SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN LA CRUZ

Even with all our problem with the boat we are still having a good time here in La Cruz, Mexico. I’ve been able to play music with many of my old friends at Anna Banana’s, Britannia and Philo’s. I am playing some classical guitar sets at Anna’s on Christmas Day. I’ll be opening for a Flamenco guitar group and then play the closing set. New Years Eve I’ll be filling in with my blues harp with the band at the Britannia Pub. There is plenty of music to keep me busy.We rented a nice studio room near the marina for only $300/month complete with Internet and cable TV. On Christmas Eve we are giving a talk on cruising El Salvador hoping to excite more people into sailing there. Jean and I hope everyone has a nice Christmas and New Year. We’ll be flying back to El Salvador on Jan 8, 2009.

YOU THINK YOUR HAVING A BAD DAY?

Yes, Holy C.R.A.P!!!! We departed Ecuador in late October bound for Panama City. We found ourselves with a great South wind giving us a nice downwind sail to Panama but, after three days the wind changed to coming right out of Panama City so it was the beginning of an uphill slog. The wind quickly went from 10 to 20 to 25 knots in just a few hours and the seas became those short, nasty 4 to 5 footers with foamy tops right on the forward port quarter. It became a really, really rough ride. Probably the roughest we’ve had in ten years of sailing. It was so rough that things were flying out of the cabinets and even our abandon ship bucket flew across the cabin setting off our EPIRB stowed inside. We know that happened because we received a frantic email from my brother asking where we were as he just received a call from Hawaii Coast Guard! The EPIRB didn’t go off long enough to get a location only identification. We couldn’t make any tacks because with the combination of seas, wind and current our tack angle was 150 degrees which gave us a choice of sailing towards Hawaii or Columbia so, we had to motor right into it. After two days of getting beat up we decided to seek refuge in the Perlas Islands, 40 miles from Panama City. The anchorage we chose gave us complete shelter from the harsh winds. As we motored slowly into the anchorage we freed our vacuum packed anchor chain and when we were in position we put the engine in neutral and dropped the anchor. When Jean went to back down on the anchor…. No back down! No transmission! No nada! C.R.A.P! So, we decide that we will sail out of the anchorage at midnight when the tide and current would be in our favor. We left at midnight and took 26 hours and ten tacks to go 28 miles when, at 2am we decided that we would just sail into 30 feet of water and drop the anchor and continue in the morning. Later that morning we tug-boated the last 8 miles into Panama City. We had repair parts shipped down and after two weeks we had things going and headed to El Salvador for fuel and a little rest. Six days later we were at the bar crossing just after high tide. Since I helped pilot over 30 boats across the bar earlier this year I just decided to come in across the same old waypoints. OOPS! The entrance had moved west a little so we bounced on the bottom a few time but the waves lifted us off and we made it OK just in time for Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel.
So, why the Holy CRAP? Since we left Ecuador we’ve had a huge series of failures and problems. Get this:
1 The EPIRB goes off.
2 The hatch in the head starts leaking and soaks everything on the other side of the boat.
3 The propane fitting on the back of the stove cracks and leaks out half a tank of propane.
4 The bulkhead in the head collapses due to dry rot.
5 Transmission thrust plate explodes.
6 Engine raw water pump seal fails.
7 Engine overheats.
8 A vent cap comes off a diesel can on deck and spill diesel on deck.
9 Water maker belt comes off.
10 Water maker High pressure hose comes loose and soaks everything in the water maker room.
11 The high pressure head on the water maker starts to leak.
12 Bimini top tears due to UV degrading.
13 Snap shackle for jib falls overboard due to rust.
14 Propane locker cracks and lets water run inside the boat soaking the carpets.
15 Loose the gas funnel overboard.
16 I need an operation on my big toe in Panama City.
17 Second reef block on boom explodes when putting in reef.
18 Loose the main halyard up the mast.
19 Handle comes off the door to the head.
20 Fresh water pressure pump fails.
21 Hot water pressure relief valve fails and dumps fresh water into bilge.
22 Hand bilge pump diaphragm fails.
23 Circuit breaker for autopilot fails.
HEY, I’m not making this stuff up!!!!
24 Alternator belts comes loose.
25 Diaphragm fails in dinghy air pump.
26 Dinghy gets an air leak.
27 Radar reflector falls off.
28 Stern light fails.
29 Big tear in mainsail
30 One of the computers fails
31 Main fuel bladder develops a leak
32 Rudder cracks in half vertically from bouncing over the bar.

Yeah, that last one is the showstopper. We were supposed to be in Puerto Vallarta before Christmas because I was doing a classical guitar recital on Christmas Day. But, we are here now for a few weeks because we can’t get hauled out until we get a really high tide (around Christmas time). Luckily, we love El Salvador so we can make the best of it.

So, if you think you are having a hard time just read this, you’ll feel a lot better.

AND THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES ....

While in Cusco we booked a one-day It turned out to be a dawn-to-dusk day) tour of the lost Inca city ruins at Machu Picchu. The

tour included the train ride up to the town of Agua Caliente,

located at the foot of Machu Picchu and the bus rides in between as well as an English speaking guide at the ruins. The train to Machu Picchu was delayed for over an hour due to a forest fire next to the tracks. When we got off the train in Agua Caliente there were hundreds of tourists looking for their guide groups. We had to find the gal with the orange flag. Once the guide had all her sheep we loaded on the bus for the 45 minute ride up the mountain to the ruins. The ruins are unbelievable having only been discovered in the early 1900’s. There is very little re-construction so it is pretty much as it was centuries ago. We wandered away from our tour group and I played my blues harp inside one of the buildings just so I could say I did so. Some people spend a few days at Machu Picchu but, we were toured out so we returned to Cusco late that evening.

One more day in Cusco had us taking the double-decker, four-hour city tour bus around Cusco and walking around the central plaza, Plaza de Armas. As it turns out, most large cities have a plaza with the same name. The next day Jean booked us a flight from Cusco back to Lima. She was tired of buses, trains, automobiles, etc. In Lima we again hooked up with friends and we taxied into central Lima to visit the oldest Chinatown in South America. We were happy to find Chinese Roast Duck hanging in the store windows so we purchased one to take back to the hotel. However, we were very disappointed to find that the taste wasn’t even close to what we are used to. After a long afternoon we said our good bys and early the next morning (again early) we hopped a flight back to Guayaquil and a couple of days later we bused back to our boat.

PLANES, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES, PED-ICABS, MOTO-TAXIES, BOATS, AND BUSES, OH, AND DON’T FORGET THE TOILET PAPER!

We just returned from a three week plus tour of Peru and we traveled in most modes of transportation excepting animal. Jean spent weeks pouring over tour books, calling airlines and booking agents to organize our trip. We began our journey by taking the long six-hour bus ride to Guayaquil over the “less-than-secondary” Ecuadorian road system. We arrived just in time to taxi over to the airport to catch our flight to Lima, Peru. We were met at the airport by the hotel driver so we didn’t have to figure that one out. Lima is a HUGH city with 8 million people. We stayed in a nice part of town and had previously arranged to meet some boating friends there. The highlight for me was seeing my long-time friend Joe Smith who I hadn’t seen since 2005. Joe and I used to play guitar and fiddle together for years in Mexico

After two nights in Lima we climbed aboard a luxury, double-decker, semi-sleeper bus for the long ride to Ica. Of course we were served lunch, a dry ham (one slice) and cheese (one slice) sandwich with a choice of a glass (not a bottle)

of water or sticky sweet Inca Cola. From Lima south the land is all desert right down to the ocean and the road was bordered by high sand dunes. When we reached the coastal town of Pisco, which was mostly destroyed in the 2006 earthquake, we headed up into the high desert to Ica.Ah Ica, the noisiest town in Peru. There is hardly a private automobile in the town. The streets were crowded with yellow taxies (a universal color for taxies) and moto-cabs. From the sounds on the street they all have a working horn, bell, siren, or claxon. Our semi-cheap hotel ($15/night) was furnished with a nice horse hair and pebble mattress (said my back each morning) and two ten-pound pillows (I guess so you don’t steal them). The hot water was a 50/50 deal. However, it was quiet except for the 2 AM hooker some guy brought to his room. Oh, it was also good that we had a few rolls of toilet paper in our luggage. We surmised that hotel profit margins depend on how much toilet paper they give you. This was to be the norm for our whole trip.
In the morning we booked a tour to three local wineries where they not only produce some good wine but also distill a brandy they call Pisco . The Peruvian drink is a Pisco Sour, which is similar to a Gin Fizz. A big controversy exists between Chile and Peru as to who invented Pisco and Pisco Sours. Our ten o’clock tour found us quite tipsy by noon.

Very early the next morning again boarded the bus for Nazca where we had booked an early afternoon flight to view the Nazca lines. Nazca lines are those shapes that were carved in the desert floor 3000 years ago and can only be fully seen from the air. We had a few hours to kill so we took a little tour of some excavated Peruvian tombs. It was a long ride out into the desert to the tomb site. There are hundreds of tombs but only a handful have been excavated. The burial site is Pre-Incan and so many people were buried here that the desert is littered with pieces of human bone! The mummies are very well preserved due to the dry climate. Our guide said it rains only 5 minutes per year in this area! From the tombs we went directly to the airport and boarded our six-passenger plane for an exciting flight over the Nazca lines. Not wanting to spend the night in Nazca we had booked another luxury bus trip to the mountain city of Arequipa located at 7,600 feet. Because the trip was 12 hours we were served two meals, the normal dry sandwich for lunch and for dinner, a nice change, lukewarm, deep-fried smelts on a heap of rice. We arrived in Arequipa around two in the morning.

Arequipa has a population of 750,000 and lies in a high-mountain valley. The central city is well preserved in the colonial style. We visited the 400 year old Monastery of Santa Catalina. The entrance fee was only $4 and we had an English speaking guide. Later we ate in some nice upscale restaurants. Through our hotel we booked an overnight tour to Chivay to take a tour of Colca Canyon where the attraction is the canyon itself which rivals the American Grand Canyon, sighting the Peruvian Condor and seeing the colorful locals.

The altitude at Chivay is 12,000 feet and most people get altitude sickness which consists mainly of a headache. Our tour took most of the day to drive to Chivay. Along the way we made a lot of stops to view the scenery and take pictures of Llamas and Vicunas a sort of miniature llama. In Chivay we stayed overnight in a room without heat (and, of course, little toilet paper). The bed was stacked with six-inches of Alpaca blankets but did have hot water. Early the next morning we traveled along the canyon to our ultimate destination of Pinchollo to observe Condors flying along the high cliffs along with a hundred or so other tourists. We were fortunate to see and photograph three Condors. From Pinchollo we drove all the way back to Arequipa. Back in town we had our hotel buy our bus tickets for the trip to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca, some 10 hours away. Yes, dry sandwich again!

Lake Titicaca ….. always heard of it, now we’re there! It is South America’s largest lake and the world’s highest navigable lake. Sitting at around 13,000 feet the air is brilliant blue and the water a comfortable 42 degrees! A tour to the famous floating reed islands starts early in the morning. We boarded small covered boats that hold about 30 persons for the one hour trip to the islands. We were one of the first tour boats to leave but we were quickly passed by 25 or so faster boats. The island residents are totally dependent on tourism. They give demonstrations on how they live and sell hand-made crafts. We took a fun ride aboard a reed boat and purchased a few items. After a couple of hours we boarded our boat and motored two more hours to another regular island where we had lunch. We walked around the entire island which isn’t that easy at that altitude. We departed in the late afternoon and our boat was the slowest in the fleet so our return trip ended after dark. Early the next morning (geez, I’m getting tired of getting up early) we had booked a first class train trip to Cusco aboard the Andean Explorer. The last time I took a train trip was in 1964. So, we get up and go down to the street and hail a pedi-cab for the 3 or 4 block trip to the train station. Well the driver thinks we want the train which is located next to the lake (which we don’t). When it becomes obvious that he is going to the wrong place we have only 20 minutes to catch our train! We tell him we want the other train. “Mas rapido” we tell him because we are going to be late but, he doesn’t know where the other station is located so he takes us to the bus station where we grab the first moto-cab we see and tell him “mas rapido”. Well, we go flying in this contraption through, thankfully, the semi-deserted streets of Puno and after a couple of wrong turns, make it to the station with 10 minutes to spare.

First class aboard the Andean Explorer is very first class. We sat in nice living room chairs at a big table across from a young British couple. We were served a fancy lunch and some drinks and later, we were entertained by two different Peruvian folk song groups and a fashion show. The thought of traveling by train across the Andes was exciting. Our highest point was at La Raya at an altitude of 14,000 feet. It was never-to-be-forgot experience. We arrived in Cusco in the early evening. Jean had booked an expensive hotel room ($35/night) because she wanted hot water, heat, a nice bed and toilet paper. Our room was complete with a fireplace and satellite TV (CNN in English!).

Cusco is a nice city of 300,000 people and steeped in rich Peruvian history. Much of the town is lined with ancient Inca-built massive stone walls. Jean planned on four nights here. We spent time walking up and down the narrow streets taking lots of pictures. We stopped at a local guitar maker and I played a few of his instruments. We also walked through plenty of artesian markets to purchase our last-chance items.

OK .... That's most of our trip. I'll upload the remainder this weekend. Whew!

BACK FROM OUR INLAND TOUR

Well we just returned from a two-plus weeks tour of Ecuador. We began by meeting our oldest daughter, Kirsten, her boyfriend, Fred and our oldest granddaughter, Courtney in Guayaquil, a sea port city in southern Ecuador. All three flew to the Galapagos for four days while Jean and I explored Guayaquil. After they returned we all boarded a bus for Riobamba, located in central Ecuador, wanting to see the open market. Here we saw our first mountain people. They are all very short and all the men wear either one of those small felt hats and the women wear either the same type of hat or a pretty straw hat with a thin brim. We stayed overnight in Riobamba and then took the down bus to Alausi where we wanted to ride the famous mountain train. This is where things started to get adventuresome. We were delayed in getting to Alausi because we had to wait in Riobamba for our laundry to get finished. It wasn’t done by 3:30 because the dryers weren’t working at the laundry shop so, after paying $10, we took our wet laundry with us. We arrived late in Alausi and the hotel we stayed in had the thinnest mattresses I’ve ever seen. The manager said to knock on her door in the morning and she would turn on the hot water. Next morning…. No manager in her room, i.e no hot water. So we go at 6:30 AM down to the train station to buy our tickets so we can take the early train because we have to catch the 2:30 PM bus to Quito, a six hour trip. Well crap!! The early tickets are sold out and the earliest train is, yep, 2:30 PM ! So, we really want to go so we wait. In the meantime we have to check out of our hotel room however, the manager (who now appears) says we can keep our luggage in her room until we return from the train ride. Two-thirty arrives and they have sold more tickets than seats available on the train! We are at the back of the line so….. no train ride and we’ve missed the bus. We go back to the hotel to get our luggage and ….. no manager! We wait for an hour and she shows up. She tells us we can catch the bus coming up from Guayaquil if we go up to the highway so here we are on the side of the road waiting for the busses to come by. Don’t get ahead of me now…. Every bus headed to Quito is full so we decide to catch a local bus to Riobamba then catch a bus at the terminal to Quito. Every bus is full going to Riobamba and it is going to be dark pretty soon. Kirsten happened to flag down a guy in an SUV coming out of a gas station and talked him into giving us a ride to Riobamba for 20 bucks. We finally get to Riobamba and catch the bus to Quito where we arrive at the hotel at 11:00 PM. Now we have to be up early to catch our shuttle to Amazonia and Fred has to catch his flight back to California. So, the next morning Jean, Kirsten, Courtney and I meet our driver and head for a nice 4 days exploring the headwaters of the Amazon, in an area known as Amazonia. Two hours out of Quito we are almost at the top of the Andes, ready to cross over to the jungle when the road is closed by SNOW! Our driver said it is the first time he has ever driven in snow and the first time this road was ever closed due to snow. Darn global warming! So we have to back track two hours and take a southern route which ends up taking three extra hours. We had reservations at a jungle resort named Casa Suizo located on the Napo river and we had to be met by a river panga so they could transport us to the resort and the last one runs at 5PM. We arrived at our pick up point at 5 PM and just made it. We spent four very nice and interesting days at the resort. We took guided tours of the jungle every day with two guides, one who spoke your language and one who was indigenous. We trekked through the jungle, saw lots of wildlife and exotic plants. We were shown how the locals trap animals for food and how they use plants for medicine. The resort was all inclusive so we always returned for 3 meals a day served in a pool-side setting. I normally don’t go for organized setting such as this but I was quite impressed. You would be hard pressed to see and do what we did on your own. After four days we returned to Quito where Kirsten and Courtney caught their flight back to California. Quito is the capital of Ecuador and located right on the equator. We visited Mitad del Mundo which is “ the middle of the world”, an area set aside to celebrate the line going around the middle of the world. The next few days were spent exploring Quito and bussing back home to the boat. We had a great time but, I’m still recovering from “bus butt”.

Pics: Guayaquil, old woman in Riobamba, hats in Riobamba, woman in Riobamba,jungle monkey, view from our jungle resort, self explanitory

WE'RE "SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR, DOWN ECUADOR WAY

Well, we tried to update our Blog via email and, of course, we had the wrong email address so it didn't happen but, here we are, past the equator and laying comfortably in Bahia Caraquez, Ecuador. Our passage over the equator was interesting. First, the line which marks the equator is a lot wider than we thought, maybe 50 to 75 feet wide and second the color was mostly black and it was kind of wavy rather than a true straight line. We stopped right on the equator and performed a few experiments. When we flushed the toilet we noticed that the water did not swirl clockwise or counter-clock wise and the same with the water in the sink. Our GPS showed 00.00.00 but did not indicate South or North. The most interesting thing was that our compass spun in a circle until we passed over the equator! It was a 12 day sail from El Salvador and all of it hard on the wind. We spent half the time passing through the ITCZ where the wind changed strength often and it rained most of the time. We had one night where it rained hard for 6 hours non-stop. On our fifth day we got our butts kicked and ducked into Isla Cocos. Cocos is 300 miles west of Costa Rica and is a Costa Rican National Park. It usually costs $75/day to stay there but we were exempted because we stopped due to bad weather. The island is a lush green with lots of waterfalls. The park extends twelve miles around the island and is patrolled for illegal fishing. There is a small conservation core that live on the island and they sell polo shirts, jewelry, and other items to raise funds to help support the island. One interesting item we purchased was a necklass made from the hooks of seized long liners caught fishing in the park waters.

We had to motor the last 80 miles directly into 20 knots of wind with six to eight foot seas. It was very slow and uncomfortable. Our friends directed us to a secure anchorage 15 miles north of our destination to wait for the next mornings' tide. Jean and I finally had a chance to toast our crossing of the equator (now we are officially known as "shelbacks") with a bottle of champagne followed by potato soup. Our bar crossing the next morning was smooth and easy, nothing like Bahia del Sol. Our anchorage is located right on the edge of the town of Bahia Caraquez in front of the restaurant Puerto Amistad. The restaurant operates the moorings and dinghy dock plus, the offer a wide variety of cruiser services from water delivery to laundry. And boy, is it cheap here! Diesel fuel is an unbeleiveable $1.03/gallon and a large lunch can be had for $1.50. Puerto Amistad takes care of some of the check-in into the country but, everyone has to go to the coastal city of Manta to check-in with the National Police. It is a 3 hour bus ride or, for $40, you can rent a taxi for all day. We shared a taxi with another couple. Manta has a very large tuna cannery operation, in fact, Ecuador has the largest tuna canning operation in the world. We went down to the beach and purchased a large tuna for $6 and paid another $1 to have it cleaned. Manta also boasts a fairly large tuna boat building industry. They are built right on the beach and most are fabricated from wood. On our return trip we stopped in the town of Monte Cristi to purchase a real hand made, Panama hat. We expect that we will really enjoy Ecuador and, as like most of the places we visit, will have a hard time leaving.

Boats on the Beach in Manta

"Panama" hats in Monte Cristi

WE'RE OUTA' HERE!

Yes, it's time to leave for Ecuador but, as always, we hate to leave all our friends. We expected to stay 3 weeks and now it is almost nine weeks. We were delayed 2 days due to tropical storm Alma (the first of the season). Our trip to Ecuador should take around 10 - 12 days so we will be updating our blog via email. As we always say " The best time to leave is when you don't want to go."

PERSONAL SECURITY IN EL SALVADOR

For all of you who are considering traveling down here to Salvador: There is no need to bring your own security guard!! Well, that's a statement that we thought we'd never make. All of the well-to-do people here have their own personal security guards and most business establishments have at least one armed security guard. Not that it's dangerous here but, people with money are occasionally kidnapped and a guard costs about $10 per day. Jean and I took an overnight trip to San Salvador with our friends Mike & Mary to celebrate our Jean's birthday. One morning we took a taxi down to the central open-air market located right in the center of San Salvador (hence the name). We were stopped by these two city policemen who told us that we should be careful of pick-pockets and that we should be careful where we go. We thanked them and continued to stroll the markets. A little later we met up with the same officers. They called two of their officers over and assigned them to watch over us while we shopped! They also told them to follow us at a discrete distance and not be obvious. There you go...when did that happen last in San Francisco? Anyway, the open market is quite an experience. Jean and I have been down there twice and always enjoyed the sights and sound of the vendors. Name a vegetable and you can find it somewhere in the market. Fresh vegies, housewares, box California wine ($10 for 5 liters of Franzia Burgundy), hardware items, you name it. Of course, there are many places and many kinds of food from which to choose. This fella here, in the video, managed to miss his fingers while frantically chopping his cabbage. He does, however, look pretty nonchalant about it.

We had an interesting bus trip from Bahi del Sol to San Salvador. Here in Salvador, when it's time for the bus driver to get a drug and alcohol test they just pull the bus over to the side of the road and perform a breath and urine test right there! Our bus was pulled over right at the entrance to the bus terminal. The poor driver was given a little cup and he stood behind a bush and peed right there! Apparently, bus costumers are used to this as they just got off the bus and walked to the terminal from there.

We all stayed at a nice hotel near one of the large European-style malls and went to a nice steak house for Jean's birthday dinner. Four of us, four steaks, two bottles of wine, four top-of-the-line after-dinner drinks, and desert (plus included tip) $105. Ya gotta love it in El Salvador! No wonder we can't seem to get away from here.