Leaving Palenque

Well, today is the last day for us here in Palenque.  We went again to see the ruins and to make sure we didn't miss too much - although that would be impossible, because there is so much to see.  We will head back to the boat tomorrow - taking our time along the way as we have the rental car until Monday.  We are stopping at some waterfalls, some more ruins, and an old colonial town.  It has been a great vacation from our regular 24-7-365 vacation.  And the refrigerator parts we ordered cleared customs with no problems, and if the shipping does not get screwed up (always a concern when you are out of the country) we should have a functioning frig again soon. I know I talked  big about doing without, but that was just talk, probably trying to convince myself I didn't need it.  Of course, that gets into the difference between "need" and "want."  I could live without refrigeration - if I wanted to live as though I were camping.  Which I really do not.  I like having cold drinks, milk, eggs, and other stuff.  I have read enough to know there are many, many sailors who do without, but then they are usually content to sail without an engine too.  Mike may be gung ho to sail all the time even if we make 20 miles per 24 hours, but even he would not give up the engine all together.  So - here's to a functioning frig!

So far I have not been bitten by any  bugs - which is good because there is dengue fever down here, and that is not something I want to get.  It is carried by - you guessed it - mosquitos.  We brought some Deep Woods Off (which has DEET) but I hate it because it smells so bad and I can never seem to keep from getting it in my mouth somehow, and the taste is hard to wash away, even with beer.  I have heard there are other things that work well that do not smell bad,  but I have my doubts about the efficacy of Skin-So-Soft and other things.  I am not willing to risk dengue to test it out, either. 

The jungle is amazing and so are the ruins.  I will post pictures when I get an internet connection that is strong and fast enough.  We did take quite a few.  We were standing today thinking about what the place must have been like in its prime - thousands of people, colors, statuary, and everything that went with the pomp of the Mayan rulers.  The artwork they found in the ruins is not to be believed - jade was the favorite precious stone, and the jewelery is stunning.  They had quite a system of drainage and aquaducts too - some real engineering marvels. 

Today we saw a tiny lizard with the most beautiful colors - blue and yellow and black.  He (or she) was so handsome.  He was hesitant to post for a picture, but I think Mike got one.  I also saw a hairless dog.  He was black, and a bit bigger than a chihuahua.  Sort of pug sized and shaped.  He was friendly and ran around the jungle restaurant where I was drinking agualimon (sort of a not too sweet lemonade) and reading my kindle while Mike took a nap.  His owner (one of the resident hippies) had to keep corraling him, but he was too friendly and curious to behave very well.  I really miss having a dog, but I know I do not live in a good environment for that right now.  Especially if we do head off to the Pacific islands like Tahiti - the island nations have really strict rules about bringing animals in, and I don't blame them because they don't have rabies and don't want it.  It can be almost impossible to do everything required to bring a pet in, especially if it is by boat.  So no dogs for me for the forseeable future.  I will content myself with petting other people's dogs when I get the chance.

It is really interesting to note that while we have been here, Americans are definitely the minority as far as visitors go.  Lots of Brits, Aussies, French, Germans, Dutch - when I have breakfast, there are so many languages swirling around me that I can't even recognize English without listening very closely.  I have been speaking more and more Spanish - and am looking forward to taking a language class in Guatamala later this spring.  Or at least that is the plan.  Mike is going to do it too. 

As much fun as I have had, I am looking forward to getting back to the boat and sleeping in my own bed again.  And making my own coffee - although the place here has great coffee, and I learned to drink cafe macchiato - espresso with some milk, stronger than a latte.  It is my new favorite.

So that is all for today.  I plan to do some reading, then turn in, even though it is early.  Marching around in hot humid weather always takes it out of me, even though I handle it way better than I did before I started living in tropical conditions.  We will get an early start tomorrow and see how far we get - we never drive at night down here for a variety of reasons.  So adios - y hasta manana!

"Respect for the rights of others is the way of peace."  Benito Juarez      

Archeology at it's Best

I can't believe I wrote such a crummy post last night!  I forgot the most interesting thing of all.  While we were at the museum/park in Villahermosa, where there are some of these giant heads that were made by the Olmecs, I did not mention that there was a zoo with the historical stuff in the park.  The zoo had coyotes, alligator, crocodiles (way smaller and mellower than the alligators), a black jaguar, a spotted jaguar, and a lot of deer.  In addition, there was a margay - which is a beautiful spotted  cat no bigger than a house cat.  I want one!  There was another small cat - I am drawing a blank on its name - that is brown, with a very small head and ears, again the size of a big house cat.  It actually meowed at us!  It was kind of fun to go to a zoo. You need to know that I was never able to enjoy going to a zoo as a child, because my mother was violently opposed to them.   She referred to them as "concentration camps for animals."  She believed bonzai gardening was "plant abuse"  because it "stunted their roots."  While I believe she had a good point regarding zoos, it is still nice to admire the animals without having the bad parts shoved in your face.  Anyway, the best part was not the actual zoo animals,  but the fact that there were a number of animals that were roaming freely around the park.  One of the prime examples was the coatamundi, which looks like a cross  between an anteater and a raccoon.  And there were a ton of them.  They were everywhere and they were not shy.  I was sort of unnerved, as I am not crazy about small mammals.  I would rather face one of the jaguars.  These little guys were running all over the place, and when they opened their mouths, I could see a row of sharp little teeth.  Still, I do like to see wild animals running wild.

Today we went to see the Mayan ruins at Palenque.  It was amazing - acres and acres of ruins, in really good shape.  Huge temples, palaces and much of  it is intact.  And we could tell that the entire area is full of these places -  we were told only a tiny percentage of them have been uncovered,  When we took a path through the jungle, we could see walls covered with trees and vines.  This is the most jungly place I have ever been.

Because we are staying in the jungle itself at a place that does not have tons of amenities, we have seen mostly young people with backpacks.  And most of them are from Europe or Australia.  We have not  run into many Americans.  The young people are all hippies, with drapy clothing and dreadlocks, and they really do not give us the time of day.  I said to Mike "Look, the hippies are making snap judgments about us."  Then both of us laughed so hard we almost spit out our awesome coffee that was served at breakfast.  It was true, though.  There are few entities as condescending as hippies when they think they are dealing with establishment types.  If they  only knew!  They did seem a bit friendlier before Mike cut his hair.  When it was long, he looked like Jerry Garcia and that seemed to loosen them up a bit.

So far we are really enjoying our trip here in Chiapas.  I counted up the states we have been in and here is the list:  Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas, and Quintana Roo.  Not too shabby.  The friendliest people are in Sinaloa - they actually hug and pet you without even knowing your name and it seems perfectly natural. 

Right now Mike is taking a nap after we spent the day climbing around the ruins.  I think we will be sore tomorrow.  Although it is really hot and humid, there was a breeze blowing all day that made it feel pretty nice.  And we heard (but did not see) howler monkeys.  (I did see some in the zoo.)  If I had not known what they were, I would have thought someone was being tortured.  Those guys are LOUD!   I am looking forward to seeing them in the wild - and have been told they are more and more prevalent the further south we get. 

Tomorrow we plan to go back to the ruins and see the rest of them, and hike through the jungle some more.  We will spend the night here, and then head back towards the boat and Huatulco, passing some more ruins and some waterfalls along the way.   This part of Mexico is filled with lakes and rivers and streams with actual water running in them, a reallyexciting sight for someone who has spent many years living in essentially an irrigated desert.  There are few things that thrill me like the sight of naturally running water.  We brought a camera on this trip and have managed to hold onto it and take pictures, so illustrations will be forthcoming.  Thank you for waiting patiently.

"Greatness is not where we stand, but in what direction we are moving . . . we must sail, sometimes with the wind, sometimes against it, but sail we must, and not drift or lie at anchor."  Oliver Wendall HolmesGreatness is not where we stand, but in what direction we are moving....we must sail,
sometimes with the wind, sometimes against it, but sail we must, and not drift nor lie at anchor.
- Oliver Wendell HolmesGreatness is not where we stand, but in what direction we are moving....we must sail,
sometimes with the wind, sometimes against it, but sail we must, and not drift nor lie at anchor.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
            

Chiapas!

I really think that if I had to die right now, right this second, I would be okay with it.  We are in Chiapas state, in an actual jungle, in a remote hotel.  There is live music in a restaurant about 100 yards from my room, and I can't hear it because of the noise from the jungle critters.  There are crickets and cicadas, and that is just what I can identify.  It is truly unbelievable.

Today we left Coatzacoalcos in the morning, and headed southeast, through the state of Tabasco and into Chiapas.  We went from lowlands into hilly, jungle territory.  The brush is very thick, with wide leafed plants and tall trees that have vines growing up all over them.  The air is humid, and luckily for me, not too terribly hot. 

When we were driving today, we passed lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, creeks and every other kind of body of water imaginable.  To top it off, when we got to the place we are staying (near the Maya runis of Palenque) it began to rain really hard.  What a treat! I have not experienced any real rain since a short squall in the Sea of Cortes (that I could not enjoy as it was accompained by50+ knot winds, which terrified me) and one short rain while anchored in San Carlos.  This was real rain, no need to worry about boats being struck by lightning or anything like that.  We ate at an outdoor restaurant next to a creek with a waterfall.  What more could I want?  I would try and post pictures - I did take them this time - but I have a really slow internet connection so it will have to wait. 

Before we left Coatzacoalcos, we went wading in the Gulf of Mexico.  And I can say that I have been to at least 14 of the Mexican states.  Now I want to stay here longer and travel throughout the inland area I missed.   But since we are leaving for Central America, I will just have to come back.

I saw a movie the other night - "Out Idiot Brother".  Ignore the title and see it.  It is not exactly a landmark of American cinema, but it made me feel good.  And we can all use more of that.

My sister is running for state assembly in Wisconsin.  I am so proud of her I can hardly stand it.  She is very brave - I fear the opposition will try and hurt her badly but I think she is tough enough to take it. Politics is vicious these days and I do not want harm to come to her.  It is all about hitting below the belt.  I know I could not do it.  Check her out on google - Elizabeth Riley for Assembly.  Go Buffy!!!!!!!       

Drive to Coatzacoalcos

Today we drove seven hours from the Pacific coast to the gulf of Mexico.   One body of big water to another.  And they could not be more different.  We went from kind of sere to mountainous to jungle, just like that.  One minute we were in brown and dry, and the nesxt minute we were in wet and green.  All in the course of seven hours.  And we have not yet seen any other gringos.

We are in the process of touring the states of southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and Chiapas, but sadly will only be scratching the surface.  While we were driving today, we stopped and got corn on the cob, which came all cooked in a nice plastic bag, with salt, lime, and hot sauce.  I would not have thought of eating corn that way - butter, salt and pepper is what I was raised with - but this was really good.  A much better road snack than chips from OXXO (the 7-11 of Mexico).  When you drive any distance in Mexico and pass through little settlements (Not even towns or even villages) there are speed bumps in the road to slow you down.  And they are HUGE speed bumps, so you have to slow almost to a stop.  It is at that point that people step out into the road and try to sell stuff, usually food.  They have corn on the cob, sliced fruit of all sorts, ice cream, and popsicles, just to start.  We usually don't get anything, but this time we decided to do so.  I guess we will do it again if we get hungry.

This town is an oil town, right on the gulf.  It isn't the prettiest place, but it has a nice malecon (beachside boardwalk made of concrete) and a lot of statues dotting the way.  It was kind of overcast, which was actually sort of a nice break from the hot sun of the Pacific side.  It is pretty humid, though.  The waves are big and loud, and I would not want to be sailing in this.  The only ships I have seen are tankers.  We saw some huge lizards, some strange vulture-looking birds with white on their wings and tails, some unknown raptors, and some bluejay type birds with really long tails.  We need a new bird book - the one we have is for North America and the further south we get, we discover more and more species that are not listed in the book.  A lizard list would be helpful too - they are not all iguanas. 

Tomorrow we continue east towards the Maya ruins at Palenque in Chiapas. We are stopping at a museum/park in a place called Villahermosa where there are Olmec artifacts - the Olmec being the oldest known group in Mexico.  After that we will continue on to Palenque.  All in all, we will be gone from the boat for another eight days.  We ordered a part to frix the frig - and it should be there when we get back.  IF there are no problems with customs.  There shouldn't be, but one never knows about these things.

So that about sums up today.  We did bring the second camera, so we should have pictures of this trip.  I am exausted and plan to go to bed really soon.  The room here at this hotel has CNN international, so we can get a TV news fix.  Not that it is going to be anything I want to hear.  Good night to all! 

Back in Huatulco - for now

We got back to Huatulco on my birthday, which was Thursday.  It was a really wonderful trip.  After Mitla, we went to a place called Hierba de Agua, which was a mineral springs that bubbled up out of the ground.  The minerals left deposits on the cliffside that looked like a petrified waterfall.  We spent the night in a little cabin there - without running water, as we discovered when we tried to flush the toilet.

We saw so much and I learned to eat (besides the grasshoppers) tlalyulas.  Those are sort of like Oaxacan pizzas.  The ones I liked had black bean frijoles, tomatoes, avocado, and sliced beef, which at times is a little too salty as it is sort of dried and cured.   Most people like cheese on it too, but not me, I hate cheese in any of its evil forms.  It all comes on a really thin, crisp corn tortilla about the size of a small to medium pizza.

We also stayed at a bed and breakfast in Oaxaca city with the intriguing name of El Diablo y Sandia, which means the devil and the watermelon.  The owner, Maria, told us she wanted an unusual name.  Most of the B&Bs have names like Casa de this and Casa de that, and she wanted something different.  Plus she liked the idea of an English pub sort of name, like Pig and Whistle.  So one day her brother came up with the name.  The place was located right near the big Zocalo (town square) and was decorated with all sorts of Oaxacan art.  We met a couple from San Francisco, a familay from Buffalo, two women from Australia via Canada, and two women from Ireland while we were there.  I have never stayed at a B&B but once - and I was the only guest at that one, so I never got to meet anyone.  It was a lot of fun to get to know everyone when we all gathered for breakfast.  I hope to do this again - and meet more fellow travelers.  All the guests had been a lot of places and had a lot of good stories to tell.  

One of the things my friends and I have been talking about is how it will be to try somenew foods.  We have been living and eating in Mexico for quite some time now, and while we all love Mexican food, it will be  nice to have something else for a change.  The only thing I know for sure about food in El Salvador is that they eat a lot of pupusas, which are thick corn tortillas stuffed like a pita.  I am sure I will like that.  Every now and then we just crave hamburgers or something like that.  There is a place here near the marina that is owned by Canadians and they have excellent hamburgers - a big treat these days.  In the big cities you can get any kind of food you want, but in the small places - the sort of places we spend our time - the selection can  be limited at best. 

The laundry lady just stopped by with our clean laundry - it costs less or similar to what we would have to pay if we hauled it to a laundremat.  And that would cost taxi fare as well.  In the Sea of Cortes, I did the laundry in a bucket with a plunger and hung it to dry, but then we hardly wore anything except bathing suits and t-shirts, so it was easy.

We are planning another trip to Chiapas state to see some more ruins - so I need to cut this short as we need to investigate getting a rental car.  Since our plans regarding leaving for El Salvador have changed a bit - we are going straight from here instead of stopping once more in Mexico (We heard they are dredging the harbor there, requiring boats to anchor instead of go into the marina, the anchorage is not that great and clearing out of the country is a bit of a hassle) - we decided there is time for another inland exploration, and the ruins at Palenque are supposed to be really amazing.  There are some interesting things along the route as well.   We also discovered the weather across the Gulf of Tehuantepec was going to be bad until late next week at the earliest, so why not take advantage?    

I am so glad I am not in the US trying to fill my old SUV right now!

OK - Time to get going.  I will try and get some of the pictures our friends took (since our camera was lost) and post them.

"But what is worship? - to do the will of God - THAT is worship.  And what is the will of God? - to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man do to me - THAT is the will of God."  Herman Melville  

Greetings From Mitla!

Right now I am in Mitla, a little town in Oaxaca state.  It is famous for some Zapotec ruins that we plan to see tomorrow.  We have been travelling aroundthe state for a few days now, and I love this place.  Today we also went to Teotitlan, a tiny town that specializes in weaving and rug making.  Almost everyone in town has a big loom in their house and makes and sells handwoven rugs and textiles.  It is increcdible - gifts were bought, as well as three throw rugs for the boat.  The prices were amazing!  We only wished we had someplace to put even more rugs.  There is only so much floor space on the boat.

Tonight, when we went to dinner, we got a ride in this tricycle-type thing - like a motorcycle with a little trailer on it.  Since they are small and there were four of us, we took two of them.  The restaurant was down some winding streets that we never could have located on our own.  When they dropped us off, we made arrangements for them to come back and pick us up, which they did.  One of the drivers wanted us to come to his home and meet his family!  This is such a wonderful place - that would never happen in the US, and sadly, if it did, we would likely be suspicious.  Here, that was the last thing that went through my mind. 

We also went into a little church today that was located in Teotitlan.  It was a catholic church, and when we entered, we were blown away by the scent of all the lilies that decorated it.  I have been in a LOT of churches - I really like religious art - and most of them have been catholic.  This one was not the most ornate, but there was something about it that really moved me. I broke out in tears for no reason whatsoever except that I really felt something in there.  Mike later told me he felt the same.  While we were in there, we noticed that the thick stone walls had Zapotec carvings on them.  As we walked around the outside of the buildings, it became apparent that the church had been built on the same site as an old Zapotec temple.  It was beautifully integrated into the church building itself, which was built in the early 1700s.   The population here is mostly Zapotec.  One of the wonderful things about Oaxaca is the heavy influence of the indigenous population.  There are over 50 different ethnic groups in Oaxaca, and many of them speak their original languages.  The art is incredible - weaving, carving, pottery - I can't begin to describe everything we have seen.  The older women wear traditional dress.  I am sure I will be back here.  I really don't want to leave here.  This is one of the best places I have ever been.

The other thing I have done while in Oaxaca state is to eat fried grasshoppers.  They really are not bad, just sort of little crunchy fried things that taste like what they are seasoned with.  If I had not been told they were grasshoppers (chalupines en espanol) I would not have known what they were.  You can buy them in little packages (like peanuts) or in the markets there are women selling them from big piles on a table. You just indicate how much you want and they weigh them out into a little paper bag.   I would eat more of them except for the fact that I know they are bugs and I just can't get my brain around that.  Mike felt the same.  Some of them were spicy with lots of chile, and some of them were kind of lemony and salty.  Something for every taste!  I suppose you could add them to salads to add some crunch - like croutons.

Anyway, I am pretty tired after all our rug shopping today.  I really had to restrain myself not to buy more than I really had use for.  These gorgeous throw rugs - hand woven, beautiful colors and incredible quality - were so inexpensive I felt bad not paying more.  I have spent far more on sorry, cheap rugs that were not a fraction so beautiful.  Additionally, we were buying them directly from the weavers and got to see how they do it.  Each rug has a story, and that makes them more precious.  We also stopped by a family run mezcal maker, and learned how they do that as well.  When they make mezcal, they grind up maguey (or agave, a sort of cactus), squeeze the sweet juice out of it, and then ferment the juice, ending up with mezcal (similar to tequila for the uninitiated).  In this place, they used a burro walking around and around in a circle pulling a big grinding stone to crush the plants.  It was really interesting to see that!  The crushed juice went into this copper boiling thing, which was located over a fireplace.  After it cooked, it went into a big vat, and then into bottles.  We had some right out of the vat.  Too bad I don't like hard liquor!  Everyone else seemed to like it, and Mike now has two different kinds - a dark kind and a light kind. 

Tomorrow we see the Zapotec ruins here.  We saw some today at a place called Dainzu - it was a small site, but the carvings were beautiful and well preserved, and you could climb down into what was originally a tomb of some kind.  I will never fail to be awestruck when I see what people accomplished back then, using basically stone tools.  I am sure there is a lesson there.

"I never thought freedom was cheap."  Sonny Barger, former president of the Oakland Hell's Angels 



  

Oaxaca!

For the past four days, we have been traveling around.  We left on Thursday (Feb 16) and drove up into the mountains to a town called San Jose del Pacifico.  The mountains were gorgeous - big pines, and we felt like we were in the pacific northwest.  We spent the night at a place with little cabins.  The cabin had a fireplace and we needed it - be9ing that far up it was cold!  Luckily we thought far enough ahead and did bring sweaters - being too cold is something I have not worried about in ages.  The little town was interesting and it's claim to fame was mushrooms.  Not just any mushrooms, though, butmagic mushrooms.  We even met this guy running a store who guided people though trips on muchroom.  It involved sweat lodge type stuff and special cleansing teas and things like that.  It was not mushroom season though - that begins in July.  So no trips for us this time around!

Oaxaca is an incredible city.  I could go on forever.  The only bummer note onthis trip is that we lost our camera somewhere in a market - must have set it down while looking at something - and we couldn't find it again.  So our friends have agreed to share the pictures they took, and I will post them when we get them.  Mike wanted a new, better camera anyway, so this is a good excuse to get one.

The art down here is unimaginable.  They specialize in textiles and carvings, as well as this pottery called Barra Negra.  We got some examples of everything we could - of course the problem is where do we put anything on a boat?  We started thinking we needed a house as a reposetory for all the wonderful things down here.  The architecture is all Spanish Colonial, and there is a church just as ornate as the finest cathedrals in Europe.  We saw a wedding that began with a parade down the main street with dancers and huge puppets on sticks representing the bride and groom.  The women dancers wore colorful full skirts and blouses with long ribbons braided into their hair, and the male dancers were wearing sort of clown-y looking costumes with big hats and lots of streamers.  The parade was led by a guy setting off expolsive fireworks.  At the end of the parade came the bride and her father, then all the wedding guests. 

We also went to a museum that held antiquities that were removed from a ruins called Monte Alban, located here.  Again, it was incredible to see what these people were doing over1500 years BCE.  There was intricate metelwork, pottery, and stonework, including carvings of jade and quartz crystal.  Both of those are extremely hard to work with stones, and the fact that they were done with stonetools is further evidence this was an extremely advanced society.  It is a Zapotec ruin, and the Zapotecs were never really "conquered" by anyone, even Cortes or the Aztecs.  They have continued to flex their muscles even into the current day. 

Today we are going to spend some more time wandering around the city, and I plan to hit some markets and see what I find that I can't live without.  That shouldn't be too difficult here!

"What, me worry?"  Alfred E. Newman    

In the Marina

Yesterday we moved into the marina, in preparation for an eight day trip into the state of Oaxaca.   When we arrived, the line handlers (the marina employees who are there to grab your dock lines when you pull into your assigned slip) were motioning for us to come parallel to the dock and tie up sideways.  This sounds easy - but there were two boats we were supposed to pull between.  I exclaimed "They want us to parallel park!"

Now steering a boat, especially a big sailboat, is not even close to driving a car, even when you have the engine on.  And steering it into a slip in a marina is very unnerving.  It is tight, and there are a lot of things you copuld run into.  Additionally, it is a spectator sport and everyone on the dock watches to see if you are going to screw it up.  I know this because I do it.  ("Hey Mike!  There's a big boat coming in!  Check it out!  Man, did he get close!")  Because  boats have no ability to steer unless they are moving, if you go too slow you can't control it very well.  And you have to go really show because boats do not stop on a dime (not even on a silver dollar) and you don't want to bash into the dock with the bow.  And backing - well, most sailboats, including ours, has something known as "prop walk."  When you put the engine into reverse, the stern will swing in one doirection  or another.  Magda Jean pulls to the right (starboard).  We can sometimes use this to our advantage, but depending on how the assigned slip is aligned, it can be a real hassle.  So it is a delicate balance, and Mike gets nervous everytime we pull into a marina.

But every time he performs like a champ and this was no exception.  Everyone on the dock congratulated him and said their boats did not back so well.  He backed Magda Jean right along that dock just like parking a car.  It was great.  I was really proud.

Before we left our anchorage, a boat anchored along with us came loose.   It was wandering all over the anchorage, bumping into other boats.  (There was a fair number of unattended boats at anchor there.)  It also hit a buoy.  We weren't in any danger from it, but we felt bad for it and for all the boats it was bumping in to.  So I called the port captain on the radio and reported it (in Spanish I am proud to say) and they thanked me for calling.  Several hours later some guy appeared on the wayward boat and re-secured her.  Now for the best part - the boat's name was Chica Mala.  It means Bad Girl and she was being a bad girl, for sure.     

I was dismayed to find myself yesterday getting way too hot.  That has always been a problem for me - and I know I have gone on and on about that issue here ad nauseum.  But I thought I figured it out this summer.  It bummed me pout to think I would have to start acclimatizing all over again every time I was out of heat and then got into it.  But Mike suggested that perhaps the problem was that I was not drinking enough water and getting dehydrated.  I told him I wasn't thirsty, but he said that you could be dehydrated without feeling thirsty.  So today when we went to walk around this wonderful little town, I made sure to drink water and bring it with me.  And it seemed to work.  I was still hot, sweat was literally dripping off my face onto the ground and my shirt was soaked, but I felt fine.  So simple.  We had a wonderful day just wandering around.  We found the specimen net we want for our on-board science set up (now we need to find a microscope), we found some medications I need, and had a great breakfast.  And we made arrangements to have someone come out here tomorrow and take a look at the fridge.  The little town here is called La Crucecita.  It is one of the cleanest and most well kept places we have seen since being here.  There is a town square with big shade trees, and the streets are wide.   People are very friendly, just like in Sinaloa.  And the mole here is to die for.

Mike cut his hair off.  Even though l liked the hippie look, I must say he looks very handsome.

Here are some more pictures.  This is a booby riding on a tortoise.

Sea Snake!  No swim call for me!

A dolphin - they are so hard to catch in a photo.  I have a lot of pictures of splashes.

This is a sea turtle or sea tortoise.  I do not know the difference, but I am pretty sure there is one.

This is the town of La Crucecita

The picture does not do it justice.

Well, that is all for today.  I will leave you with this for now.





"Doubts of all things earthly and intuitions of somethings heavenly, this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who regards them both with equal eyes."  Herman Melville

Pictures

We are anchored in Huatulco, and plan to move to the marina either todaya or tomorrow so we can do some inland travel.  But in the meantime, here is some of what we have been looking at and experiencing.

This is a sunset on the way to Manzanillo

This is what the moon looks like at night while sailing

This is where we anchored in Manzanillo

Booby on Board

Sleeping Booby

More to come!

  

Missing Post

Here is a post that never got published while I was underway.  It was from January 31, and now that I am back in regular internet, I see that the Januaary 30 post was published twice, and this one not at all.  When I am underway posting over the SSB radio, I can't see what has been published as I can't log on and look at it.  Anyway, I haven't figured out how to delete the extra 30th post, but here is the one that was missed.

We left Zihuatanejo on the 29th at about noon.  It is now the 31st at 9 am.  You do the math, I am too tired after my night watch.

 

It has been a real mixed bag, so far.  Nothing bad has happened, just those periods of no wind where it is all I can do to keep the boat moving forward in the right direction.  That usually begins at sunset and hits its most problematic apex on my watch.  Mike did warn me that this particular watch was a "dynamic watch."  So far it is.  The good part is that I am getting better at reading the instruments and determining how to use all this data I am provided with electronically.  And being directionally challenged does not help.  If I am using a road map and driving south, I turn the map upside down so my finger traces the line just as the car is driving.  I can't do that with the GPS display.  I sometimes get confused about which direction I need to turn (left or right)in order to head in the direction I want to go.  I suppose that makes no sense at all, and I really can't explain it.  No wonder Mike gets irritated with me!

 

Last night (I guess early this morning to be precise) Mike and I saw the most fabulous dolphin laser light show ever.  There were at least ten of them, and they were frolicking in the bioluminesence going all around and under the boat.  They were slapping their tales on the water, and making all kinds of racket.  It really seemed like they were playing with the biolum on purpose, not just swimming through it.  We watched them for at least 10 to 15 minutes. 

 

This morning, before it was really light out, I saw a lone booby flying all around the boat in circles.  He came so close to where I was sitting in the cockpit that when he came up behind me, the rustle of his wings was so loud it startled me.  He flew around and around the boat for about 15 minutes at least, and then finally came to rest perched on the bow pulpit.  We don't usually allow boobies to stay on the boat because they make a horrible mess in a short period of time.  But I let him stay awhile, in part because it looked like any mess would more likely go overboard than on deck.  I was surprised he actually landed where he did because boobies don't perch - they have duck feet, and they land on water or land or on a flat rock surface, not where they have to curl their feet around something narrow.  But this one did a good job.  He didn't fly away until I got in close taking pictures of him.

Well, that will have to do it for today.  I suspect we have several more days before we get there - wind and weather permitting!

"If you smile at me I will understand for that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language."  Stephen Stills (I think)

Really Not Much At All

It has been a couple of days (I think so anyway -the days sort of blends together out here) and things have simply been quiet and peaceful. We went for a beach cookout day before yesterday with our friends and had a great time - we had paella cooked over a fire. Mike and our friend dug a hole in the sand and lined it with stones. Then we made a fire in it and cooked the paella over the fire on a grill. It's funny - we spend so much time living off of beaches yet aren't really on them that much. Its hard to explain. We often swim off the boat, and when we go to shore we hike and stuff like that to get exercise. Or we dive, merely using the shore to store our stuff while we are in the water. Then we go back to the boat for beers. Or to a nearby palapa restaurant for beers and seafood. But we spend way less time actually hanging out on the beach then I did in San Diego. Anyway, the cookout was wonderful - delicious food, great company, and a really special locale.

We have also been doing the inevitable boat chores - buckets of laundry, cleaning out through hulls so the toilet continues to function properly, and keeping things spruced up generally. Without a frig, we have managed to be here at anchor for days now without running the engine to charge the batteries. And we are not overly conservative about our power usage - we use this computer, we watch movies, keep the place well-lighted, use our fans, and other things. It is really amazing.

The plan as of today is to spend the rest of the week here, and then check into the marina nearby on Monday. Then we want to take a trip inland into the state of Oaxaca while the boat is safely marina-ed (my newest new word). I have a request into the marina for rates and availability information. We'll see what happens.

So that is really all I can think of for today - not one of the more exciting posts, unfortunately. But even out here, things can at times be mundane and routine, which is periodically sort of comforting. Our plan for today and the next couple of days is for the boat to have a bow to stern cleaning inside and out. I guess you could call it spring cleaning. Cheers!

"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned . . . A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company." Samuel Johnson

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Rock and Roll

That is what we did here last night and what we have done all day today. I have discovered that the Pacific Ocean anchorages are not, for the most part, as calm as most of the anchorages in the Sea of Cortez. This one has been pretty rolly in general, but not a problem. It is still not really a problem, except for making it uncomfortable to sleep. Mike says it is because there is a Tehuantepecker blowing south of us, affecting the swell in the anchorage.

I should tell you about those. "Tehuantepeckers" are winds that funnel across the skinny part of the southeastern part of Mexico, from the Caribbean to the Pacific, across the Bay of Tehuantepec. We are going to have to watch the weather very carefully when we get ready to leave for El Salvador, because we do not want to sail through one. The winds are very strong and the seas get big and hard to deal with. It is supposed to be a very uncomfortable sail at best if you plan it wrong, and it could be dangerous at worst. You have to sail close to shore, watching the depth, in order to avoid the strong fetch causing big short s waves. We will be crossing at the end of the gale season.

But for right now, we continue to enjoy ourselves here in Bahia San Augustin, aka Puerto Sacrificio. Yesterday we had to go into the little town that is close by here, because we had no cash money and there is no ATM here. So we made the acquaintance of Burro Kiko, who is the go-to guy for whatever you need in this area. He owns one of the seafood palapa cantina/restaurants (they call those restaurants "mariscos"down here) that serves wonderful food. So we went over there in the dinghy, and struck a deal for a ride the 28 kilometers into La Crucecita. It was a long ride, because a good portion was over a dirt road with lots of "topes", or rather dramatic speed bumps. We went to the bank, and then just drove around looking things over. It is a really neat, pretty, clean little town with just about all the necessities. On the way home, Burro Kiko took us to a little roadside stand where we bought a bag of ripe mangoes, and later on he cut a nice hand of bananas from a stalk in his restaurant and gave it to us to take back to the boat. Then after we returned back, we discovered that Burro Kiko (real name Roberto) had satellite TV at his little palapa restaurant, and also informed us we were welcome to stay and watch the Superbowl! We had an incredible grilled seafood platter, and drank beer and watched the game. We were joined by the waiter Juan Carlos and Burro Kiko, and were treated to shots of mescal on the house. It was a really wonderful day. We found out the peacocks in Mexico are called "pavo real" which translates as "royal turkey." We also saw some wild looking birds we have yet to identify.

Anyway, today we just kicked back here on the boat, did a few chores, and watched some movies. I didn't sleep that well because of all the rolling, so I was pretty tired anyway. I am not expecting things to be much better tonight, but I hope they do not get worse.

We don't have any kind of internet access here in this anchorage, but eventually we will check into the marina here, to get ready for the push to El Salvador. We have been reviewing all the information we have about Central America, and El Salvador in particular. I am really getting excited about it. We may stop in Puerto Chiapas after crossing the Bay of Tehuantepec, prior to leaving Mexico, but we aren't sure about that yet. As soon as I get internet access, I will be posting pictures. So - that is all for today. Time to watch another movie.

"Oh who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried,
And danced in triumph o'er the waters wide,
The exulting sense - the pulse's maddening play,
That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way" Lord Byron

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Huatulco!

We arrived here yesterday after sailing for five days. I was really glad to see the harbor, and the last three miles seemed pretty long. We are anchored in a beautiful little bay, with rocky sides and rocky out croppings along the shoreline. There are several wonderful looking beaches sandwiched in between the rocks. I will post some pictures as soon as I have regular internet connection.

The little bay where we are anchored is part of a larger system called Bahias De Huatulco. This particular one has two names - Bahia San Augustin (which I like and feel comfortable with) and Bahia Sacrificio (which I do not like and do not feel comfortable with). One of the little beaches is lined with palapa restaurants. We ate at one of them last night - it was delicious. I had shrimp cooked in garlic and butter.

Today we made water and discovered we used very little over the course of the voyage. Both of us showered (TMI, I know) and both of us had plenty of water to drink. We did wash dishes, and I even did a tiny load of laundry. So we were really pleased with the results. It bodes well for long passages across oceans to have easy access to that much water with such good quality. I really need to write a nice letter to the guy who makes and sells them so he could have a testimonial to show people.

Mike and a friend of ours looked the frig over and tinkered with it for several hours today, and finally pronounced it dead. We cleaned it out too - I had been sort of dreading dealing with it, but it wasn't that big of a deal after all. It smelled bad when I opened it - not that there was anything rotten in it, I had been keeping things pretty well cleaned out, but it had been closed up, and just wasn't very fresh. So we emptied it, cleaned it out, rinsed it with bleach, and now it is clean and fresh and ready for a new life as an icebox. It was a good excuse to get rid of all the condiments that were almost empty, things we bought and tried but didn't really like but never threw away, stuff like that. Now we can start over again. It is liberating in a strange sort of way. But then I always did like throwing everything out and starting over.

I think while underway we managed to join a very exclusive club - the number of people who have seen sea turtles mate in the wild. It was pretty amazing. I simply can[t believe how many turtles we saw this trip, and how many jellies as well. Not to mention the sea snake.

Mike and I felt pretty good about this trip, for all my whining about going so slowly. When we checked all the hours and did all the math, we discovered the trip took 123 hours and we used the engine for 12.3 of them! The symmetry of that blew me away, but then I love stuff like that. So we only motored 10% of the time. Mike is really invested in sailing as much as possible, and I am not opposed to it, but there are times I am going to want to get where we are going and might insist on some motoring. He has promised not to be at all stingy about using the motor to cross the infamous Gulf of Tehuanapec.

We will be in this area here for about a month, and at some point will likely go into the marina to get ready for the push to El Salvador. We also want to take a trip to the city of Oaxaca, and maybe some other land exploration as well. Plus we need to see about getting our mail, and things can be easily DHL'd care of the marina.

Tomorrow we are heading into town for cash and a few provisions. Our friends are here, and perhaps they will tag along with us. We found a girl selling jewelry made from the pearl-type things produced by abalone. They were absolutely beautiful and I want to buy some, so we need cash - having forgot to get any before we left Zihuatanejo. Bad mistake, we can't do that again, even after we leave Mexico. You never know when you will end up somewhere with no ATM or one that is hard to get to. From now on we will not be so careless!

"The sea is as near as we come to another world." Anne Stevenson

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

The Show Goes On

(Feb 2, 10:25 am central time)

Today I saw my first sea snake ever. It was kind of a greyish dark green with a bright yellow stripe, about three feet long. It had a really small head and mouth, and was shaped a bit differently than your average land snake. We saw it because we were both looking over the side of the boat watching jellyfish and regular fish swimming around. There are these small striped fish (they look like what one would have in an aquarium) that are always swimming around the boat, and all of a sudden they took off in a big group right up to the surface and started milling around something, and that something turned out to be the snake. I ran and got the camera - I think we got pictures of it. We tried.

Between the snake and all these jellies, I am not going on swim call out here. The jellies have to be seen to be believed. There are literally hundreds of different kinds of them, all different sizes, shapes, colors, consistencies, you name it. Some of them are incredibly beautiful, with delicate shaping and neon colors that flash like LED lights, visible even in the daytime. There are great big ones and little tiny ones that look like bits of plant matter until you look close. We have vowed to get a microscope kit and a specimen net, and handling gloves.

Of course I have to admit I would not get to see all these incredible creatures if we were going faster. At 1.5 or 2 knots per hour, you can sit on the side of the boat and just watch the creatures go by. We are learning who is out at what time of day, who seems to be bold and curious and who is shy, who squabbles with other species and who does not, and all sorts of things. It is like being at the zoo or at an aquarium all the time. If we motored along, we would miss all this.

Right now we are motoring - we do motor about an hour each day to charge the batteries. I insist that Mike put it into gear and get somewhere since we have to do it anyway. We wait until there is a period of no wind (inevitable) and then take advantage of what would be just drifting along to make some progress. I hate the noise as much as he does. But I am putting it to good use right now - using the computer to write this, as well as charging the phone (which we can only use in port or close to a cell tower when we are offshore) and my Kindle. Finally, the engine performs better if it is used regularly.

Yesterday in the afternoon we came across an entire herd (for lack of a better term) of sea turtles. We usually see them on occasion, but yesterday it was one after another, two and three at a time. Many of them had boobies riding on their backs, and almost all of them had bird poop on their back. (Because we were drifting along almost becalmed, we were able to get up close and see all this.) I figure maybe they are all headed to shore for mating and egg laying. I have never seen so many! And some of them were huge!

We are just over 100 miles from Huatulco, so I think we will make it some time tomorrow. Famous last words! It all depends on the wind of course - I am settled in for the duration and will not fight it. Last night I found meat that had gone bad - I think we are just about out of anything that was frozen. All that is left are a few vegetables that will be eaten today and tomorrow, and some lunchmeat and sausage that is probably indestructable and shouldn't be eaten anyway because to survive that long is not natural and frankly a little scary. I have a lot of soy chorizo - that will stay good for a long time. The beer is getting warm - I will be surprised if our one daily underway beer that we have in the late afternoon is still cold. We will see how long the eggs last.

So that is it for today from somewhere off the southern coast of Mexico. It is strange to think of how far east we are because I always think of Mexico as being a western place. We are really far south, too, possibly further south than I have ever been before.

"You can sail for one day, can't you? That's all it is - one day after another." Harry Pidgeon, three time single handed circumnavigator

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Wildlife of the Briny Deep

It is February 1, 2012. This is the best month of the year for so many reasons: 29 days sometimes, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Black History Month . . . all sorts of exciting things. Oh! I forgot! It is also my birthday month AND my anniversary month.

It is only 11:49 am. but so far it has been an eventful day. Yesterday at about 8 pm (after I had gone to bed) Mike heard a splash behind him and looked around. He saw a booby that had crashed landed in the water just to the stern of where he was sitting in the cockpit. Then the bird struggled to fly, circled the boat a couple of times, and landed on the deck. Mike decided to let him (or her, it is hard to tell with boobies because there is no visible difference [to me at least] between males and females) stay there. It was dark and the bird seemed to be having trouble. When I got up at 2 am for my watch, Mike told me we had a guest, and pointed him out. It was too dark for me to see anything other than a booby-sized blob on the deck.

I had dolphins checking in with me all through the night - coming up and making their presence known the way they do - although I could only hear and not see them as there was no real bioluminescence last night. I kept an eye on the booby shaped blob, and as the sky began to lighten (about 6:15 am or so, I could sort of make him out. I got a better view after sunrise. He was standing nicely on the deck, sleeping with his head under his wing.

Later he woke up and began to preen his feathers (he pretty much continued to preen off and on for the rest of the time he was on the boat). He had a chocolate brown back and a white stomach. His feet were a lovely light green. (There are blue footed boobies too.) When he spread his chocolate brown, wings, there were white highlights visible. His head was a mixture of brown and white feather, which looked sort of beige from a distance. His head was that same color mixture, only lighter. Finally, he had a fringe of white around his tiny face with its big round black eyes. His beak, which took up most of his face, was sort of blue with the lines the same color as his feet on it. It was like a cross between a bill and a beak, really.

Because he was there and getting better and better looking - his feathers were plushier looking, he seemed to be getting peppier, he moved around more, we decided he was just resting, not sick or dying, and made the decision to allow him to stay until he was ready to leave. No problem except due to his choice of locations on the deck, we couldn't rig and use the asymmetrical spinnaker, so we couldn't make particularly good time. But so what else is new with us? We have been poking along with a few time periods here and there with really decent winds.

I am spending a lot of time thinking about why I get so frustrated with how long it takes us to get places. We are about the only people we know who are so loathe to use the engine. I have no idea if people laugh at us or admire us for our determination to sail everywhere. I suspect there is some of both. Intellectually I have no problem with it. I like it out here. I don't get bored. I have no set schedule. Nonetheless, it annoys me when we average less than 2 knots per hour. I need to figure this out so I can get over it. It isn't a matter of saving fuel here, because we could easily motor the while way if we wanted to. But Tahiti will be a long sail, there will be periods when we will be becalmed possibly for days, and we will need to ration our fuel on a trip that will last a month or so.

The other wildlife adventures today were as follows: periodic clots of weird looking jellyfish, several sea turtles, a booby riding on a turtle's back (I have a picture), and a large pod of dolphins who cavorted at the bow of the boat for almost 20 minutes. I guess this is a big reason why I don't get bored out here.

"I made companionship with what there was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own insignificant self." Joshua Slocum, "Sailing Alone Around the World"

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com