Different Mexicos

Like the US, and because it is a geographically large country, there are real differences between different parts of Mexico.  Some are more tourist-oriented than others, and I suppose because we have been so many different places, we have found certain things we like and certain things we don't like.  I am always sort of hesitant to say "go here" or"go there" because different people like different things. 

One of the things we really like are nice beaches.  And having spent time exploring the almost deserted pristine beaches in the Sea of Cortez, we are, I suppose, phenomenally spoiled.  That said, there are times when we enjoy being part of a tourist scene.  It does get sort of strange being the only gringo in town. 

So we headed to Playa del Carmen, for a taste of the Caribbean.  I have been to Cancun (party central) and knew that was not what we were looking for.  Playa del Carmen is, according to my guidebook (a very old version, I know now) much lower key and a fun, laid back beach town.  I guess it still was fun, but it is not even close to being laid back in any way.  I have never in my life - and that includes Mazatlan, Cabo, and Puerto Vallarta - been literally hassled by hawkers from stores and timeshares and tour groups.  It was like a verbal assault from all angles.  They literally chased after is on the street hollering questions.  And there was no way to get away from it.  The place is one big shopping mall bordered by a beach.  That was it.  And while the beach was pretty, it smelled of sewage in places.  Additionally, we spent way too much money on mediocre food. 

We did have an awesome hotel room for a great price - a third floor suite with a full kitchen and private roof balcony for $100 per night American.  That was good because at times we used it to hide from all the uproar outside.  And while it was just a big shopping mall, the prices were not bad and they did have nice stuff to sell.  So if you are looking for a big party scene with lots of gringos and plenty of stuff to buy, this is your place.

We spent the days prior to P del C exploring ruins in western Yucatan.  We stayed in a wonderful little hotel where our host took us to swim in cenotes.  We had great meals - I truly believe Yucatan has the best food in Mexico.  We stumbled across unexcavated ruins that are not listed in any guidebooks.  We learned some Maya words.  (Mike now wants to learn Maya.)  I took Mike to see Chichen Itza - one of the grand daddies of all the ruins.  The last time I was there, they let you climb  to the top of the big pyramid, but now it is closed off.  I was not disappointed - it is really high and I had already fallen and scraped my knee while negotiating the gravel sidewalk.  I felt like an idiot and people came running up and expressing concern.  We also went to the ruins at Ek Balam, which in some ways were even more impressive.  And you could climb around on them.  I fell again, this time no damage, but I felt shaky afterwards (since this time I fell climbing one of the ruins) so I let Mike climb up the big one by himself.  He is terribly afraid of heights, but he forces himself to confront that fear.  I say happily in the shade watching him do it.  There are so many ruin sites here in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador that it would take years to see them all.  I think even Mike is somewhat ruin-ed out at this point in time. 

Right now we are in Chetumal, which is the last town in Mexico before you enter Belize.  Chetumal is NOT a tourist town.  The only gringos here (other than us) are a handful of expats and people on their way to and from Belize.  We met a man last night who lives here - an older man who wanted to talk about the Rothschilds and Biltenbergs (something like that, anyway) and the tri-lateral commission, and all kinds of stuff like that.  It all had to do with plots and conspiracies and oil companies, and one of those plots involves Hurricane Sandy, which he says was somehow purposely initiated or set up by a group called HULA who is doing it to somehow mess with the election, thereby ensuring the re-election of Obama.  It was entertaining.  I guess I am the last one to know about this.  Anyway, he was a nice old man even if he was a bit eccentric.  He did give us some good suggestions on Belize as he has spent quite a bit of time there. 

We are taking a boat, rather than a bus, to Belize.  It is more expensive than the bus, but it sounds like fun.  We didn't plan to go this way, so I have rearranged our travel plans - first stop will be Caulker Caye.  My sister went there and said it is beautiful.  It is supposed to be peaceful and quiet, with snorkeling and I am looking forward to it.  We will then head for another cay, Tobacco Caye. and then on to Belmopan, in the middle of the country where it will be ruins and caves and monkeys and all sorts of things.  After that, we head to Guatemala.  At this rate, it will be Christmas before we get back to Magda Jean, who by all accounts is doing fine in our absence.  I have never seen such white sand as exists here in the Caribbean.  If not for hurricanes (more of a danger here than on the Pacific side), it would be tempting to sail through the Panama Canal and spend some time here with the boat.  This town we are in was completely destroyed in 1955 by Hurricane Janet, so all the buildings are 1950s or later.  There is a wonderful statute built at the waterfront illustrating it and I will post the picture when it gets downloaded. 

So that is it for now - next post will be from Belize.  Again, it will be hard to leave Mexico.  I love it that much.

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."  (Anatole France)                   
        

A True Magical Mystery Tour

The magical mystery tour is coming to take you away . . . and I am not exaggerating,.  The past two days have been simply amazing.  Yesterday we went to the ruins at Uxmal, which is a pretty large site.  Here is a picture of the site itself.

It was somewhat overcast and we actually got rained on, for which we were grateful because it was HOT.  Here I am, wet as can be with sweat.  That is why my chest is shining brightly.

The jaguar (balam in Maya) plays a huge role in Maya symbology.  Here is a throne, with an image of a two headed jaguar. 

This site is in really good shape - there is a lot of detail still visible clearly, 

But my favorite was what is called the Pigeon House because that is what it looks like.

 

 

But the best in some ways was still to come.  The topography here is interesting because it is karst topography, with mostly limestone.  This means there are a LOT of caves here.  And caves were sacred to the Maya, who regarded then as an entrance to the underworld.  The Maya (current calendar issues notwithstanding) have no concept of an end to the world.  They see life as sort of being in three layers - the sky, the earth, and the underworld.   As we were heading towards another ruin site, one called Oxkintok, we ran into a man who offered to take us to a newly discovered site that had Maya petroglyphs and cave painting.  Although we took pictures, it was dark in the cave, you do not want to use a strong flash and I know they will not show here what we saw.  But we went in this big cave, and all over the ceiling were paintings in different colors, mostly red.  They told of the abandonment of a nearby site.  The place was discovered by archaeologists from the Discovery Channel and national Geographic.  This was not just a cave, however, it was also a cenote (sen oh -tay).  A cenote is a sinkhole, or a cave full of water.  Like a grotto.  We underwent a Maya purification ritual, including the burning of incense and a sort of baptism.  Here we are with Victor, our Maya speaking guide.  (By  the way, a lot of the people here speak Maya as a first language, with Spanish coming in second.)   

Then to top things off, we got to go swimming in it.  The water was clear, refreshing, and wonderfully cooling after being all hot at the ruins sites.

 

 

I can't find words to describe what an experience it was.  I am not a really spiritual person, but I could feel something special in there.  I have felt the same way in some of the churches we have been in down here. 

 

 

Today we went to some different cenotes, albeit without the Maya mythology,  There are a couple thousand of these scattered throughout the Yucatan.  Some of them are holes in people's yards, and there are some that are commercial enterprises that charge people to come and swim, with bathhouses and refreshment stands.  We did not go to those, rather, ours were located off out of the way dirt roads.  Here is the entrance to one of them.



 

And here I am with out guide, Roman, who also owned the hotel we stayed at.

 

\thi is what the water looks like.  It is not dirty, rather, leaves and sticks fall into it.  But it is so clean and clear it is unbelievable.

 

Here is how it looks when the sunlight streams down on it.

 

Again, it was an incredible experience and we swam for about an hour, playing in the water and just soaking it all up.  We later went and roamed around an abandoned hacienda, which had its heyday when hennequin (sisal) was a major crop for the area.  At that time, because of hennequin, which was referred to as oro verde (green gold) Yucatan was the richest state in Mexico.  However, nylon and other synthetics soon took the place of sisal, and although it is still manufactured here out of a plant that looks a lot like agave, it is not what it once was.  We actually saw a factory processing it in Merida. 

 

So tomorrow we are off to more ruins near here, and then we will head off to Chichen Itza.  I went there once a number of years ago with my best friend Sue, and I am eager to see it again.  At that time, I knew little about the Maya and their culture and history, so this time it should be even more interesting.  I am even learning a few words in Maya.  For example, pec is dog, ak is turtle, and balam is jaguar.  (This will wreak havoc with my spell check!)  The last two days have been exhausting for me, as our guides spoke no English, and I had to translate all the Spanish for Mike.  It is very tiring because you have to pay attention very carefully every minute.  And that is wearing, but I was glad for the experience, which can only help me improve my language skills.  I am getting better about being able to speak other than in the present tense.

 

OK - I am getting tired and want to kick back with a beer before I go to bed.  Tomorrow will be another long,but fascinating day!

 

 

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you." 
(Frida Kahlo)           

 

 

 

Fotografias de Mexico

You know, this trip was not supposed to last this long!  But who knew we would fall in love with yet another place in Mexico - Yucatan!  We are up to our ears in Mayan culture.  everything about being here is simply wondrous.  Again, I have run out of superlatives and am getting repetitive. 

Here are some pictures we took earlier on the trip.  These are pictures of the ruins at Bonampak, which is in Chiapas.  What makes this site so amazing are the intact paintings on the inside of one of the walls.  It is only partially excavated.

 

This is the boat we took to the ruins at Yaxchilan.  I am in the front.  This river separates Mexico from Guatemala.

      

These are the ruins at Yaxchilan as they appear as you head down the river. 

 

And here is one of the large temples.

 

Later we went on a hike through the jungle and stayed at a jungle lodge.  The lodge itself was very simple - a cabin, one bulb, bamboo walls, and not really effective mosquito screening over the top.  We did, however, sleep beautifully.

 

There were wild parrots on the grounds.  This one posed for Mike's camera.

 

Examples of jungle flora and fauna - a huge butterfly and orange mushrooms.

We went swimming in a waterfall at the end of a long hot hike.  It was a perfect ending!

 

 

And although we expected to see interesting things on this jungle hike, we were surprised by the sight of a set of unexcavated ruins. 

 

 

All of this was still in Chiapas.  Here are some of the Mayan women who all wear traditional dress.

 

This is one of the Mayan sun gods.  All of the different Mayan areas have slightly different deities.  The big eyes demonstrate enlightenment.

 

 

Now it is time to move on to Campeche. Campeche is located on the Gulf of Mexico.  It is a beautifully restored old colonial town. It used to be surrounded by walls because of pirates.  And it has a beautiful cathedral.  Here is a view of the city from atop the walls.

 

 

 This is the street where our hotel was located.  In the older cities here in Mexico, the houses and hotels all have big doors that make it look like nothing is open, but when you ring the bell and are invited in, things are beautiful.  Behind these doors are courtyards filled with flowers and incredible gardens. 

 

 

 This is enough to make me want to be a religious person. 

 

 

 Here are the walls of the city with all the old cannons.  Campeche suffered more from pirate attacks than any other place in Mexico.  In fact, at one point all the different pirate groups put aside their differences, united into one big pirate army, and spent an entire month raping and pillaging.  There are quite a few places here named after Henry Morgan and Francis Drake. 

 

And in the town square, here one can find whatever service might be required, including mobile knife sharpening.

  

So that brings us up to date.  Right now we are in a town called Ticul, which is smack in the middle of Yucatan.  We are surrounded by ruins, and tomorrow are planning to drive (we rented a car) to Uxmal, which is supposed to be a large, impressive site.   We want to be able to spend as many hours there as we want to.  We took organized tours to Banampak and Yaxchilan, but you kind of have to because they are remote and hard to get to.  Yaxchilan is only accessible by boat, and Bonampak is miles and miles off the main roads.  Uxmal is right off one of the main highways, and there is plenty of signage.  Then on Thursday we are taking a drive called La Ruta Puuc, which encompasses at least four different smaller sites.  As we have come to learn, it really doesn't matter how large the sites are because each one has something special. 

 But things are not always smooth for us.  For example, this morning we discovered that our rental car cost three times what the internet told us it would be.  Then when we stopped at a store, neither of our credit cards would work.  We had a hard time finding our way out of Merida, and when we got here to Ticul we ended up having to drive around and around and around because of one way streets and blocked off streets.  I was getting frustrated and upset.  But then we got to this great hotel- again very unprepossessing looking from the street.  Inside it was a different story altogether.  We have a great room with a separate living room, hot water, internet, cable TV, and continental breakfast (coffee and pan dulce) - all for the whopping price of $28.00 per night American, not pesos.  The owners are friendly and asked us when we wanted our breakfast served rather than telling us what time to be there.  We had dinner at a great place up on top of a hill, with a view of the entire area.  The food was of course wonderful and very inexpensive.  The owners showed us all these pictures of people who had eaten there, including Oscar de la Hoya and several extremely handsome bullfighters in full regalia.  This is not a tourist town - no souvenir shops and we are the only non-Mexicans here as best as we can tell.  Everyone stops us and wants to know where we are from and all about what we are up to.  My Spanish continues to improve.

So that is it for today.  More to come!

"Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip." 
(Winston Churchill)
         

Catching Up

We were supposed to be in Belize by now!  I had to change our reservations!  You see,we are still in Mexico and will be here for another week or so.  We keep finding more stuff to do and see here,  It really does feel like home for me - I have felt that way since I first started going to Ensenada  when I was 16 years old.

OK, here is what we have been up to since the last post.  I have tons of pictures.  but they are not yet in a downloadable form.  We left Tapachula and took a bus to San Cristobal de las Casas, an awesome town we went to about eight months ago on our last sojourn before leaving Mexico.  traveling around Mexico by bus is great.  The buses are really nice, comfortable, and clean.  When they stop, people come aboard and sell food and drinks.  It was a seven or eight hour bus ride, and they showed movies the whole way.  The only catch was that the movies were all dubbed into Spanish.  However, they were pretty easy to follow since they were either kids movies or action films.  We stayed at a wonderful hotel in San Cristobal - st a very reasonable price, too.  The town itself is lovely - with lots of people in traditional dress everywhere.  The women wear blouses made of satin with embroidered plaques and short, puffy sleeves.  They wear skirts made out of heavy, shaggy black or brown wool that are gathered up in front and secured with these beautiful embroidered wide belts. The craftsmanship that goes into the embroidery is amazing.  I bought three blouses - one of them is satin - and two different belts.

We also took a horseback ride down into a traditional Mayan village and saw the most interesting church I have ever been in.  it is nominally a Catholic church, but different because there are Mayan traditions woven into the mass and the other Catholic aspects.  To begin with, they revere John the Baptist (San Juan Bautista) more than Jesus in some ways - his statue is at the very top of the alter with Jesus on the cross kind of off to the side.  The sides of the church were lined with mannequins representing different saints, all beautifully dressed in handmade clothing made of beautiful fabrics.  There were  no pews - the entire place was open.  The floors were covered with pine boughs and the people had row upon row of candles lit and burning right on the floor with the pine boughs.  I at first thought what a fire hazard but then I saw there were people going around tending all the candles.  People grouped around the candles and chanted and prayed, whole groups of them. There seemed to be a leader of each group of people,  There was a priest in regular priest clothing at the alter doing something with a crowd around him, but I felt intrusive enough  and did not get close to see what they were doing.  At the same time as all this devotion was going on, other people were standing around in small groups just visiting and shooting the breeze.  I also noticed that many, if not most, of the people were drinking coca cola and other soda pop drinks right there - I found out later that is to encourage burping, which is believed to drive evil spirits out of the church.  I am not making that up.  It was an incredible experience just to be there.  We have pictures of the outside of the church but not the inside - the Maya do not like to have their pictures taken, especially in religious situations.   I do not know how much longer this will last as the pentecostal are converting these people as fast as they can.  The pentecostal are fully in charge in El Salvador - the women cover their heads with white scarves and they have a whole big church that is uses all Jewish symbolism - the star of David and the menorah. They also refer to themselves as Friends of Israel.   About half my Salvadoran friends go there.

The next day we went on a boat ride through a canyon.  It too was wonderful. The canyon walls rise to 2000 feet or more as you ride along this river.  We saw crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks of the river, which made me think twice about going in the water, no matter how hot I was.  There were waterfalls going down the sides of the canyon - it was not as big and impressive as the grand canyon, but it is certainly up there with it. 

We also met an interesting expat - living in foreign countries does attract some unusual people.  This guy was an old hippie, and he had been living in Mexico for 30 years.  He knew a lot about the area and the people.  He flirted shamelessly (but harmlessly) with the Mayan women selling things on the street and they seemed to love it, giggling and teasing him right back.  It was the first time we saw them really let down their guard with non-Mayans.

The next day we took a van to two different ruins that are off the regular tourist route.  The first one was located an hour and a half down a river and accessible only by boat.  The other one was deep in the jungle, and was only "discovered" in the forties.  The wonderful thing about this ruin (Bonampak) is that much of the painting was till visible. They used red, blue, green, orange, and black and white.  It was really incredible to see it and think  about how old it is. I touched a wall (not a painted on) and thought about how someone back in 200 AD had touched that same wall in that same place.  We spent the night in a cabin in the jungle - no bathroom except down the path, one light bulb hanging from the ceiling, mosquito screens that were only partially effective, and I slept like the dead.  We also stayed at the same jungle lodge we stayed at eight months ago near Palenque - we even got the same room. 

So now we are in Campeche, which is on the Gulf of Mexico and is a beautifully restored colonial city.  It was originally surrounded by walls, because of pirate attacks (Pirates of the Caribbean) and some of the wall and some of the balustrades are still standing,  We went to two museums with gorgeous Mayan artifacts in them, artifacts from the ruins nearby.  We are skipping these ruins only because we are leaving for Yucatan today and have a lot to see there.  It would take years to see all the Mayan ruins around this area.  And we have more coming up in Guatemala and Belize.  So many ruins, so little time!  Even for us.  We have to get back to Magda jean at some point, but we know Santos is taking good care of her.

So anyway, that about brings us up to date on where I have been and what I have been doing.  I will post pictures as soon as I can do so.  Since we will be in Merida in a hotel tonight, maybe we can watch the debate.  We did watch the vice presidential debate, but it was on CNN Mexico and dubbed in Spanish!  If the hotel has internet, we can stream it and watch it that way.  I am so glad I am not in the US for this election cycle - the ads would have made me crazy from what I am hearing.  Today it is on to Merida in a couple of hours, and it is only a two and a half hour bus ride.  And  blessedly, we have time for breakfast first!

"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." (Dorothy Parker)



                               

I Really Really Love Chiapas

We have been here one day and already I am sure this has to be one of the best places in the world.  The people are kind and friendly, the food is great, prices are low.  The scenery is to die for, there is history living everywhere, and I again cannot begin to express in mere words how happy I am to be here.

I did want to include some pictures we took today while touring Izapa, which is one of the most important Mayan ruin sites from an archaeological point of view.  it is not  truly impressively huge site like Tikal or Chichen Itza or Palenque or Copan, but it is one of the oldest and is considered to be a bridge between the Olmec culture and the Mayan culture.  It was fun.  We had the place to ourselves except for a group of school kids who looked to be about middle school age.  They were laughing and giggling at us, and finally one of the girls came up to me with her camera.  I thought she wanted me to take a picture of her with her friends, but as it turned out, she wanted to take our picture.  As soon as we agreed, all hell broke loose.  All the kids got their cameras out and we posed for group photo after group photo with all the kids in various combinations.  It is only in the early stages of excavation.

Here is what part of the site looks like.

 

 

There are a lot of steles and other pieces from these ruins that are in a museum here in Tapachula.  This is a skull decorated with turquoise, gold, and jade.  The Maya always did fancy things with the corpses of their dead rulers. 

 

 

There are people living in and among these ruins. They have homes, and raise their animals right where their Mayan ancestors lived thousands of years ago.  (Yes, the earth is more than 7000 or even 9000 years old, regardless of what any congressman tries to tell you.)  Here is a borrego, which is some kind of a sheep.  I wanted to pet it, but Mike said it might bite me, and I did not want to create a scene.  So I admired him (or her) from a distance.

 

 

 

Here is a pig that was on a leash eating from a nice wooden bowl.  When we took this picture, he was stretching his (or he) back legs surrounded by chickens.

 







 

 

Anyway, we are leaving here tomorrow for San Cristobal de las Casas, a wonderful little town in the mountains that we visited on our last trip out here.  We plan to see some awesome stuff - including a trip by horseback to a Mayan village where picture taking is seriously frowned upon.  So I will just have to describe things as best as I can.  I usually feel sort of uncomfortable taking pictures of people unless they really seem to want it.  It just seems intrusive somehow.  Mike has no such compunction, but we both agree that this could have resulted in our old camera being stolen in a Mayan market in Oaxaca last fall.  It did disappear ten minutes after he took a picture of a woman in the market and she did not seem happy about it.  Next thing we knew, the camera was gone. 

 

I did want to show one other picture.  Before we left for this trip, Mike was taking lessons fishing with an atirado, a fishing net used by the people in El Salvador and the people here.  Net fishing is not as easy as it might seem.  Here is Mike giving it a try.

 

 

On a later day he went again and some fish and shrimp were caught.  Mike and his friends built a fire and cooked them.

 

 

 

It probably tasted really good.  Nothing like roasting fish over an open fire - just gut them and roast them.  No need to cut the heads off!

 

It is time for me to end this post and think about dinner - what shall it be?  Chicken mole?  Some sort of tamale variation?  The possibilities are limitless. 

 

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."  (Virginia Woolf)

 

 





 



      

Back Home . . . In Mexico Again

We made it to Mexico in two and a half days.  It was a great sail - we used the asymetrical spinnaker twice,  and had two long runs with it up.  The weather was good - one squally storm that luckily was pushing us the way we wanted to go, and really goosed up our speed. Because our friend Jason, whose boat we were on, has a schedule to meet, we did motor when the wind died down, which it did at night and at midday.  Mike and I never have a schedule to meet, so we just usually drift along even when the wind dies down. Jason has a nice boat - it is an older 35 footer.  We were actually quite comfortable, even with three people.  Having three people was really nice as far as standing the night watches - My watch was from 3 am until 6 am - only three hours instead of six. 

It was also a personal triumph for me.  I can now handle the helm and actually feel pretty good about doing it.  This has been a longstanding problem for me ever since I started sailing. 

Jason's boat does not have the sort of auto pilot system that we have on Magda Jean.  We have two electronic auto pilots, and both of them only require a bit of monitoring because they work very well unless the weather is really, really awful.  That has only happened once with us, back last year when we left Ensenada for Cabo San Lucas.  Mike had to hand steer for almost 8 hours straight.  And that is exhausting.  I have never been able to hold the course and constantly overcorrect. Then the boat goes too far the other way, and I would overcorrect again, until finally the boat is completely off course and Mike has to turn on the engine to get us straightened out again.  It has been a bone of contention between the two of us, and I have continually fet guilty about not being able to do it, and getting totally panic stricken at the thought of having to do it.  When I get panicky about something, it becomes a million times harder.  I have gotten better, but I was still dreading any possibility of extended hand steering.

Anyway, Jason does not have the nice electronic autopilots we enjoy on Magda Jean.  He has a wind vane steering device, which works with the wind rather than being electric and connected to a compass.  I can't explain it here - in fact, I really don't understand the whole thing.  Anyone who is interested can google it - just look up wind vane steering and you will find it.  They are really amazing things - you hiook it up and it has a paddle for the wind attached to a rudder type thing, and then attached to the steering wheel.  It uses no power, unlike the ones we have which use quite a bit of electricity.  We have one on board, but have not used it, except to fool around a little bit with it.  This kind of device requires a lot more monitoring, and you have to adjust it all the time, especially in variable or light winds. (They work best in the trade winds, which are winds that blow strongly and steadily in the same direction for days on end.  We will run into these when we cross the Pacific.)  So in a lot of ways, it is like hand steering since you are constantly adjusting it when it veers away from course.  And another thing - there was no chart plotter on board in the cockpit, so I had no nice little screen in front of me telling me where we are going.  I had to stare at the compass and steer to that.

I was literally terrified to stand my watch. I was sure I would have to wake up Jason or Mike and get help getting the boat on course, and I simply knew I would not be able to handle the watch.  but I had to try, so I gathered up all my fortitude and decided I could do it.  And I did.  In spades.  I even disengaged the device so I could just steer it on my own.  I felt awesome standing behind the helm, watching the compass, keeping the course within five degrees of the desired course.  I felt like a true sailor at last.  I do not think I can really decribe how significant this is for me.  A true milestone.

I do appreciate my boat more than ever in so many ways, and love Mike even more for getting that boat in such wonderful shape. 

When we arrived in Puerto Chiapas, we pulled into the nice new marina, and were greeted by the port captain and customs.  They has the nicest drug sniffing dog - not a problem since we are not lame enough to bring drugs between countries.  I got to pet the dog.  However, what we did not realize was we did not clear immigration.  We figured it out the next day (today) and after going from office to office, discovered we (me and Mike, who had already gone on to the next little town in preparation for the rest of our trip) that we had to go back to the point of entry and complete that process.  When we got out of the cab at the marina, Jason was waiting for us with the marina boss (Guillermo) who informed us we were illegal and called us wetbacks.  It was hilarious.  But it took literally all day long to get things striaghtened out.  This is a new marina, and the people here are not used to dealing with noncommerical boats.  And they are really not used to dealing with recreational yachts with crew that are leaving the boat and turning into tourists.  I hate being the test case.  But we got through it, and did not have to go to jail, which would have happened had we failed to get the required stamps in our passports and our tourist visas.  It was a huge hassle - Guillermo actually hollered at the immigration guys and called them "cabron" and "pendejo".  I was afraid he would end up in jail.  But it all worked out okay. 

It is great to be back in Mexico.  I will always love this place and it feels like home, immigration hassles not withstanding.  El Salvador will always have a fond place in my heart, but they will win no prizes for cuisine.  I got to have pozole for breakfast this morning - a real treat.  And Chiapas is the mole capital of Mexico, and I love mole.  Our hotel is cheap and nice and right in the center of town.  It is piring rain right now, and we can hear it beating on the windows.  Viva Mexico! 

"Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." (Hazel Rochman)                

And There They Go

We leave tomorrow for Mexico and points beyond.  Yesterday we cleaned out and re-organized the vee berth, the fridge is now clean, empty, and turned off, and all we have to do before we sail tomorrow is to pack our backpacks and straighten up a bit.  The boat is ready to be on her own for almost two months.  Our good friend and landlord, Santos, will be babysitting Magda Jean until we return.  I know it sounds like I am leaving a live person, but I have an natural tendency to anthropromorphize (I have no idea how to spell that or even say it right) everything, and a boat is different than a house and leaving it is different.  Plus a boat does have a name.  But I think things will be okay while we are gone, and I do trust Santos. 

Here are some of the pictures we took the other day on our dinghy excursion into the mangroves.

Blue Heron   

 

 

 These canoes are either wooden or fiberglass.  And everyone likes to have a ride.

 

 

 Everyone has their favorite spot in the boat.

 

 

 Here is a home along the estuary in one of the tiny settlements located in and among the mangroves.

 

 

 Most people basically live outside.  All cooking is done outside, and everyone sleeps in hammocks in a carport-like structure.  It makes sense in this climate. 

 

 

 The Mangroves.  These canals just go on and on for miles.

 

 

Anyway, this is the sort of thing we see as we ride around the estuary in our dinghy.  The people we encounter are always really friendly. 

 

This will be it for a few days at least - it is supposed to take about 2-3 days to get where we are heading in Mexico (Puerto Chiapas) and our friend's boat does not have the kind of radio where I can make blog posts.  We are bringing this computer with us, and many of the places we stay should have internet, so I am hoping to make a nice record of this trip, with pictures and all.   

 

It will be good to be out to sea again, and interesting to sail on a different boat.  With three people, watches should be no problem.  I am a bit concerned about the steering issue.  On Magda Jean, we have two well running electric autopilots.  I know how to work both of them, and they are both reliable.  And I am not a strong helmsperson.  I am not sure how the autopilot or autopilots on this boat work - and I hope we don't end up having to hand steer all the way.  I have no specific reason to worry about that, but I do anyway.  Otherwise, I think things should be fine.  There is a big storm brewing out there, but we should be in Chiapas before it hits up there.  It is worrisome for our friend as to whether or not he might get stuck in Chiapas waiting out a storm.  It is still hurricane season in Mexico, albeit the end of the season.  So here's hoping the weather analysis I am relying on holds true and the storm remains south of us until we are safe in Chiapas.  I have no desire to sail through a storm, especially with waves up to 10 feet.  I don't think I have been in waves that big yet and I don't want to be, especially in an older boat I am not (or at least Mike is not) 100% familiar with.  But I have total faith in Mike's ability to handle any sea-going situation and our friend Jason is calm, sensible, and very very smart.  And I do get a good idea every once and a while, so between the three of us, we should make it just fine.  Of course, having said all that, we will probably have to motor the whole way due to lack of winds.  Our friend has a schedule and can't just drift along for days on end like we can (and do on a regualr basis!)

 

So the next time you hear from me I will likely be in Mexico.  Hasta Luego.

 

 

“Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.”  (Isabelle Eberhardt)

This and That, Here and There

We are getting ready to leave El Salvador this weekend for a six to seven week trip through the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, then to Belize, and then to Guatemala.  And we are backpacking!  All that we are allowing ourselves to bring is whatever we can fit in two backpacks. 

We are going back to Mexico on our friend Jason's boat, named Nirvana.  He is singlehanding, working his way up to Portland, Ore.  Mike and I are going to be his crew as far as Puerto Chiapas, and then we will jump ship and start our trip by bus and rental car.  The boat will stay here in El Salvador, and when we get back, it will be time to leave for Costa Rica.  I can't believe we stayed here so long!

Yesterday we took Nirvana out for "sea trials", which in this case consisted of motoring around the estuary for several hours to get a feel for the boat and to test the engine.  There were some overheating problems, and I am a bit nervous about the whole thing, but after all - it is a sailboat.  And Mike can fix or work around practically anything thaat might go wrong.  We have never had a problem he couldn't handle or jury rig.  And it's not MY boat, so if something goes south, it is but situational discomfort for me, I won't have to pay for fixing it.  And Puerto Chiapas is only a 2-3 day sail.  So what can go seriously wrong? 

Since we got our new cameras, we have been taking dinghy excursions into the mangroves.  Since we got the depth sounder and chart plotter for the dinghy (a ridiculous extravagance in the eyes of most cruisers, but all the men say that Mike has the best toys) we can ride all around the mangroves, cutting in and out of little canals that lead to small settlements and other canals, all the way to the Rio Lempa (and its tributaries) which is the biggest river in El Salvador.  None of the other cruisers, and even a lot of the locals, have not explored this area the way we have.  It's because of the chartplotter.  We can't really get lost, no matter how deeply we penetrate the mangroves.  The chartplotter has a display that makes a trail as we ride along, so all we have to do is follow it back.  It is pretty much like Hansel and Gretel, but birds can't come along and eat this breadcrumb trail. 

The people who live in these little settlements are pretty friendly, but they are always concerned about us being out there without a guide.  The place is full of all sorts of water birds, but it is pretty well fished out.  The locals string long nets around the mangroves, and net anything that comes out.  Since fish breed and hatch in the mangroves, you can imagine what the result is.  But this is how a lot of these people live, literally hand to mouth.  A decent wage for general labor (outside of the city) is about ten dollars a day.  Lots of people have small  garden plots and sell their fruit and vegetables along the roadsides and of course in the local markets.  (The only drawback to shopping in those markets is that you have to carry all the stuff you buy from place to place because of course there are no shopping carts.)  I love to stop along the road and get my veggies - they still  have dirt on them from being picked only hours before.  Other people cut firewood and sell it, gather coconuts and sell them, and things like that.  When you take a local bus, people selling little plastic bags of water, coconut juice, candy, and nuts get on at one stop, walk down the aisle selling their stuff, and then get off at the next stop and go back the other way.  Also, people who live along the highways use the front part of their house as tiny little restaurants.  I have had some new fruits, most of which are sort of like pomegranates in the sense that the way you eat them is to suck the fruit off the seeds and spit out the seeds.  There are usually big seeds, unlike the pomegranate. 

Well, I guess I have been all over the place in this post.  Today we have work to do before the trip - cleaning out the vee berth (the defacto dumping ground for everything we don't know what else to do with - "just stick it in the vee berth.  We'll deal with it later").  It is one of those chores that looks like it will be a huge hassle, but in reality, it rarely ever takes more than a half hour from start to finish.  Knowing that does nothing to stop my procrastination, however.  Nor does knowledge of the wonderful peaceful feeling I will have once I am done with it.  Still I procrastinate . . .

We took our winches off and sent them to a machine shop to have the bases remade.  We discovered the winches were not properly installed by the prior owner (surprise surprise) and had corroded away as there was no drainage.  Or something like that.  Anyway, we took them to San Salvador and will pick them up when we get back from our trip.  Hopefully it will not cost too much!  After all, BOAT stands for Break Out Another Thousand.

I hope to get some good mangrove pictures this afternoon - the problem is, the pictures do not really capture what it is like to be out there.  Sometimes I feel like Merriweather Lewis.

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."  (Henry David Thoreau)