A Busy New Year

Friday January 20, 2006 LOCATION: Puerto Vallarta, Paradise Village Marina
GOOGLE EARTH COORDINATES: 20 41.889N,105 17.658W

This new year is busier than ever. Three weeks in and we are trying to catch our breath. Currently we are in Puerto Vallarta, but for the sake of your eyesight I will break these journal logs down to two week intervals and help everyone catch up. We finished the crossing of the Sea of Cortez with style. In honor of Sebastian's birthday on Lawur we swam in the middle of the Sea of Cortez. (coordinates: 22 53.725N,107 37.721W )We stopped both boats in the middle of the sea, tied a line between the two boats and with no wind and very little swell, we all jumped in. It was great fun, a nice diversion after a lot of motoring and a memorable way to celebrate his special day.
(Coordinates: 21 05.561N,105 52.906) Our destination Isla Isabella is a bird sanctuary known for it's mating and nesting grounds for the frigate birds, blue footed and brown boobies, and much to our surprise lots of iguanas. The dad's had a spectacular snorkeling trip and found huge schools of large tuna. Together we all took a marvelous hike over the island to see it's wonders. Initially you land the dinghy in a small fishing village. The pelicans and frigate birds anxiously await the few scraps that the fishermen toss them after their catches. The island itself is fairly dramatic to view with steep colorful cliffs (if they are not covered by rather stinky bird guano, an odor that you never quite become accustomed to) There are also some amazing large spires of rocks that make this island unique. The other noticeable feature about the island is the sheer amazing numbers of birds that cover every inch of the island and blanket the sky. It looks right out of the movies. We began our hike and were so excited to come across an iguana in the wild. We traversed through groves and groves of trees, each filled with dozens of birds nesting, calling, bellowing out their large red throats in attempts to attract their mates. Another iguana here and there would make his way, rather rapidly I would say, through the tall grass to avoid us. We then hiked up to an abandoned building of some kind only to find it completely inhabited by a good 50 iguanas that we could see. It was amazing. They were completely unaffected and unimpressed with us. We could hardly disturb them if we tried. We left them basking in the sun and set off to find the boobie nests.
We hiked to the tops of the cliffs and found the boobies nests complete with mommies sitting on eggs, guarding newborn chicks, fuzzy awkward yearlings and defensive daddy's nipping at our heals. It was quite a treat to see these creatures in their world. We hunted to find a lake that we heard we could swim in but the dark stagnant water gave us second thoughts.
Next stop on the itinerary was San Blas. (coordinates: 21 30.614N,105 52.906W )We anchored around the corner in the Matachen Bay. The boys and I were able to sneak in a bit of school and Bruce found a bit of surf with some locals. We had definitely arrived on the mainland, with green luscious mangrove jungles and palm trees galore on the outer edges of town. The humidity isn't too bad yet but certainly is a change. We took advantage of the new landscape and gave ourselves a self guided tour up the Tovara River Jungle. Lawur in their dinghy and we in ours headed up the river which claims to showcase wonderful flora and fauna. You are supposed to stop part way and pay the locals to take you in their high sided, fast driving pangas. After a few warnings from them "Peligroso! Peligroso! (that would be them yelling "danger, danger" and trying to stop us) we sojourned on, self guided. The most dangerous part of the trip was their crazy driving skills in those fast boats in that somewhat narrow river. We were not disappointed as we weaved our way through massive mangrove tendrils that reach their way down to the water for nourishment. Bromelia plants that seed themselves far up in the bows of trees, orchids, ferns and countless other plants. Much more exciting were the crabs, towering turtles and crocodiles! We found them tucked up on banks, swimming in the water and perched on logs. The boys would all agree the best part was at the end of the trail. At the head of the river there is a natural spring swimming hole complete with rope swing. There was a nice restaurant there in which we shared some coconut milk and a nice lunch. You did have to share the water with catfish and crocodiles but it was so refreshing and fun no one seemed to mind. Truly, only 25 yards away we spotted a crocodile enjoying his own freshwater bath. Yikes!
The next day we anchored the boat with Lawur off the beach of San Blas and everyone paddled though some pretty good surf to enjoy a quick afternoon beach trip. A bit of boogie boarding, skim boarding and in the evening a quick tour of the town with Niki and our family. Norm, a local cruiser who landed here 40 years ago and never left guided us in and gave us all the information we could handle whether we wanted it or not. While in town we stopped for dinner and found 3 Norte Americanos walking through town carrying surf boards. Bobby, Ryan and Collin aboard Baraveigh (sp?)(from San Diego, CA and Bellinham, WA) are on their way south as well and stopped in to share a drink with us. As always in this small world we found fun things in common and hope to see them again along the way.
We had been listening to our favorite weather guy "Don" on the radio and awaiting some forecasted winds that seemed to be delayed in getting to us. When we headed out the next day for Chacala under motor, I think it is safe to say we were not prepared when those winds finally and suddenly arrived. One of these days we will start acting like sailors and have things stowed and ready. We go for so long sometimes without any wind we get lulled into submission and forget that wind happens. Needless to say, we had another exuberant ride to Chacala with 25-30 kn winds gusts up to 38 kn. whew. Our efforts were rewarded by what we consider the most beautiful setting we have seen yet. (coordinates: 21 09.710N,105 13.687W )Chacala is a small bay nestled in the cliffs of palm trees, mangroves and mango plantations. A nice beach spreads from one edge to the other and backs up to palapas and a very nice RV campground. Past some wonderful rock structures and trailblazers we found this delightful restaurant/bed & breakfast/spa center called Majahua run by Jose. From the patio of the restaurant we sat in a setting that left us feeling like we were in the pages of some wonderful travel brochure. It was amazingly peaceful and beautiful as we peered through palm leaves at the sun setting out over the ocean while perched on the hillside of these jungles. Behind his house we were able to hike up to see scaping views of our boats tucked in the bay and an old volcano crater overgrown with vegetation. We enjoyed a pleasant dinner there and were on our way the next morning.
Jaltemba was the next stop in hopes of finding some good snorkeling. (Coordinates: 21 02.643N,105 16.258W )The water was a little murky but we always have fun when we grab our gear and go exploring. Lawur got to try their gear out and we found some more trumpet fish, puffer fish, angle fish and more. Bruce rigged a nice rope swing off the boat and Sebastian and Benjamin had a great time.
Our next destination was Puerto Vallarta, Paradise Village Marina. We arrived on the 9th and though we had a bit of a harrowing experience when we entered, we have been thoroughly enjoying the resort style amenities. We had an amazing week with Tim & Janel Mason, Jake & Julie Jefferson, the gang from our favorite radio station at home The Mountain KMTT 103.7 and of course have made some wonderful new friends during our stay. There were concerts, canopy jungle tours, sailing, surfing, a shark and a lot of late nights. But these great stories will have to wait a day or two. We will catch up on our sleep and regroup after all this crazy activity and I will fill in the details soon.
until next time,
love lisa and the boys

Season Greetings and Happy New Year

Sunday January 1, 2006 LOCATION: en route to Isla Isabella
GOOGLE EARTH COORDINATES: 24 00.908N,109 39.092W

First and foremost, we hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season filled with love, family, friends, great times and of course good food! As with any Christmas season, even far from home, ours was busy! It was a bit different with the warm weather but many traditions were able to be kept and shared with lots of cruisers. Now to catch you up. Where to begin. I joked with friends that the last two weeks could be broken up into before and after Christmas or before and after Lawur arrived, since the two are now synonymous. I may even have to break these updates into a few days and give each persons perspective, because if I wrote it all at once you may never want to hear from me again.
As planned we made the trip easily up the Sea of Cortez and were able to get a slip in Marina de La Paz. (coordinates 24 09.342N, 110 19.594W) You have a few marinas to choose from, but we had heard that this was a great location for accommodations and centrally located to town so we could walk to see and do all that we needed. Did we ever. Our location on the dock turned out to be a lot of fun as were on the end of a finger and anyone anchored out had to drive their dingy right past us to come to shore. We felt like the merry welcoming committee. Especially once we got our Christmas lights up. As promised, we tied up and we gave our baby the bath of a lifetime. 7 weeks off the dock brings a lot of grime, salt and rust. The unlimited water and electricity was quite a luxury. Next we hit the ground running over a few days time and explored the town.
La Paz is a great town with all its old world authenticity intact while still providing amenities to fill every vacationing gringo's need. Each night we walked up into the town and enjoyed the pre-Christmas festivities. We were able to catch a couple nativities plays put on by children in the local plazas. A great way to practice our Spanish. All the streets surrounding the local Cathedral (church) were blocked off and filled with booths selling anything you could think of. Each night we topped off our walks with ice cream (of course) or our new favorite, fresh churros. There is almost no limit to how long we would walk for those. We finished a little bit of Christmas shopping and provisioning. A local taxi is always waiting by the marina to take you where you want to go. Our favorite driver was Rafael. Able to speak amazing English and the patience of Job to work with me on my Spanish, I would find him every time I could. Much to our surprise we found a local mall complete with mini sushi food court, multitudes of stores similar to home including a real blockbuster and a movie theater complete with the Chronicles of Narnia playing in English with Spanish subtitles. We loaded up 14 of us cruisers into various taxis filled up on popcorn.
As for Christmas itself, we decorated the inside of the boat with every type of paper decoration we could. Dozens of snowflakes of all types, our origami tree, reindeer, Santa and sleigh. Stockings were a bit tougher to find so we made due with Santa hats turned upside down. We also adorned the boat with lights inside and out. Bruce gave me my present early as it was a new ceramic nativity scene made here is La Paz. Santa was very good to us surprised the boys with scooters that they have already put to great use up and down the docks. Bruce also gave the family a great treat with a microphone and camera for the computer which we all put to use immediately with the Skype program (A free download from www.skype.com). It allows you to call from computer to phone, or computer to computer for nearly free as long as we have internet access at the docks.
Best of all for Christmas, the Schmid family from Lawur delivered themselves safely from San Diego and on Dec. 23rd just like they said. They awoke us all on the docks as they called into the cruisers net and alerted us that they were coasting in with no engine again. This problem has plagued them for a while and delayed their departure. After much frustration they left anyway to catch up with us. We lined the docks and marina with dinghies but like old pros they hardly needed our help as they glided into their slip. The rest is history. I can sum it up by saying we have yet to spend a meal apart much less a minute. Their two boys Benjamin (6) and Sebastian (10) are fast friends of Tristan and Matthew and luckily took care of each other all week as the adults tackled the boat issues. We were treated to Weiner Schnitzel (and it's not a hot dog) for Christmas Eve on their boat and a nice church service at the top of the marina complete will all our favorite carols. Together the cruisers threw a pot luck dinner out on the Magote (local beach) for Christmas day. Our ham was a huge hit.
Bruce and Robert hit the docks running every day trying to trouble shoot their engine trouble. Lawur basically had the ability to motor only in forward at high RPM's. No reverse or throttling down as the engine would die. Long story and week short, they started with the most basic and least expensive items and worked their way up, hoping never to arrive at the transmission. An old dock mate of theirs from San Diego and new friends of ours were in the slip next to us and luckily spoke fluent Spanish. They were able to assist immensely with local mechanics and errands. Not to mention, blessed us with their wit, charm and amazing hospitality. As of Friday, the problem had been isolated to the fuel injector pump, a complicated item. The local lab was able to find three other similar yet incomplete pumps and reconstruct them a new one. We all said our prayers for this to work as we were all about at wits end with what could be wrong. Apparently we over did it. The new pump went in, ran well in forward, ran well in reverse, plenty of RPMs but now would not shut off. We decided it was the lesser of two evils and like a flash, we paid up our dues, untied the lines and left the dock. I've never seen two boats make haste so fast. Bruce and I needed to be on our way to Puerto Vallarta to meet up with the Masons and Jeffersons and couldn't stay any longer in La Paz. Lawur, not wanting to play catch up again with us joined us in the departure and here we are.
Spending the week together with them solidified a great friendship that we barely were able to begin in San Diego. Niki, as they say is my cruising twin and our similarities are endless except for maybe the German accent and 6 inches she has over me. Together we set up a bit of a commune sharing food, laundry, and shopping between the two boats, four blonde boys ala scooters, and determined dads. Keeping track of all of us at any one time got challenging so Robert lovingly gave us all the combined new name of the Schmartin's to which I added, aboard the boats Ohanawur (pronounced Ohanavur). We spent a wonderful New Years Eve rafted up together at Balandra Cove just north of La Paz. Site of their famous Mushroom rock. We treated them this time to split pea soup and the boys rang in the new year with poppers and glow sticks at the raging hour of 8 o'clock. We checked the map and figured folks somewhere around Rio de Janeiro or Greenland could use a little help celebrating as we were never going to make it to midnight. We are all currently underway to Isla Isabella, some wonderful islands just north of Puerto Vallarta with tons of wildlife to view. A couple of overnight's and we should be there.
I will end for now as I could truly write volumes. The plethora of shopping, fellow cruiser stories and insights o'plenty...more to come soon. There are lots of new photos up on the web site starting with San Diego. I am aware of a few glitches in the San Diego slide show and will try to fix them once we get to Puerto Vallarta. Enjoy your new year and we will talk to you soon
until next time,
love lisa and the boys