation hits, or the lack of regulation on the acoustics of every event. Did I mention that there are events almost very day in Guaymas?

The Pearl Farm

2010-12-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

If the royal families have enjoy the pearls why wouldn’t I? They are simply outstanding!

Knowing the stories behind them, the growing process and the demand for them make the “black pearls of the Vermilion Sea” extremely appealing, but… slap, slap! The price tags say $2000 or more.. pesos?.. No, dollars.. ouch!

History tells that pearls of the Sea were found on the graves of Aztec emperors. Also, that merchants and pirates would trade all valuables they had for some of these pearls. They were in such a high demand that the Spaniards created pearl fisheries in the continent. After exploding the resource for years and some political issues the oyster was not longer easily found and therefore… no pearls for the girls!

Today the “Rainbow lipped Oyster” is grown in aquaculture in Bacochibambo Bay in Guaymas, Sonora. The process is fascinating and the results are… well… beautiful. The girls and I enjoyed visiting the farm, dreaming about pearls and a nice cup of coffee with one of the partners.

Visit to the Tianguis

2010-12-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning we all headed towards the neighbor city of Empalme to go shopping for good deals to take back to where they came from. Isn’t it ironic? For $10 pesos (less than a dollar) we could have a new piece for our wardrobe (or, if lucky, our old wardrobe).. aah! The life of a cruiser!! It was fun digging through the piles of clothing to find a piece of Patagonia, Gap, Express or simply a no brand item. But better than clothing was the search for the most unusual display or item.

My special find were the sparkled red, platform shoes with the carving knife beside them. “Le femme fatal en rouge”

The town of Empalme was another surprise. We have been there once before and I got a completely different perspective of it. My friend analyses my improvement on the way I see the cities concludes that after traveling, my standards have lowered, my expectations have lowered. What a great accomplishment that is! I can see beauty easier and enjoy more with less, which was the idea… right?

Our day continued with fish tacos in “El Pescadito”, they were delicious and generous in size, then a “paleta” (popsicle) down the block and rides at the local park. The kids enjoyed the challenges of a broken monkey bar and a burning hot slide.

A new word for a new day

2010-12-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

“T-i-a-n-g-u-i-s…” “what?, spell it again!” I asked Diane, “T-i-a….” At that point I was completely lost. I had never heard of it, so I assumed she was trying to spell something different, I had to google the term and there it was a brand new word.

Tianguis is the term given to an open market in Mexico and Central America. The origen of the word is from the Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. It means “day market” or “harvest”. As we know it, a farmer’s market. Although, not much of a farm is brought to this place any more. Most of it comes from garage sales and thrift stores from across the border and what is new, comes from the so productive country of China.

Guaymas

2010-12-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

I had been in Guaymas before, but never by boat. It is a nicer experience this way. The bay is beautiful and the marina is conveniently located in the center of town.

As I am walking into town to find a good place to provision I find myself surprised as I see its beautiful architecture; magnificent churches, nice plazas, sculptures, monuments and commerce. This town has more history than I had expected and more attractions than I have been told.

There are two plazas; one is called 13 de Julio, nicknamed “Plaza de los Flojos” (the lazy people’s plaza) with enough benches for a good number of “siesta-takers”, or at “non-siesta” time for a good number of couples to express their love to each other despite the existence of a pretty notorious church; "San Fernando". There is a kiosk in the middle, currently being repaired, a monument to General Jose Maria Yanes who fought the French with success and apparently there is a man who for the last 55 years has been selling home made ice-cream, but we have not yet seen him. The second plaza is “Plaza de los Presidentes” There are 3 statues of 3 presidents who were from Guaymas or its surroundings; Plutarco Elias Calles, Adolfo de la Huerta and Abelardo Rodriguez.

Then, there is the Malecon (a wide sidewalk by the water). It is really fun to walk, specially at dusk. The food vendors set their friers to mass produce “churros” (sweet fried dough in a stick shape, covered in sugar and cinnamon), they lay out the bags with Tostitos for making mixes with corn or beef or veggies, or you name it, they all have names accordingly; “tostilocos” “tostielotes” “tostisapos” ok, not this last one, they light up their fires to prepare “carne asada” tacos, the set their jars with “aguas frescas” (Juices of Jamaica, Horchata or Cebada). If one happens to indulge too much with food, no worries, every other day, a Zumba class is given to all public; from the very young to the very old, from the very skinny to the very fat, from the very gracious, to the very stiffed, from the very coordinated to the very lost. I must say that no matter what shape this Latin women are, they sure can move and have fun!

On a more personal level, I am very pleased to be here because of the people we have met in particular the crew from Ceilydth; Evan, Diane and Maia. Like glue, the kids have become inseparable. The count is already 2 sleepovers in their credit. Diane has been a good inspiration to me, she is a successful travel writer who not only has shared some insights of the trade, but has also entertained me with fun and well research stories. They all have been a lot fun to follow around!! They have introduced us to many of the places they know, such as “Pancho Villa” where we celebrated Diane’s Birthday with refreshing margaritas, the “Tiaguis” (flea market) in Empalme, and the Pearl Farm.

Matt catches a ride to the US

2010-12-03T10:01:00.001-08:00

I am excited for Matt, in just a few minutes, he will get picked up by Barry and Sue from Wind Glider (Our buddy boat in the Rosalia- San Carlos crossing). and taken home. They were extremely kind to modify their route back to Colorado to drop him off in Tubac, AZ. It has been more than a year since we left our home, family and friends and in just a few hours he was going to be there! I wished for seconds I was in his place, although, I am really enjoying Guaymas. He will be there just a few days, he will unload all the stuff we left on the back of the truck the day we got on board, drive it empty back to Guaymas and fill it up again. I wish we could just step in and out with what we are wearing (or with out it), and start all new, but we get so emotionally attached to those cute drawings the girls did for me or dad or the books we have read over and over or the shorts that have stains and holes, but fit us so well. So we are moving back with them!

Matt is back with our car, it took him only 3 days to perform the operation, not bad! What a weird feeling it is to have an available car. We were used to catching bus rides, dinghy rides, walking and figuring out how to get from here to there and back and how to carry 20 grocery bags on our backpacks and hands. Now it is all so easy again.

Thanksgiving; a borrowed holiday

2010-12-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

Being a Chilean citizen, Thanksgiving has no emotional meaning for me as much as it has for my husband. I understand the significance, I enjoy the celebration and I want my girls to make it theirs, I was happy to know there was a potluck organized at the Marina by some cruisers this day, we just needed to make a dish; carrot raisin salad was my choice. The feast was extremely successful. Mexican families and American cruisers conformed the crowd, but the food was authentic American cuisine; Turkey, Ham, Pies, stuffing, cranberries in different styles, apples and nut, salads, matched and scalloped potatoes, etc., etc. It was a good feast, there was no need to fight the first spot in the line to fill a plate and there was plenty for seconds. I love how the cruising community organizes.

Guaymas, our final destination

2010-12-03T09:57:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving day was the day we have picked to move from San Carlos to Guaymas, despite the warnings of strong winds blowing from the north 20 knots or higher. As we are moving along and the wind had not yet picked up, I am thinking “yeah! We got away with it” We made it pretty close to Guaymas before encountering high gusts of wind and swell, but at that point we felt pretty safe.

We entered the bay, got a slip in the Marina Fonatur and met Evan from Ceilyth at the dock. He helped us with the lines and made the girls’ day when he mention a 9 year old daughter on board his boat; Maia. We met her and Mom, Diane, at the thanksgiving potluck that afternoon.

Where are our jackets, hats and scarves!!

2010-12-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

It’s cold and windy here in Sonora, I should hate it, but after a year in the sun, dripping foreheads, sticky and always pushing away from each other, it feels GOOD! It is cozy and inviting. Now in which hole did all our winter clothing go? It’s all mildew! It stinks, despite all the “ziplocking” I did! The problem is quickly solved with a wash and a heavy rinse in Soft. Now we are all set!

Crossing the Sea

2010-11-28T09:32:00.000-08:00

There are strong winds coming from the North Thanksgiving day, we must leave either Tuesday or Wednesday, that is when we met Barry and Sue on Wave glider who were preparing to cross. It is somewhat comfortable sailing with the knowledge that someone else is experiencing the same seas as we are and that if there is an emergency they could witness it and maybe offer help and vice versa.

Tuesday 3 AM both vessels are doing the crossing which was bumpy at first, long and with more heeling than I desired, but, oh well, after a few hours we are used to its awkwardness. Not too many times one gets to cook in a 45 degree angle and that uniqueness factor I secretly looove!

We were doing our last long passage of this voyage and I wondered how I could write about such a meaningful step, we are moving East, our home is actually getting closer not further away, we are sadly closing episodes of a rich and aggressive adventure. Sadly because it was overall amazing and truly sad because when we started we had a year to look forward to new places, new cultures, new foods, sun, water, beaches, palm trees and money to spend and now we are looking at finding work and broke…haha. Not really, we are sooo blessed, we have friends and family we look forward to see, we have a good place to live in, we enjoy the work we do and look forward to it and we feel richest than ever!

Red Tide

2010-11-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

I was thinking that most of the learning was over, but nature managed to throw us a new subject to explore; RED TIDE. What an amazing phenomenon! It is almost unreal. Like arteries, spreading and interconnecting, moving fast to have the whole harbor covered in red. I expected to see dead fish on shore, but no. Apparently the red tide not always is a maligned event, it all depends on the kind of algae that multiplies and the amount of it. Sometime it could get to such extent that it will kill fish, shellfish and all it could make breathing for human difficult. Ok! But today, that it is not the case and we all, including seagulls, fish and shellfish have survived.

Santa Rosalia

2010-11-26T14:33:00.000-08:00

We recognized a couple of boats as we entered the harbor. I called one of them to announce our arrival, not expecting a big cheer, but with the intention to get some information on services around the town; laundry, stores and internet. That is when I met Meri from Hot Spur who came up to my rescue with the info I needed.

Marinas

There are two, one belongs to Fonatur (government run). It is a modern, new facility and the other is Marina Santa Rosalia, smaller, older docks, run down, but with lots of character given by the people who hangs out in there, the cruisers that come and go and the old building that serves as the club house also known as “The Palapa of knowledge” It was in this marina that we would tide our dinghy to every day to join the crowd at the palapa, do our internet, our showers and to access the town. We met wonderful people, interesting characters, we enjoyed so much being there, it was hard to cut those roots we started growing there.

The Anchorage

It was tight, it took us a long time to find the right spot for Endurance and even then we were forced to move not once, but 4 times; we were too close to other boats, the mine was bringing a large barge and the needed room to move and the last time we have dragged. After all these incidents we felt we deserved tying to the marina dock for a night. Lovely! There is nothing like having abundant amount of power, water, internet access and easy access to solid ground.

The Town

One block to the left and the up is the main street with a plaza, restaurants, pharmacy, Pepe’s Tacos, La Michoacana, The Famous Bakery, The Famous bacon wrapped hotdogs, the clothing store, the other clothing store, the other and the other and the other, the shoe store, the bank, the museum, the movie theater ($3 adults, $1 children.. what a deal!) the fabric store and the bead store (our two favorites),so on.. everything you ask for you will find. The streets are narrow, the buildings are old, but well care for, cute! There is definitely a style, supposedly French. In the early 1900 they developed a great part of the town as they came to run the mine operation. Even Eiffel had his hands in the town designing the church. The future of the town looks promising as the mine has reactivated its operations, maybe we should stay…or maybe not!

The small world this is

We were highly recommended the tacos at “Tacos Poblano” for $14 pesos a taco you get the most amazing “carne asadas” or “al pastor” tacos you will ever have! I could only compare them with the ones we got at the beginning of our trip in Turtle Bay. So similar in falvor, so similar in size, so similar in the level of satisfaction one gets and so similar operation; a mom and her sons. It was so similar that it must have been the same, sure enough, business was not good in Turtle Bay so 4 months ago they decided to move their stand to Santa Rosalia. Life is good to us, it gives us second chances to enjoy these exquisite pleasures! More coincidental than this was that when we were eating our Tacos, this man sitting at a table next to us with his family, asked us if we, by any chance, where in a sailboat? and if we were anchored in Turtle Bay a year ago? Trinidad and Samantha played with his niece at the beach then. What are the odds? Running into the same people who we have barely met and with a tight margin of space from missing each other? What are the odd that they see us in the way in and now in the way out? I entertain the idea that there are more reasons to it? I entertain the idea that we do see people more than once, we just don’t realize it. So here is the moral to the story “smile at everyone, we never know when they will cross our path again” in the same token “look your best”, “don’t say good bye” and “pay your debts”…hehe

Punta Chivato

2010-11-26T11:15:00.000-08:00

The morning was calm, it was a beautiful day to head towards to Punta Chivato a point in between Bahia Concepcion and Santa Rosalia. We were encouraged to stop here to collect shells. It is outstanding, not so much for the variety, but for the amount of them and the type that are not easy to find elsewhere. We spent the afternoon filling plastic bags with these natural souvenirs and checking out some million dollar homes built along the shore. Some of which have been abandoned in the construction phase..

What a waste! All that labor all that material, ALL THAT VIEW!

Bahia Concepcion and Mulegé

2010-11-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

We made it safe after our 3rd attempt to pass Pulpito. It was a 7 hour sail with no where to stop in between, if the weather got bad again the options were to turn around or just put up with it in misery and fear. After about 3 hours we were already used to the “up and splat” motion, Matt regained the confidence and the ocean looked as if it was going to behave for us. We enter Bahia Concepcion with an incredible amount of relief and excitement to see all the new places.

Today is our 3rd day here, we anchored in Playa El Burro in front of Bertha’s Restaurant where we have found an amazing amount of hospitality and good food! The restaurant is run by Celia, a super friendly, warm and fun lady. She gave us a ride yesterday to the town of Mulegé and today she just lent us her car to go back to town and run important errands. We must be pretty trustworthy individuals! I guess it is one of the perks of traveling with children.

Mulegé is a very cute town, we really enjoyed walking its streets, the town matches our lifestyle; simple, Matt can picture himself and his house here. This town has a lot o character, old buildings, narrow streets, a stone block mission, a lighthouse, taco stands here and there, little markets, a friendly pharmacy, a bank, a bookstore, a little plaza and lots of tourism. Unfortunately, nature has made progress a hard concept. Mulegé had been hit by hurricanes three years in row, this last summer they got a break, but they are still recovering from such tremendous amount of damage. One can clearly see the path of destruction mainly by the river that runs through that carried away homes and its contents with no mercy. I can almost feel the hopeless emotions of the community seeing their beauty and any signs of growth flow down.

Our last day in Bahia Concepcion we moved to Santispac where we would be able to get more water, take a shower and go to their Saturday special night of ribs, DJ and dancing. We couldn’t get any water, the shower was horrible, didn’t make it to the ribs, but manage to dance a few songs. I believe we were the youngest in the crowd.

Leaving Juanico towards Santo Domingo

2010-11-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

Another fearful passage, 47 miles to go from one place to the other, 9 or 10 hours should be the most it would take us… or so we thought. A few minutes before 8 AM Matt is putting the dinghy on deck, I am hoisting the anchor, the sun is shining and there is a nice breeze that promises we would have a pleasant sail. The anchor is all the way out, I turned on the motor, circle a couple of times around our friend’s boat “Ulalena” saying goodbye. “Now we are leaving” I announced to them and I headed out of the bay. I had it all planned. Today was Matt’s Birthday and I have been saving a pack of bacon for this occasion, I was going to cook bacon and eggs for brunch and a plate of cereal to start the day. I got as far as the cereal. The swell was getting bigger, the wind was picking up, the white caps were making their way to us and pretty soon we were in the middle of chaos, river rafting would have been a more peaceful adventure for today. It was then that Matt made the wise decision to turn around and find refuge in “Punta Pulpito”. In spite of going South in the right direction with the wind, the sail was uncomfortable. Samantha had to put her face in a bucket a couple of times.

Usually it is best to stay in the cockpit with fresh air if one is seasick, but today I felt it was not safe, Matt needed to focus completely in steering the boat and I certainly didn’t want anyone washed away. We made a comfortable spot in the V-birth. I had Trini on one side and Sami on the other, the computer on my lap and karaoke software going. We sang our first song and Matt called me to give him a hand putting the main sail down. To put the main sail up or down, the boat has to be turned into the wind. I pushed the laptop forward, away from the girls and told them not to touch it until I came back. Matt turned the boat around, I yelled to the girls “hold on tight”!, bang, bang splash, horrible sounds and feeling as the boat seems to be out of control for a second. I felt my head spin, my legs turning jell-o and the panic from down bellow; both girls screaming from the top of their lungs. I knew what happened. I rushed down bellow and find both of them with their hairs flat down over their faces dripping water and sitting on a puddle. They were not hurt, just in shocked. Although, the hatch was closed it was not latched all the way and somehow a wave made its way in. I could almost “cartoonized” the moment in my mind.

The computer had water on top, I don’t know how much went in it and how long it will last, as I am typing I can feel the salt over the keys. As I write, I pray that if it will decease, it will happen slowly, giving me enough time to back up my photos. It is really a terrifying though!

Once we made it back to Pulpito, I took all our linens, clothing and mattress to dry, I looked at the bacon and the eggs and decided that they will taste much better tomorrow. I let dinner take place of brunch.

San Juanico

2010-11-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

After spending a night in Salinas we sailed to San Juanico. On the way there we were encountered with an incredible amount of dolphins. I have never seen a pod this big, hundreds of them going in circles, pushing their preys. I felt like in my best years of childhood jumping with excitement upon such a display.

Oh San Juanico! I could stay here for a while! It is a popular cruiser’s destination. It is well protected, the snorkeling is excellent and the hiking fun. Cruisers have built a shrine tree at the beach. Every vessel leaves a mark, some are very creative with theirs, and some may just leave a pair of shorts or a shoe. We made ours with aluminum pieces; abundant material among cruisers, it usually comes in a cylinder shape and its full of bitter, yeasty liquid. (beer cans). We found the shrine of our friends from Tenacious Grace.

I enjoyed so much my alone time here, kayaking in the reefs, being pushed gently over the rocks, taking pictures of the osprey’s nest, the star fish that was left uncovered when the tide went down. I could spend hours and hours just drifting, but it is not all floating and dreaming I also paddled and felt the muscles working,

In my way back to the boat I saw two new vessels coming into the bay, there is always hope it will be someone we know. Sure enough, vessel “Ulalena” with Scott, Terry and dog named Boson. We met them in the marina in San Diego before we left a year ago. The girls enjoyed very much babysitting Boson one morning and an evening having hotdogs with them by a bonfire at the beach. It was nice to see them! We also run into vessel “Just a Minute” Patrick, Laura and Jack; we met them in Tenacatita several moths ago. We spent a few hours here before they had to continue south.

Las Salinas, Isla Carmen

2010-11-18T16:48:00.000-08:00

Of all the ghost towns I have seen this is the best set up! Hehe.. It is very interesting abandoned salt mining operation. Today only parts of the original buildings are standing, it almost happens that closing your eyes will take you to the times when the company was making noise, the workers running around, some of them taking a siesta, some visiting the doctors office and others getting in the boats that would take them back home for the weekend burned by the almost criminal sun of June and their skin suffocated by the layers of salt. It must have been miserable. We walked all the way back to what remains of the salt flats, took a few pictures and run back. I felt overwhelmed by the desolation, dryness, the heat and the rusted metal, what is left of the old machinery.

Bye Savannah!

2010-11-18T16:46:00.001-08:00

Savannah’s anchor is up, Monica at the helm and Andy at the bow, Savannah is making her turn to head south. Matt hoisted the last 50 feet of anchor chain of Endurance, he secured it, I put the boat in gear, turned up the throttle. Endurance makes her turn to head north. It used to be a decision when we were going south, but today, as we are going north, is an obligation, we must go home. We separated with friends painfully not knowing if it was a forever goodbye or just a long time. Although I certainly hope we see them again, I find myself and my girls being emotionally better prepared for these moments. They were meant to come and go, we were meant to enjoy them and let them continue!... we were meant to have dinners at their boat, eat their fish, drink their wine…haha (Just kidding!)

Are we nuts?

2010-11-18T16:26:00.000-08:00

Most cruisers here in Escondido are preparing to go across to the main land and then south or across the Pacific, but not us, we are going the wrong way! Matt wonders what it would be to say “we are going across, we are going to do the Puddle Jump” (the name given to the crossing to the Marquesas) instead of “we are at the end of our voyage, we are heading home” At the same time we are challenged with the opinions that life on land is so much more expensive, that the economy and the way the US is going is so out of control, that there will be hardly no work, that the world is under stress. Life on board is easier, safer and wiser… really? It may be true, it may be not. I believe life balances between the positives and negatives wherever one chooses to live. Traveling is a wonderful thing, but I can’t say it is all bliss, I have had my tears of frustration, of fears and anger as much as laughs of joy, contentment and love; traveling as a family in a boat is amazing, it keeps us close together, but it is the same closeness that suffocates you at times. Visiting new places all the time is fascinating, but constantly moving is a tiring pastime. Not having to get up and work every morning is an enviable situation, but not having the money is limiting and dangerous too. No matter how we put things into consideration for whether to return or not, it is pointless. This is our time to rebuild… it all.

I know Matt and I have different feelings about this, but I am excited to be back home, a large kitchen to cook, a washing machine to keep a clean wardrobe, a shower to get into every morning, a birthday party to go to on weekends, a day of shopping for unessential things, a library day with the girls and so on. I am aware that all these things I can live without, but it’s sure nice to have. Living simple is a skill that I have not achive to master yet! On the other hand, I am sad to end this trip, naturally. It has been so rich in so many ways, especially because of all the people we have met. Would I do it again?

Puerto Escondido

2010-11-18T16:11:00.000-08:00

As we are making our ways into the mooring area we spotted a dinghy heading in opposite direction with our friend from Savannah. We met them at the beginning of our cruising life in San Diego. At that point Andy was a few months away from retiring as an underwater video/photographer for the Navy and Monica was about to call it good on her job too. They were going to go sailing several months after us, we were not expecting to see each other for at least 5 years, but.. oh well we changed our plans and now they see us end the trip as we see them start theirs.

There is no town in Escondido, just a marina and a hotel nearby were we will go swimming. There is a well organized Cruisers Club that meets in the marina every day. It seems like a good place to hang out. We stayed longer than expected, partly because of weather and partly because it was comfortable and the kids had other kids to play with.

The highlight of our stay in Escondido was the celebration of Halloween. A potluck and costume contest. Samantha dressed up as an Indian, Trinidad as a Gipsy and I as something like a beer girl from the Alps. We all won a prize and the girls had more candy than a parent should want their kids to have. It was a fun evening!

Agua Verde

2010-11-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

Ten days ago we agreed to meet our friend James here, communications are not an easy thing in this part of the planet, in this sort of lifestyle. Agreements are made in advance, plan Bs and Cs and Ds.. and Zs are elaborated in case of weather, rip sales, motor break down, lack of fishing, excess beer, amazing snorkeling, loosing track of time, days of the week etc. So, James who was currently working on his boat in Escondido was going to drive to meet us at the signal; either the satellite signal sent using the “Spot” (a device that sends a signal with our coordinates to a satellite and then this is placed onto our website) or a satellite phone call using the Iridium phone. After 2 trials with the phone and with the feeling that it was not going to work out, we heard the sweetest sound of the horn of a truck coming down the hill. There he was, our friend! “My little buddy” says Trini. So thoughtful, he showed up with Neapolitan ice cream, Nutella and cookies for the kids, all sorts of fruits and veggies, tortillas and beverages for us all. Thank you James!! We had a great time!

James spent one night with us, a full day the next day. We all had such a good time that it is hard to see him go, as always. He is gone in the afternoon, we will do the same the following morning!

I shower dispute

2010-11-16T12:33:00.000-08:00

When water is restricted and showering is, at the most, a once a day event, then it takes some planning. We must pick the right time of the day when the water has been warmed by the sun, the wind is not blowing and all the swimming is done. I had done all the calculations in my head, I had it all previously envisioned; I was to fill the solar shower, hang it up in the mast, soaped, shampooed and conditioned my hair, dry, dress and start dinner. It all sounded so cozy. We have a shower in the bathroom, but Matt considers that it is not a good idea, if something goes wrong with the plumbing it would be hard to fix and it could compromise our water reserve. That is why we got not one but two solar showers. So, I told Matt what my plans were that afternoon and he made a face of disapproval, “setting the solar shower is so much work!” he says, “could I dump a bucket of water over you instead?” he adds. “First he takes away my shower at home, then the shower in the head (bathroom of the boat), then the solar and now he wants me to use a bucket?” I thought in fury. “I will do it all myself” I said. As I am setting it up, the girls are arguing and calling me from bellow, they need assistance, Matt is riding the dinghy and I am trying to pick up a slippery and heavy jug to pour the water into the solar shower. I started pouring and the hose came undone so our precious fresh water is shooting out of the bag and going down the open hatches. I am trying to stop it, trying to ignore the screaming children and controlling my feelings of disappointment on my husband for not trying to help me. I couldn’t contain the tears of anger and frustration. Matt must have felt my emotions pretty closely, he cooked dinner that night and offer to help me with the water.

The Hook in Isla San Francisco

2010-11-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

Apart from being a nice cove to anchor and snorkel, it was a full day of fun for the girls, we had very little involvement in their entertainment. They play for a long time in the luring waters of the salt ponds, splattering and then sitting in them. They found mud puddles as well where they painted beautiful boots on their feet and they did plenty of running around pretending to be Barbie musketeers.

One of the cruising guides we have for the Sea has a nice collection of pictures taken at the different anchorages showing things of interest such as hiking points. The picture of this place is one of a girl in the foreground at the peak of a hiking trail with the bay in the background. I wanted to replicate the scene with myself. I found the hiking trail simple enough to make myself look like a gazelle, I had my hiking shoes and my camera, I was all set. Once I was up, I realized that going down was going to be a rather difficult task, with feelings bordering the state of “panic”, rolling down was not an option, calling for help was too embarrassing to go on with a normal life, scooting down was more likely, but still not as graceful as I would like it. I ended up going down 3 legged (1 arm to hold on, one leg bent and the other reaching the new point down the hill. The worst thing was realizing that the light up there was not quite right and I needed an extra hand to get my picture taken. Since I survived the experience, I can say it was fun!

Touring the Sea with our friends from Imagine

2010-11-15T15:32:00.000-08:00

After the goodbye and farewell wishes from and to our friends from Whatcha Gonna Do we set the course to ride out of La Paz channel and into the National Park of Isla Partida a little bit past 1:00 PM. Behind are our friends from vessel Imagine who will be joining us for the next few days in the next few anchorages. The girls are in heaven, after so much time of solitude for the next few days they will have Hollie and Shei all to themselves in amazing anchorages to explore together.

In the way out we were encountered by a beautiful whale shark. All by herself, a giant spotted fish, not a big whale, not a spooky shark, but rather a cute creature. She was beautiful and tolerant of us, the curious cruisers who circled around her to get second looks and better picture shots. I declare myself ignorant of the dangers of being close to them, but the experience was for sure exhilarating and worth the exposure.

It was close to sunset when we dropped our anchor at Caleta Partida, the moon was coming up almost full, the gilrs were sitting in the mast trying to grab it. Matt was making sure the lines are all in place and tight. Imagine was making is entrance to the bay. Different shades of red bounce out of the mountains. The green/blue of the water and my so hopeful and cheerful mood complete the scene. All pieces put together into Art to hang around our walls of immortality or simply put to fill the screen of my D60 Nikon camera. The girls’ plans to get together are quickly landed on hard bottom when we agreed to see each other the next day for breakfast instead.

The next day the energy levels were high, there was no need to push for the chores to be done, the hairs to be combed, the bathing suits to be put on. The girls new there was no time to waste; there were games to play and chats to chat. We dinghied over to Imagine for a nice warm cup of coffee on board. Soon we were all climbing our floating devices to head on to the beach. Shelley on her kayak, Matt on the windsurf, David on the Jet Ski and the rest of the girls in our dinghy with me as the driver.

The day ended with a beautiful sunset and dinner over imagine. The girls were invited to have a sleepover, but only Trinidad was able to take advantage of such generous invitation. Samantha was complaining of a headache that had me a little concerned. Earlier that day she fell down the companion way ( a 3 step ladder that takes you out to the cockpit of the boat), she scratched her back and bump her head, I was afraid the pain was a consequence of the event, but luckily everything was all right the next morning. Shelley and David invited the girls to sail to the next location 3 hours away in their boat. For the first time I realized I enjoyed steering the boat, hoisting the main and throwing fishing line out. For the first time I realized how I could love sailing knowing that nothing could get in the way of me and a book, of a conversation with my husband and a confrontation of my thoughts….Although, I must be honest, my thoughts are not always thoughtful and not always pleasant, realizing that, I started to miss my girls.

The sail was good, the fishing for us unsuccessful, but Imagine had better luck. Matt called David on the radio and this is what David said:

“I could have used your help”

“I just got a shark on the hook and I need it to unhooked it”

“I had to cut the line”

Understandably, he was not about to bring that amount of teeth on board. The girls got to see and live the excitement of it.

Preparing to head North

2010-11-15T15:30:00.001-08:00

We spent two days at Marina de la Paz preparing the boat for our voyage North in the Sea. We loaded 100 gallons of fresh water in the tanks, filled 40 gallons of jugs with drinking water, filled the diesel tank, filled the gasoline tank, did two loads of laundry took civilized showers and of course, my favorite; re-provisioned.

Walmart again, scores my shopping. It is hard to make a difference choice when I am so confident that here is where my dollars stretch the longest; nowhere else I have found 1 Lt of orange juice for $7.5 pesos (US$0.60) or the 1 Lt Box milk for $10 pesos (US$0.90). It really makes a difference when I have to buy 15 liters of each.

Although, Walmart was a good provisioning source, a trip to the central market is a must for me. I can almost taste a piece of Tuna rolled with cream cheese, cucumbers, calrose rice, seaweed, soya sauce and pickled ginger; SUSHI!! The market sells a kilo of Tuna for $70 pesos. I GOTTA GET IT! Also, I want to buy some fresh tortillas and a few kilos of green, juicy mangoes.

Also, it is always a good idea to carry pesos of which we have NONE, we have none of the other either… well, a little… I have a few travelers checks left that I must change in Scotia Bank, the only bank that cashes them. In order to cash dollars or checks one must present a passport, they make copies and supposedly they handed back to you, but in this case they forgot and so did I. I made it all the way back to the Marina and the port captain had called to notify that my passport was at the bank. SH….! I was parted in between feelings of anger and relief; we are supposed to be leaving now and walking back to the bank would take me more than one hour R/T. On the other hand, I can’t even imagine what would have happened if I was not notified on time? I could have taken a taxi, but I was saved by the good deed of our friends from vessel “Imagine” who have been very generous with their car.

Finally it all seems to be in place, tanks full, cabinets full, fridge and freezer full and the hammocks with fruits and veggies swinging with apples, mangoes, onions, tomatoes, cabbage and more. It is time to say good bye to our friends and to sail away the comfortable, beautiful and fun city of La Paz.

Swap meet

2010-11-15T15:29:00.001-08:00

We arrived just am hour before it started, pulled out things out of the closets, drawers, cubbies and laid it all out. I would say it was successful. We sold items like the one man kayak we barely used, a diving tank we never used, some sophisticated binoculars with built in camera and night vision that never seemed practical enough to use and if they did not come with the boat we would have never had them on board. We managed to pocket some money, but we did make a major purchase to replace the kayak. A windsurf. Matt was an avid windsurfer, but has been seriously deprived from such pleasure for decades. Initially was short of money, then short of space, then short of time and while in Arizona, short of ocean. I felt that if he wanted to relive the excitement, show off and teach his girls, now is the time! Not to mention that the windsurfing board could be used as a paddle board… Hot item at the moment!

Playa Bonanza, Isla Espiritu Santo

2010-10-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

The crew of “Whatcha Gonna Do” and “Endurance” are heading to the islands! Our destination will be Playa Bonanza; the longest white sandy beach in Isla Espiritu Santo. We planned to spend 2 nights there and to sail back to La Paz to make it on time for a marine swap meet on Sunday morning.

Motor? Sail? Motor/Sail? A constant debate, but as it normally happens, once the sails are up the wind dies or it shifts directions to hit us right on the nose. We motored most of the way, but the frustration of being on a sailboat with unusable sails pushed Matt into a desperate attempt to put do it. I wasn’t sure if we were going backwards or at a ridiculous speed. A good sailor, I have been told, would have continued. I didn’t feel like becoming a good sailor at the moment. The heat and the uneventful passage were responsible for my spoiled behavior. My position was if we can’t enjoy the ride, lets enjoy our destination “hurry up and get there”. Ultimately, it wasn’t my decision, but the captain’s decision. He was wise enough to make it my way.

If Arizona had bordered the Pacific, I would imagine it would be just like this; Sahuaro cactus, choya, rocky, overall brown and red. The view from the boat to the shore is quite bold, but from the shore to the boat it is simply amazing. The color contrast, the clarity of the water, the cloud display and the explosion of red at sunset hour… oof! I am speechless and breathless. I expect to see this in most places of the Sea of Cortez.

We snorkeled, we hiked, we painted shells with the girls, we paddle boarded, we skurfed, we boogie boarded, we swam, we played at the beach, we collected agates, we played dominoes, we had good meals and drinks, but the most memorable experience will be being part of the welcome of the Sabbath, a Jewish tradition, with our friends from Whatcha Gonna Do. Barbara made a delicious meal and with the kids’ assistance she baked 2 loafs of the traditional bread, “Challah”. We all sat down around the table, the men, including Matt, wore the kippah and they performed the customary prayers and blessing in Hebrew. The girls were fascinated. We were honored and grateful.

Two nights turned into 3 and if we didn’t have to sell some things at the swap meet we would have stayed longer. We enjoyed the place and the company greatly.

Personal Relations

2010-10-19T00:30:00.000-07:00

My friend is writing an article about relationships on board, I was wondering if patience is one of the topics she will cover. It tends to brittle easily as it just happened in between Matt and I.

- “Are we out of juices?” Matt yells from the salon

- No, they are in there “I yelled back

- “Where?” he asked again as expected

- “In the juice hole, right there, where they’ve always been!” I replied thinking I can’t make it easy for him, he should really know by now.

- “Oh Come on!” probably calling me names in silence

- “There are only a few holes in there, one has milks, the other has juices”

- “Oh, I would have called it the soda hole” he says

- “How many sodas are in there?” I asked sarcastically

- “None, but we used to have it full of them” (he is probably thinking it should be called the “ass….”)

- “May I have some juice too?” knowing that he wants to tell me.. “get it yourself”

- OK

He brought me the juice, I look at him and said:

-“Thank you, you gotta shave”

- You gotta sh…” he replied

Ok, is this a sign of being too close together or too long together? The good thing is that the more it happens, the tougher we get and the easier is to bounce back after silly word exchanges like this.

He did shave… and he looks amazing!

Friends

2010-10-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

“Cruising friends are lifelong friends” I was told. I have really no idea, but I am so enchanted by the people we meet and the memories we keep that I can see myself looking for opportunities to meet again. Circumstances and interests will have change, but the intensity of the experience for sure will guarantee and incredible reencounter.

Such was the case with Maggie and Neville from M/V Blue; a wonderful couple we met at the beginning of our trip. They called us on the radio Friday morning and we agreed to get together the next day. We had a fun evening together, we share a little of what we lived and heard a little of what we missed when we left. They are now in their way to Mazatlan and have plans to circumnavigate the world. We will follow their adventure from home. A second surprise, wonderful surprise! was to find a note stacked to our dinghy one afternoon from our great friend James, the one who drew tears the day we split. Not only because he would supply us with all the fish..hehe, but also because he made our trip a much richer experience. We love the guy! We had dinner together at “Tequilas” (good pizza place) and ice cream at “La Michoacana” (our favorite). He spent the night with us and left the next day. We really wanted to kidnap him and take him to the islands, but he said he would come meet us further north in the Sea in 10 days! Yeah!!

The treats of the trade

2010-10-19T00:11:00.000-07:00

-“Whatcha Gonna Do, Whatcha Gonna Do… Endurance”
-“Lets go to 18” “18” pip 21, pip 20, pip 19, pip 18..
-“Hey Mike, Are you ready to go?”
- “Stand by for a second…(1 Missisipi, 2… )” We will be ready in 10 minutes”
- “Give us 20”
- “Ok, we will meet you at the dinghy dock”
- “Ok, back to 22”
- “back to 22”

I packed some green apples and salt, “totopos” chips and refried beans with Jalapenos, Oreo cookies and water. The kids put their suits on, grab their masks, boogie board, Matt loads the dinghy and I stuffed my backpack with all the rest and a little of the just in case. We headed then to Tecolote Beach where the kids would run, built, flew a kite and we tasted their famous Margaritas and dug our feet in the sand. We have really enjoyed the company of “Whatcha Gonna Do”. We are anchored next to each other and have been spending several social hours together. Barbara and I have been walking every other morning. It has really been great!.

So back to our trip to the beach, as we were heading back to our boats, Michael suggested we stopped at Marina Costa Baja, the nicest marina I have seen by far, to take some fancy showers. What a great idea!... except for the fact that we are no guests there. Costa Baja Beach Club is simply a magical place to be, perfect for self esteem build-up. The sun disappearing in the horizon turning the water into a master piece of art, the merging illusion of the no-edge-pool water and ocean water, the soft lighting, the music, the decoration, the sitting arrangements and style, it all combined well into feelings of sophistication and relaxation. To top off the scenery we met two wonderful couples who as a sign of admiration for the life we were living invited all of us to a beer at the bar. I love the turns life throws on you! This life is really “The Life”.
Thank you Stacey and Dave for your fun and cheerful spirit!
Thank you Michael, Barbara and kids for the wonderful time we have shared!

The VHF

2010-10-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

There are some codes and technical terms used while on a radio conversation, besides keeping it descent these are some examples:

1. The channel of call in La Paz is 22, but you must clear it quickly so after you establish contact with the vessel you are looking for, you must pick the channel you want to use.

We will say things like:
“Do you want to go to 21?”... why would they say no I don’t want to?...mmm… I wonder!
“Let’s go to 18!”… why not 21? Unless it is bussy, I don’t know why the extra finger motion. Some cruisers (including me) pick 68 or more.
“Let’s go to 68 and up” It means you move to 68 and if it is bussy go to 69, 70, 71, one at a time until you find an open channel.

No one normally says:
“let’s go ## and down”
“let’s go (10+1) x 2 + 1 and up”,although, I did try it and the other party got a little confused.

2. One must never reveal embarrassing information on any channel, it is common to have people who were not intended to be on the call switching channels with you to be well informed of everyone’s business. In that respect, it is a horrible idea to ask for advice on how to treat fungal infections…haha.

3. If you want to sell something off your boat, you must know that it is illegal to make money in Mexico being a foreigner so make sure your deals are in “coconuts”

4. There are some terms like “Roger” which means “yes” “I copy that” “I understand” “positive” but be certain not to make mistakes like it happened to Matt.

He called vessel “Avalon”, the captain picks up and Matt says “your name is Mike right?” the man answered “Roger”… silence strikes… “oookay” says Matt unable to determine the answer. He had to continue the conversation avoiding the use of the man’s name. Later that day, they met in person and were able to clarify. His name was ROGER.

Another consideration is to have a reliable VHF, not only to get assistance when needed, but to give information and receive the appropriate feedback. Our radio has been experiencing some issues, where we can’t hear the other party and just today, a man called us about a kayak we have for sale and when we told him the price of $200, the radio went silence… I thought...”Matt tell him 150, quickly 150!” but he called us back right before … It almost cost us $50 dollars!

Clothing overboard

2010-10-18T23:51:00.000-07:00

Matt apologized first thing in the morning “sorry, sorry!” he says. I could not figure out what could have gone wrong, it could have not been too serious, because he had a smile on his face. “The bathing suits floated away and under!” he revealed. I had rolled the girls’ and mine on a towel because they were wet and I had to put them in my backpack. He diligently decides to hang the damped towel and anticipating that there would be sand on it, he shook it overboard. Out went the bathing suits flying!. He couldn’t jump overboard on the spot; the current was strong and the latter to get back on board was up. They were moving away quickly and by the time he was in the water only mine was floating, the other two had sunk right in front of his eyes.

I guess the padding on the suits are a good thing to add, not only good for fuller breast and bottom, but also for buoyancy.

The tally of things lost at Sea is the following

6 beach towels
2 bathing suits
1 under pant
221 clothespins
…. and about a year worth of savings. (hehe.. not really!)

Money, money money...its a rich men's world!

2010-10-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

Money, or better said, lack of it, is such a discouraging topic, how come we don’t have enough? What happen to all that frugal spending? Eating dollar tacos instead of the fillet mignon? I guess we were not that frugal after all and we could have done better… could we? I guess it is true that the cost of sailing is.. all you have and some. When we started the trip we budgeted generously, but reality stroke and contingencies met us along the way destroying our naïve expectations. Today we can only laugh at how little we must live with. The good thing is that we can, we are learning, we are more comfortable with less than we used to. I am trying to shop more wisely and less impulsively, in consequence our food spoilage is less, all I buy, I use! The kids have turned very conscious of the circumstances too, just the other day, Trinidad (5) asked Matt if he could buy her a balloon and Matt said “oh, not right now”, and she replied: “I understand”. Also, I have heard Samantha several times say “that is wasting a whole bunch of money!” I guess, in perspective, it is all good, but I can’t avoid the momentary worries, anxiety and frustration for not having to buy more souvenirs, to take more inland trips, to eat out more often, to be in a marina, to remodel the boat interior, to buy more clothing, to have a bigger yacht and to go back home with more money in the bank.

I remember just a few weeks ago I was watching the Suze Orman show, a financial advisor woman who takes calls from people asking if buying, spending on or paying for something is or it is not a good move. I could almost hear her scolding us for taking this trip instead of saving for the kids’ college education, paying insurance, investing in our retirement, all those things disciplined and organized people not like me would do. It depressed me, but then I had to realize that we all have unique goals in life, material and spiritual/emotional goals and I believe we are being faithful to ours and I am sure it will count at the right moment. Of course, living up to your dreams will have a cost as it is with everything, we must pay!

This is how I tricked myself into traveling this way:

I want to see exotic places, I want to taste foods I have never tasted before, I want to talk to people living differently, I want to be able to say I have done a crazy thing, I want to have unique stories to tell, I want to simplify my life, I want to spend time with my girls with no distractions (what was I thinking?..hehe), I want them to spend time with their dad, I want to see nature, I want to swim in turquoise, crystal blue waters, I want to eat fish, I want to meet other interesting people, I want to travel when I am healthy and when my kids want us around and I want to find inspiration and purpose.
If I could leave something to my children that they could take along with them anywhere they go is education and what better education there is than first hand experience. Field trips! One long one!
If we plan to spend our money, we certainly don’t want to wait until is too late to rebuild the finances, therefore, the time was now.
Work had slowed down, we were living off of our savings, so they question was, do I want to use the savings living the dream or watching it get further away?

So, back to Suzie, spending the money just made soo much sense! Most times, we have to spend to make a profit! DON’T COME SCOLDING ME AGAIN LADY!

End of the Isolation

2010-10-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

We met a family living in the marina with their twin daughters age 7; holly and Shea, just one day older than Samantha! Where have they been all this time?!! It has been great meeting them, the girls are having a great time. There is no enough hours in the day to play!. Yesterday, I saw them last at 10:30 AM and later they showed up to sleep. Well, not that good! Shellie and David, the parents of the girls, were kind enough to let them play on board their boat while we did a major clean up! We had them over for wine in the evening. This morning, first thing they called each other on the radio to execute a major business plan; to set up a lemonade stand. They did quite well! Icy drinks are a highly demanded beverage with this temperature levels, but the main money maker was to see such cute set of girls with a great entrepreneur spirit. They were getting 500% tips. Another good incentive was Shelly’s generous proposition of doing a profit match. I remember my days as a child, it was so easy to make money, if I only would have reinvested the money instead of buying myself those candies! I would be a millionaire today… planning to take a sailing trip...haha.

I have Trinidad next to me at the moment, burning with fever. She has been coughing for a couple of days. The whole time in the South her defenses did amazingly well, but today she was defeated! Sadly, because she wanted to play so badly with her new friends that she was willing to fake her discomfort. I hope the bugs are not moving from body to body so the twins and us remain healthy.

Endurance has arrived

2010-10-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

We are taken in a Panga with our backpacks back to Endurance, she is already in the water ready for us to board her. Everything looked as I remembered, except the green stuff on the brass, the white stuff on the walls and the umpleasant smell. OH! Endurance needs some cleaning, but its good to have her back! There was also a little bit of damage,.. I won’t give bad press, because the company will respond.

It is definitely a different experience to be back in Mexico, it feels safe. It feels like a natural place to be in a boat, especially in La Paz. La Paz is a final destination for many cruiser some had planned it that way and some others were surprised by how the time flew and they never moved away. I can’t blame them, it is a beautiful place! Anything and everything one could need can be found here, It is safe, it is clean, it is cheap, it is alive, the locals are polite, the food is excellent, the margaritas are oversized and the sunsets are simply outstanding!

In La Paz

2010-10-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

The flight was wonderful, a very small plane, Samantha and Trinidad sat by themselves and kept each other entertained reading the safety booklet (as if it was the best children story), with colors, singing, gum chewing and a little fighting. The both cheered as the plane departs and lands ignoring the dangers associated with those moments and not noticing that a good number of passengers perform the sing of the cross. Their favorite part was when the cart with the peanuts and tomato juice shows up! The flight was 2 hours long, very comfortable and fun, specially flying over, through or under the thunder heads, It is quite a sight to see a vertical cloud right on the window especially if they have the shape of a teddy bear.

After the normal procedures of arrival we had to decide to rent a car for $30 or pay a Taxi $30, the choice was clear! We got a car for 24 hrs to explore the surroundings of La Paz from a different angle with a view of the ocean from the beach and not of the beach from the ocean. Our main stop was “Balandra” One of the most beautiful places we have seen while sailing, but the worst overnight anchorage. No worries today, we will drive home!

Once in La Paz we had to start the search for a place to stay, as usual. I am in charge of getting the quotes. We stop, I got off the car to run into one of our options and I hear.. “Where are you coming from?” I look up a little disoriented and I see our friend Craig from Journey; a vessel we met in Tenacatita several months ago. It felt good to find a cruising friend, unfortunately, he is only here to put his boat in Yacht Path the day we take ours out. His family is already back home (Seattle, WA) and their cruising is over… for a while. We still managed to spend a little time together and share each other’s stories and we listen to how sailing had impacted their life.

We found a very good hotel in one of the main streets for a very reasonable price and excellent service, “San Bernardino”. We spent 3 nights there until it was time to pick up Endurance.

Mexico City

2010-10-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

I would have loved to spend more time discovering the fun, cultural, historic, modern, beautiful parts of this large, large, LARGE city, but the thought was too overwhelming therefore it never happened… we would have spent great part of the day sitting in traffic and paying for it; just not a good idea at this time. We decided to continue the trip to La Paz in the afternoon the same day, but Aeromexico had other plans for us. The plane was oversold and they asked for volunteer to stay overnight with all expenses paid and 4 R/T tickets, good for a year to fly in any equivalent routes. What a bummer, we were the ones!!..hehe … We were soon taken to a 4 star Hotel were we committed the sin of taking, not one, but 3 baths! What a magnificent treat send from heaven!

We sat at the airport for a couple of hours the next day and again they asked for volunteers, only this time they needed just 3, one of us would have had to fly and that was not an option! We boarded as normal individuals, pretending to have a busy schedule.

Time to Fly!

2010-10-06T11:59:00.000-07:00

The alarms will go off at any minute…. I wonder if we miss it, no, it will go off soon.. should I try to sleep a little longer?.. pip-pip-pip-pip… it’s time, 4:00 AM! The bus from Golfito to San Jose passes right in front of Land and Sea (the place where we stayed) a few minutes after 5:00 AM. If we are not standing in the specific location or waving in the middle of the road, the driver won’t stop. I know this for past experiences. I was anxious! We stood there under the rain for a little while, but made it all right. It took 7 hours to arrive with a few stops to eat and use the bathrooms in between. It was mostly good with the exception of a little bus sickness… oops! Trinidad could not take it very well. Once we got to the bus terminal we hopped in a taxi to another terminal and then to a second bus that would take us to Alajuela, where the airport is located and where we had reservations for Hotel International. For $50 dollars we got free internet that didn’t work, free breakfast that we couldn’t eat, see-thru towels, sheets that didn’t fit the mattress, a fan missing all its wires and the coldest shower yet! (this last was my fault). I was happy the next morning when the experience was over and we got away with only a $50 dollar expense.

One more day of early rising, 3:30AM, the plane leaves at 7:00 AM. We take the taxi to the airport just a block away, but the taxi still managed to rip us off with a $5 charge. We stepped out of Costa Rican territory at 7:00 AM or technically at the moment of boarding and headed to Mexico City. Here is where a new adventure begins.

Endurance departs

2010-10-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

“Endurance, do you copy?” “We are ready for you”… we motor up, next to the big cargo ship “Amazon” Matt put me in charge of throwing the bow line up to the line handlers with instructions that I could not digest well in the short time we had. I threw the line once, twice and again, it felt as if the lines were heavier and heavier and heavier, proportionally direct with my embarrassment and the rolling of my shoulders. There was so much heat in the moods of the people around, it was hectic and stressful as it always been when tying to a dock, but this time with more than one captain giving the instructions. The crane came down, the belt hugged Endurance and the rest we missed. We were pushed into a panga and forced to face away from her. Later that day I went to see how and where she got strapped down and to get the last few pictures from far. That night we saw the Amazon turning away and disappeared in the distance with Endurance on her back. The girls waved as they saw their furry friends go away and Matt and I got overwhelmed with feelings of sadness. Something felt wrong about sending her without us. It sounds ridiculous to me to be giving her life, but the truth is that the bitter feelings are more related to the adventure that is being turned around. What have taken us 8 months to do, will only take 5 days to reverse! We didn’t dwell too long on it, we had a tasty hamburger in front of us to enjoy.

To Isla Parida, last stop in Panama.

2010-09-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

High tide this morning was after 8 AM a very decent hour to move on. Camacho was sitting in a bench in front of his house waving good-bye. It took 5 hours to get to Isla Parida where we would start our crossing to Costa Rica at 3 in the morning tomorrow. We are anchored at Bahia Escorpion, beautiful as well as all the islands we have seen. As soon as the anchor set, Matt made his traditional dive, Samantha follow, Trini and I. We swim around the boat for a while. It’s so beautiful, so perfect, but something feels wrong. There is always the worrisome of sharks surrounding us or less dangerous, but awfully annoying jelly fish or who knows.

We got back on board, had lunch, got on the dinghy, rowed to the beach where we played search for fresh water and took pictures. Out of nowhere a little boy, maybe 6 yrs old with a machete on a shoulder and a bucket in his hand walked by. We talked to him, his name was Boni, he showed us a place to get honey, he didn’t talk much, but what he said was very useful, he said for example that one can swim in a lagoon close to his house, but never, NEVER in the ocean, the crocodiles are BIG… I felt the blood circulating faster as I hyperventilate with the thought of “how could we…” What would we have done if…” “Dumb tourist…” A good advice is to always talk to the locals before swimming, before eating, before you start the fun!

Bolivar Camacho

2010-09-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Better known as Camacho is a well spoken, generous, local man we met the first time we cruised up this river. He gave us fruits and invited us to his place. We told him we would be back and he remembered. We just came back from his house. He owns 11 acres of an island where he has plantations of corn, lemons, bananas, pejivalles, sugar cane, mangoes and more, he has chickens, a cat and 2 pigs. He occasionally has boas, Panamanian jaguars, scorpions and “chitre” (no-see-ums), not really intended. He chooses to live by himself, but has a wife, 7 children, more grandchildren and great-grand children who live in the area. He confesses he loves the quietness of the jungle and the farm work, but he gets his social fixes with the cruisers, fishermen and the family that visits on weekends and holidays.

We walked up the hill to his house where he gave us a tour, there were 2 buildings and a few chicken coops. The house in the front, overlooking the water was for guests, the house behind is where he had his bedroom and a kitchen. It was fascinating for me! He explains in a soft, pleasant and confident mode how his day develops; gets up, lights up the fire, places the pot on one of the racks, puts the coffee in the sock and prepares a delicious coffee to start his morning, he will then work on a culinary project, maybe make some coconut oil, work on the production of “chicha” (fermented drinks) or smoke a fish. He then goes harvest, plant, feed the animals or visit someone. When is time to rest he will come back to the kitchen, sit on the hammock, turn on the radio and light up his pipe. He says, he never feels tired, he loves his life as it is and I can tell. He has had an interesting life; as a military man he was in the Middle East, then he became a police officer in the province of Chiriqui and now that he is retired he is a farmer. He received some training on how to survive in the jungle and share with us some of the trick… a little late, considering we are heading to the dessert.

Again it is simplicity that captivates me about this man and his life style!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

2010-09-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

The alarm goes off, its 5 in the morning, it’s time! It’s time to return, its time to hoist the anchor and leave the quite bay of Honda, but more than that, its time to start facing home. Despite the controversial feelings, we are heading back to Boca Chica, Panama. The boat is loaded with coconuts, sugar cane, a huge papaya, bananas (guineo and red), cucumbers, cilantro, lemon grass and spinach. Domingo and his family made sure we had plenty to eat and plenty to remember them. Last night there was a feast at their house with “cambute” (conch) and lobster, freshly caught, coconut rice with freshly squeezed coconut milk and homemade bread. We provided the Coconut-rum mixture, the wine and a pasta salad “American style”.

The house was a happy place. Rosalin and I in the kitchen, she demonstrates the cooking and I, with the wine in my hand, observe, taste, wonder and ultimately, learn. The kids are playing circles and dancing in the living room, the men are outside listening to the life lessons given to them by Domingo. We ate; we complimented the chef, did a classy lick of fingers and heard a few more stories. The rain has slowly been announcing that we must retreat back to the boat, we procrastinate the moment of Good byes. I would like to say ‘”we’ll be back” and avoid the feelings of guilt for making old Domingo be sad. He asks again and again if we could ever be back, again and again my heart sunk. The rain has slowed down, but the tide is way out and still going. It’s a now or get stuck moment. The dingy was sinking itself in the mud. We exchanged addresses, pictures, hugs and be well and good fortune wishes and… we left!

When to go?

2010-09-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

As it is right now, Yacht Path is late 10 days from the original date of September 15th. According to what we have been told informally we should expect the Cargo boat to be late 6 weeks. If there is a good place to wait until they show up, it is here. In Bahia Honda. It is safe, it is beautiful, we have been more than welcome by Domingo and his family and we are keeping our expenses to the minimum. The dilemma is that if the boat is on time we don’t have much room to spare. It will take us about 2 weeks to be back in Golfito, Costa Rica. We will call the company on Friday and if there are no changes to the date as of then, we will be heading back on the 13th. Sadly! We will have to say goodbye sooner than we would like. Domingo keep asking when are we leaving and wishing we had a plans to come back, wishing we could stay.

We called Yatch Path and the boat is on schedule, we must depart on Monday the latest. Sunday preferably. Part of me feels happy that we are moving forward with the plan, but part of me feels sad, will we ever sail this way again? probably not...being here gives me the sensation of an open world for me, how can one turn away from such sensation?

Laundry day

2010-09-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

The trip to the laundry is about a 10 minute dinghy ride to the nearest waterfall. The soap, the oxy clean, the bleach, the smelly softener and the brush are all in the buckets, the clothes are loaded, the kids are in! We proceeded to our destination. I debated on whether to through all the clothes into the puddles or into the buckets full of water for soaking. I need to look as if I know what I am doing, but the truth is I have no idea; will the clothes end up cleaner than before? I don’t know, but for sure they will smell better. These are my suggested steps:

1. Put water in the buckets
2. Put the color clothes in one and the whites in the other
3. Pour detergent
4. Let it soak
5. Grab, pull up and push down a few times
6. Turn load clockwise and counterclockwise a few times until you decide what the next step should be…
7. mmm…think like a washing machine!
8. Change the water
9. Toss the pieces high up in the waterfall so as they slide down the get and extra scrub
10. Toss it up again, catch them at the bottom.
11. Soak them a little longer
12. Add the Softener (my favorite part)
13. Let it soak into the fabric for a while
14. In the mean time lien against the rocks and let the waterfall massages you.
15. Sit on rock and apply the happy watermelon face shampoo on your hair (no need to say that is the girl’s shampoo). Close eyes, put head back and let the water flow down your hair a couple of times, then apply the extra volume, deep moisturizer Pantene conditioner and repeat the rinsing process… remember the clothes!
16. Squeeze water out of the clothes, put in buckets, put on dinghy, head back to boat and hang on the bow with the stains facing inward or otherwise, others may judge you ability to live in the wilderness!

The cutest part of our laundry day was Samantha doing the Barbie dolls clothing, She scrub, tossed, squeezed, soaked and hanged those 1 or 2 inches pieces of pants, dresses, skirts and swimsuits. I guess it’s a start!

Learning survival techniques

2010-09-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

The secret of survival here is to learn from the local people on how to eat the local productions and using basic staples. It’s only a matter of time before one becomes use to, but more time than we have. Being in Bahia Honda with Domingo as our host has been one of the best experiences we have had. There is so much knowledge in this person and generosity to share it with us that we can only bow our heads in act of grace and feel the blessing. Just today we had a lesson on “how to make coconut milk” to be used later in a delicious rice meal. He opens the kitchen door that overlooks at the bay and where the chickens and dogs are all attentive for any tossing that may come their way. He pulls a little stool, on top he places a board shaped as a cutting board with a serrated blade at the end of it (chuzo). He sits on the main part of the board, holds the coconut white meat against the blade and scraped all the meat in less than a minute. He then transferred this bowl full of coconut shavings to the sink, covered the coconut with water and began squeezing the milk out of it. When the coconut was light in weight it was the sign that all the milk had been extracted. From this simple process 3 are the potential productions; coconut milk, coconut oil and coconut pulp. See.. a few more classes like this and we will not have to depend on grocery stores.

Other foods and recipes he and his family have shared with us were the pifas, also known as Pejibayes, Sugar Cane, Fruta de Pan, Hojaldes de Maiz, Platano Rojo, Mince and others, but the most interesting recipe so far, although unlikely for me to ever try out is the “Revive Muertos” (The dead man revival). Supposedly this soup is highly nutritious and it has amazing curative powers. It is great for the treatment of those recently hospitalized:

1. Catch a cute little pigeon, male or female.
2. Clean the feathers
3. Boil some water, add oregano, salt, pepper and any spices of choice
4. Add the pigeon
5. Serve hot!
6. Garnish with parsley!..hehe

SOS.. shopping!

2010-09-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

Now for me, with the “sophisticated” lifestyle that I love (comparatively speaking), being here became a problem when I sent Matt to the store with my skimpy list:

12 Eggs
1 Loaf of whole wheat bread
1 box of milk
1 Lb of chicken
A can of condensed milk (for Coconut drinks)

…and he came back almost empty handed.

To the rescue… there was Edwin! Domingo’s Son in law, who works as a Boat Captain and travels to Puerto Mutis (2 hours away) several times a week to pick up scientists to bring them to a hotel around the corner. He offered to pick provisions for us! I made a list and he was able to find all the items with the exception of the bread. This was specially ordered from another town; Santiago… aaahh! I can only dream of having a walk down the isles of Safeway (the supermarket) spending 15 minutes in just the bread section trying to decide between the 12 grain, the potato, the buttermilk, the sourdough, the whole wheat, the enriched white, the freshly baked baguettes and the others I can only dream of good quality, well presented, shiny, waxed produce… I won’t even go to the other isles in this description of my dreams.

Salmonete and Bahia Honda

2010-09-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Each town has one store, one Play Park, one school, one soccer field, one health center, lots of children, lots of chickens, and colorful clothes hanging outside the homes. It’s hard to take my eye off the camera. The beauty of this places, not only is the composition of Nature, but the simplicity of the people’s life. Besides a doctor and a dentist, could they be better off with more? I wonder… I would load the school with computers, a science lab, musical instrument, Art supplies.. I would bring a supermarket, a toy store a clothing store… but that’s me.. already contaminated by civilization. (I am not saying I don’t like it… I do, but clearly, my life does not depend on those as I have proven myself in this trip). The kids here learn to fish, preserve nature, grow a garden, they learn basic skills to survive. Do they need to learn about google? do they need to dress in fancy clothes, do they need to know about iPods and Polly pockets? Knowing more will facilitate or complicate their circumstances? I truly don’t know!

The children

2010-09-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

The girls have had several forms of interaction with Domingo’s grand kids; Melanie and Daisy, playing soccer, watching movies, sharing cookies, playing Barbie dolls, Polly Pockets, dancing or just looking at each other and giggling. They have also interacted with the children in the towns of Salmonete and Bahia Honda. Many children, I mean many. The island has 800 people of which 200 are kids.

There have been many times where the local kids stared at Samantha and Trinidad as they recognized them as being foreigners and so different, but nothing like in the towns in here. There is a small feeling of celebrity when the kids come running to the dock to receive us and then they follow us every where we go. It is a feeling that increases my confidence to interact with them, but it becomes totally overwhelming to the girls. Typically, they want to get close and touch the girls’s hair, they are curious, they want to hear how they talk, and they want to make friends. The case was a little different in Salmonete, another town up the river, where the children gathered by the slide to watch every step Samantha and Trini took. They kept their distance. I didn’t want Samantha and Trinidad to feel intimidated and it was working well, Trini was even making the kids laugh. It was great until she tripped and fell. The laughs became evil in Trini’s perception, but the kids realized her sadness as the crying reached the higher decibels and they stopped. At that point I quit trying to blend in.

Domingo Gonzalez and family

2010-09-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

Upon our arrival we were received by the man of the guidebooks; Domingo. He introduces himself as the man who provides the fruits and vegetables to the boats. He points out that the anchorage is safe and that right in front of his house is the spot or anywhere in front of his property. He owns a large portion of what we can see in this bay. It used to be a popular anchorage some years back, 15 to 20 boats would be sharing this jewel of a place, but now, he wonders “what is happening to the boats they are not coming as much as they used to? It’s starting to get lonely” , He enjoys the cruisers company and makes a portion of his living selling produce and trading. He has made very good friends through out the years. He remembers most of them quite well, what they liked, what they bought and how long they stayed. We must make a good impression so our cruiser friends who will make it this way in the future hear no gossip about us.

In his 70’s Domingo still climbs the coconut palm to retrieve some coconuts for us and uses his machete to get stocks of bananas to satisfy our cravings. His day starts at 4:30 AM with a shovel and a rake in the field of the spinach, bell peppers or cucumbers. If he needs supplies or to make a phone call, he gets into his dugout canoe and rows with his one oar to town; an island 15 min away. There is no weather condition that could possible affect his agenda, he loves the rain. He is a hard working man, with experience in all trades; from fishing, gold digger, carpenter, chef, farmer and more. I find something new in every one of our meeting, very humble and wise with a practical vision of life. “No es proooobleema!”

He lives in his house with his wife; Cornelia of over 30 years, Son; Nelson, daughter; Rosali, son in law; Edwin and grand children; Daisy and Edwin Jr. Next door lives his son; Kennedy, daughter in law; Olivia and grand children; Melanie and Kennedy Jr. With the exception of Kennedy Sr., we have met them all.

Rosali and I spent some time by the creek doing laundry… well, she was doing the laundry and I was doing the watching and chatting. She made it look so simple and fun, I really wanted to take over her load, but she may have felt uncomfortable. We had a nice and relaxed visit (despite all the scrubbing and squeezing). Her husband, Edwin, invited Matt, or Matt invited Edwin to go fishing in the dugout canoe… theirs. It was a successful outing! They caught more than 30 littlelus fishelus. (I better get the real name…”Jurel”) of which Matt came home with 7 that reside in the fridge until we get the scoop on how to cook such specie. Olivia, Domingo’s daughter in law, rowed to us yesterday to introduce herself, to offered fruits for sale and ask if we had ice we could share. Ice in here has a silver value; for them to get ice or any cold item they have to travel by boat 2 hours to the bigger town. Our freezer is the size of a shoe box, pretty small, but we manage to produce 2 trays of ice every 3 days. We gave one away and we got a papaya, bananas and fish in exchange.

Bahia Honda

2010-09-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

After 3 hours of sailing from Brincanco Island we entered Bahia Honda, which is sadly, but gloriously the furthest we will get into Panama, at least by boat. A beautiful bay with a good anchorage, well protected by the green mountains and small islands. Outside, the swell and the wind are unbearable, those are my worse cruising nightmares. We are glad to be here!

Pillows arranged on my back, knees up, feet down, laptop on my stomach in the salon trying to catch up with all this writing ideas that chase my thought all day. Matt is tinkering with the oven who has decided to stop working for me… He just found mercury splattered on the bottom of the stove. It doesn’t look good for my baking career. Samantha and Trinidad are playing with Barbie dolls, trying to decide on names for them; Ginger Snap and Daisy. The different shade of grey in the clouds and the constant threat of rain, which comes and goes make it the perfect time to be functioning this way. The Bay is peaceful with just enough motion to remind me of a lullaby my mom used to sing to me to sleep. A coffee should wake me up… or one of the girl’s screams… oops it just happened, the latest, unfortunately. Double oops! The oven is dead! Bummer! No more pies, oatmeal cookies, casseroles, cakes… CALORIES… Ok, It may be a good thing!!!

Island hopping

2010-09-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

Isla Venado, Isla Cavada and Isla Brincanco

6 days

Nice anchorages, bad weather, big swells in between the islets.

All Matt’s fantasies and pretend play of being stranded on an island when he was little, or…until this day, have become partially real during our passages in Panama, I say partially because we are not really stranded and I am probably not the Bo Derek he had pictured. So here we were in the islands searching for water, creating ways to collect it with bamboo and old leaves to redirect the flow, making ropes out of vines, building fires, washing the clothes in a waterfall, fishing, snorkeling, finding shady spots to relax on a swaying hammock and best of all doing it all for free. I must confess though, the fishing… what a disappointment. All we have gotten lately are the “rejects” (Bonito, Jacks and the ones the fish book describes as “it may taste good when there is nothing else to eat”). Matt discovered that fish go crazy with pork meat… he saved a few pieces from his dinner. As soon as he put the hook in the water with the meat, a big number of fish would come around and take it. Matt said to me very proudly “the pork is working great!”, my words back were… “its working great for the fish, but no so good for us”. I must have discouraged him because the fishing ended and no fish was put on the table.

I would imagine that as time goes by, adventures like this at a cost like this won’t be able to be repeated. Many of the islands have been purchased by foreigners and it is only a matter of time before they find a way to make money of the visitors. Other islands are in the hands of the government who has transformed them into National Parks, making them either a no landing zone or the fee to enter is unaffordable. Such was the case of Isla Coiba. It would have cost us over $100 a day to be there. We skipped several with sorrow, but I guess we don’t have to see all the islands to feel that we have seen paradise, we don’t have the time to see all the islands and we don’t deserve to see more beauty than what we have already seen!

The murder case

2010-09-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Pedregal was a good place to do laundry, touring inland and to provision inexpensively, but I felt that our safety was threaten due to the piracy stories we heard, one of those, the most recent and the creepiest was the murder case.

Father, son from Denmark and daughter in law from Panama, living in a sailboat for quite sometime, anchored close to the town for a little longer than 3 months, the son is shot in the back, the wife (daughter in law) hit on the head and the father killed with a shot in the leg. Who did it? It’s still a mystery. I have heard three versions, theirs and the one of the locals. Their story is that the attackers were 5 men who came to steal. They took a laptop computer and nothing else. The locals theory: The son killed the father as a result of a dispute or they were involved in some dark business and the killing was a retaliation or a warning. It seems as if the shot to the father was not meant to be a shot to kill, because it was to the leg, but he didn’t get fast enough medical attention… In any case, there was a murder and it was here.

The day we left, we were caught in a heavy down pore that forced us to anchor for the night. I was awaken by the VHF radio around 1 AM, someone whistles, he is calling someone else. 1001 thoughts went through my head; it’s a code!. Ganymede was right behind us, but too far away to feel that we were safe by number....I realized the story had left me extremely paranoid. Although I tried really hard to disregard the radio I couldn’t and I had to go outside the boat to make sure no one else was around.. surprise! There was a little fishing boat, a “panga”, maybe 100 feet away from us, just floating. I let Matt know about them and I went to bed hoping that they were just plain, good old fishermen but at the same time, I run a mental inventory of all our weapons of defense. Matt on the other hand, remained on watch. He would get up at different intervals to make sure they were keeping their distance.

The morning came and they were gone! I concluded: they were plain, old fishermen and/or we were surrounded by forceful guardian angels. Later that morning we were blessed by the approach of a local man in his boat who came with a bag full of fruits and a stock of bananas that currently hangs on the back of Endurance. His name was Bolivar Camacho, known as Camacho. He chatted with us for a while, invited us to his farm near by and gave us his version of the murder case.

Express update!

2010-09-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

We just checked out of the country of Panama, we will be sailing to Golfito Costa Rica where Endurance will experience an adventure of her own. She will be loaded onto a shipping boat. She will be heading to La Paz, Mexico on the 21st of September. We are looking forward to running into some of the friend who started the sailing adventure with us!

Its time to leave Pedregal

2010-08-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

A week is more than we can tolerate of this anchorage; infested with bugs and way too hot to close the hatches to keep them out of the boat. Although even then they manage to find their way in. No see-ums, mosquitoes and the new one tonight.. flying roaches!! We provisioned today, enough to survive for maybe a month. We will be island hopping and maybe out of touch for a while. Tomorrow, along with our friends from Ganymede we will be sailing away with the high tide out through the mangroves all the way to Boca Chica. It will take us 2 days given that we can only sail with high tide and it would take 2 cycles to cover the distance.

A day of hiking

2010-08-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, after breakfast, found a bus that would take us to a place called “Bajo Mono” where we were about to embark in a 3 hour hike to a waterfall. The truth is that it may not usually take 3 hours, but less and that it may not have taken us 3 hours, but more. We must go at the weakest link speed…hehe. Trini! Hurry up! The trails are called “Los Senderos del Quetzal” We didn’t see the quetzal, but what a fun and beautiful walk! The first point of interest was the housing of the local Indians “Gnobe-Bugle”, with their colorful dresses hanging on the clothes lines. Then were the obstacles; logs acting as bridges to cross the river, bridges barely wider than a foot with only one side barrier, mud, cliffs and rocks, There was also nature; the green, the bugs, the flowers, the hanging vanes and there was THE WATERFALL! What a pay off to the effort and the patience of the kids. Putting up with the “we are almost there” “we are almost there” when we were still not there requires patience. There was one point when Trini said to me “Mom, we should go back, this is not the day to do this” “I think we have seen enough; we have seen bugs, flowers, water, mud.. we have seen it all!” My response was always “we are still missing the best part” Anyway, talking, singing, complaining, crying, looking at bugs, taking pictures, playing follow me the leader games and eating cookies and chocolate, WE MADE IT! Just to add a little bit more excitement to our expedition, it started to rain, rain hard. Matt took his pocket knife out and cut three perfect umbrellas. Samantha was in heaven using big leaves as umbrellas were a big innovation; she is all up for that! Trini didn’t last long with hers before getting tired of it so she and I shared the real, Chinese umbrellas I carried in my backpack. We were now back, at the starting point, and the bus is there just in time to take us back to Boquete.

I realized our adventure was not over when the bus at full capacity (12 including the driver) stops to pick more passengers and more and more. We ended up being 25!. Matt, the girls and I are cramped all the way in the back with another man. Not as bad as the man sitting in between the two overweight ladies and their packages We manage to end the ride all the way back to town in the bus with very little air and with a very small desire to breathe. I was so proud of my family!

Nothing beats the feeling of a Hostal

2010-08-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

I just love being in the middle of where things are happening; the French come in with their groceries straight to the kitchen, the Argentinean checks his jewelry stand that has traveled with him for the last 6 months providing him enough to go onto his next destination; Mexico. The Australian helps in the front desk with the Americans who just arrive, the Chilean (me) observes, the others, that I could not identify, check their email or Facebook accounts. It is the United Nations in the relaxed form. We are all in here with the same objective; explore!

Mamallena was a comfortable hostal right in front of the plaza where we were able to get a clean room with 2 queen size beds and a private bathroom with HOT WATER!! What a treat and for a reasonable price of $27. The house was roomy, with several open areas including the kitchen, the back yard with the hammock, the BBQ, a library, the TV room, the front room with computers and internet and a living room where we shared a bottle of wine with a fresh baguette from the local market, salami, cheeses, olives and a game of UNO with the girls. The place also included a delicious pancake breakfast and coffee in the morning. The kids loved it!

A trip to the mountain

2010-08-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

Backpacks are full and loaded in Ganymede’s dinghy. Ben volunteered to take us ashore so we can go explore a little more of Panama. A few steps in the heat and we are now at the bus stop to catch the local bus to downtown. The girls love this part! The buses are minivans and the driving is, normally, civilized in comparison with the other countries they have been in along this trip. Today was a little more on the edge, but still tolerable. We got even lucky with a Jehovah’s Witness lady riding along who shared her good words. It amazes me how they can talk without getting nervous or sound incoherent. If it was me I would probably get whistled out of the bus for annoying. She didn’t. She did great! I even found inspiration in her speech! We got off the bus at the bus terminal where we found the school bus that would take us to Boquete for only 2.90 for all of us!! Wow! Panama is cheap! In the bus, I am excited to enjoy the view, play games with the kids and relax.

I just happened to sit right behind a friendly Panamanian who decided we were in need of help and he was the right person to offer it. Well… by the end of the bus ride he had a whole plan and I didn’t have the guts to turn him down. First, he took us to his mother’s house where he wanted us to spend the night, but we did manage to politely decline, he showered us with presents; crafts, flags, newspapers, pictures of him. He gave us a couple of necklaces made by the Kuna Indians in the San Blas islands that are supposed to protect us from “mal de ojos”, literally translates as “the evil of the eyes”. In other words, it will protect us from any bad wishes, envy and jealousy. However, he then charged us $20 for them… ok, we couldn’t back off the deal, I guess we can spare that money despite our priorities. We invited them for ice cream and later took our friend to lunch as a token of appreciation. Although, I was starting to regret I spoke such a good Spanish that made him so comfortable with us. Right after lunch he had to catch a bus so he left us!... Now we can relax a little, but wait.. he forgot something… oh nooo!! He has more presents… typical Indian dresses for the girls, little purses, and a few bracelets. He then says; just give me $50 for it. At that point… Matt was annoyed, we explained to him that we didn’t need those things, he shouldn’t have taken the liberty to just make purchases for us. He then says, ok just give me $30. Oh well! lesson learned.. if a stranger comes and gives you flowers… ruuuuuunn!!

Walking the streets of David

2010-08-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

Matt, wanted us to leave him alone to do work on the boat… fine!!! We went alone to adventure through the streets of David in search of something special, cultural, historical something to store in our memories and stories repertoire. It is hot and humid.. we are not even half a block away from the marina and the kids are complaining. I could sympathize with their discomfort, but if I responded with what they would like me to respond, we will likely be stuck at the boat most of the time and this trip would be purposeless. I also like to justify the torture I give them with the growth they get with the simple interaction with the locals; people and their ways of living. At the end of the day, they always feel as if they have discovered something. My main accomplishment was to take them to the oldest part of the Chiriqui Provence where a few houses and a church tower remains. It was not too impressive, but it could have been... I live according to my motto “Don’t miss your chance to see something or meet someone new every day”

Today, their big discovery was the shaved ice for a quarter!! They were delicious! In a plaza, outside the elementary school stood “El Tata”; a man in his bicycle cart shaving ice for the kids that were about to get out of class. We ordered right in time, the bell rang and the kids run to him extending their arms with their quarters trying to get their order; Strawberry, mint, grape or pineapple, condensed milk on top. Samantha was impressed with the success of his business even Trini quoted: “He will be rich someday!”

As we are walking back to downtown, I meet Mr. Armando; a young man in his 70s. Who for some reason said to be touched by us. He was a kind man, he said he was a surgeon taking a vacation in David, his place of origin, he seemed honest, he assured me that next year he was going to Chile on vacation and he would like to take me… wow! He was a sweet man, but at that point I felt I better move on!...hehe.

Our day in town ended after treating ourselves to some fresh bread and a taxi ride back to Pedregal.

We stood at the dock hoping for Matt to see us from the boat anchored in front, but on the other side of the river. We waved, we yelled, we dance and nothing, except we did call the attention of some workers in the marina who then started whistling to help us, they succeeded!. Matt picked us up.

Its time for dinner and I planned to make spaghettis, some of the worse dishes to make in the heat. The boat turns into a sauna, but it was worth it. Samantha had seconds. After dinner the girls from Ganymede came over and watched a movie with our girls, they had cookies and milk.

In Search of our Friends; Ganymede.

2010-08-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

A power boat anchored beside us saw Ganymede come and go. They left yesterday at high tide to Boca Chica, We are in Boca Chica and Ganymede is not anchored where all the other boats are. Matt suggested going up the river a little further… There they were! We see them. We put the motor in full thrudle and went, the girls are excited, we are excited we are almost at the point of singing larai-larai-la la… when we hear a loud whistle.. OH NOOO!! Matt maneuvers quickly, the boat is turned as fast as possible and the verbal manifestation of having been terribly scared came out of my sweet husband’s mouth. Right there no more than 2 yards away were the electric cables crossing our path. We don’t know for sure if we would have made it under and across or with it and a RIP cross.. Some local fishermen told us that we could, so we tried again. Again we had to turn around. We will try again tomorrow. Now the whistle was not for the cable as we found out, but for a rock straight ahead of us. Cable or rock, the boat would have been toasted!

We are now anchored where everyone else is anchored and Ganymede is up the river. Matt got in the dinghy and went to see them. We were surprised! Very surprised to hear his statement “if I knew there was going to be another sailing passage like the one the night we left, I quit! Ben, his wife Danielle and her 3 daughters (all under 6) are full time sailors, fully committed and purist, they build their own boat, the travel with the bare minimum equipment, they write articles for sailing magazines, they are hard core sailors ( In my opinion). This whole time I was thinking he would put up with any sailing conditions and returning to the point of origin due to fear was a complete no-no for them, but the truth is that he tried to turn around, but his motor could not handle it. The thought of calling a Mayday crossed his mind, but he realized that no one could have help fast enough before their boat would run into the rocks. He needed to stay focus and rely only in his ability. I feel for them as I did for us that night. It was a gale of 40 knots of wind and heavy rain that would make anyone wonder if sailing is so great after all. We all hated it that night!

Waking up in Isla Parida

2010-08-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

I hear Matt get up, put the water in the stove, open the jar of Nescafe, drops one teaspoon in a cup, 1 teaspoon of sugar and then fill the cup with boiling water. The aroma spreads quickly all over the boat. I rolled over and commenced to picture myself getting up and having one of those. It usually takes me a while to go from the picturing it to the doing it, but today, I was excited, I wanted it to see the place where we had dropped the anchorage last night. An island! An island in Panama!... The thought of an island is illusive; I had the illusion that I look a few pounds thinner, totally fit and gorgeous, the same feeling I get when being into the cobalt blue or turquoise green beaches that I may have described before. Despite the reality crashing onto me, it was beautiful!

We are in Panama!

2010-08-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

Successful and meorable were these 14 hours of beautiful sailing; whales, turtles and dolphins, good food, good games and the crossing to a new country. Now we are anchored in one of the many islands in the Pacific Coast of Panama. Our friends from Ganymede are not here? Where are they?

Leaving Golfito Again

2010-08-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

It’s almost 10 AM we are sailing the last little of bit of Costa Rica… for the second time. We did this the night before yesterday, in fact we were in Panama, but the wind, the rain and the swell made it impossible to continue. We were more than half way, with the conditions looking worse every minute, the wind has reached gale force (40 knots), it is frightening. Matt considered that the safest course was 180 degrees back to where we came from. He stayed out in the cockpit watching and imagining the worse case scenarios and the best possible escapes, tethered onto the boat, wearing full weather gear, but getting soak anyway and fighting his exhaustion. The girls were sleeping in apparent peace and I… I was praying. I managed to fall asleep, but only to be awaken a few minutes later by the plates, the cups and the books flying out of the covers and by a wave that splashed down the galley vent and by Trinidad who thinks we should be laying down together and by Sami complaining that there is a drip of water over her head. I was extremely queasy. My thoughts were those of desperation; I want out! I want out right now! I want a helicopter to come get me! I want to push the button to stop the show!, %$#%@^##! Matt told me we should be there in about 2 hours, those were one of the longest 2 hours we have had in this trip. What a difference! Once we made it back into Golfito, the rain and wind continued, but the water was calm. We had a good sleep then. Now, where is Ganymede? They most likely put up with the conditions and made it all the way, we had no way to communicate with each other, they carry a turned off VHF radio, only for their emergencies.

The big issue was that we were officially illegal in the country, we checked out the day we left and therefore we were not supposed to be there. I imagine that under the circumstances they would understand, but we were not about to check, we just had to sneak into the Bay, anchor and remain in the boat the whole day we were there. We didn’t make a lot of noise or wake; we just caught up on our sleep and tried to decide when to try again; with the afternoon high tide (Friday the 13th???), to sail overnight or with the morning high tide, to sail during the day. I voted for day! We certainly don’t want to ever experience those conditions again.

Golfito

2010-08-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

Finally! We are here! I like it! The anchorage is perfect! Mirror like water! It’s green! No bugs! Our friends from Ganymede are here, we are reunited after 2 months of crossing each other and almost the lost hope of a reencounter. As we entered the channel we get a call from them announcing the birthday of their boat and extending an invitation to have cake at the club house of the Cruisers Lodge. Soon Ben and his girls are over to get Samantha and Trinidad. That was joy; for them to see one another and for us to see the girls’ faces.
There are several places to anchor, moor or dock the boats, but we followed the recommendations of our guidebook. We anchor and use and enjoy the amenities of “The Cruises Lodge” The place was built by an American couple who have done an amzing job at giving it character and practicality. For $6 a day we could use the dingy dock, the shower, browse through a nice library, watch cable tv, use wi-fi and have free Costa Rican coffee, although, I never made it early enough to have a full cup.

My favorite part of this place were the walls.. What and awesome idea! All boats have left their mark for which they supply the paint and tools. I made sure we left a good one of Endurance. If you are ever there, you wont be able to miss it.
We have checked out and must go today! We’ll be back sometime before Yacht Path leaves… it could be a 1 or 2 months!

Dealing with Formalities

2010-08-13T17:59:00.001-07:00

It was over a month that we spent in Puntarenas. We desperately needed…wanted to get out, move on!, but we were trapped with the dilemma of what to do regarding our immigration status, the boat status and Matt recovery. The tourist visas for Costa Rica are given for 90 days, on that day or before one must leave the country for over 72 hours, not a big deal when Nicaragua or Panama are easily accessible. The boat, on the other hand, is give 90 days, but it must remain out of the country 90 days before re-entering. BIG DEAL! On August 15th our documents expire, but we must ship the boat out of Costa Rica on September 15th. Our options were the following, as we were able to find out:

Mechanical problems; a mechanic must issue a letter, then this must be certified by a lawyer and presented to Customs. Customs then will require you to put the boat in Bond. It means that the vessel will have to stay in a marina and we would not be able to move it without proper authorization… then we are really stuck and paying marina fees. The marina manager in Puntarenas offered to do all this for us, but he asked us to wait until the last minute. We were getting really nervous, so further our research.
Suspend the boat permit travel out of the country and then comeback and use what is left of it. That meant for us to leave Puntarenas immediately, sail to Golfito, check out 5 days before the time expired, head to Panama and stay in Panama until 5 days before we have to ship the boat.

Drake’s Bay

2010-08-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Visiting a bay like this one makes up for all those down moments in our cruising voyage. What an amazing place! The contrast of colors is outstanding; black volcanic rock, green trees, pink, red, white and yellow flowers, grey sky, yellow birds. The sounds are invigorating; macaws, toucans, craws, waterfalls, river rapids, frogs. The strong fragrance of Jasmine covers the bay!

Its been said that the famous privateer; Sir Frances Drake’s ship, supposedly, anchored here over 400 years ago with a pirated cargo of gold worth $140,000,000 in today’s currency. So, shovel on the shoulders; we get on the dingy and entered the beautiful river mouth of Drake’s river, almost hidden from the bay. We motored all the way to where the rapids ended and let the currents takes us back out. Later we walked through the hanging bridge and up the muddy trails, but the sun was setting and we did not want to adventure in the dark. Instead, we visited a mystical hotel spa where we had a juices and a couple of margaritas, while watching the white cappuccin monkeys run back and forth on the tin roof.

Good bye Puntarenas

2010-08-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

“Put her to the rudder!” yells Matt, that means leave Puntarenas. A “panga” from the yacht club leads us out the shallow, 2 mile estuary to open water, sails are hoisted and along we go at a cool 5.5 knots.

Four hours latter we drop the hook in Heradura, Great! Another rolly anchorage, we were forewarned by friends and our guide book so we slept as best we could and headed the next morning to Punta Uvita, where we actually had a decent nights sleep. Excited to unload the dingy in the morning and explore the beach we were halted by the Costa Rican Coast Guard informing us we anchored in a marine national park. Up comes the anchor and four hours later we are in Drakes Bay.

My view of Puntarenas

2010-08-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

It used to be that Puntarenas was “The Place”; a couple hotels, the Marina Yacht Club, the vacation homes of the affluent people of San Jose, the main port, the most accessible beach in the Pacific of Costa Rica. Some people remember this place with an incredible amount of nostalgia. Today, the roads have opened to visit much better beaches conveniently and comfortably and the port has been moved to Caldera; a town near. Puntarenas lost its sources of income and over the years it has become what it is today…

My sister-in-law puts it the right way, the prettiest view of it is from the rear view mirror as you are heading out…poor Puntaarenas! It really needs help. The town is messy, the streets are dirty; trash is piled up in the streets, the sidewalks are all broken, it smells. The stores are cluttered with Chinese shoes, Chinese clothing, Chinese brand name imitations and Chinese toys. Some stores I had to check twice to see if what I was looking was a thrifty item or a new one, the front houses are barred, a lot of people walking around with deformations, retardation or clearly on drugs. Not a very sophisticated place to come for vacations, we didn’t have a choice. Fortunately, the Yatch Club was nice, we spent hours by the pool and restaurant area

In spite of the looks and feel of the place, we did meet kind and helpful people such as the bicycle shop owner where I bought my backpack. The girls got a great impression of him when he shared with them his stack of chocolate. A Taiwanese lady, restaurant owner, who after hearing what we were doing gave me money back saying the juices are on me!!!, most of the marina personnel. We also had the opportunity to meet a wonderful Family; The Pacheco’s who had an 8 year old girl; Sofia. Samantha, Trinidad and Sofia played, ate, swam and talked for hours. They had a blast! I was able to play a few matches of backgammon with her dad on which I was defeated. I got to know the family; I hope we see them again, maybe in our way to the airport in San Jose.

Time to reconsider

2010-08-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

Another rainy night in Puntarenas, Matt was still recovering, but in pain, the boat is still out of the water and we are letting another 30 dollars go for a room with one and a half bed, bad lighting, cold, grey. The moods are fragile, the air is heavy, its hard to breath, it is hard to think, I feel my brain spinning, my heart sinking, my spirit breaking! We are at a point of change, we have to change the plans, the route, the diet, the attitude or something must change. We are going south! Literally and figuratively speaking… Matt walked out of the room, he returns and as if lighting strikes he announces “We are shipping the boat back to Mexico”… I feel a blow of fresh air! A decision has been made, we are committing with something already known, we will go back to La Paz and sail what is left to see of the Sea of Cortez. My heart aches with feelings of disappointment, I was really looking forward to crossing the Panama Canal, explore the San Blas Islands and Bocas del Toro in Panama, but at the same time I don’t want to push against reality and reason.

Reality

• I have to be back in the US no later then December 15th to retain my residence status.

• The best time to sail back to the US is in November, no earlier due to hurricane season. We will need more than a month to take it back to Texas. (Where we had planned to take it)

• Bringing the boat to San Carlos in the Sea of Cortez is the closest point to our house in the US.

• The Sea of Cortez has so much to offer, It is a sailors paradise!

• The rolly anchorages and rain make the water muddy and un swimmable, because you never know where the crocodiles are, not to mention the unstoppable mildew.

• The money… is not growing on trees? Although I am still searching and Matt continues to looks under our saloon cushions for coins.

Reason

• Sailing across Panama will put us in a completely new adventure… I am adventured out… well… not really.. Its just a consolation!

• We don’t have the time to sail at the right time comfortably and peacefully up the Caribbean.

• It will be easier to take care and manage the boat affairs if it is in San Carlos. In Texas we will expose her to hurricanes and oil spills. In Texas we will probably see her very little.

• I do want to see the Sea and sell sea shells…with Sally sailing.. haha. I want to explore it and maybe run into our friends who found refuge there this season.

• I want to be in a drier climate, I want my hair to be straight… (did I say that loud? How vain!) and I want to stop this acne that I am experiencing in this weather… or is it a late manifestation of adolescence? I want my clothes to stop smelling like my great aunt’s closet. I want the books, the wood, the clothing, the bags, the food and who knows what else to STOP GROWING MILDEW!!

Sooo, YachtPath is scheduled to take our boat to La Paz, Mexico on September 15th, we will sail to Golfito where the boat must be loaded, we will try to get an extension from Customs officials to wait until then (our visas and permits expire on August the 19th). We will fly to Cabo San Lucas, take a bus to La Paz and just wait there until November to sail up the sea, in the mean time we will stuff ourselves with, La Paz’s bacon wrapped hotdogs, ice creams at La Fuente, Tostilocos, tostielotes… etc, etc, etc.

Trip to Sarchi

2010-08-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

Darn! Darn! I should have taken the long way!, I tell myself as I start to feel in trouble. The girls and I are standing on the freeway, trying to flag a bus down to get back to Puntarenas, after an exploratory trip to a different town, many of them have gone by with no intention to stop, it has been 1 hour and the rain is getting stronger, we have two flimsy umbrellas, the girls are sharing one and I am sharing mine with a local lady about 3 times my size who was also waiting for the same bus. The umbrella was enough to cover half of her and my backpack with my camera in it. It’s getting dark and I am truly worried, 30 more minutes of it and I would have dropped a thousand tears.

This all happened after visiting the town of Sarchi; where they elaborate the famous Costa Rican Oxcarts, carts that were used to transport the coffee in the old days and today is used to rip off the tourists. I was told it was easy to get to.. (easy my a…rm!!) and worth the visit. I must have done something wrong because it was a 4 bus ride to it, not that easy in my standards, and once there I found very little to see, except a giant oxcart in the middle of town. After our unsuccessful search for excitement, we were at the bus stop to take the first bus home when someone made the suggestion to go directly to the freeway in a taxi and catch the bus to Puntarenas directly. What a deal! I was saving time and money… WRONG!!

I wanted action and action is what I got!

2010-07-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Morning at the Yacht Club in Puntarenas, Costa Rica

The girls are playing in the pool, Matt is making phone calls and I am taking pictures of an iguana who is always around. I did shots of her on her right side, the left, top, front, back… What a beautiful animal! I talked to her, I looked at her in the eyes, I felt the connection. We were friends! Matt was uncomfortable.. how silly of him, to be uncomfortable with an iguana!. Few more iguanas came near a table next to us, where the people sitting there were feeding them. I am not usually a fan of feeding the wild animals, but I thought maybe a few times here and there would be okay. If they do it.. me too! What an impression I got when I see the iguana hanging on my fingers rather that eating the cracker I was offering… did I feel stupid! I told myself those annoying phrases I tell my husband… in between many... “I told you so!” “See what happen?” and many others in spanish “Que bruta!” “Tonta” “Lesa” . Okay enough! The moral of the story… Sometimes those you thought were your friends will give you bloody fingers… haha, but most importantly: DO NOT FEED WILD ANIMALS!

Afternoon

Incredible, no one in this town is capable of sending a fax internationally, except for the Post Office who would do it for US$3 per page. We had to send a contract and some documents with a total of 18 pages… wow! There goes the whole daily budget! Of course, I would not do that. I got it done with the help of my sister in law, my Nikon camera, a lot of walking in town searching for copiers, cyber cafes and doughnuts for the girls who tagged along with me during the whole hectic process without a complain. It is not that important what I did, but how I felt… so horribly frustrated!!! I was just a matter of pushing up a button back in the US. On the other hand, the sense of accomplishment I get is such a “high” in my emotions and the satisfaction of seeing the girls enduring hectic times make it all worth the bad while.

Evening

The girls and I are back in the Marina, the rain force has been picking up steadily, we are suppose to take a water taxi back to the boat, everyone is well protected with their yellow raining gear, but us. For our protection we had just a few bags of groceries and two flimsy Chinese umbrellas. I made the decision to wait, the rain must stop… eventually. One hour, two… its getting worse and the lightning and thunder is right over our heads. Luckily for us, the marina has a game room where we found refugee and we order a nice dinner, played a modified game of pool and watched a movie in the computer. Matt was waiting for us in the boat. We were “separated by nature”! The rain eased no excuse to stay away from the boat any longer. We called the water taxi, but realized it would take a while to get it. It was a mess! The river, where all boats are anchored, was running furiously, carrying trees, trash, tires, snakes and what ever could not extend arms to hold on. We made it into the boat alright, I read the girls a story, we were all drowsy, about ready to pass out and Matt called me and said “you better come up here”. A few boats have broken loose, our dock is tilted around 45 degrees as a product of accumulated debris pushing against it, stressing the already stressed lines of our boat tied up to it. This combined with the power of the river and the oversized logs hitting the hull of the boat was a very uncomfortable situation. We could only picture the lines snapping and the boat running into the vessel behind us in no time. At one o’clock in the morning, when the tied started to come up overpowering the strength of the river we were able to rest in decent amount of peace.

A trip to San Jose

2010-07-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

When I left the US last year, I had not idea that being a permanent resident of the country meant I really had to be a permanent resident.., who would have thought? Ok, so there are no backward concepts in the US. They didn’t tell us that in the English classes while growing up. I should be excuse from the rules. I am from a latin country where “No” means “Yes” and “Do not park here” means “Perfect place to park” and permanent residency would mean “permanent, if you want?” or “we can work it out” So, that is one of the reasons we are in San Jose; to go to the US embassy, besides having to get a few parts for the boat, but most importantly, we are here to go to the MOVIEEE!!

Our first stop was the Embassy. US embassies are such an intimidating place, I often feel that if I step the wrong way into the building, the alarms will sound, gates will drop around me and I will be marked as “suspicious animal”. However, in Costa Rica, they were much more informal, relax and nicer than in Chile. Besides the wait and the lack of straight answer to my question, the attention was cordial and the fact that nothing went wrong made me feel accomplished. Who cares if I got no answers?!... aaaahh!!! Ok, here is the deal:

A permanent resident can NOT be out of the country for more than a year without a Re-Entry permit.

A Re-entry permit must be obtained while in the US, before departure

If a permanent resident is out of the country for over 6 mos. He (she… I) looses the eligibility to become a citizen.

The best place for answers regarding this and any, ANY issues are in Yahoo Answers!!!

After the embassy we decided that our kids deserved a cultural re-encounter… we took them to the jungle gym of Mc Donalds. They were so happy! We bought them ice cream sundaes, bought ourselves some coffee, by the way, fancy coffee shops they have these days!, and used their Wi-Fi to make some phone calls. When the smiles started to vanish, we drove to the cinema in the Mall… wow! I loved the smell in the malls, new clothing, candles, creams, chocolate, perfumes… aaah!! I wished I was loaded with money and make over myself!! A new me, a younger me, the one people would look twice or at least once. The only time I get look at more than once is when going by a mirror and I look at myself…haha. Oh! Yeah! I was talking about the movie… How fun! We watch Shreck 3 in 3D! We laughed hard the whole movie, it was a funny movie, but my laugh was more of a product of the girls’ laugh.

When the movie was over, we drove through the infamous, poorly rated for safety and dirty downtown until we found our place to sleep. We stayed at a nice, clean, cool place by the National Park, called Pension La Cuesta. Recommended by the Lonely Planet and for only $28, we got room, internet, hot water and breakfast. It is a good place for adventure (cheap) travelers to stay.

Where is the Pura Vida when you make a mistake

2010-07-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Pura vida! Is a typical saying that literally means Pure life, that expresses being wonderful, being cool. It is a motto in the Costa Rican life. Apparently a successful motto, because someone told me this nation has the highest life expectancy of all. I haven’t been able to Google it, but I will take it because it is not a crucial part of my story. Now I wonder where is the ”Pura Vida” when going against the traffic? I almost got my head shopped tonight by a taxi driver half way through the street. I didn’t hear the details of his scream, but I am sure it was not “PURAAA VIDAAAA!!” It must have been good, because I was forced to do a U turn to comply with the signage, right in front of the cops and they only laugh. I didn’t look at them to hard either, because I could have attracted negative forces and gotten a ticket for being an idiot. I must say in my defense that the road signs in Costa Rica are pathetic, well worse than that… there aren’t any at least not in the right place and definitely not at the right time.

That reminded me one more irony of the language in Costa Rica, “Con mucho gusto” it means “with delight”. It is usually said after a service and when one says “Thank you” I have experience that every time I go to a store I get an intense look with almost an annoyance feeling. The non-verbal language I get is this: “what’d u want?” ” is that all?” ”and now…what?” “hurry up and pay” then I say “thank you” and they say “Con mucho gusto” which I think means in their non verbal language “with delight I am done with you”

Relocating?

2010-07-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

One of the typical discussions, not arguments, we have with Matt when we travel is if the place we visit would be a good place for us to live. We talked about Guanacaste Costa Rica before, how could we not to picture ourselves leaving in a house overlooking the ocean, with the surrounding jungle, waterfalls, monkeys howling, birds, butterflies of all colors and designs adding to the landscape deco…we could and we did, but concluded it is Matt’s , but not ”my” kind of place. It did feel a little lonely, lacking something, maybe because we are in a transit mode, we don’t seem to fit in, we don’t really belong to anything or anywhere at this point. We did enjoyed meeting people from the Christian Church and some friends of Melissa like Mark, Tracy and their kids who were so nice inviting the girls over for play dates several times. A few more months and we would have built a social network.

Nothing like family

2010-07-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

It was going to be just a night we would have spent at my sister-in-law’s house , but as I posted before, we ended up staying longer, much longer due to Matt’s medical condition. My sister-in-law, Melissa, and her husband, Richard, put up with us day and night with laughter, screaming and long faces at times, not theirs, but ours. Melissa, expert in nutrition and fitness made sure that every day Matt would have a diet rich in fiber and that he would get plenty of rest. At the same time she would make sure our diet was MSG free, low fat, rich in vitamins and that I would get my antioxidants at night in a nice wine glass. She was able to push some exercises on me such as; a couple hour hike in a steep hill with a castle as our destination, a couple of zumba classes at the local gym, which I find its more my kind of exercise and a yoga class given by her. She also managed to make me feel guilty; every morning, when I woke up, she was already back from her morning run and had oatmeal-raisin cookies baking in the oven or when going shopping. I will miss our time spent in the kitchen, cutting the veggies, putting together dinners, observing how she came up with the best fresh tuna recipes I have ever tried.

We are grateful to you!

2010-07-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

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Our friends from Ganymede make entrance to Costa Rica

2010-07-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

Ganymede is the boat of another family cruising with their 3 little girls with whom we have sailed and share experiences since La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in Mexico sometimes we are behind and others ahead. In any case our girls are always in search of their boat at anchor or awaiting their arrival. This time we were ahead and for a long time wondering if we miss them altogether or if they were still making their way down. We were pretty lonely at this point and the though of them not making it here was comparable to the fear I used to have when little of falling asleep and waking up to see that no one is around. It was a nice surprise to open my email and find a note from them telling us they entered the country. Samantha was running around the house announcing the good news.

Medical Bills

2010-07-12T23:05:00.000-07:00

Aaah! As we gain strength emotionally we go broke financially. The medical bills add up quickly. What the doctors don’t take, the pharmacies will make sure to grab. Given the prices of medicine I have decided that the next time I am asked if we are allergic to something.. the answer will be to “expensive medicine”; cold blood runs to my head, acid to my stomach and it makes me want to throw up.. yeap, I muuust beee!! The good things are that the same pharmacist (who may happen to be a doctor) can prescribe; in that case, there is no need for a doctor’s visit and the bills are still a fraction of what we would have paid in the US.

Back to Guanacaste

2010-06-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

Monday morning we left La Fortuna to drive back to Guanacaste, pick up a shipment from the US and visit with our nephew Max and his 5 surfer friends from California. They were all staying in Melissa and Richard’s house. The house was a full house! It was uncomfortable putting this entire load over the hosts, but we manage the discomfort well. So well, that we stayed longer than we were planning. I am sorry! I am sorry! Our plan was to leave the next morning, but Matt was in critical condition, he had to go to the Hospital in San Jose for surgery. The girls and I stayed in the house, Richard went to El Salvador for work, Melissa was in San Jose as a nurse for Matt and Max went back to the US. That was about 2 weeks ago. I have a feeling my sister-in-law was wishing to have family closer and she got her wish. She must not have specified length or distance when the wish was expressed. Lesson for her!!!.. hehe.

La Fortuna and Arenal

2010-06-28T00:11:00.000-07:00

Volcán Arenal is one of 5 active volcanoes in Costa Rica. After 400 years of being dormant the volcano made its first and ferocious eruption in 1968 and still remains active; having small eruptions everyday. Little puffs of smoke come up and lava falls on one side of the volcano making it an exciting show at night..

The town of La Fortuna is a beautifully maintained town at the bottom of the volcano. From there you can take exciting tours; canopying in the rain forest, hiking the volcano, rappelling the waterfall, horse back riding, kayaking the Arenal Lake, hot springs, ATV riding, “butterflying” (i.e. watch butterflies), etc, etc. As much as I would like to do it all with the exception of rappelling I promised myself I will be back when the kids are old enough to do all that with me and when I have a job to pay for them.

We started the day with a nice typical Costa Rican breakfast; gallo pinto, orange juice, coffee, hot chocolate and fruit. Overlooking the volcano (well its hard not to have a view of it wherever you are in the area). We left the hotel and drove to El Castillo located closer to the crater. From here one can see the deforestation cause by the flowing lava. We stopped at the Butterfly Conservatory, well worth the drive. We were educated in the life cycle of a butterfly, we touched, we hunt, we photographed even those most intimate moments of this colorful creatures. Such a master piece of nature! After exploring their habitat we were shown other typical species of Costa Rica wild life such as: the Red-Eye Tree frog, the blue frog, the chameleon and turtles. We finish the visit with a nice walk in the rain forest that looped us around to the volcano observatory. We were done by lunch time so we found a fast food type restaurant with a professionally dressed and friendly chef. Not much to say about the food… or yes, it was awful.

At about 3 o clock the sun was completely cover; the grey clouds and rumbling sound in the sky were obvious indications of… the wonderful time we would have soaking in the hot springs; a free SPA, located by the side of the hotel with the $35 entrance fee. The same river and at the same temperature… I wonder if I missed something.

By 6 o’clock we were back in La Fortuna, playing a game of backgammon, comfortably lying in bed, making plans for dinner. It was at that moment when I got a reminder that it was Sunday; the bells of that beautiful church across the street rang three times. It crossed my mind that the call may be for me, but I managed to put it behind and continue my fun evening, 6:30, the bells rang again, it was a little harder to let that call go, but I manage to do it once again. 6:45… Holy.. I can’t I can’t I must go!! Trinidad went with me. It felt so good! My day could not have been complete without this visit to praise and thank God for our good fortune… and yes to ask for forgiveness and wisdom.

A little parasite here and a little there

2010-06-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

Where and how its unknown, but apparently the bugs have been incubating for several weeks to give Matt the time of his life. Sick, loosing weight and not eating delicious meals (according to me… the chef), were clear symptoms of their existence. We tested and the results were positive. He was so miserable! Luckily now, he is under treatment and he should be fine within a couple of days.. It has not been fun! It is breaking the spirit of the crew. A beautiful place is meaningless under those circumstances and a boat without a healthy Captain is a dangerous idea. My mind wonders if the experience should be reevaluated, but the idea of giving up frightens me more than to wait and go when all goes back to a good shape including my newest patient Samantha who has Strep Throat. The contingencies of this trip are all part of a package, they enrich our experience. Once again, I think I much rather live through them while adventuring. I know they will always be there; they will just present themselves in different forms.

Road Trip

2010-06-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

After our ordeal with the car, we loaded our few bags in a Toyota Yaris and proceeded with the plan to get to the city of La Fortuna on the skirt of Volcán Arenal. Taking a road trip its always an exiting event, especially when there is no rush to get somewhere. We get to stop when we are hungry, when someone needs to stretch, when a bathroom is required, when a scolding is necessary, when a picture is a must or when a sight lure us into stopping. We get to play our own music and sing our own songs at our own volume and we get to put our feet up against the window, plus and best of all we get to snack all the way to our destination. Our favorite snack: nuts! The girls have their books, colors, papers, personal music and video player and, of course, each other to torture. The trip was very pleasant in spite of the typical “when are we going to be there” “are we there yet” “how much longer”.

I hate rental car companies

2010-06-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Scammers! Is there one that doesn’t operate on the basis of “ripping us softly and kindly”… well not too kindly. I had such a great day the day before, everything was going according to plan. The search for a car was successful; cheap and easy. Saturday I went to pick the car from Thrifty and they just dind’t quite mention that the car was $90 a week, but the mandatory insurance was an additional $140…. My mind blocked, I wanted to hang onto the neck of the clerk. Anything he said sounded as he was ripping me a little more. I stepped out, frustrated to tears. Matt was waiting outside sick, the kids wanted my attention. Trinidad was asking me why I was so mad?.. At that point, I only wanted my mama… really! I MISS HER, she would have let me crawl and cry!! I guess the car wasn’t the only issue driving me to tears, but it was the detonator. At the end, not having another option, I went back to ripper and humbly said..”OoooKkkay, I will taaake it”. He did try to make it up to me by not charging me extra for adding the spouse as a driver… I guess he didn’t think I would read in the contract that spouses are added free of charge… ok! I know.. I hated the service.

A hot shower at last

2010-06-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

This was the idea!
We checked into the hotel room in the same marina, not much luxury there, pretty run down, but there were two beds, a floor that didn’t move and a hot shower, something we haven’t experienced since we were in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico. We were exited to get all cleaned up, after scraping all the algae from the bottom of the boat, and ready to treat ourselves with an extended use of water. The shower looked suspicious; electric cables going up to the head and a heat regulator on it. I adjusted it to the right temperature and pushed the girls in. The water did not smell right, plastic was burning somewhere, it was pretty obvious when smoke started coming down the shower head. Ok! I guess hot showers are another perk of being in the US and one more to look forward when we return.

Taking the boat out

2010-06-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Our plan was to take Endurance out of the water to do some repairs and leave it out while we do some “dry sailing” (Inland exploring by car). Taking it out is an exiting operation; to see your home being lift up, see all its parts and curves up in the air is a strange feeling. Once the boat was out, the bottom was sparkle cleaned by the whole crew, even the ones thought to be useless in the maintenance department… hehe.

Other projects to be accomplished were to repair a small crack on the haul and to replace the cutlass bearing… a thing that makes things happen… an important part of the propeller. To accomplish this task, he had to take the rudder off. He was into the job when he realized there was not enough room between the boat and the ground, he had two options: a-have the crane lift up the boat higher (very costly) or b- dig a hole under the boat (very hot). He went for b. Today the projects are mostly done. Matt and our brother-in-law Richard worked very hard on it for the last 3 days. Now we are ready to go!

We run out of water

2010-06-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Endurance has two water tanks; a 40 gall and a 50 gall, we also carry jerry jugs for drinking water, they are all empty. It’s a good thing there is a water facet next to us, but really bad to find out it doesn’t work. Matt has to go in a panga to fill some jars. To get to the working facet he had to go over a grassy area full of mosquitoes. Given the circumstances and the risk, he only got a few gallons just to do dishes that night and the next morning. We will be out by the afternoon. These sort of hoops is what we all think about when we brush our teeth and decides to keep the water running as we brush, not to mention that running out of water in the middle of the oceans could be fatal.

Puntarenas

2010-06-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday, arrived with the right tide, no running aground for Endurance. It took several calls to the Yacht Club office until someone finally acknowledged our approach. They were supposed to send a yellow panga to meet us and guide us through the channel… right…maybe next time! We are here! We get tied up to a floating dock for two, very strange feeling to think that even thou you have a dock you cant go far, ten steps either way you are in the water. It makes me a little nervous to have the girls on the dock, at times when the tide is going out the current is ferocious, not to mention that the river is full of crocodiles as they say.

Isla San Lucas

2010-06-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

It was the Alcatraz of Costa Rica. The worst criminals were sent to the island. It was operational until 1991 and now it is considered cultural patrimony. We were told by the Park Ranger that at the end of its time the prisoners were given some land in the island and were allowed to stay with their families for a while. Today no one lives there, but the Park Ranger, a few cats, bats, mosquitoes, monkeys and a few ghosts.

I wonder what it is that we find fascinating on being in places like this, must be the huge amount of energy you find here, generated by all the drama, sadness, darkness and sickness. I can almost see and hear what went on and I can only say, Its good to be good, its good to be FREE.

The anchorage here was a sailors dream, not a roll, not a ripple in the water.. (a few, but it sounds more romantic the other way). It has been a while since we had it this good. Matt tells me: “this is what I picture when I dreamed about this trip”

Leaving Bahia Ballenas

2010-06-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

It was 7 in the morning, Matt was not feeling a lot better, but we needed to leave. There is one more factor to consider when getting or leaving some of the anchorages/ports; the tide levels and cycles.

The level; to get to Puntaarenas we had to make entrance to the channel at almost high tide. It is a very shallow channel. If we run aground, as the tide comes up the boat will be picked up, if we enter at high tide and run aground then we are…. SCRE.. out of Luck! The cycle; the office opens at 7 AM

Motor on, we are leaving, zigzagging our way out through the logs, lots of them. BANG, BOOM, ZUMP.. its hard to see them all. The motor alarm goes off! Matt’s level of stress goes up, I see the fumes, but I can almost understand it. I have so much faith that God would not give us challenges we can’t handle and that Matt is so capable to solve it, I remained calm. We turned off the motor, let the boat float while Matt checked the filters. Cleaned one of the filters and it seemed to be solved. It was a difficult decision, do we keep going? Do we turn around and make sure the problem is solved missing our chance to get to Punta Arenas on time? We risked it! We kept going. We made it to Isla San Lucas, where we would spend the night, an hour sail to Punta Arenas.

Matt has Bronchitis

2010-06-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to leave this morning, but Matt feels and looks in need of medical attention. He will take a bus to Cobano (a town about 30 km away) to see the doctor and get a proper diagnose and treatment. When he got there, the doctor was out, so they took him in an ambulance to another town called “Mal País”. About three hours later he is back with a complete cocktail of drugs (I should be the one taking the drugs!). I don’t get why when people are sick they get so hard to deal with, there is lots of anger, harshness, abuse? How are we supposed to give them the love they need, the tender care, the right dosage of medicine and not an overdose? (Matt was smart.. he took those on his own). Of course, Honey, that’s not you.. that is in general, other women’s husbands.

One more day...

I must go to Cobano to get another medicine, Samantha and Matt stay. Trini and I took the day just for us. We walked to the bus. To make the wait interesting: we elaborated paper boats that we then put in the water streams. Once in Cobano, we stopped for a juice and snack at a bakery, then went to the pharmacy, the grocery store and to the pet store where they had little chickens for sale. So tempting! One little yellow chicken hanging around on deck with the girls or going to the beach.. NO WAY! I remember growing up we used to buy chickens at the farmers market, they were such a disposable pet, they would only last a couple of days and usually the dog would put a quick end to our fun or who knows maybe we squeeze them to hard.. I only remember them being gone after just a few days.... In summary, Trini and I had a wonderful day, got the medicines and a few other items and headed back to the boat.

Trip to Montezuma

2010-06-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

Matt is still pretty ill, he will take it easy today and will stay onboard. The girls and I took a bus at 11 AM to the town of the waterfall; Montezuma. We rode for 45 min in the bus, pretty comfortably and enjoying the view and the action inside and outside the bus; little kids in uniform, younger than Samantha, with their backpacks, riding the public bus to and from school, people chasing chickens out of their property, men riding their bicycles to work, women walking out of the “pulperias” (convenience stores) etc. We got off the bus just hoping the waterfall would be easy to find and that there wouldn’t be too much hiking involved (the limitations of parenting and more yet… single parenting).

Finding the waterfall was easy, seeing the water FALL was impossible the trail had been washed out in parts and it has become mortally dangerous. However, not all was lost! Right above our heads they were; the White-headed Capuchin, waiting for suckers like us to give away our snacks. They had quite a buffet; peanuts, raisins, macadamias, almonds and granola bars! It was such a successful menu, that the group of 3 monkeys multiplied to more than 20.

There was another family already enjoying the display when we got there; Mom; Lara, dad; Alex and 2 girls (8 and 4). It couldn’t have been more perfect! The girls paired up immediately and while Samantha and the 8 year studied the monkeys’ behavior, Trini and the 4 year old discussed the world, sitting on a log under a tree. I was really interested on what Mom and Dad had to share regarding their travels. It was a short time spent together, I wish we had more. We had to rush out to catch the last bus back to Tambor.

There was a sense of satisfaction coming back home, the day was a SUPER day!!!

The people of Playa Tambor

2010-06-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Wonderful! The weight of this experience in my heart surpasses my expectations. I may sound like a typical tourist enchanted with the beauty of the country saying that everything is wonderful, but Costa Ricans for the most part make the term “PURA VIDA” a true statement of their way of being, specially here in Playa Tambor.

After a while in our “explorative-walk” we decided to take a little break. Samantha then announces she has a surprise for us; she had packed a chocolate bar to split. Then she decides that she would rather share it with a local girl who was looking at us. I thought it was a good idea, not only for the interaction they were about to have, but the calories I was about to give up. We asked the girl if she would like a piece, but she gave us a skeptical look and didn’t respond. I thought it would be more appropriate to ask her mother who was in a house a few steps ahead. After a few exchange of words Samantha and Trinidad were sharing the chocolate with a lot of other children and I was invited into the house. They offered me a sit, but before I sat they laid a clean sheet on a piece of foam just for me.

Two sisters; Yexi and Cindy, their Mom; Felice and their children, a couple of dogs, a parrot and us, all sitting under the porch of a small house with tin walls, dirt floors, a couple of well organized bedrooms and stairs to the porch; built with little pieces of wood thrown together in a hurry. I had to take steps with caution and make sure my overprotected children were safe. These are the kind of experiences my children should never forget. Life in the US is pretty unique; the simplest things we had back home, in most other countries are luxuries. I got the feeling Trinidad felt very curious about their living arrangements when she sat next to me to ask me a question in secret; she puts her hand on the side of her mouth, so no one could read her lips, and said “How do you say in Spanish: May I have a tour?” I should be glad she is not fluent.

Their good spirit not only shows through their hospitality, but their generosity. They showered us with presents; shells, earrings for the girls, toys and coral. It was so much, that even Samantha wasn’t sure how to deal with it. She would tell me: “Mom I don’t want to take this away from them” She had to learn to just say “Thank you” and take note of their generosity. How could they, having less than what we have, give away the little they have? That night Samantha and Trinidad had fun making bags for the kids with Polly pockets, candy and other little toys.

Its 5 o’clock, about time to start heading back to the boat. Matt came to meet us. We walked back together, got in the dinghy and retired to the boat. We are all on board and not a minute has passed the rain starts and it gets harder and harder and torrential. We made it just in time!

Entered Bahia Ballenas

2010-06-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

“One of the cruisers favorite destinations”… really? Not in June! I must admit it is pretty and at times of the year it must be quite an attraction. Between December and March is when the whales come to care for their young and the water is cobalt blue. During rainy season, there are not “ballenas” (whales), but an incredible amount of logs and the water is muddy brown due to the heavy rains.

We dropped the anchor and Matt suggested/commanded that the rest of the crew go to shore and explore, he was desperate for a nap. We rowed to shore just to discover that we did need a dinghy anchor to avoid being sucked under the pier. Exactly what the Cruising Guide recommended. We rowed back, got the anchor and got the assistance of a local young man who sympathized with us. He helped us with the operation of getting the dinghy situated and the kids and myself onto the dock. Once on top, we manage to o through and over the fishing nets, the puddles of fish blood, the fishermen filleting the fish, the fish heads, the hooks, the looks of the local and the so unforgettable smell.

The name of this beach is “Playa Tambor”; one narrow dirt road with little houses and shacks, jungle and beach. It has been raining, the smell, much different from the pier, is refreshing. It’s the wet jungle! The temperature is perfect, not too cold to wear excess clothing, but not to warm to be soaking in perspiration. It’s a great time to explore and the kids are all up for it.

To avoid the so unpleasant complains of “ I am thirsty” and “I am hungry” I invited the girls for a little drink and snack at a bar at the end of the peer; The Yacht Club. The place that will let us hang out for a couple of days and make use of their wireless connection. There we experienced the “Patacones” another Costa Rican dish; fried plantain with beans and guacamole. We all liked it.