Another entry from Janet, sorry for the delay!
Yesterday Eric was finally able to get "Sailmail" working -- which allows us to send e-mail through our SSB radio with a modem. That was one of the last things we had to do before we head out next week. Currently I am closed up inside the boat because Eric is hosing down and scrubbing the outside. The boat has gotten quite dirty in the last couple of weeks, especially after being out of the water and in the boatyard where there is tons of crap floating in the air. A few days ago there was a wedding across the water at this huge house (I think we may have put up a picture or two), and they set off a bunch of fireworks afterwards. So our boat, along with a couple boats around us, got a little bit of soot on it. Anyway it should be ship shape in no time... well as I said before, these days are kind of slow news days. I've been getting a lot of reading done. So far I've read seven books: The Handmaids Tale (Margaret Atwood); Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson); Changing Course: a Woman's Guide to Choosing the Cruising Life (Deborah Ann Cantrell) (N.B. a Christmas present from Eric!); Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea (Steven Callahan) (left behind by Ben/Aaron); Lady Chatterley's Lover (D. H. Lawrence); A Man without a Country (Kurt Vonnegut); and False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic Of Fear (Marc Siegel). I've been trying to keep up my swimming. There is a lap pool in the ridiculously huge resort complex that our marina happens to be attached to. There is a large cage of parrots at one end of the lap pool and sometimes the peacocks come wandering in. I have also seen the occasional iguana around the pool, because there is lots of foliage there. That stuff is pretty cool, but they also have a couple caged lions and a panther, and a whole bunch of monkeys, which is pretty sad. Ben picked this marina to leave the boat here long-term for safety/security reasons, but we are really anxious to leave as it is not quite our scene. Now I hear Eric pulling out the anchor chain (we have 220 feet of it) . We are going to try to paint it or tie nylon around it, or delineate it in some other way so that when we are lowering it, we know how much chain is in the water. You need about four or five times the depth of the water in chain length when anchoring. We will typically anchor in 20-30 feet of water so that's about 100 -- 150 feet of chain. Of course this may vary depending on conditions or if there are lots of other boats around, etc. Tomorrow night we are going to "Old Town" in Puerto Vallarta to see a festival procession. December 12 is the celebration of the patron saint Virgen de Guadalupe, and there are processions to the cathedral (named after her) every night from December 1 until the 12th. Two nights ago Al & Nancy invited us over for a barbecue. They also invited Kim and Jorge who are on the other side of us in "Serenity Blue". We grilled some steaks & brats but they did the potatoes in the microwave because there wasn't enough room on the grill. Yeah, Al & Nancy have a microwave!! I made caramel brownies for the dinner, which turned out really well considering the oven and I are still working out some issues (for example, the back of the oven is much hotter than the front so I have to keep rotating things...) the brownie recipe is a Gerches/Blackstone tradition... Anyway, Al, Nancy & Kim are Canadian, and Jorge is Mexican. Kim & Jorge met five years ago, when she booked a diving tour through him (he is a tour operator). Jorge tries to get us speaking Spanish, but I usually see him in the morning when I'm not quite awake. Everyone we have met here is super nice.
Yesterday when we were in town, we were trying to locate a guy listed in our
cruisers' guide as a parts dealer for the company that makes our outboard motor.
We found the street and the correct number, but it just looked like someone's
house. Finally we decided to knock on the door. This really old lady came to the
door and she did not speak a word of English. We were trying to be really polite
and ask where we might find this guy but we didn't understand anything she was
saying. So finally I just pointed to the guys name on the paper and said "donde
es (so-and-so)" (where is he)? So she turned her head on its side, resting it in
the palm of her hand with her eyes closed. Excited that I knew how to say
something, I exclaimed "oh! El esta dormiendo!" (he's asleep) and she said, "no
no, es muerto" (he's dead). Well we felt pretty rotten and tried to convey our
sympathies, poor old lady. Of course we have no idea if they were related or
whatever. She watched us walking down the street until we turned the corner.
Well the Festival of the Virgen de Guadalupe was so much fun!! After running our
errands, we got there about 6 p.m. The Processions were just like a parade, with
marching bands and various groups carrying banners, and lots of traditional
Mexican dancing (see pictures for today). And there were several floats which
all depicted the sighting of the Virgin Mary by a man working in his field,
which someone told us is where the festival originated. It turns out out for in
their for I think that on or of the the Virgen de Guadalupe is the same as the
Virgin Mary. We didn't really figure this out until the end. Guadalupe may have
been where this guy saw his vision. We tried to get the story, but people tell
you different things. The most interesting thing though is that some people walk
thousands of miles to take part in the processions. Mexico City has the biggest
gathering, and people walk from all over Mexico for this week. And the parades
were going to continue throughout the night! In universal street fair tradition,
the streets were lined with tons of junk food and we had tacos, tamales, and I
had pozole which is a traditional soup with corn and chicken.
Eric picked up his new glasses today and he looks SO HANDSOME in them! We just returned from our last really big shopping trip before we head out. Eric marvels at how cheap the liquor is here. So our plan now is to go to either La Cruz or Punta de Mita tomorrow and spend a week in those two places and/or Yelapa. But we are going to check out of the Marina permanently this time which is a really good feeling.