Ahea Kali's Slog

Anchored at Stone Island 12.3.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:31:00 +0000

We made it - woohoo! We left Mazatlan Marina on Monday and headed South. The day couldn't have been better it was sunny, clear, the wind was 15-20 knots, and we left with a group of 4 boats - S/V Slacker, S/V Tao Min, S/V Lady Hawke, and us. We put up all sails and was scooting along around 5 knots. It was perfect! Stone Island is only about 10 miles from Mazatlan Marina but it was a wonderful sail & a lovely day. We are anchored in about 17ft of water, put the boat away from the sail, and
enjoyed our first evening at anchor with a nice meal.

Tuesday morning we ran the generator and had a nice lazy morning and around 9am jumped in the dinghy and went to shore to explore the island. Mike & Julie from Slacker, Mike & Marylyn from Lady Hawke, and Ed from Dolphin that came with Justin on Tao Min all went for a walk along the island. We introduced Geocaching to the group as there was one here and had a good time looking around for it! It was located inside the grounds of one of the beach restaurants and we chuckled as the employees kept
giving us hints that we were 'Muy Frio' (cold). It was pretty comical as there were 7 people roaming around the restaurant grounds! We all signed the log and checked out the goodies inside and then stayed for an ice cold beer. What a treat! Mike & Julie and Ed had to leave mid morning as they needed to get back to the Marina for her flight back to the states. We continued to explore the island with Mike & Marylyn and decided to stop for a homemade pizza where we left our dinghyies for the day.
Back at the boat, Michael and I had a nice snooze in the sunshine in the cockpit and recovered from our hard day! haha... We made rice and dinghied over to Lady Hawke for a wonderful fajita dinner. They were supposed to have other guests but apparently there was a problem on the road to get here and had to turn back. So we enjoyed an intimate dinner with them! After dinner we played a lively game of Mexican Train Dominoes. Ahh....life is good!

There are currently only 2 boats in the anchorage, us and Lady Hawke. We have a great view of Mazatlan's commercial port and have enjoyed seeing the cruise ships come in and out. There were 2 yesterday and so far 2 today. We're running the generator this morning and listening to the morning nets on the radio and are planning to jump in the dinghy this morning and explore the commercial port. We'll see!

More to follow...
Rene

Leaving Marina Mazatlan...12.1.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:55:00 +0000

Woohoo! It's that time! We're fully stocked & ready. FINALLY!! It's time for us to be cruisers again, not dockers! Our plan today is to leave Marina Mazatlan around 2pm and go over to Stone Island, just outside of the old harbor. We will stay there for a couple days and get used to the movement of the boat and just RELAX, then leave for Isla Isabella, weather permitting.

We have had a couple of crazy days since Turkey day. On Friday, we took off early in the morning and did the last of our provisioning, went by Nid Art to see our sailboat they are making for us, and got to Immigration around 11:15. Our appointment wasn't until 12:00 but we decided since we were there, to just go in & wait. We had asked earlier in the week for them to move up our appointment and so when we arrived, the guard at the desk recognized us. Only 10-15 minutes later, more people started to arrive and pretty soon, there were over 25 people in the waiting room. Now remember, we have to get our FM3's and make it to customs by 2pm so that we can extend our vehicle import expiration date. If I haven't explained it, when you enter Mexico, you purchase a Tourist card which is good for 6 months. When you enter with your vehicle, your temporary import permit is only good for as long as you are allowed in, in this case, 6 months. The FM3 is a document that allows you to stay in the country for 1 year at a time. But our issue is that once we get our FM3, we have to take those copies & a request for extension to customs to extend our vehicle temporary import permit to the year expiration date. Whew! That's a mouthful.

So anyway, Twelve o'clock came around, nothing. Twelve thirty, one o'clock, and we're starting to panic. Finally at 1:15, they call us (we were the 1st ones called!) and we go upstairs, put our thumbprints on our FM3's and we were outta there by 1:20. We are officially 'Estados Unidos Mexicanos' or 'American Mexicans' now...hahaha... I guess I really have to learn Spanish now! haha. So we high-tail it down the street to make a couple copies of the FM3 and then take off for Customs. It just so happens, on a total random sighting, I see the Aduana (customs) building by accident and it was not where we thought it was supposed to be! A little hesitation on Michael's part as he knew we had very little time to get this done, we turned around and went inside. We clocked in at 1:25, and back out at 1:30!! Can you believe it!? It was one of the easiest parts of the day. We just walked in, presented our request, made some more photo copies, and wha-la! The Jeep is safe & legal again. Whew! That even we were supposed to participate in a dinghy raft-up but decided to bail & make it a mellow evening.

Saturday came and suddenly - we're only 1 day from leaving! It was one of those crazy days - first the morning net, then there was a swap meet right after the net (and we sold lots of items), then there was a cruiser 'talk' about cruising in Panama, Cell phones, & Tenacatita. There were books to return, beading instructions given, chatting with Debbie on S/V Lovely Reta after her surgery, and visiting with everyone on the docks. We cleaned & organized the boat in preparation for guests. That evening, we invited Elvira & her fiance, Ramiro, to dinner and Michael made his famous Crab Newburg with some cauliflower. We enjoyed chatting with them and after dinner, jumped in their car and they toured us through Mazatlan. It was so much fun!

Sunday morning, when I should have been sleeping, we heard lots of police activity and even a helicopter! Mazatlan holds a marathon every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving day. The runners were running right by the marina! So I threw on some clothes & went out for lots of clapping & encouragement. When I got back to the boat my laptop was delivered - virus free (actually, he couldn't find anything wrong with it...yippee!) - and we continued to work on the small cleanup items - install the jack lines on the boat, do the last loads of laundry, update the blogs (wink!), clean & organize from last night, try to find the geocache at El Cid, run the dinghy around to make sure it's working properly (it isn't), & other little stuff like that.

We are planning to buddy boat with Mike & Marylyn on S/V Lady Hawke while several of our friends catch up with us. Debbie & John on S/V Lovely Reta are stuck in Mazatlan for a couple more weeks as she recovers from knee surgery on Friday for a torn miniscus, Linda & Wally on S/V Andanzas are also stuck in Mazatlan for a while as he recovers from back surgery, Barry & Pat on S/V Pacific Voyager are stuck until their refrigerator is rebuilt, and Anne & Jeff on S/V Outrider are still in La Paz with repairs. So we're going to take off & explore and will look forward to seeing them later.

At Stone Island, a couple other boats from the marina are going to join us - in addition to Lady Hawke, Mike & Julie on S/V Slacker and Justin on S/V Tao Min are planning to anchor at Stone Island as well - and we'll have a nice party out there! We will miss all of our friends here at the marina, but are looking forward to meeting all of the others out there!

So, here we go! Follow us along as we attempt to explain what we're doing and all that we're seeing. I will insert pictures as often as we can, but will be posting all of my future posts via the Winlink system - over a Ham radio signal.

Enjoy the posts!

Rene

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 11.27.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:32:00 +0000

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! And there's no better time like the present to let you know that I'm so thankful to have you in my life. Thank you for checking in on us & I hope your day is beautiful, wherever you are.

We had an action packed day! As I told you before, Michael is in charge of the Thanksgiving Dinner for the cruisers. He has been working with Elvira, the Marina office manager, and Ray, the owner of Mazatlan Yachts who has helped put this event together for years. He also organized a core group of cruisers who helped with the entire event - setup, decoration, entertainment, clean-up, lighting, promotion, etc. The event is entirely cruiser run - there is no monetary help from the marina at all - so it will keep the costs low. Last year, the dinner was about $30/person. This year, because of Elvira's help and the labor of the cruisers...it is 175 pesos, or about $14/person. They had to put a cap on tickets at 180 as they could not fit any more tables & chairs outside in the lounge.

The first hurdle of the morning was when the tables & chairs were delivered. Pacifico (the local beer distributor) loans out tables & chairs for events. But when they arrived...they were FILTHY! No problem - the setup committee with about 20 volunteers got busy with buckets & rags and had them all cleaned up spic & span in about an hour! It was amazing to see so many people jump to work and knock it out! The food was excellent - turkey and all of the fixings. The evening went off with only a few little issues but everyone loved it.

In the morning, Father Horatio held mass and then jumped into the panga to provide a 'Blessing of the Fleet'. He had some palm fronds and holy water and went from boat to boat, throwing water & praying.

I stood on the bow of the boat and accepted the blessing as we can use all of it we can get! It was a wonderful detail of the day that Ray & Jeanette from Mazatlan Yachts organized.

Michael spent most of the evening helping with all of the details of the night and I mingled with several of the cruisers. Once the entertainment started, Michael was able to eat his dinner and enjoy the evening as well. The night ended around midnight and we crashed! Tomorrow starts the countdown - only 4 more days until we leave!

Rene

Update 11.26.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:15:00 +0000

Here we are again, several days over my weekly blog. Oh well, I’m a cruiser, what do you expect?! Haha… Actually, I haven’t been online much at all because I picked up a computer virus from another cruiser and have had a hell of a time getting rid of it! It was a very bad one and has taken me several days to clean it from both the laptop and desktop. It was transferred via my flash drive and disabled my antivirus, firewall, & windows updates…allowing other viruses to spread. It’s a huge bummer and I believe I have it about 99% but am calling in the help of a 12 year old boy in the Marina named Casey on S/V 4-PACK today for help.

The past couple weeks have been action packed, as always. There’s always something to do and it’s amazing that time has flown so quickly! Here we are, about 6 days away from our leaving Mazatlan and we will still be down to the wire on a few items.

We have spent the past couple weeks reuniting with a bunch of cruisers who have made it down here from spending the summer up in the Sea of Cortez – Pat & Barry on S/V Pacific Voyager, our sister ship. And some additional friends from Ventura, Wally & Linda on S/V Andanzas came into Mazatlan after cruising down the Baja Peninsula during the Baja Haha. We’ve spent a few evenings with them and have enjoyed playing ‘cruise director’ showing them around Mazatlan.

We hiked up to El Faro with Linda and her son & friend, David & Aly

and Pat & Barry from Pacific Voyager

We had a wonderful hike and even stopped for 2 geocaches on the way up the hill! No one in the group had even heard of geocaching so we explained it and while looking for one of the caches, Linda was the one who found it! The day was gorgeous – sunny & warm, temps in the upper 80’s with just enough breeze coming off of the ocean to keep us cool. We weren’t as lucky this time as the lighthouse keeper would not allow us up inside (there were too many tourists around as there were 3 cruise ships in the harbor and lots of people filtering through!) even after giving him a candy treat. Oh well, next time. But we enjoyed the view of Mazatlan and the cool breezes and then hiked back down. Oh, and FYI….it is 340 steps up to the top! Once we were back down, we decided to walk the malecon over to old town so that we could visit my favorite shop in Mazatlan, Nid Art. This is the place I’ve written about before that makes the fantastic leather art. We had asked the owners if they would make a small sailboat over the summer for us. They have been so busy opening up a pottery school, they had no time to make it but assured me if I came in on Friday, she would have something started for me. I can’t wait to see it. Wanna check it out? Go to http://www.nidart.com/

So we made our way through downtown & jumped on a bus back to the Marina. We had just exited the bus when Ally looked at David and asked “Do you have my purse?” You guessed it, she had left it on the bus. Oh NO! They took off down the street after the bus, luckily it goes down the street and makes a U-turn and comes along the same route back in front of the marina. They finally found the bus and the bus driver said one of the passengers had taken it, but he had the cell phone # for the person and gave it to Ally. Multiple calls later to the cell phone, no one answered. So finally, she gave up and called to cancel her credit cards. I didn’t mention that they were flying home that evening….and her I.D was inside. Luckily her passport was on the boat so she could still fly home. She was mostly bummed for losing the purse! (Which I can relate to as I had my purse stolen while in Channel Islands and could care less about the contents, just wanted the purse back!!) They flew back to the States and on the radio net the next morning, someone asked if anyone knew an Ally! Turns out, the guy who found the purse came to the Marina and was asking around to some of the cruisers to find her. One of the cruisers took his info and told him it was a cruiser and he should bring it to the office tomorrow morning. Amazingly, the fellow showed up in the morning and gave the purse over to the Marina office. Nothing appears to be taken and it was safely, without reward, returned. Another ‘random act of kindness’.

We have continued with our social calendar – Dominoes Pizza Tuesdays (today we had 27 people!), dinners out, and just visiting with fellow cruisers. Last Saturday we had a group that went up to the Hotel Freeman for sunset and then down to old town for ‘street potatoes’. Yumm… John & Debby Dye from Lovely Reta, Linda & Wally from Andanzas

Mike & Julie on Slacker

Pat & Barry on Pacific Voyager and ourselves had a wonderful evening. When we were on the top of the Holiday Inn watching the sunset, we all remarked how the ocean was calling us and we just can’t wait to get out on the hook again.

Mac from S/V Effie held a ‘beaders anonymous’ meeting and 8 women attended and learned how to do a DNA stitch using a super tiny needle, thread, & seed beads. There were half newbies (me included!) and half experts who brought along some of the most amazing pieces of jewelry that I’ve ever seen! I’m in process of making a bracelet. It is a job! So much detail! In the 3 hour class, I finished about two inches of the bracelet so I’ve got some work to do but it is something I’ve wanted to learn forever so I’m glad that I had the chance to meet these wonderful ladies. That’s one great part about cruising – participating with others and learning all kinds of fun stuff!

We’ve been doing a little bit of Geocaching this past week. Aside from the 2 we found while hiking up to El Faro, we found 5 others with Debbie from Lovely Reta in tow. She loved it! We even let her find one of our first ones – one no one had found before – making it a First to Find! The owners had left a 10 pesos coin inside as a bonus, she was thrilled! There are a total of 12 in the Mazatlan area and I hope to find some of the others before we leave!

The boat is ready – all of the projects are done (or done enough!) except for one tiny detail. Since we returned, our dinghy engine has been running sluggish. We have had trouble getting up on a plane and even at full throttle, we’ve been passed by people with much smaller engines! We had an engine service over the summer so we asked Rick from Cape Star to take a look again. His guys pulled the engine apart and discovered we had one injector that was plugged. What is it with these injectors?! So he tore it apart & cleaned it up, but when he was putting it back together, realized he needed a new gasket as well. Turns out, we didn’t have a spare on board. Of course! How that happens with all of the spares we do have, I’ll never know but I guess it’s bound to happen. And of course, there is not one to be found in Mazatlan. Yep, welcome to cruising in Mexico. So we are having them make one for us and we’re crossing our fingers it will work. He gives it a 90% success rating, so we’re hoping! It is supposed to be made tomorrow. In the meantime, we’re having two of them shipped down from the States, but they won’t be here for several days to a week and we’re leaving on Monday.

I guess I let the cat out of the bag! I’ve been reporting before that we are planning to leave on Dec 1st and head down to Huatulco and then working our way back North to leave the boat in Mazatlan for the summer. Hang on to your seat….we changed our minds! We’re still leaving on Monday, the 1st but our plan is now to just go out to Stone Island, right outside Mazatlan for a couple days to just get out of the Marina & get back into the groove of things, then continue to slide down South, stopping at all of the places we can until we get to Zihuatenejo. We may be in Barra de Navidad for Christmas, we may not. We’re just going to take it one day at a time and have a good time. Cruiser plans are as solid as writings in the sand at low tide – bound to be erased. And it’s nice to be so flexible, it’s less stressful that way! We removed all of the foil window coverings from the windows and the fans will disappear in the next day or so. It’s time to go cruising!!

OH! I almost forgot! We went to a Baseball game the other day, the Mazatlan Venados vs the Guasave Algodoneros.

Baseball here in Mexico is very popular and the games are much more than simply the game!

First, as soon as you enter the park, there are Pacifico, Coca Cola, Lala, and every other girl you can imagine dressed in super sparkly, super tight outfits to greet you at the entrance.

Of course all the men just adored that part. Then there’s about everything imaginable to eat here. The downstairs concourse was filled with vendors – tacos, sausage, sushi, chicken, hot dogs, etc. Once you are in your seat, there was a beer vendor with two buckets of ice cold beers in each section who is responsible for all of the beer sales in that section. You don’t even have to get out of your seat to get a beer! Just holler or signal and he will pour you a cold one for 15 pesos and pass it down the row. There were a lot of mascots during the game – the TelCel Shark (the local cell phone company), the Mazatlan mascot is a deer and he was so animated, it was almost more fun to watch him that it was to watch the game!

In fact, the game was a bit boring until the 7th inning. The Venados were down 0-2 and it didn’t look good. But one pop fly and a missed catch and they were caught up and then got the go ahead run to win the game. As soon as the inning was called, every kid in the stands, and many adults too, jumped over the side walls and onto the field to help the players celebrate. It was amazing. The evening was so much fun. There were about 30 cruisers who attended, but only 10 of us stayed around for the end of the game and the win! About 4 times during the game, after an inning was called and before the next one started, folks would run out along the fences & throw promotional items out. There were water bottles, t-shirts, key rings, baseballs, etc. I caught one of the water bottles – a promotion from Burger King (haha!) and allllmost caught one of the baseballs but it glanced off my hand and went behind me. Bummer!

We have been working on getting our FM3’s, an immigration document that looks a lot like a passport that will allow us to stay in Mexico for 1 year instead of the tourist card that expires in 6 months. The submission process is pretty painless – take photos, make copies of your passport, complete the application forms and schedule your appointment to pick up the finished product. We were assured by everyone involved that the appointments would be scheduled 2 weeks later so we waited until two and a half weeks out to submit the paperwork. And of course, Murphy stepped in and the appointment was scheduled for December 4th – 4 days after we were hoping to leave! Doh! We went down to immigration with Elvira from the Marina and talked to them (read – begged!) to get an earlier appointment, which is scheduled for Friday, the 28th. After we get our FM3’s, we have to take them and the temporary import permit for the Jeep to Customs to get the permit extended to match our FM3’s. Sounds easy! Our only issue is that our appointment is at noon at immigration, and customs closes at 2pm! It will be a race to get everything done and we’re hoping Murphy is no where to be found today.

Our cushions are super clean and beautiful since the zippers and new foam was installed. I ended up taking the cushions up to the drycleaner and they removed the covers and drycleaned them for only 35 pesos each. We have dealt with our Fishing Licenses, although it was not as easy as it was supposed to be. It’s a nice easy process – go online, fill out the application, print two pieces of paper, take them to the bank, get your receipt, go back online and enter the code from the receipt and print the license. Simple! Mine worked without a hitch, printed beautifully. Michael’s…..not so much. The code just would not work! I tried & tried, took it up to the office and Elvira tried & tried! Well, long story short, they misspelled Michael’s name on the bank receipt and since it does not match, won’t work! We went back to the bank but since it was days later, they could not fix it and suggested we call the Conapesca office, but no one could help. So we are keeping our payment receipt and our application on Michael and if we are asked, will attempt to explain! We went to have some maintenance items taken care of in the last few days as well – haircuts & teeth cleanings! What a deal on a cleaning – only 350 pesos! Michael has been busy with the Thanksgiving Dinner preparations. There are lots of things to work out & coordinate and he’s doing a fantastic job. And of course we have been provisioning & stocking the freezer. We found some great frozen lasagna meals at Sam’s club which is an incredible find in Mexico, we stocked up on some meats from Henderson’s which is the best place for frozen meat we have found here (they flash freeze it & vacuum seal it in the U.S. and bring it down), cheeses, & misc items we know we won’t find further down the road.

I have some more cruising blogs & websites for you to check out!
Mike & Julie on S/V Slacker is www.sailblogs.com/member/slacker
Linda & Wally on S/V Andanzas is http://www.andanzas-adventure.blogspot.com/
Joe & Deb on S/V Pacific Jade is http://www.sailing-vacations-web.com/
Terry & Vicki on S/V Tenacity is http://www.tenacity123.blogspot.com/
Steve & Gig on S/V Charlotte Alane is http://www.julianhotel.com/
Dawn & Tom on S/V Warm Rain is http://www.warmrain.typepad.com/
Patrick & Susan on S/V Perpetua is www.geocities.com/svperpetua

Oh, I have to tell you how much fun some of the cruisers are here. As everywhere, there are several ‘jokesters’ and there are several here. One story that I have to tell you though is about “Jean Claude”. In the middle of one of the morning nets, someone (I won’t name names!) came interrupted the net with a very thick French accent and said he was just coming into Marina Mazatlan, was sick of cruising and was selling everything on his boat, including his boat for very cheap! Things like a dinghy for $50, including the engine, watermakers, lines, canvas, etc. All of the things a cruiser is on the lookout for! Even his boat he was going to sell for $500. He said to come to dock 5 in Marina Mazatlan and it was first come, first sold! What you should know about Marina Mazatlan is the numbering sequence is off – there’s dock 3, 4, 6, 7, 8….but no dock 5! Of course, he caught some cruisers hook, line, & sinker and there were even several boaters who were calling on the radio “Where is dock 5?”….. There were people from the other marina who even hopped in their dinghies and zoomed over here….all looking for dock 5 and “Jean Claude”. It was a classic. People are still looking for “Jean Claude” and all of the items he was selling. No one tells those people that there is no “Jean Claude” and it was all an elaborate joke. Haha…!!

Lots more exciting things to come! Stay posted...

Rene

Who said this was easy? 11.12.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:05:00 +0000

I have failed in my attempt to write a once-a-week blog update again. Sorry!! It is so easy to find something else to do! But I’ll bring you all up to speed on what’s been going on lately. We’ve continued to work our way down the ‘list-o-things to get done before we can leave’ and have crossed several things out this week and as always, added a few as well.

Going down the list of completed items…the mainsail slides were sewn on and the mainsail was re-hung. All of the reef lines installed and most of the lines were whipped to prevent further fraying (something we should have done long ago!). All of the sails are up & ready to go! When the mainsail was up there was a slight amount of breeze and she was tugging at the docklines…she’s ready to get out sailing as much as we are. We had a chain plate on the starboard side that was leaking so it was re-bedded. The SSB antenna was reattached, the rudder post bearing was checked & Michael added nylock nuts to it. We checked the emergency tiller, just to be sure it still worked since replacing the rudder post – it works fine! The backing plate for the stanchion base was finally completed (the one we had the engine room all torn apart for) and we have 3 additional ones to install at all of the stanchions at the gates.

We had quite a scare the past few days as Sparky the Generator wouldn't start, a very, very bad thing.

We had Bob & Rafael from Total Yacht Works on the boat Saturday who thought it was a blocked injector (we don't have a spare, of course!) so he took it to clean it out. Monday morning Rafael returned with the news that the injector was fine. Oh great! We have had lots of problems with this #%@ generator and when it wouldn't start, figured it would have to be rebuilt again. It's a Phasor LP1 3.5KW generator that was purchased for about $5K and rebuilt for another $1K a year ago, when we could get all the parts shipped direct. We shuddered to think how much it would cost here in Mexico. Further inspection found the water impeller in pieces. It was replaced (thank goodness we had a spare one of that!) and it still wouldn't fire! About 3 hours later after tearing it mostly apart, the technician shot some oil through the injector straight into the head which lubricated the rings & piston, which increased the compression from about 80 to 230. It was put all back together….and it fired! Turns out the rings and/or piston must have been a little rusty? or possibly just 'stuck' and wasn't doing it's job. So thank GOODNESS it was a simple fix....or we hope! We haven't gotten the bill yet....haha.

After a stressful day dealing with the generator, we went out to dinner with some friends from Channel Islands that are taking off today heading further South, Milan & Adrian Ford aboard M/V Integrity and John & Debbie Dye on S/V Lovely Reta who are old work friends of Michael's. It was a place called 'Fat fish' and they had a special - two dinners (Ribs, Ribeye, or Shrimp) for 160 pesos (about $13) and two for one margaritas. It was a nice evening - Adrian's b-day was Sunday and someone gave her a huge chocolate cake so she brought it and everyone had a piece! Milan & Adrian left Mazatlan the next day, headed South for the season. We hope to run into them on our travels.

Oh, but back to work! Michael changed the oil on both the engine & generator, whipped more lines, continues to work with the aft shower, and has even begun writing in the mornings all about our adventures. You’re sure to see his additions to the website shortly! In fact, he sent out a mass e-mail to everyone in our address book with a reminder we are out here & what we did over the summer and we’ve been overjoyed with the response. Hearing from long lost friends is always such a treat.

The boat is being scrubbed down, top to bottom, on a daily basis. There are lots of nook & crannies that get scrubbed with a toothbrush, wood cleaned & oiled, brass polished, etc. The cushions in the main cabin are dirty after years of use and we’ve been pondering how to clean them up. A plea out to the cruisers & condo’ers did not turn up a steam machine so we decided to clean them ourselves. The problem is they were obviously a handmade job and did not include any way to remove the foam and clean the fabric. After much deliberation, we decided to have zippers installed in them so we can take them apart & clean them ourselves. Of course, talking to the upholstery guy, the inevitable happened….we decided to get new foam installed while he had them. The old foam was getting too soft & bottoming out so why not!? We’ve been without cushions for about 5 days now and should have them returned today just in time to take them apart & clean the fabric! He could do it while he had it…but at a cost of $10/cushion we decided I could do it cheaper.

We are in process of getting our FM3’s, an immigration document similar to a passport that will allow us to stay in Mexico for 1 year. Our temporary permits are only good for 6 months and we will be here until June, which is 8 months. There is an agent here in Mazatlan who does all of the paperwork & footwork for you and we decided to go this route for this initial submission. We went yesterday and got our requisite photos, very similar to a passport, and filled out all of the paperwork. We have also been working on getting our Mexican fishing license renewed. The renewal can be done online now at http://www.conapesca.sagarpa.gob.mx/wb/ and I have instructions if anyone is interested. We have printed out our receipts that we need to take to the bank to pay for the license, then return & print them out. As of January 2008, the requirement to have a license for everyone on board as well as the boat & dinghy has changed! Now you only have to have a license for the persons on board. We paid 447 pesos plus 35 pesos for the online transaction per license. Have I mentioned the dollar to peso conversion is very much on our side right now – it is averaging 12.5 – which is a welcome benefit!

Whew, all that work is making me tired just thinking about it! Haha. But of course we’re still having fun as well. Our Dominoes Tuesday Pizza nights are still in full swing, last night gathering 17 people! A group took off last Wednesday in our dinghys and zoomed out to Deer Island, just off the Mazatlan coast, for a few hours of soaking in the ocean, snorkeling, & relaxing. The day was gorgeous – sunny & warm, no wind to speak of. The island has a wonderful beach area and as we were pulling the dinghys onto the soft sand, we assisted with some young boys who live on the island. There were only about 20 or so others on the beach and the entire group of us spent some time just soaking in the water before donning our snorkeling gear & checking out what was underneath! The water was a bit murky, but once we swam around to the side of the island, large boulders provided a great area for vividly colorful fish, shells, & even a bloom of scallops. There were 3 dinghys – ours, Mike & Julie on S/V Slacker and Mike & Marilyn with Bianca in tow on S/V Lady Hawke.

The water was perfect in the 80’s it felt wonderful and we all had prune hands by the time we got out of the water. It was a quick trip – out & back in about 3 hours – but was fantastic.

Wednesday night, Rafael Rodriguez sings at Gus Gus, the restaurant at the top of our dock and we seem to catch his show every Wednesday. The food at Gus Gus is outstanding and inexpensive and Wednesday evenings they are packed with cruisers & condo folks.

Geez, is that it?! Nope, not quite. Mazatlan has always held a terrific Thanksgiving Day dinner and through sheer luck (or torture, we’re not sure which), Michael has been made the President of the committee this year. Was he nominated? Did he volunteer? Nope…he just happened to be at the right place at the right time and whala…he’s it. So for the last couple weeks he has been holding meetings, organizing the cruisers to ensure everything is taken care of, etc. Last year, there were 189 people in attendance! Luckily, there are several cruisers who have volunteered to help and so far the ticket sales are positive. The Marina Mazatlan manager, Elvira Lizarraga, has worked very hard to ensure everything is taken care of – has made the arrangements for the food, tables & chairs, beer, wine, soda, etc. It is a lot of work for everyone but it’s coming together nicely. The menu is turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, stuffing, salad, cranberry sauce, croissants, carrot cake & after dinner coffee for 175 pesos per person – that’s only about $14! Plus, after dinner, Rafael Rodriguez who sings at Gus Gus will play for 4 hours. It should be a wonderful evening. We’re looking forward to it. Wanna come?! :-)

There are lots more cruisers in the marina now. There were probably 30 or so who checked into the net this morning and the marina is just humming with activity. There are exercise classes 3 days a week, daily Baja Rummy games, lots of work being done on boats daily, and that great camaraderie in the air. Everyone is getting excited to begin their journey, wherever it takes them! Hurricane season is almost over – November 15th is the magical date. It has been less hot here as well, temps in the upper 80’s during the day and today we’ve been blessed with a nice breeze that is cooling everything down. The evening temps have been fantastic – cool enough for us to turn off the A/C unit and only use the fans. Our plan it still to leave just after Thanksgiving and head down to Huatulco and then begin our trip North. But remember, cruiser plans are like nailing jello to the wall! Irregardless, only 2 more weeks until we take off - woohoo!!

Keep in touch! If you missed out on the mass e-mail and would like to be included, send us an e-mail to sailing@aheakali.com and we'll add you to the mailing list for our very occasional e-mail updates.

Rene

We had a friend come & visit on the dock the other day - posing for pics & being talked about!

El dia de los Muertos 11.1.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:26:00 +0000

Last night was the 'Day of the Dead' parade in downtown Mazatlan and a group of cruisers all went down for the festivities. We jumped on the ‘green’ Sabalo Centro air conditioned bus and exited at the Mercado, walking a few blocks to the center of the festivities, Plazuela Machado. The place was swarming with people, vendors selling jewelry, books, & goodies, and music. There were 11 of us – Mike & Julie from Slacker, Mike & Marilyn on Lady Hawke, Merry & BJ on Willow, Justin from Tao Min, two non-boaters Bianca & Sherri, and Michael & I. Roy & Darlene from Scrimshaw & Scott & Cindy on Beach House were also seen in the crowd. We started off at a restaurant, the majority of us ordering fish or shrimp tacos (yum…) and we timed it perfectly as once we finished with dinner, it was time for the parade!

What is the Day of the Dead all about you may ask? Well, to me it seems like a combination of Memorial Day, Halloween, & the 4th of July all wrapped up in one. The Day of the Dead is a big deal here in Mexico, often more celebrated than Christmas.

Every year, on November 1st (All Saints Day) and 2nd (All Souls Day), the Day of the Dead festivities take place. While it's strange for most of us to accept the fact that "death" and "festivities" can go hand-in-hand, for most Mexicans, the two are intricately entwined. It isn't difficult for foreigners to interpret dancing skeletons, candy skulls and general drunken revelry as disrespect for the dead and grief at human loss. Nothing could be further from the truth. For those accustomed to hushed voices, formal clothing, a solemn priest and an absence of children as fitting for the graveside, this festival flies in the face of propriety. Bright flowers, loud music, colorful decorations and seasonal sweets are characteristic of the first two days of November.

This all stems from the ancient indigenous peoples of Mexico who believed that the souls of the dead return each year to visit with their living relatives - to eat, drink and be merry. The living invite the spirits of the family to return home for a few hours of laughter, tears and memories. It is a time for remembering friends, family and ancestors. The cemeteries come alive and altars are created which are filled with flowers, candles, a selection of the deceased favorite food & drink and fresh water, photographs of the deceased and offerings. Even families with very limited budgets spare no expense when preparing the altar to honor their family.

They want their spirits to enjoy the offerings and to return each year to continue this special spiritual companionship. The spirits of the dead are expected to pay a holiday visit home and should be provided with an enticing repast and adequate sustenance for the journey. Frequently a wash basin and clean hand towel are provided so that visiting souls can freshen up before the feast. The offering may also include a pack of cigarettes for the after-dinner enjoyment of former smokers, or a selection of toys and extra sweets for deceased children. The smell of burning copal (incense) and the light of numerous candles are intended to help the departed find their way. While most altars are laden with the favorite foods, sweets, drinks, and harvest fruits of each family spirit, even the most basic altar includes these basic needs:

WATER to quench the thirst and for purification
SALT to season the food and for purification
BREAD to represent the food needed for survival

It is a time of lively reunions at family burial plots. Some bring along picnic baskets, bottles of tequila for toasting the departed or even a mariachi band to lead a heartfelt sing-along. To preserve the tradition, government and private institutions have recently increased promotion of commemorative altars displayed in museums, educational centers and other public venues.

Other symbols include the elaborately-decorated pan de muerto or ‘dead bread’,

skull-shaped candies and sweets

,

death figures

and paper maché skeletons and skulls.
This may all seem morbid and somewhat ghoulish to those who are not part of that culture. But, for Mexicans who believe in the life/death/rebirth continuum, it's all very natural.

The festivities are the epitome of what I love about being in a different culture. By the time the parade began, there were thousands of people in the plaza. There was so much going on, every sensory was tingling. The parade was not what I would consider a parade, but more of a procession. There was a lead vehicle with spotlights shining onto the crowd and fireworks were shot out every few minutes.

The fireworks are a signal to help guide the spirits home. Behind the lead vehicle were thousands of people, who walked the entire parade route (about 20 blocks). Everyone sang & danced to music provided by brass bands evenly spaced out throughout the procession. This is a quick video showing the dark streets, the band, and if you listen, everyone singing.

There were also 3 burrow-drawn carriages decorated with flowers.

These carriages carried kegs of beer and a couple men whose job it was to keep the beer flowing. During the procession, you simply sidled up to the carriage and were poured a cup of beer (which sounds so much easier than it was!) and then continued to walk along the parade route.

You drank the beer in remembrance to those who have passed. Of course, the beer carriages were always surrounded and I think they had one guy specifically for pumping the keg alone! All ages were represented and it was not unusual to see an entire family walking along. Some participants were dressed in elaborate costumes,

but mostly everyone wore black & white of some sort.

At the end of the parade route, which took us right back to Plazuela Machado, students of the local ballet school performed “La Catrina dances, too” depicting death & rebirth.

We were even treated with a sample of the 'dead bread' by gals walking through the crowd. The entire evening was amazing. Incredibly, the entire group managed to meet back precisely when we were supposed to and all hopped into a pick-up taxi back to the Marina.

The festival reminded me of a favorite song of mine…

And the band played
Songs that we have never heard
But we danced anyway
We never understood the words
We just sang Oh, la la la la la la la la la
And we danced anyway…

Nobel laureate Octavio Paz said, "The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it; it is one of his toys and his most steadfast love."

An amazing evening…
Rene

All work and no play 10.31.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:06:00 +0000

Well, you know the end of the proverb, I’m sure. Luckily, we haven’t lived up to it this week…

We're still working on the boat, surprise, surprise. Remember, it’s just like a house, stuff breaks, chores get put off until later, there’s always cleaning & maintenance and it’s much easier done at a dock than out at anchor. We have 1 of the 4 sails put back on the masts, 3 to go (the biggest ones, of course! We did safety checks – the windlass (works!), un-pickled the watermaker and ran it for a while using water from the hose, checked the pins in the turnbuckles of the rigging, Michael added stainless steel backing plates onto the inside of the boat where the turning blocks and the arch & davit system attach to the boat which will make it more solid and prevent the deck from flexing, and lots of little things that we didn’t write down or cross off of the list.

On Friday we had our cabinets glued & screwed & put back together. Our cabinets in the main salon are a lifesaver, nice & large so we can store lots of items and are the cushions of the settee. The bad part is they are nice & large and have lots of room to stuff lots of stuff inside! Two of the 6 cabinets are used for dry good storage, specifically all of our canned goods, which are very heavy. This weight has caused the frame of the cabinets to bow, making the bottom pull loose from the top, so the latches don't work the way they should. We could shore them up from the bottom for the time being, but the bottom is the top of the futon couches so that's not an option. So we removed everything from the cabinets (6 of them) and had Joel, a wood/cabinet guy, take them apart, re-glue (epoxy) them, get them in place and then counter sink some brass screws to make them look pretty. That turned into a 36 hour project - removing everything and storing it in the V Berth, the 2 1/2 hour cabinet work, then 24 hours of curing, then putting it all back in, neat & orderly. Whew! haha... And just like magic….the cabinets work just like they should.

While waiting for the epoxy to cure, Michael took advantage of the clutter free zone and replaced the macerator on our waste system. Just before we left the boat in May, the macerator went out (this is a pump that chews up the waste on board and moves it to a holding tank or out of the boat - a stinky job!) and we had to have the marina come over & remove the waste from our holding tank. This was the most dreaded item on the ‘list’ but luckily turned out to be a fairly easy replacement.

We have a ‘list’ of items to complete (ask any boat owner, they always have a ‘list’ to complete…). The heat is keeping us moving slow and we get jobs done on a daily basis, but not everything yet. Here's the list (right now...) Michael is rigging a topside shower and just needs a few more parts to complete it (Home Depot, here we come...again!), Fix the 3 sail slugs that broke on the main sail before replacing it (an all day job of sewing and then another day to get it put up on the mast at least!), repair a stanchion base that was loose (the fiberglass work & the deck painting is done, we just need to drill holes in the deck & remount after getting the stainless steel backing plate drilled by one of the contractors (a 4 day delay already), Oil change on the generator & engine, at least a 2 day job but we can’t start it until the stanchion base is finished. (the refrig compressor is in the engine room which keeps it nice & hot in there), re-attach the SSB antennae (5 minute job but must take the entire bed apart, a 2 hour job!), and a long list of some really minor things. Not much!

We have had a very social week which is more consistent with the cruising lifestyle that we love. We started doing the Tuesday Dominoes pizza parties on our dock and had 12 people the first week. On Tuesdays, Dominoes has a 2 for 1 night - two pizzas for the price of one. Word has gotten around though and we'll have many more next week, I'm afraid. I did the ordering of the pizza, all in Spanish, and did pretty well! I was nervous as all get out though. Then Wednesday, our dock neighbor, Sally & Gerry on Aquarius, who live up in the condos, invited us up for a swim party. Oh.....the pool felt sooo good! It was very cool, almost chilly, and was perfect against the heat. There were 11 people there - boats Aquarius, Scrimshaw, Overheated, & Joy-u (I have no clue how to spell their boat's name so will just spell it phonetically) plus us and a straggler from Willow. And what do you think we all did?! Brace yourself....we played keep-away! I was about laughing my head off as here we were, 11 grown adults in the pool, and we played keep away! But it was a great time and we played until dark. After a nice swim, we met at Gus Gus, the Restaurant at the top of the dock where the singer from last week was playing and had a nice relaxing dinner. The 3 boats Aquarius, Overheated, & Joy-u are going to head out right after Thanksgiving and go straight down to Huatalco and then work their way back up the coast and we might just join them. We'll see...nothing is set in stone but it's an option.

We had a Halloween party on Friday night at the cruiser's lounge. Halloween in Mexico is like the 4th of July in Canada – it just doesn’t fit, but any reason for cruisers to get together, and eat…and it’s a party! We dressed as pirates, I know....real imaginative....but we've had the costumes from long ago and shockingly there was only one other pirate.

This is a picture of Michael & I with Elvira, the Manager for Marina Mazatlan dressed as Sleeping Beauty. Such a princess! There were about 50-60 people there but only 8-10 of them dressed up. The lounge was decked out and there was lots of food for everyone. We made worms & eyeballs for the potluck. Worms are hotdogs cut lengthwise in quarters then grilled/pan fried. When they get warm and are that small, they start to curl, looking somewhat like worms. And eyeballs - big carrots cut into 1" rings, cream cheese & black olives make the eyes. The eyeballs were extremely tasty - and easy. They will be one of my top appetizers from now on - they were crunchy, salty, & creamy. A perfect combination! I'm not a black olive fan but these were fantastic. And it was healthy!

I'm feeling MUCHO better! Boy, if I had known that this was an infection, I'd have started on antibiotics much earlier. Michael is doing much better as well, still can't hear out of his ear, but his cough is almost all gone. He's weaning off of one of the meds and starts another in the next couple days.

It's still very hot & extremely humid (which is the worst part) here – today’s high is only supposed to be 86 (although it's already 92!) but 98% humidity. You can't walk from your boat up to the office without dripping in sweat. We had one evening this week of rain which cooled everything down for a couple days, but then that sun poked back through the clouds & the heat was back.

Boats are beginning to come & go, slowly, and more cruisers are returning to their boats. We typically see about 1-2 new cruisers back on the docks or up at the cruisers lounge daily and it’s such a welcome sight! The camaraderie here is just amazing, it’s a wonderful feeling. We have plenty to keep us busy for the next few weeks in chores alone, not to mention playing with friends, surfing, & just enjoying Mazatlan. We both like it here a lot. There is so much to see & do.

More to follow!
Rene

Hiding from the heat 10.25.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 03:36:00 +0000

We've been back at the boat for a week and what a HOT week it's been! Temps have been in the upper 90's and the humidity has been trying it's best to match. Projects get done slower in this kind of heat. If Michael is working outside, he must drink lots of water and take breaks often. Inside, it's the task of working around everything as there are lots of 'stuff' out for projects. That's not including the two circulating fans that block the entrances to the aft cabin & main cabin. It's an adventure! haha.

Michael & I both went to the Dr today. He's been suffering for the last month or so with a cough that won't go away and his right ear has been blocked like it won't 'pop'. The gal that runs the marina here, Elvira, has a fiance who is an Ear, Nose, & Throat Dr. The Spanish word for it is a mouthful! Otorrinolaringologia. Yep, say that 3 times fast! haha... Anyway, he opened up his office for us and one other person today. Looked over Michael first. Put him on several meds to get everything under control. Wants to see if he can get the inflamation down in his chest, get the allergies under control, & will see if he is better after 22 days. If not, off to the pulmonologist. I went because I still have this sore throat! It's been about 3 weeks. It's not a horrible pain, but is nagging and is always there. I'm also tired a lot. But I don't have a fever, which prevented me from thinking about taking an antibiotic. I don't have congestion & so I've just been dealing with it. Well, he took a look and turns out I have an infection in my tonsils! He sent me home with an antibiotic, anti-inflamatory, & an allergy med. I came back to the boat and took the meds and they have me really whacked out - dizzy - so I'm taking it easy. $400 worth of meds for both Michael and I.....whew! But hey, if it makes us feel better, it was money well spent.

This week has been good, Michael's getting lots of projects done. And I have been too - just not as noteworthy. I've been getting the laptop/desktop upgraded/synchronized, cleaned & organized, painted my toenails a nice bright pink & ???....read? I'm amazed how quickly my time passes, just doing small stuff.

There is a restaurant at the top of our dock called Gus Gus and on Wednesday they have a guitarist, his name escapes me but they promise he'll be back every Wednesday. It's a nice relaxing evening and everyone seems to turn out to listen to the music, dance, & chat. There are 3 condo complex's surrounding the marina and Gus Gus was absolutely packed with people!

It rained like cats & dogs yesterday evening and cooled things down for a night - we actually took the A/C down & enjoyed a night of cool temps! We were outside on the docks visiting with others from the dock when it just started to POUR! And big drops! Everyone scattered and ducked onto their boats. Luckily, with the rain, Michael pulled down an access panel and water poured down. See, we have deck stepped masts and all the wiring comes out of the masts and into the heads. He removed an access panel and there's one piece of conduit that must be open at the top of the mast and just acts as a funnel to the rain. Now it's figuring out if we need to fix the wood part or if it will correct itself once we are out of the humidity. We've been told our rig is tuned too tight for this humidity. Problem is...Chad tuned the rig just before we left. If we loosen it, we'll have to figure out how to tune it ourselves or have someone else tune it. We'll see what Michael decides to do. But that ends our search for the water intrusion.

The newest search is for la cucaracha....Michael was getting into the cupboard the other evening when he jumped out of his skin. He said he saw a roach about 3" long (one of the flying ones)in the cupboards. We tore everything out but have slats on the backside of the cupboards and he was long gone. I haven't seen him at all and Michael says he's seen him twice in the last 3 days. We bombed the boat today when we went to the Dr's appt with only one bomb, and only in the main cabin cause we only had one spare! There is another boat at the foot of the dock and has major infestation - they called the exterminator out and the exterminator said it's the worst he's ever seen. BUT...they left all of their food intact on the boat, a big no-no. Yikes. So we're trying hard to get rid of our friend. We have no clue how he got in - maybe flew is our best guess as we hadn't gotten much food yet!

So not much else to report! We're looking forward to seeing new cruisers invade Mazatlan as the Baja Ha-Ha begins tomorrow. There are a little over 180 boats that are making the jump from San Diego down to Cabo and many of them will continue down South from there. Want to read about the Baja haha? Check it out here... http://www.baja-haha.com/

We're also looking forward to seeing many of our cruising friends as they move from the Sea of Cortez down to our neck of the woods. We've been communicating with many of them and they're all waiting for the magical November 15th date! (The end of hurricane season).

Drop us a line! e-mail us at sailing@aheakali.com We're readily available on e-mail until about Thanksgiving and miss everyone.

Rene

Back in Mazatlan 10.17.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:10:00 +0000

Ahhh....home!! The boat fared well - no mold to speak of, nothing missing, one door doesn't close like it used to and we think it's a little water intrusion, but will need to look further into it. We turned on the refrigerator yesterday and it's getting up to temperature well. It only has a few items in it right now as we haven't provisioned yet but we have lots of water, beer, & towels inside. The past couple days we've been unpacking the boat - moving everything back out onto the deck from inside, and unpacking everything we brought from the Jeep. We brought enough books to last us quite a while! We didn't realize just how many we had brought until we started unpacking them! We were given some from friends, purchased some, brought some from Nicaragua, and they all added up! There's probably 50 or so! haha... Now it's the chore of stowing everything!

I haven't felt good since before we left Texas - I picked up a cold along the way so I've been taking it a little easy since we arrived. Today I'm updating the main computer with all of the necessary updates - windows updates, antivirus, firewall, etc and catching up on the blog! The heat is miserable - it's hot, hot, hot here! Temps are in the 90's and the humidity has been in the upper 90's as well! The heat index has been over 110 degrees for the last couple days! Our little A/C unit gets the main cabin down to a comfy 74 degrees at night but just can't compete with the heat during the day and the temp inside raises to the upper 80's. Michael installed the cover onto the back half of the boat (the mizzen side) today which we hope will help to keep the aft cabin, where we sleep, a little cooler. The main cover, over the main boom, we hope to install in the next day or so. When we first got onto the boat, I removed the foil window coverings from the windows but quickly put them right back up, and more, over all of the windows to keep the heat & sun from getting inside the boat.

It's time for the cruisers to begin coming back to the boats and already there were 13 boaters that checked in on the morning net. There are 7 cruisers on our dock preparing their boat for the season. The girls in the office said there were only 3 cruisers who stayed the entire summer. We picked up a loaf of bread and have been eating cold sandwiches for lunch and showering (in cold water which feels FANTASTIC!) and going up to the newest restaurant, Gus Gus, that is just at the top of our dock entrance.

So other than that, we're just generally getting the boat packed & ready. Michael has several projects he needs to complete before we leave but for now we're just getting everything stowed & will attempt to relax a bit before tackling all the hard stuff. We have to close all of the doors so that the main cabin gets cool so it's not very conducive to completing a project when you have to move stuff, open up that door to get stuff, close it to keep it cool, etc. I'm sure we'll figure out how to get around it all but for now that's what we're up to!!

Hurricane season ends on November 15th so we have about 4 weeks to get the boat prepared, stocked up again, & ready to head out of the harbor.

Until later!
Rene

{GMST}23|16.260|N|106|27.282|W|Waiting out the hurricanes!|Marina Mazatlan{GEND}

Leaving Texas 10.16.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:55:00 +0000

After spending a week working on the property, it was about as close as it could be. The appliances were purchased, carpet purchased & scheduled, painting of the main house had begun and we decided to leave.

We left Corpus Christi on Thursday morning and headed to the Mexican border at Reynosa, just opposite McAllen, Texas. We had 3 choices to cross - Nuevo Laredo (opposite Laredo, Texas), Reynosa, & Matamoros (opposite Brownsville) and chose Reynosa as it seemed the smallest & I felt it would be safest. If you've been paying attention to the news in Mexico, the drug traffickers & police shootings have gotten worse in the border towns and general violence & kidnappings have become worse than ever. So we hoped for the best and crossed over. We were stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol on our way out of the country - yep, the U.S. Border patrol! We were asked to pull over and they had us get out of the truck and, seperately, interrogated us. They took us into a room and made us take everything out of our pockets & even patted down Michael (the female officer was busy so I didn't get that treatment). They asked us the same questions and we believe because our stories collaborated, they released us. We guess they suspected us of taking money or drugs into Mexico, but they wouldn't tell us.

Once we were inside the border, we got the 'Pase' green light at customs so they didn't inspect the vehicle (whew!) and we headed over to immigration to get our 6 month tourist permits & our temporary import permit for the Jeep. Not that we were bring in anything illegal, but we were over in our limits of a few items. We had no problems with that at all - woohoo!

But as we left immigration, our luck changed. We took a wrong turn accidentally while attempting to get to the highway and a crooked cop spotted us. Bummer. He pulled us over, for no reason, and told us because we failed to stop (yeah right!) for him, he would impound the vehicle for 36 hours. No way, we said. OK, what will it take for him to let us go? 6,200 pesos. Yep, that's right - $620 USD!! No way... We continued to talk & negotiate down our 'ticket'. During the entire incident - he spoke absolutely no English while we stuttered along with our Spanish (thankfully we had just spent 1 month in Nicaragua and had honed up our Spanish a little bit!). He finally settled on $175 and then gave us an escort to the highway. How nice of him - $175 for a personal escort to the highway. But the experience spoiled our whole day. We were pissed at being 'taken' and that we were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Oh well....we continued on. We wanted to make it to Monterrey for the evening. The toll roads in Mexico take you from one spot to another - with no stops in between! We decided to take the Toll roads even though they are quite expensive as the roads are better and it's much faster as it avoids all of the cities! But because they avoid the cities, we ended up going around Monterrey all together and continued on to Saltillo. It was about 5pm and we figured we would look for a place to stay. We stopped at 4 hotels - the first one was $125, the second $159, the third $199, and the forth....$20 for 6 hours. Well, we didn't feel comfortable in any of them so we decided to continue on....even though it would be dark by the time we would hit the next big city. I hate to drive at night ever since my eye surgery gave be bad night vision but we just wanted to get further down the road. So we ended up in Torreon. It was raining like cats & dogs so the streets were flooded, it was super dark, and they were building a new freeway system that was half good and half bad. We saw signs for hotels but there wasn't directions other than '5 minutes away!'. We saw a hotel on the right hand side of the street and so we exited the freeway. Unfortunately though, we couldn't get over to the right hand side of the street because of the freeway construction! So we ended up driving down the street looking for a hotel, then turning around, getting back on the freeway, exiting the next exit, and somehow making it to the other side of the freeway to the hotel. It didn't matter the price - it was after 9pm and we were both exhausted and just wanted food & a bed. The next morning we were up bright & early and headed out again. We were determined to make it to Mazatlan and had an easy day's drive ahead of us.

We needed gas and tooled around looking for it but didn't find an easy station, so we jumped on the toll road and headed to Durango. Durango is a large city and we were sure to find gasoline there. At Durango, we encountered our first Mexican Army checkpoint. The young boys were very friendly and they waved us through after chatting with us a bit. Again, the toll road took us completely around Durango...so we were on the outskirts before there was an exit. At the exit, we saw a Pemex station and drove over there....and it was a closed. Bummer. We jumped on the toll road again hoping we would find a gas station ahead. As the gauge got lower & lower, we really started to worry. There was no civilization ahead as far as we could see and we were almost on empty. We found an exit on the highway and exited. We drove along but it was looking bad. The light came on indicating we had only 2 gallons left. Luckily we had brought along two - 2 gallon gas cans just in case, and we stopped to put in our last few gallons of fuel. This gave us about 45 miles to find a gas station....or else! We were about 30 miles outside of Durango and we could drive the 'free' road and were sure to find a gas station, but that would mean turning around. Or we could take our chances that there was fuel in the next town, La Salto. We decided to turn around and go back to Durango. The fun part about driving the 'libre' roads in Mexico is all of the sights you get to see! And the obstructions in the roads. There were cows, horses, & donkeys alongside the road or even on the road in several spots! And it was an incredibly windy road, winding along the mountains. We found our 2nd checkpoint of the day on our way into Durango. We had quite a chuckle with the military members as when they asked us where we were going and we responded 'Mazatlan'....they looked at each other and said it was the other way! 'Yes, we know, but we don't have enough gas to make it to Mazatlan (the soldier looked at our gas gauge and concurred...haha) so they graciously gave us directions to the closest gas station. Whew! That was a relief!

All fueled up & ready to go....we jumped on the same toll road (again!) headed to Mazatlan. A few miles up the road, we were stopped by some guys on the road who told us there was an accident. Looking ahead, there were only about 5 cars in front of the accident and the emergency personnel had not arrived yet. Everyone turned off their vehicles & many exited the cars to go up & take a look. Emergency personnel arrived about 10 minutes later, moved the vehicle out of the way and we were allowed to pass. It was a van that had obviously flipped several times, ejecting the passengers. There was at least one dead, and they were working on one other as we passed. It was very heartbreaking. We continued along until the toll road abruptly ended, sending us onto the 'libre' (free) highway.

The most comical part of the entire day was our encounter with 'Crazy Trucker' (and any related play on the words). You see, we exited the toll road and mistakenly thought it continued even though there was a little bit of a road block. We decided to go through it until we came upon an even bigger road block where we turned around. We got onto the 'Libre' road just in front of this trucker. At this point, we were in the Sierra Madre mountain range and the road is called "El Espinazo del Diablo" - Devil's backbone. The scenery is fantastic - beautiful vistas, waterfalls right alongside the road, and nice & cool temps. But the road...is switchback after switchback, hair raising turns, road construction that sends traffic onto the same side of the road, etc. And this crazy trucker obviously knew the road like the back of his hands. He was nearly driving us off the road before we let him ahead of us. And once in front of us - he took the S turns like a pro, right into oncoming traffic, driving speeds that no fully loaded trucker should be able to maintain - and blind curves? No problem for crazy trucker! So we figured being behind him was a great place to be as he was clearing the way! haha... He would pass other semis like they were standing still - blind curve coming up on not! We stayed behind him for almost the entire way to Mazatlan. We were pulled over on one military checkpoint and he got a little ahead of us, but we eventually caught up. At the checkpoint into the state of Sinaloa, we were pulled over & one member went through the truck, as well as he could. We had the hitch on the back so he couldn't open up the back, so he had to look through the stuff behind the seats. He went through our luggage and looked at each of our medicine bottles (Tylenol, vitamins, etc), opened up most of the compartments, talked to us a little bit, and let us go. We caught up with crazy trucker a bit ahead as he got stuck behind some other semis. We were stopped two times as there was road work ahead and they would close the road for like 30 minutes each time. So we finally rolled into Mazatlan about 6pm on Friday, went straight to a restaurant as we were both starved, and then down to the boat. We moved stuff around enough to get to the bed and one of the heads. We had purchased a little air conditioner before we left Mazatlan and had it on the boat and when we arrived, it was still in the upper 80's with very high humidity. We placed the A/C in the main hatch and along with the two oscillating fans, knocked down the heat enough for us to sleep.

We made it - woohoo!!
More to follow...
Rene
{GMST}25|34.922|N|103|24.227|W|Hanging in the hotel|On our way to Mazatlan{GEND}

Back in Corpus (yet again!) 10.10.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:46:00 +0000

We left Kansas because our property that has been being remodeled since June wasn't finished and we had to come down & ensure it was complete before it took a year! We've had problems between the contractor and property manager and work has slowed down to a trickle for the last several weeks. It seems the two just can not manage to get along and it has turned into a lot of he-said-she-said and the project is not getting done.

So we rolled up our sleeves, dressed in our grubbiest clothes and jumped in with both feet! Amazingly, both people were at the property and the past couple days there has been more work on the property than in the last few weeks! Let's see...in the last couple days I've pulled weeds, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, scraped all the paint off of the windows, took lots to the dumpster, jeez! Michael tore the bathroom apart, worked on the windows (they all open up now - woohoo!), swept the entire driveway, and has been coordinating the work between the other two. It's been a very busy couple of days and we're both nice & sore already. We figure we're getting ready to be back on the boat! But the house looks very nice now.

The house is two separate structures - the main house is a two-story house with two units - one upstairs and one downstairs. The entire downstairs has been remodeled and is currently being painted, inside & out. The back structure is a garage type structure (more of a large shed) and the upstairs is a 1 bedroom apartment. This has also been entirely remodeled. The bathroom has had soft spots on the floor so after several attempts to repair, we decided to rip it out and totally replace it. The tile is being laid today and tomorrow and the tub is supposed to be resurfaced as well.

Only a couple more days of work and the back unit will be ready for carpet and then ready for renting. The main house has a few more days to go and will hopefully ready for renting in the next couple weeks.

We're planning on leaving Corpus around Tuesday or so and head down to Mexico and the BOAT!! Woohoo!! We're so ready to be back at home. It's been a fabulous summer and we've had a wonderful time, but we're ready to be back on the boat.

More to follow!
Rene
{GMST}27|47.770|N|097|24.383|W|Our property on King Street in Corpus Christi, TX|Our property in Corpus Christi{GEND}

Visiting in Kansas! 10.8.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:07:00 +0000

We had a great visit with my family these last few days. We arrived on Friday, after stopping in Fort Worth for an evening, just in time for a Friday dinner date with grandpa! Mom & Dad go to dinner with him every Friday evening and after dinner, we went back to his house & gabbed until almost midnight! It was great to spend time with him. Saturday morning we got up & went to a Wichita Geocachers breakfast and then went geocaching with the group for about 4 hours. And we weren't finished! We went back to the house to regroup & get additional coordinates and then took off again for about 4 hours more! Sunday morning was a Red Cross breakfast and then another full day of geocaching! Whew! :-)

Monday Michael & I took off to see his son, Brandon Jacobs, and just missed meeting his girlfriend, Alex. We spent a couple hours chatting with him and then visited another friend, Brian Warren. I didn't have a chance to look up some high school friends to see if they are still in Wichita and figured I'll get more chances later.

Tuesday we just visited & found a few more geocaches, getting ready to leave. All in all, we found over 50 geocaches! It was a ton of fun and we had so much fun on our trip. We just wish we could stay longer!

Michael had his cold the entire time we were there but was a great sport and didn't complain (loudly) once! haha. He has a chest cold that he picked up just before we left California. I've managed to avoid it so far, and hope it stays that way!

We're heading back to Corpus tomorrow. It's almost time to head back to Mexico!!
Rene
{GMST}37|37.598|N|097|21.516|W|Visiting my family in Kansas|Wichita, KS{GEND}

Back in Corpus 10.1.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:03:00 +0000

We turned in the vehicle to the Red Cross office in Fairfield, had it inspected, & caught a ride by one of the volunteers to the San Francisco airport for a 3pm flight back to Corpus Christi.

Our flight was a long one - arriving in Corpus around 11pm. It was a long day but we're back....for one night... haha... We're heading to Kansas tomorrow morning to spend some time with my folks, visit my Grandpa, visit with some friends and Michael's son. Going, going, going!!

Rene
{GMST}27|48.368|N|097|27.127|W|Back in Corpus Christi...again!|Corpus Christi, TX{GEND}

Fairfield, CA 9.30.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:09:00 +0000

We made it - woohoo!! Back to Jelly Belly country - just outside of San Francisco. We made it by about 5pm and got settled in at the hotel. We turn in the vehicle tomorrow morning and the local chapter has arranged a ride to the airport by a volunteer. We'll be back in Corpus tomorrow evening and then are driving up to Kansas to see my folks. Michael isn't feeling so hot today and I hope he gets over whateve he has before then! I told him...that will not get him out of visiting with my family! haha...

Rene
{GMST}38|13.105|N|122|07.917|W|A quick stop in Fairfield, CA|Fairfield, CA{GEND}

Welcome to California! 9.29.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:58:00 +0000

We made it back to California! Who knew we'd be back so soon after leaving! haha... We drove through New Mexico, Arizona, & finally California today. We're ready to be finished! We rescheduled our flights and are flying out of San Francisco airport at 3pm, arriving in Corpus Christi on Wednesday evening around midnight. Whew! We took it easy this evening and are taking off early tomorrow morning (it's easy because of the time difference!) and hope to make Fairfield by early afternoon.

Almost done...
Rene
{GMST}34|53.739|N|117|00.407|W|A short stop in Barstow, CA|Barstow, CA{GEND}

Outside Albuquerque, NM 9.28.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:08:00 +0000

We made the drive from Wichita Falls, TX to a town just outside Albuquerque, NM. We saw lots of rolling hills and the tallest buildings were either water towers or grain towers! There were camel, donkey, & livestock farms. The people are so friendly out here! Of course driving the ERV we're often asked where we are going or where we came from!

We stopped in Texas at 'The Big Texan' Restaurant/Hotel. It's there that they have a 72oz steak dinner that if you can eat in 1 hour, it's free! Of course it's a 72oz steak, baked potato, side salad, dinner roll, & 4 fried shrimp. While we were there, 2 gentlemen were attempting - one made it (with seconds to spare) and one didn't. The guy who made it was a slim, tall, & lanky guy & the one who didn't was a large guy! And they were up on a stage while they ate! They even have a webcam! Check it out...www.bigtexan.com The waitress said 1 in 7 make it. And if you don't eat it within 1 hour, it's $72.

2 more days until California!

{GMST}35|04.583|N|107|33.323|W|Just outside of Albuquerque, NM|Albuquerque, NM{GEND}

Day 1 on the road again! 9.27.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:58:00 +0000

We left Baton Rouge this morning and made it to Wichita Falls, TX. The Red Cross vehicle we are driving home was extremely weather beaten and the red on the vehicle almost looked pink in areas! So after we checked into the hotel, we went outside & waxed it. It looks 100% better...but still can use some work. We're headed to Albuquerque, NM tomorrow. I'll post an update tomorrow!

Rene
{GMST}33|56.106|N|098|31.136|W|Made it to Wichita Falls, TX|Wichita Falls, TX{GEND}

Red Cross duty in Baton Rouge, LA 9.25.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:38:00 +0000

As you know, we have been trained up over the summer to help out with the American Red Cross. Well, we were called up to help yesterday. We were asked to go to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where Hurricane Gustav, a category 4 hurricane hit on September 1st. We were asked to go out to drive the ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle).

We flew out of Corpus Christi on Thursday and arrived around 5pm. We were picked up at the airport and transported to the command post - an old Wal-Mart building that the Red Cross leases out year-round for their command post (called a 'Hotspot'). It was HUGE!! Lots of people working and were very organized. Of course they looked at us like we had three heads when we said we were sent here....from Texas....(just after Hurricane Ike ripped through Galveston & Houston)!! The operations are winding down here and they're sending all of the ERV's TO Texas. So we got checked-in and talked to the ERV coordinator who said she needs people to return ERV's to their hometowns, would we be willing to take one somewhere? SURE we said! So we went in today and by the end of the day, are driving an ERV out to Fairfield, CA (just outside of San Francisco where the Jelly Belly Factory is located).

They have 2 staff shelters and 1 client shelter. We're in the staff shelter called "Broadmoor" which is a large church here in Baton Rouge. We're in the recreation room (basketball court) and there are approx 175 or so cots setup here and it's about 2/3 full of volunteers. And only 3 showers!! haha... When we arrived at the command post, we got checked in & told to come back tomorrow so we found a ride to the shelter and then another ride to dinner. The shelter is nice & clean, lots of comforts - blow up mattresses, lots of blankets (they say it gets really cold at nights), snacks, water, juices, coffee, etc.

So we're on our way to California!! Hey, didn't we just make this trip!?! We estimate it will take about 4 days for us to get there, driving approx 500 miles a day. Tonight we're just outside of Baton Rouge as we wanted to get out of town early as there are a ton of people coming in town for a big LSU game tomorrow.

So although we didn't get a chance to directly help folks that are in need...we're doing a service for the Red Cross by getting the ERV back where it's supposed to be for the next disaster! Want to read more about it? Check out this link... http://hurricanegustav.wordpress.com/ They have daily updates on what is going on with each of the states affected. It's pretty cool!

So we'll be on the road for the next couple days. We will update as we can!
Rene

{GMST}30|27.227|N|091|05.512|W|At the Headquarters of the American Red Cross in Baton Rouge, LA|Baton Rouge, Louisiana{GEND}

Back in Corpus Christi 9.20.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:44:00 +0000

We made it back to Corpus Christi today after hanging out in Nicaragua for another week because of Hurricane Ike. As you may be aware, Hurricane Ike rolled through Texas on Saturday, September 13th. Luckily for us, it hit North of Corpus Christi between Galveston & Houston so Corpus Christi only had significant rain and our property, tenants, & friends in the area were all spared. Thank goodness!

We enjoyed another week in Nicaragua which included more surf trips, more trips throughout the area, & unfortunately, some system malfunctions at Scott & Liz's house. Luckily, Michael was there to help out Scott with the generator, inverter/charger, & septic systems. Scott & Liz were flying out to Guadalajara for her yearly medical exams so we hitched a ride with them to the airport. Poor Scottie, he was so stressed out with leaving the house with so many problems but they're leaving it in the very capable hands of Katy & Victor so I'm sure it will be OK.

We enjoyed our trip and are looking forward to seeing them again soon! But I'll tell you....we are both starting to get seriously homesick. We're ready to be back on the boat!

The past few days we have been getting ourselves established in Texas - both vehicles are Titled & Registered in Texas and our property continues to be remodeled. We're heading up to visit my folks in Kansas tomorrow and will spend a little over a week with them.

More to follow!
Rene
{GMST}27|48.315|N|097|27.247|W|Back in Corpus Christi|Back in Corpus Christi, TX{GEND}

Plans Change & Surf day – woohoo!! 9.10.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:10:00 +0000

OK….so we changed our plans – surprise, surprise!! We had stressed about the hurricane situation and the ‘what if’s’. Will there be an evacuation order? Will we even be able to fly into Corpus if we want to? What happens if we get stranded in Houston? How long will the evacuation order last? So many questions. So we went onto the Continental Airlines website and found they had setup a deal for passengers who were flying into the areas affected by Hurricane Ike to be able to make changes to their itinerary without fees. We talked to Scott & Liz and are staying another week here! We could have flown at any time and it just worked out for us that Scott & Liz are already flying to Guadalajara for their medical workups on the 20th and that is the last day we can fly fee-free so we booked it for the 20th so that S&L would not have to make two trips to Managua in the same week (it’s a 4 hour trip). We made changes to our flight without issue, then made hotel changes for both Managua (our flight is at o-dark-thirty – 6am so we’re staying the night before at a hotel across the street from the airport) and in Corpus Christi. A couple hours later…we’re all set for one more week in Nicaragua! Luckily, we’re headed out on the 20th, just 2 days shy of our 30 day visitors visa in Nicaragua. But, funny enough…if you stay after 30 days, you simply pay a fine of $1/day for each day over the 30 days. It would be crazy to be an illegal alien in Nicaragua! Haha…

So after all the toiling & torture of contemplating the what-if’s all morning, looking at all of the satellite tracking pages, National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center, Weather Underground, and watching all we could on Fox News & then all of the plan-changing….we decided to head to the beach for some surf!!

We went to Playa Maderas again and both Scott & Liz were super bummed because the onshore winds were blowing which closed out the waves so surfing for them was terrible. For me though….I finally stood up on the board – woohoo!! And not just once, multiple times!! I will admit, I was incredibly nervous and finally just said screw it. My first wave to stand, I went to my knees first then stood but I ran right off the front of the board. Michael was watching from the beach and yelled “where were you running to?”….what a backseat surfer!! Liz was incredibly patient, even when my swimsuit wasn’t cooperating (there are surfing appropriate swimsuits, and not….I was wearing the not) and flashing everyone at the beach, and encouraged me on wave after wave. Paddle, paddle, paddle…get up, up up!! She thinks she swallowed more water than I did as she was screaming instructions…I beg to differ. Haha… Michael managed to snap a couple photos and said I looked like I was just waving to him on the beach. Yeah, that’s what I was doing all right!!

Back at the house we washed up the animals, rinsed swimsuits, checked e-mail, watched another spectacular sunset, & are showering up for the evening. It has not rained in 5 days!!! Well, there’s been sprinkles here & there and a super small rain, but rain, rain…when it has deterred our plans…free for 5 days! Maybe this extra week was in the plans all along & it’s our week to really enjoy Nicaragua! We still have lots of trips planned for this week & places to see. So keep tuned!

Now we’ll just be worried about our property in Corpus, just 6 blocks from the bay. We just had new windows installed as well, which are being boarded up as I type. So we can only watch, wait, & pray. If you have spare prayers…please hope for no injuries for our tenants and if possible, little or no damage to the property.

Rene

Home again (S&L’s) 9.9.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Oh boy, it was a very early morning this morning….and what was with the spinning rooms?? And where did those sore muscles come from?? Haha. We met for breakfast at 7am this morning and chowed down our pinto gallo & Cristofer met us at 8am. Actually, he left the vehicle at the hotel each night and one evening stayed with friends one night and in one of the casitas the next night. He took us into Moyogalpa for our ferry that departed at 11:30am.

We arrived plenty early so Liz & I toured the area. We found by accident a huge star fruit tree. We talked to a woman and remarked that they were sooo good and she said 'take all you want!!' We took 3 - one for seeds and two to eat. Hopefully Liz can get some growing on her property!

Also, on the water were these hatched roofs and we figured out - it was a laundrymat! Right in the lake, separate stalls and all.

On the way to Moyogalpa, Liz called Katy, who was staying at the house to look after the animals. Randalls, their old cat, died on Monday night in his sleep. It was very sad. He had been finicky eating the last week and getting pretty skinny…but didn’t make it.

The truck was safe & sound in San Jorge in the storage shed, thank goodness, & we headed home quickly. Both Katy & Victor were there & once a proper burial spot was chosen, Victor dug an adequate hole & we all laid Randalls to rest, planting a hibiscus at the spot. A sad day.

And comparable worse….we learned that Hurricane Ike is heading straight for Corpus Christi!! And….it’s scheduled to hit on Friday eve, Saturday morning. We’re supposed to fly back to Corpus on Friday morning. Hmmm…I sure hope that it changes course, slows down, dissipates, whatever!! We called Continental Airlines and they had no cancellations or changes so far. We’ll be keeping a close eye on it and figuring out our plans!!

More to follow…please keep us & our property & the lives of our tenants in your prayers!!
Rene

Cascada San Ramon & Petroglyphs 9.8.08

noreply@blogger.com (Rene & Michael) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:08:00 +0000

We were up & at ‘em early this morning, meeting Cristofer at 9am. The boys were a little slow but manageable. We had a nice breakfast (with another favorite food called ‘Gallo Pinto’, a rice & bean concoction that’s super yummy for breakfast) & headed off to the Ecological Reserve where the trailhead was for the hike up to Cascada San Ramon (the waterfall).

The hike was 3KM, only about 2 miles, but it was a killer!! The trail started out straight up, then about 2/3 there, dropped down into the jungle. It was hot & sunny and once we made it into the jungle, the temperature dropped significantly.

The trail was great up until the rock slide destroyed it. Apparently, the rockslide happened in May and it was HUGE!! Taking out about 100’ deep of dirt. We went from a hike to rock climbing, jumping from side to side of the stream to make our own path. It was one hell-uv-a-hike. But oh so worth it when we arrived.

The waterfall was down a rock face and was probably 30’ wide. I don’t know how tall it was…but it was tall!

There was supposedly a geocache placed around the base of the waterfall and so Michael & I searched & searched….but nothing was found.

Again, the rockslide took out a significant amount of dirt so we’re sure it was washed down stream as well.

Bummer. I decided to climb up to a downed tree to check out around it and got up the hill fine….but didn’t make it unscathed coming down. I started slipping and could do nothing but slide down the hill with the loose dirt. Hmmm….a few bumps, scrapes, splinters & bruises later, I was fine. The waterfall was so inviting and I was so muddy/sweaty/dirty….what else was there to do but to rinse off! Ahhh….it felt great. I’d never been in a waterfall like that before. Of course I was soaked through & through…but I was as dry as everyone else by the time we were finished.

The hike out was a bit more difficult, but we made it back with no problems. Back at the trailhead, Cristofer was waiting for us & we enjoyed an ice cold beer to celebrate our accomplishment. We were pretty exhausted, hot & sweaty and it took us about 4 hours. Of course as Scott puts it “we put ourselves in a lot of pain by hiking straight up the @$(%& mountain for 4 hours!!”

We chatted with Cristofer & he took us to a spot on the island called ‘Albergue Ecologico’, another finca (which is a farm) where they had both petroglyphs and a great lunch spot.

The finca had a hotel on the property and we checked out the rooms which were only $16/night. They were great!

And the property was fabulous – tons of flowers, butterflies everywhere, a magnificent view of the Volcano

and the food was great too. We’d totally stay there if we came back.

There was something pretty funny/odd that happened though… We had been seated at a large table under a thatched roof hut for lunch. Liz & I took off to take some photos & Michael & Scott moved from the table to the hammocks. They heard a large ‘thud’ and looked over at the table, where they were just sitting, & found a super huge tarantula!! On closer observation, it seemed he leapt from the roof somehow, caught a large butterfly in flight, & dropped down to the table to eat. Seems logical, don’t you think?

We laughed hard thinking of the boys sitting there & trying to get away from it if they were close! Screaming like little girls laughing all the way. We decided to move tables…. J Actually, Michael has been drawn to insects this trip. His story is he’s almost died this trip – having a heart attack when he found a scorpion on his shoulder (he had just put his shirt on and it was hanging on), then a tarantula lands right where he was sitting at lunch, not to mention the grueling hike up the @$#&%( mountain!! But who’s writing this blog, anyway!! Haha…

We were all pretty exhausted plus we were hot & sweaty so we headed back to the Hotel to clean up. We met back at the bar/restaurant and ordered another bottle of rum/cokes special and Michael, Scott & I proceeded to kill it….and order another! After all, it was Scott’s big day! We had another wonderful meal & then they brought out the special desert that they had prepared for us….ice cream and chocolate brownies! And Scott’s had two birthday candles ready to blow out. We sung him the “Happy Birthday” song with Roseanna & Heidi singing along in Spanish.

It was great! And the brownie/ice cream was such a treat!! Ice cream is difficult to get here as it’s so bloody hot, it won’t stay frozen for the trip back to the house….and the generators at the store don’t keep it frozen anyway.

Speaking of rum…they make a rum here called ‘Flor de Cana’ that is very, very good. It’s a super smooth rum and is incredibly inexpensive. At the stores, a liter of rum is between $5-8 dollars, depending on the age of the rum. We picked up two to bring back with us (it sucks we can’t bring more back!) – one is aged for 5 years was only $5, the 7 year was about $6 and there is a super special one that’s aged for 12 years for about $8. Incredible. We found a special setting on the camera to capture what we were seeing...and this is it!! hahaha....

After dinner we headed (read stumbled) back to our respective casitas & crashed. So even though we didn’t find the geocache (I’m still bummed about that…) the hike was good, the waterfall incredible, & the petroglyphs & food was spectacular. I love this place!!

Back to S&L’s house tomorrow…
Rene