We have just had the experience of a lifetime. Last Sat. Barry decided that we should take a boat tour of the Galapagos. It is very strictly controlled area and we are not allowed to sail around in our boat and stop anywhere, you have to have a guide or take a tour. We chose to take a 4 day, 3 night tour on a motorized yacht. We visited 5 of the Galapagos Islands and had an absolutely wonderful time. Each island was a unique experience, different in a geological, botanical and animal perspective. Every place we stopped was super.
In one spot we had the best snorkel of our lives. We got to swim with PENGUINS!!!!! Penguins are known to frequent the area but the guide said that in the 3 years that he had been guiding he had never had an experience like we did. Usually he would catch just a brief glimpse while a penguin was swimming and then off they would go; but the penguins were feeding around us. When we were there we watched them fish for over half an hour. It was amazing; they would dart back and forth, turning at a 90 degree angle, on a dime, while chasing down some lunch, a tasty morsel about 3 inches long. The whole group watched in awe as they pursued the fish. When the penguins needed a breath they would zip up to the surface. They didn’t seem to care that we were there and I had several surface directly in front of my face and then I was looking her or him right in the eye. WOW, it never gets any better than this.
On the same dive we saw sharks (yes, you read it correctly, sharks) they were white tipped sharks and they would stay on the bottom and lurk about. The sharks were about 2 meters long and it was quite thrilling to see them. I was swimming after one thinking it was really exciting to see it and it was just casually moving about and then I tried to get close to it. The shark flicked his tail really, really fast and I was so scared I screamed into my mask
This snorkel was incredible. We spotted a manta ray; it was huge; a big black shape resting on the ocean floor. Then there was the sea turtle that went gliding through the group. There were also a great variety of fish. There were parrot fish, yellow tails, damsel fish, angel fish, wrasse and schools of tiny fish as well as schools of fish about 8 to 10 inches long, amazing. That was just one snorkel; we got two snorkels each day we were on the boat.
Each island we visited was very different from the others. On one we climbed a large volcanic hill; on one side there was a lunar landscape, while on the other there was a beautiful vista of sandy beaches and a striking pinnacle rock. Another island was a spot where marine iguanas hung out. We saw them swimming through the surf and swarming on to the rocks. In that area there were also fantastic rock bridges with the waves rushing back and forth through the narrow openings. Each island had a different colour of sand, on one it was white, the other red, the other a sandy brown colour. We saw lots of different types of birds, including the famous blue footed boobies. They are fantastic, diving from about 50 feet in the air. The water is so clear that you can see their path as they shoot down into the water after the fish. The guide informed us that once the boobies get older they start to loose their sight from the repeated impact in the water.
While we were on the boat we really enjoyed meeting the other members of the tour. Not one of them was the typical North American tourist, here for a week or two and then back home. There was a Dutch couple that was on a six month vacation, they had been touring South America. There were three members that had just come from six months of working in Antarctica. The Australian couple was on an extended tour in Central America and had spent two months learning Spanish in Guatemala. A 40 year old fellow of Korean descent was from Chicago and he had sold his successful dry cleaning business and headed out to Africa, England, Germany and South America. While in Africa he had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and he had run the Munich Marathon when he was in Germany. A Canadian man was there with his teenage daughter, they had started their trip by volunteering in an orphanage in Ecuador. A young girl who had this killer English accent was actually Swedish; she had spent some time in England learned her trade and was headed back to Sweden to go to school. This eclectic mix of people made for interesting and stimulating conversation. We had a lot of fun getting to know these folks and pulling stunts such as diving off the bow sprit, which was about 15 feet above the water.
We are so glad that we decided to stop here and would encourage anyone that is thinking of taking a vacation to come here. The diversity and the uniqueness of the area would be hard to match anywhere in the world.

We crossed the equator in the daylight at 89 degrees 37 minutes west and of course at 0 degrees 0 minutes. We had some fun while when we did it. We popped the champagne and opened the chocolate almonds and toasted Neptune the Ruler of the Deep. Of course we gave the King his share of the goodies as well. We had balloons all over the cockpit and a bunch tied to the wheel plus we had party hats. That was dumb because when we went to turn the wheel the balloons would get caught and it was hard to turn the wheel. HMMMM!! We payed our dues by tossing 500 colonies (Costa Rican money) into the ocean. We also put a message in a bottle and tossed it overboard. I wonder if anyone will ever find it??? I also shaved my head, not down to the bare skin but it is pretty short. I wanted to have it really short to cross the Pacific, it will save on water and shampoo. (On reflection it was another of my dumb ideas because as Barry says I look really butch and kind of funny. Oh well, no one here knows me and I keep my hat on most of the time.) I also made up certificates and boat cards to induct up officially into the order of the Shellback so now we are no longer Polliwogs and can really call ourselves sailors.

I marvel all the time that we are actually here in the Galapagos. It is quite different than I expected. This island has a lot of touristy stores and hotels. The harbour is filled with boats of all kinds, big boats, little boats, power boats, and huge boats. Barry and I have decided to go on a 3 day, 2 night tour of the islands. We got a last minute price and we are headed out at 1800 hours tonight. Someone will cook for us for 3 days and we will have a guide to visit the other islands. The boat is a motor sailor with room for 20 people. It should be fun. We went and visited the Charles Darwin research station today and saw the giant tortoises. it was quite awe inspiring.

BEFORE

AFTER

March 7, 2008 Lat 07.17 Long 83.34

I would like to introduce you to our newest acquaintance. Her name is Betty Boobie, I am making a huge assumption here that she is a girl, and she is a red footed bobbie. She first came into our lives about 5 hours ago when she gracefully landed on our solar panels. We weren’t particularly happy to see her perched there; 1: because she would block some sun and 2: because she might shit on the panels and that again would lead to problem #1. We took her picture thinking she may only be with us for a fleeting moment. She let us get quite close and then as Barry moved in for the ultimate close-up she gracefully spread her wings and flew off. She is a flyer, primarily, not a soarer as are the frigate birds which are about.

ANYWAYS, she came back for another landing on the solar panels and we gently discouraged her by calmly waving our arms and talking in quiet dulcet tones to her so she would know that we truly loved her, but did not really want her on the solar panels. She did another couple of circuits of the boat and then decided that the stainless steel pulpit at the front of the boat looked like a good spot. She settled in, we were flying the spinnaker at the time and she calmly sat there and gave us her opinion on what we should be doing with the sheets to make the thing fly better, she after all has vast experience with flying.

The wind really is quite shitty out here, that is. there is none, so after poking along at 1.5 knots for several hours we decided to take the spinnaker down. Betty was a little put out that we would invade her domain and remained glued to the pulpit until I was within an arms length. She clumsily re-alighted once we had the sail put away and remained there as we motored ever closer to the Galapagos. I wonder what would be their position on a live imported boobie?????

We mistakenly thought the wind had come up a little and hopefully rolled out the genoa. This involves unfurling it from the forestay which it is tightly round about. Betty was aghast, fearfully listening to and watching it start to unroll. She couldn’t stand it anymore and after a backward apprehensive glance she once again took to the air. She finally figured out it offered her no more problems than the other beast we had up there and came back calmly and serenely alighting once again on the pulpit. She remains there still; hitch hiking her way across the waters. Every once in awhile she almost upends herself examining the water for some tasty morsel, she must be getting hungry, we haven’t seen her eat anything.

Oh well, as you can tell, DAY 2 of our Galapagos crossing is fraught with excitement and danger. I will keep you posted.

YEEHAH, we are in the southern hemisphere. We crossed the equator, communed with King Neptune the Ruler of the Oceans and FOUND the Galapagos Islands. We are currently on Santa Cruz Island, we just got here this morning. I am not going to write too much more because I am really tired and need to get back to the boat and sleep. We had a decent crossing although there were a couple of tricky bits, nothing major. We had a avian visitor for more than 24 hours and her name was Betty Bobbie, more on her later. Okay enough I have to stop before I get stupid.
WE ARE IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE, how would have though it.

Coming at you from Gofito, Costa Rica 08 37.25 N and 83 09.18W

Okay just to warn you I have had a cup and a half of coffee this morning so read at your own risk. UPDATE: we are going to leave today, the fellow looking at our radio confirmed that it is fried and that it needs to be sent to the factory to get fixed so #$%@&*, we are going to leave without the radio, at least we now know what is wrong.

It will take us about 7 days to get to the Galapagos so look for a blog about Friday March 14.

Did I tell you much about Costa Rica. It is very hilly here, everywhere you look there are hills. They do not have a standing army so there money is spent on education and universal health care. It is not spent on roads so as a result they have the worst roads we have seen in Central America, lots of them are dusty dirt roads. The one by where Trish was staying was dirt and it is a major tourist spot. Golfito was a banana port in it's past. It is no longer so the infrastructure is quite run down, all the buildings are rusty and falling apart. Golfito has a small tourist industry but cannot compete with all the eco tourism in the national forests that are to the west and north, so it is still a rundown rather sad looking place. We are staying at a cruiser friendly spot that offers moorage, internet, laundry, showers, coffee and garbage pick up as well as an honor system for a buck a beer, for $6.00 count em 6 dollars a day. The guy has lots of connections and can tell you where everything is which is a great help.

I have been researching crossing the equator traditions. We should cross just before we get to port in the Galapagos. There is Neptune the King of the Sea to be considered as well as the initiation ceremonies which involve giving some of your pay to the King, sacrificing some rum or champagne to the sea gods as well as eating some digusting stuff and getting a shower in southern seawater. Apparently this is all to take place in the minute you cross, not the next day or next hour so I wonder what time of day or night we will cross. I am going to make up certificates that will have the time and date as well as the longitude that we cross and have them printed up, then apparently we will be shellbacks (someone who has crossed the equator) and not polliwogs (someone who hasn't) anymore.

Well time to go and pull up the anchor. Until the Galapagos and then you can bow down to the newly crowned shellbacks. Wish us fair winds!!

Right now we are in Golfito, Costa Rica. We are in the process of provisioning for our trip across the Pacific. This will be our last stop on the continent, we will head from hear to the Galapagos. Once we get there we will spend about 2 weeks there being tourists and then my brother will join us and we will head across the Pacific to the Marquesas.

Our ham radio is still not working so my Mom has offered to buy us a Satellite phone so we will have some way to contact the outside world in the month it will take us to cross the Pacific. I am hoping to send co-ordinates to my daughter and have her post them on a map and them publish them on the blog so that those of you that are following us will be able to see at what a snail's pace we will cross that great big stretch of open water.

I have been wrestling with how to go about provisioning. I could make menu's and buy food accordingly or I think I might just estimate and buy some extras of stuff we always use and be done with it. We have heard that everything is expensive in French Polynesia so I am planning on filling up the boat with as much as we can so that we won't have to buy that much when we are there. I am sure we will have plenty of food aboard. Wish me luck.

The other incident happened on the beach of Manuel Antonio National Park. We had just returned from a 2 hour walk around the park and where relaxing on the beach. We started noticing iguanas parading around in the shade. There were brown ones and spectacular looking black and white striped ones that had an orange ruff on its neck. These iguanas started posturing, holding position in one spot and then bobbing their heads. Like bob, I am the boss, bob, what are you going to do about it bob, I am the biggest and the best bob. ( I could go on and on)
Anyway they starting fighting with one another, it was quite fascinating to watch, they would charge at each other and then circle around like one big whirlwind of reptilian flesh. Eventually they would either get tired or one would get a hold of the other at the back of the neck and hang on for awhile, presumable trying to disable his enemy.
At one point, one of them scampered up a tree just behind me, soon after his attacked followed suit and they were ready to go at it, 12 feet in the air on a narrow branch. As they were almost directly about me I got up to step away so I could get the best view of the action. Sure enough they attacked and were scrapping away and then they fell off. WHAP, right on the ground, 12 feet straight down, good thing I had moved they would have just missed my head YIKES!!! On the ground they were a little stunned, they weren’t hurt though and one guy raced off and the other started bobbing. Bob, see I told you I was the best, bob, bob, want to go at it again, bob, bob!!!!

Walking on the ferry, no guard rails, just wood.

Two separate interesting incidents have happened in the last while. We took the ferry into Puntaranes. Barry marveled at the simplicity of the loading of the cars onto the ferry. They would put a wooded gangplank from the dock onto the ferry and the cars would drive across this. This wooden gangplank had no side guard rails. When they attached it to the ferry there were about 7 or 8 planks at the end of the plank that were not attached and they would just spread them out to cover the distance from the dock to the ferry. The plank had to have a way of going up and down because the tide levels would fluctuate and when the ferry would arrive it would be higher and lower than the last time it had gotten there. The gangplank was raised and lowered by a system of pulleys that could be manipulated by hand, a big come along system, no fancy hydraulic push button system down here.
The loading of the ferry when we got on was not a problem, the gangplank was lowered, the extra planks at the end were distributed evenly and cars and people went off and on without a problem. The same thing at the other end in Puntaranes, no problem. When we returned to where we had originally got on the ferry, there was A PROBLEM. As we got closer we noticed that the gangplank was at a very odd angle, one side was really high and the other was way too low. The whole thing was sitting at about a 90 degree angle. There were three guys standing on the dock trying to get it to work. It looked like one side of the come along had failed. A big hook on the end of the gangplank had to reattached to the end and then they had to haul up the one side of the dock. These poor guys, one was in bare feet, had to haul the side that was down.

Something is wrong with this picture!

It took them about ¾ of an hour of brute strength hauling to get the dock even. Meanwhile on the ferry everyone just waited patiently for the gangplank to get fixed. Once they got it even they attached it to the ferry and off the cars drove. No engineers to certify that it was correct, no beaurocrats to sign off on the work, nothing to ensure it was safe. I wonder how the first guy to drive off felt!!!

We landed on San Lucas Island yesterday. This is the location of a prison colony dating back to 1885. It was run along the lines of Devil’s Island in French Guyana or the prisons in Australia. The prison was closed in 1991, but the infrastructure is still a century old. We walked into the cells where the prisoners were held and the lack of light alone would have killed me. Bats and bugs abounded inside the buildings; the bats would scurry about and flit away from you as you moved around the prison. There was a poster about the San Lucas prison and Barry thought you might like to read about the place. There is a lot of the history of Costa Rica that has taken place on this island. The structures of the main administrative building as well as a church are still in place. There is a huge wide walkway from the water up to the main building and it made me think of men in white suits with Panama hats strolling up and down. It could be a good location from a movie from that era.
We walked along the jungle paths and listened to the howler monkey’s do their stuff. They make amazing sounds, a deep woofing roar, quite unnerving actually. Barry was determined to try and get some fruit off of a tree and dragged a 10 meter long branch around until he found a piece of fruit he could knock down. There were mangoes, bananas, coconuts and some other weird fruit that we couldn’t figure out. You wouldn’t go hungry on this island.
There is a floating restaurant about 100 meters from the old prison. We sat on the deck last night and had fresh fish as the sun set. What a gorgeous view. There are 4 other boats in the bay and we had met 3 of the other boats before so we able to visit with them for awhile. This is quite different from Mexico as there as a lot fewer boats down here so you get to know each other pretty quickly. Most of them are going to be taking there time and staying in Central America this season, so once we leave this area we will not likely see them again. We are headed to another beach today and will take the ferry into Putarenas tomorrow; hopefully we will be able to find an internet cafe this afternoon and you will be able to read about this set of adventures.

We had a good visit with Trish, Graeme and Quinn. There was a little mis-communication going on though and Trish showed up one night after dark and was stranded on the beach. She shouted at us and flashed flashlights and then even managed to call us on the VHF but we were unaware, too bad. We had turned the radio off thinking no one would call us the rest of the night, see you just never know. The next morning we were going ashore, I was headed off to catch the bus to go and see her and Barry says who is that woman waving to us on the beach. HMMMM, who indeed!! She had gotten a cheap hotel room on the beach and was none the worse for wear. Quinn had a lovely time on the boat playing with the winches and the cupboard doors, he loves to open and close them.
The next day I went back to the surf beach with Trish and Quinn and spent the night sleeping on the sand under the stars. I actually had a great sleep; a large dog woke me in the morning when he was startled by my presence on the sand. Trish and Graeme were invited to a wedding of a couple from Invermere.

Graeme getting a lift up the beach and no Quinn is not in the buggy.

It was very simple, held right on the beach. They had a couple of gorgeous flower arrangements and they put them on either side of some driftwood and that was the aisle. They sprinkled flower petals down the aisle and it was a lovely, simple setting. There were very few people at the wedding, just family and us. Trish and Graeme headed off to the wedding feast and I wandered the beach, listening to the surf crash under the stars.
After I got back to the boat Barry and I decided we should take a look at a waterfall that was in a town about 20 miles away. Two buses later we asked around and found the path to the waterfall. The path was a bit tricky for Barry but he had found a stick and was able to maneuver himself around some of the awkward spots. The waterfall was very nice, not too much different from the one at the end of McLeod Bay, only a lot warmer. We dove in and enjoyed swimming around in the fresh water.
We left Bahia Ballena the next day and headed to Isla Tortugas. It is quite the destination spot and there were quite a lot of tourists there when we arrived just after noon. Almost all of the boats departed about 4:00 P.M. and we had the place to ourselves. I went snorkeling the next morning and it was a wonderful spot. The water clarity was terrific and the variety of fish was very good. I saw a few types that I had never seen before, a great spot, too bad we didn’t get there Trish.
We are just meandering around the Gulf of Nicoya at the moment. We change anchorages every day, there are only 4 to 5 miles between them. We don’t even pull the dinghy up and what a treat just to be able to jump in it and take off, without unwrapping, untying, lowering it and putting on the motor, plus dragging out from down below all the stuff that has to go in it; paddles, wheels, pump, seat and gas can. We will be in this Gulf for another week, in a couple of days we will head to the mainland side of the Gulf, get water and fuel and then head down to Drakes Bay. I sat down the other day and worked backward from the day we plan on being in the Galapagos and figured out a timeline for the rest of Feb. It is only about 2 weeks until we head across to the islands. Keep in touch, what is happening to all of you in Canada??? .

We managed to hook up with Trish, Graeme and Quinn 2 days ago. Everyone was sick Trish had been sick for the past three days, Quinn was sick and Graeme was getting it. Quinn was a real trooper he didn't whine and cry too much but he was not happy unless he was with his Mom. He didn't want too much to do with Grandma or Grandpa holding him. He checked Barry's beard out very carefully, he wasn't too sure about it.

They are camping down at the beach and much to Graeme's disgust the surf is not up, it was decidedly yukky and he didn't even go out one day.

It took us an hour and a half on the bus to get to where they were, so we decided to stay the night. We got a lovely cabana with a nice pool and everyone just hung out in the room in the afternoon to get away from the heat and let poor little Quinn have some relief when he was sick.

Trish and I got a chance to try surfing in the morning yesterday. I didn't even try to get up on Trish's board, it is small and tricky even to sit on. I got to tummy slide in on 2 waves which was very much fun. We will have to head out there again to try it another day.

Talk about a real BEACH BUM!!

Trish was going to give Quinn another day to recuperate and then try and come on the bus to see us tomorrow. It will be nice to have them onboard. I think Graeme may come, but only if the surf still sucks.

Position: 09 36.9 N 085 17. 9 W on the west coast of Costa Rica.
Well, I got my wish, a lovely calm sail. We are on our way south to an anchorage near where Trish and Graeme are surfing. We think they are in the country now. We will head to a spot called Ballena Bay in the Gulf of Nicoya. We think they are on the Pacific side about 20 miles up the coast from the tip, if you look at a map, at a spot called Malpais.
Earlier today we set out to just head 15 miles around the corner from Playa De Coco. We thought we would just take our time. Then the wind came up and Barry said let’s keep going, there was no reason not too, we had food and water and a moveable shelter, so onward. It was wonderful, bright sun, a breeze, and I was uploading some new music on to my IPOD, so I was dancing to the Moma’s’ and the Papa’s down below while Barry was at the helm. Life doesn’t get too much better than that.

Barry and the gang doing the Red Tape Waltz in Cocos

Now it is 0400 and I am grooving to the Moma’s and the Papa’s again as we glide along towards the Southern Cross. There is no moon yet, I am expecting it to rise any minute, maybe the sun will beat it up today!! Lazy Moon. I have been sitting here wishing on the shooting stars, a gentle breeze in my face.
I had a good shot of Diet Coke when I came on shift at 0245, 45 minutes late, unforgivable. I woke up at 0200 and just shut my eyes for one more minute and 45 minutes later I woke up. Barry was 2 minutes late waking up at 2200 and you think I let him sleep, NO, but he never wakes me up when I sleep in, what a guy, not really fair, I wish he would wake me, but that is his choice.
We have been having problems with the dinghy the last couple of weeks. It has developed a slow leak. We have thought of everything we could think of to find it. Barry put soap on it and then watched for bubbles, he couldn’t see anything. Then he tried to fill it with water and see if that worked no luck. We have been traveling around with the pump in the dinghy, ready to add air anywhere anytime. Today we hauled the dinghy aboard and I heard it leaking. I ran down below and got the soap and spread some on the area that I thought I heard the sound from and ZOWIE, there it was. Hopefully we should be able to get it fixed shortly. Not only would it deflate while we were riding around in it but also on the deck. So, we would tie it down beautifully, pulling the ropes as hard as we could to keep it in place and then it would deflate and the ropes would get loose and it would move around on the deck, getting all crooked and weird looking. It will be nice to have it fixed.

We are in Costa Rica and spent the afternoon doing the red tape waltz. I would have said tango but that would be far to energetic a description of the exercise. Go to the Port Captain, get sent away to make copies, return, get sent to Immigration, and wait, while the clerk gets angry at the customer before us and demands to know why all the crew isn´t there, why not indeed. Then go with some one about 30 miles to the airport to the Customs people and wait and wait and wait. Finally after 45 minutes get a STAMPED piece of paper back and head back to the Port Captain that we had to tip $25.00 to stay open for us and VOILA, we are legal. WHEW, glad we don´t have to do that every day.

We are headed out of here tomorrow and will try and hook up with Patricia further south. We know what town she will be in, just not sure exactly where in the town she will be, hopefuly she will e-mail us and let us know by the time we get to the next anchorage.

We had an interesting sail from El Salvador. There are winds down here called papaguyos and I think we were royally Papaguyoed yesterday. We had wind on the nose, bashing into the waves all day and night. It wasn´t as bad as the Tehuanepec but I think we can claim to having been well and truly Papaguyoed. Hopefully we will have a lovely spinnaker run tomorrow, something not too exciting.

EL JEFE - PANCHO

Yesterday we took a stroll through the El Salvadoran jungle to see the howler monkey's. This family of monkeys was saved by an El Salvadoran family. During the fighting 20 years ago, this family was caught between the rebels and the government forces. These fighters would live in the jungle off the land and to survive they would eat the monkeys. This family agreed to feed both sides if they would let the monkeys live, so there is a thriving community of monkeys for us to see. The monkey clan is presided over by the macho monkey by the name of Pancho. The head of the human family yelled out Pancho, Pancho and a few minutes later the clan arrived. Pancho is the only adult male, all the females are part of his harem and he has fathered all the babies. We were able to feed them bananas by hand and observe them at close hand as long as we wanted, what a treat. They seemed to be better fed than the dogs that were on hand.

Today we drove into town. The road we were on was just a dirt road, not even gravel and the houses along the way were an example of some of the poorest we have encountered. This was rural El Salvador, men with machetes, fields of sugar cane being cut by hand and the fields burnt. Most of the people we saw on the dirt road were on bicycles, pedalling away in the heat. I imagine a bicycle is a prized possesion in these parts. Then we turned onto a highway and went into town. We were the only gringos that we saw in town and we received a lot of stares, we had kids coming up to us and saying hello, just to see if we were real, I think. The town had some startling contrasts. There were lovely new buildings that housed a Wendy's and a Pizza Hut, then there was the bustling open air market. You could hardly move in the market it was so stuffed with vendors. They would shout at you to come and buy their produce, a large part of which were tomatoes, onions and potatoes and very loud latin music was broadcast throughout the area. We bought several new fruits that we have not seen before, they should be an interesting taste sensation. We did learn the names but I forget, several we were able to taste before we bought them, the purply one seemed to be some kind of a plum.

We arrived back at the marina, put all the groceries away and headed to the pool, for some more R and R. We are leaving bound for Costa Rica tomorrow, so must complete our formalities today, checking out of the country and paying up our bill, which we have just signed for all week, that includes our laundry, our food and bar bill, our internet usage as well as our mooring fees. It should take us about 2 days to reach Costa Rica but I am not sure about internet access in our first port so you may not hear from us for 3 or 4 days. Trish, Graeme and Quinn are coming for a surfing vacation to Costa Rica so it is just super that we will be able to meet up with them for about a week. Hopefully we will be able to find them, but amazingly so far we have been able to connect with any visitors that have tried to hook up with us.

We made it, we are across TDTP (The Dreaded TehaunePec). It threw a punch at us but it wasn't roundhouse knockout punch, just a jab to the jaw. We had 24 hours of uncomfortable sailing, getting bashed about with a triple reef in the main and the staysail, thank heavens for the hanked on staysail. Sometimes even that was too much for the boat and we had to wrestle the wheel to get back on track. After 24 hours of that it settled down and we had some great sailing. This was our longest passage ever at 5 days and we did pretty well in the rest department. At night we would do one 4 hour shift and one 3 hour shift, and then 2 hours during the day when it was really hot. The 0100 t0 0500 shift was the killer, I think after 0200 I was looking at my watch every 15 minutes, makes for a long night. I think I identified the Southern Cross so it was great to see it (I think).

We are in Barillas Marina in El Salvador. They have an excellent system for checking in, all the officials came to our boat, 2 police men, one custom's officer and an immigration guy plus best of all a lovely English speaking senorita!! We were through and checked in, only $20.00 lighter in a half an hour, record time.

Barillas is a gated spot, almost like an all inclusive resort. There is a pool and a bar, the office arranges for internet and you can charge all you want. The resort has a bus into town 2 times a week, from there you can go to San Salvador, etc. We have decided to press on to Costa Rico. There is only so much time and there are great spots to stop in Costa Rico. I think we may leave from there to go to the Galapagos. Apparently the angle and winds are better that way. We are going to bypass Panama, but I guess we will see it on the way back, from east to west if Barry gets his work fix every once in awhile.

We are in Hualtulco, MX. It is the jumping off point for cruisers for Central America. We have been here for 2 days and we are leaving this afternoon for El Salvador. We are going to skip Guatemala all together, because it is expensive to get into the country and the one marina that there is, is supposedly very expensive. There apparently are not any nice anchorages there either so we decided to give it a miss, beside we do not have it`s flag.

It is about 500 miles to El Salvador and we have to cross the last big sailing hurdle on this coast, the DREADED TUHAUNAPEC, ( I am not sure of the spelling). Anyway the Gulf of Tuhaunapec, is a very dangerous stretch of water. It is dangerous because all of the weather from the Gulf of Mexico, on the Atlantic side of Mexico comes funnelling through this narrow opening. The mountains stop and there is a low land crossing that the wind just finds and comes humming through. You really have to keep an eye on the weather in Texas to figure out whether or not you are going to be safe crossing this body of water.

Fortunately there is a fellow who is the dockmaster at the marina where we are staying who is a master of the T-Pec. He has crossed it over 200 times and he has numerous weather web sites that he will call up and look at. He won`t let boats leave unless he thinks there is a good safe weather window. Apparently we are looking forward to 15-25 knots of wind on the beam and very little wave action. You cross the T-Pec hugging the shore, one foot on the beach as it were, so that the wind, if there is some, does not have any room to make big waves. Good stratedgy. We are leaving about supper time so that we will cross the worst part during the day tomorrow and then it will be smooth sailing after that.

Haultulco is a lovely spot, it is a planned tourist community so there is not much of the natural Mexican charm here, but there are great grassy boulevards with coconuts palms everywhere for shade. The hotels are not garish and the beaches look lovely and pristine. We did anchor one night out in the bay and it was very rolly and after the wind switched at three in the morning we did not get much sleep. We went our for our last dinner in Mexico last night and had a lovely time with Bruce and Marion from Galivant. Apparently Central American cooking is quite bland and boring compared to Mexican cuisine. We shall see.

The next blog you will be getting will be from El Salvador and we will be well on our way in the next stage of our adventure. There are only about five weeks left until we are to leave for the Galapagos and we have several countries to explore before then. Keep in touch, we love hearing from all of you.

We are in Port Escondido almost 150 miles south of Acapulco. We did not stop in Acapulco this time, we sailed 48 hours to get here. It is apparently a good surfing stop, but not a great anchorage. The town has some lovely Spanish, or Mediterranean architecture and is very clean and pretty. We are going to head further south to Haultuco tomorrow and then wait for a weather window to cross the dreaded Gulf of Tehaunapek ( not spelled properly).

We are working on trying to get our Ham radio up and running again, we have talked to the fellow that installed it and have some more tricks to try to see if we can´t get it going. Wish us luck.

At the moment we are travelling with the couple from New Mexico that we went to Patzcuaro with. They have their son with them so it is nice to get a young person´s views on what we are doing. I must go more later.

We are back in Zihua making arrangements to leave tomorrow. We will be starting on our Central American leg of our adventure. Zihua has so much to offer, it would be very easy to just stay here, there is so much to do and so many great people here. I can see why people come back year after year.

We had a lot of fun in Patzcuaro. We saw some great indegenous dancing, some non tourist authentic Mexican musicians just making music, had a great if excruciating slow transit on gravel roads around a lake, got to know a set of cruisers better, experienced the Mexican mountains. It was on my list of things to do so it was fun.

The real deal. We saw this family on the back of beyond, they even had a goat tied to the back of the wagon.

We met some friends from last year at Rick´s on Friday night and they said that they were taking an inland trip on Sat. morning. That sounded like such a good idea I jumped on it and asked if they would mind if we joined them, so off we went.

We are in Patzcuaro up in the mountains about 7,000 feet, about 200 miles inland, I think. We took one bus that was a 3 and a half hour trip to Uruapan and then another 30 minute trip here. We are staying in the main square in a lovely old building that is very clean and has wonderful furniture in the lobby. I froze up one computer trying to load my pictures so won´t bother again. It is a colonial town with a very different feel from the coast. We saw some traditional dancing last night and then went for dinner.

At dinner there was some live music and our friends have their 22 year old son with them. He is a muscian so he started chatting with the folks and it resulted in an invitation to a house party. After many fits and trys we found the place, the cabby had to ask several people before he found it. It was lots of fun with dancing and live music, bongos, keyboard and guitar. One girl there was very good at the Salsa. What an adventure. We are headed out shortly to explore the lake where the area is based around. Apparently in the 1500 century the bishop in the area made each village around the lake into an centre where one craft was practised and perfected in each place. One village is know for it´s copper work, one for pottery, one for weaving, etc. It should be fun to see what we can discover today. I think we will head back to Zihua tomorrow.

Just thought I would let you know what we are up to. Trish and Jen have both posted great family pics from Christmas, thank you guys, it means a lot to me.

Well, I finally did it.

15 years ago I took Scuba lessons, passed the course and took my open water dives and then said to Barry okay it's your turn. I was thinking we could take holidays in warm water and we could go diving together. Barry instead chose to take sailing lessons, three boats later and 15 years have passed and I finally took a dive, in fact I have now taken 4. Wow! What a blast. Today we saw a sea horse, an octopus (which I spotted), 3 moray eels and hundreds of fish. It was awesome. Barry didn't want to try because he was worried about his sinuses so I finally figured out, if I was going to do I had to do it by myself, so away I went. I am so glad. I am actually spending my bonus from Coldwell Banker on this perk so thanks guys. I have 2 more days of diving left so life it good.

Mungo showed up here yesterday and two other boats from last year are here so it is great to see old friends. We are once again really enjoying Zihua. If you have a chance it is a great holiday destination.

Some poor bugger was 60 miles out and his chain plate gave way. This is what happened to his mast. What a shame.

Barry was out getting his diesel fix yesterday and he came across this pile of tangerines and pineapple. The tangerines are really tasty.

When we got up the other day this sight greated us. It looked pretty horrific from the boat. There were two distinct flaming structures, so I imagine that two Mexican families lost their homes. Hopefully no one lost their lives.

Well we made to Zihua. We stopped off in two anchorages, Maruata and Caleta De Campos. We went ashore in Caleta and toured the town. It was our first dinghy landing in surf, for this season so it was a bit scary. We put everything in waterproof bags, but I guess we learned a few lessons last year and we managed to time the waves perfectly and landed very dry. The town was interesting and we even managed to find a Lange shortcut back down to the beach, scrambling down and very narrow, windy, treacherous trail. We actually sailed quite a bit on the trip down, there wasn´t much wind but we would coast along at 3 to 3 and a half knots. It was great to be on our own time schedule not having to hurry to get somewhere, just sailed when we wanted to and who cared how fast we were going.

It is great to be back in Zihua. We went to the doctor we saw last year and renewed our prescriptions and it felt great to know the ropes, where the doctor was, which pharmacy would be able to fill our needs for a year and where the bank was so we could pay to the prescriptions. We had a lovely time at Rick´s Bar on Saturday night with live music and dancing.
We are planning on staying here about a week and then heading further south. We managed to buy a cruisers guide for Panama today, for a very decent price from another cruiser. I have a line on some flags so things are looking good. We are going to attempt to repair our ham radio antenna this afternoon. It would be great if we could get that figured out. I want to stop by a dive shop later and try and do some diving while we are here. Barry is worried about the effect of the depth on his ears so is not interested. I took my dive training in 1993 and 15 years later I would like to see what is out there under the sea.

Me and my neice Karen and my grand neice Chantal on New Years Eve

We hope everyone had a Happy New Year. Barry and I danced in the New Year out under the stars with the sound of the surf crashing on the beach. It was a lovely time and all the better because we could share it with Bruce, Marg., Karen, Monty and Chantal. We have spent the last week lazing about on the beach, using the unlimited water and shower facilities in Bruce and Marg s room, and chowing down at the all you can eat buffet almost everynight. I can understand now how people put on weight on cruises and all inclusive resorts. It has been a lovely holiday from being on the boat.

The Br. Lange family is headed home today and we are headed further south. We would probably take the day to rest up from the festivities last night but a great wind is predicted tonight and they don{t come along that often here, so off we go. We will take 4 or 5 days to get to Ziahua and then renew our acquaintances there. I am looking forward to doing that. We spent 6 weeks there last year and really enjoyed ourselves.

I am on a really old computer at Las Hadas resort so I am not going to attempt to put any pictures on. Hope all is well with everyone and don{t forget to keep in touch.