A three hour tour...

OK, so things have been slow. REEEEEAAAAALLLLY slow. But I'll start from the beginning...

Starting from San Blas: Remeber how I said we met the local character? Well, he was certainly a character. San Blas itself was a little, well, dead. The bay was green and unswimmable, the town was past its peak, and the "noseeums" (biting bugs) are infamous. We're going to look at the positives though... We had a blast with our friends on Double Play regardless of the limitations. We started with the famous jungle tour up the river (on a panga), and saw some awesome birds (including storks and eagles), turtles, and tons of alligators (or crocadiles... I don't know the difference). The tour included a trip to the alligator farm and immediately after a trip to the swimming hole. They had a tiny cyclone fence erected on the water line to block off the spring from the beasts. Needless to say, none of us swam. As we watched a 16 foot alligator swim just outside the shitty fence we decided we valued our lives. After the tour we headed to the "must see" coffee town of Jalcocotan, a $50 cab ride with the 5 of us crammed in a mexican cab. When we finally got there, the cab driver must have thought we were nuts. There was NOTHING there, just a place to buy coffee. As Jay said, "anyone who had two tortillas and half a chicken left over from the night before became the best restaurant in town." We spend the 10 minutes it took to walk down the main street in town, then headed back to SB. As for the rest of our time in San Blas, we did meet some cool new friends, the sweetest old man named Johnny who watched our dinghy, watched the first precession of Guadalupe from a balcony bar, and had the BEST baked muffins/bread from a roadside stand.

We headed from there to Chicala, and as soon as we arrived we wondered why the hell we had spent 2 days in San Blas. Chicala was beautiful, much like Cane Garden Bay with it's palapa restaurants, colorful houses, and perfect beach. Jay and Kat spent a day in town (a non depressing town) and we had lots of beach time, swimming, and drinking. Unfortunately, we were a little stir crazy and the tiny cove didn't allow for long runs, and the snorkeling wasn't great. We spent a couple of days there and headed to Jaltemba.

We should have skipped Jaltemba. The first night we anchored off Isla Coral, which was beautiful if nothing else, but there was NOTHING to do. And here we were, stuck on a 42 foot boat with one another. All of us were bored out of our minds (complaints of the spoiled right? I know, I know) There is only so much you can read, and only so many movies you can watch per day. We were all wondering what we were thinking to have gone on this trip, and longing for company (DP had left), activity, and to get off the stupid boat (as we considered it at that point).

We finally arrived in La Cruz, thank god. Our first night was spent in the rolly anchorage, which didn't do much for our spirits. But the next day we headed down to meet up with our long lost friends SueBee and Eager Dreamer (we missed them terribly), and also got to reunite with Di's Dream. It was so good to see everyone! And we are off the boat, have things to do, and enough room to go for a run... thing are looking up!

So that's just what we are going to do... we can't wait to get back to California for a few weeks at Christmas! Miss you all!

BOOBIES!

We headed out of Mazatlan to Isla Isabella at about 6pm, deciding to try a new method of sailing through the night first (as oppose to after a full day of sailing). It worked out relatively well, we dropped anchor at around 9am the next morning and had the day to explore the island. Kat and Jay kayaked into shore to explore and take naps. I napped, snorkeled, explored shore and snorkeled some more (all by myself by the way, I even dove the anchor… I’m getting to be incredibly brave).

Isla Isabella is a tiny little tropical island that is home to a small, seasonal fishing village and more birds than you can imagine. In fact, you know you are getting close to the island when you can see the birds circling from miles out. The most exciting, of course, are the blue and yellow footed boobies (the bird kind of boobies). We arrived at the perfect time, the babies are hatched and these guys were actually entertaining to watch.

We had a pretty rolly anchorage, but the next day Kat went for a hike with double play. She came back with her bird saving story… apparently she rescued a frigate who got stuck in the underbrush. I woke up and went snorkeling to wake up. Just off our boat I saw a gigantic spotted eagle ray, about 5 feet in diameter, swimming about 6 feet below me. I swam with him for a while, it was incredible.

We decided to head out later that day in order to get a flat anchorage, so we pulled into San Blas just before sundown. So far so good… we met the local character Captain Norm, who told us the ins and outs of town. We had coffee and pastries at his home this morning, pretty interesting.

I’ll post more soon!

Mazatlan

Here are some more pics of our sea lion adventure…

We arrived in Mazatlan on Wednesday after a beautiful overnight sail. The winds held and the seas were relatively mellow, so we made excellent time. I decided to give the folks a break, so while they had a pool/nap day (they had graciously let me sleep in during the crossing) I took care of the laundry and grocery shopping. I LOVE the fact that they do your laundry for you here, we’re getting pretty spoiled with that. We were all ready for an early night to catch up on some sleep in the quiet and peaceful marina El Cid. Right as we crawled into bed the live band started less than 100 yds away… so much for peaceful. I swear the band knew one song, and they played it over and over and over again for the next 3 hours. Kat had the right idea, she popped a Benadryl and passed out, but even she couldn’t sleep once the fireworks started. Yes, there were also fireworks, and they were going off almost directly over our boat (fire hazard anyone?). Quite the welcome wagon.

We spend Thanksgiving day exploring and missing family. Our golf cart taxi driver was awesome, and drove us all over town to give us the tour. Old town Mazatlan is darling, we all fell in love with its narrow streets and European feel. This is where we decided to have our Thanksgiving feast: burritos and ceviche. The rest of the day was spent walking around the cathedral and open air markets, and calling the family. It was so nice to get a chance to talk to everyone (especially CAM), but it definitely made me a little homesick.

The next night Kat and Jay teamed up with Double Play and Calou for a night out on the town… from what I hear (and witnessed when they got home), they had a wonderful time. Apparently Kat performed onstage with the band and Jay had a dance off with some local kids while in the back of a pickup truck taxi.

More soon. We miss everyone lots! Can’t wait to see you all at Christmas!