We’ll put up our last set of photos and videos soon we hope. . .

Chacala was quite lovely. One kind of weird thing that happened there
was that we met a couple Jehovah’s Witnesses, of all things. We were
sitting on the side of the road waiting for a bus into town, and saw
these two guys walking towards us. I immediately had them pinned as
either Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons because they had short-sleeved
dress shirts on and nice pants, and had satchels on their shoulders,
contrasted with the shorts, T-shirts and the backpacks of most boaters
or tourists. Besides that I noticed one had a pamphlet in his front
pocket that said “would you like to know more about…?” And I
thought, oh no here it comes.

We made small talk for a while and it turns out that they are actually
on a boat. They were really only talking to Eric as if I wasn’t
there, which is always a great way to get on my good side. When they
asked if we wanted something to read for our bus ride and started
digging in their satchels, I said, “No!! We don’t!!” Eric probably
would have taken the pamphlets (he’s nicer than I am). I personally
think it is the height of arrogance to think that your religion is so
much better than anybody else’s that you have to go around converting
people. I wish I would have told them that.

The funny thing is that because they are boaters, if they started
rowing around in an anchorage it would pretty normal for them to be
invited aboard lots of boats for drinks. Which is a double whammy
because they don’t drink, and once they climbed on board it would be
really hard to get rid of them!

For the rest of the day I just kept thinking about that scene in Monty
Python’s Life of Brian where the dirty guy in the loincloth keeps
kicking his feet in the air yelling, “Jehovah! Jehovah!” despite
being pelted by stones for being blasphemous. Great movie.

Anyway Chacala was our last stop before we got to La Cruz, and we
ended up staying in La Cruz, at anchor, for about 10 days. The main
things we accomplished during this time were to hang out with Ben &
Kate (we’ve already posted the photos) and to meet with the boat
broker in Puerto Vallarta. Despite the hundreds, if not thousands, of
boats in the area there is only one broker, Nick Rau of Vallarta
Yachts, and he was not very encouraging or excited about selling our
boat. He suggested that we sell all of the ocean-going cruising gear
(water maker, SSB radio, etc.) and sell it to a local as a coastal
boat. By doing this we’d probably get only a third of the value and
anyway our boat was designed for, and is known as, a blue water (i.e.
ocean crossing) vessel, despite its size. To sell it this way would
be kind of like selling an 18 wheeler (after removing the CB, radar
detector, cargo hold etc.) to someone to drive around a farm.

So we decided to come back up here to Mazatlan, after talking to the
brokers here on the phone a couple times, and we feel very confident
about them. We have been very impressed with them so far and are
relieved that we made the choice. Our passage up here was one of our
longest — 180 miles and 37 hours, and unfortunately we only had
conditions good enough for sailing for about 8 hours. Because it was
so calm, we saw whales, dolphins, turtles, and stingrays swimming just
below the surface of the water.

We left on Tuesday night at 2 AM and arrived on Thursday at 5 p.m.
After which we went to the café here at the marina to get a sandwich.
The brokers (Jeanette Sarrasin & Ray Watson of Mazatlan Marine Center)
came out of their office and we introduced ourselves. A couple of
hours later they were still hanging out with us and buying us drinks.
Everyone always has great things to say about them and now we know
why. We feel a huge sense of relief now that we are here and we know
how we are going to sell the boat. The long passage from PV was well
worth it!

Now we have our work cut out for us. There are many small
improvements that we can make to help sell the boat and Ray is already
hooking us up with the proper craftsmen to do so.

We also just bought our plane tickets for Tuesday the 26th of February
to fly back to Seattle and the first order of business is to get some
medical stuff taking care of and then the big job hunt! Fortunately
we have a friend in Seattle with an empty condo where we can stay at
least until the end of March – thanks Jeff (and Alice and Bob Pincus,
of course)!!

Naturally we are sad about leaving Tupo but also excited about
starting this next chapter in our lives!

Check out the photos and we have a few new videos up.

Looks more and more likely that we will be taking the boat up to
Mazatlan to deal with the broker up there, we’re just waiting for
final word from them and then we’ll be off! It won’t be much of a
pleasure sail, we’ll probably just shoot up there in one shot (160
miles or so) if we can.

We hope to get a chance to write about Chacala (where we were last)
and catch up on everything, but right now we are focused on all the
logistics involved with getting the boat ready to sell. We are
planning on flying back to Seattle at the end of the month.

We’ve been having a great time in San Blas! There is a festival going on celebrating certain types of migratory birds and so there has been entertainment in the plaza almost every night. We met a young couple from San Diego (Pippa and Beto) who are traveling in Mexico in their car and hung out with them quite a bit this week. Eric had gone into town to take a shower at their hotel and that’s how we happened to meet. So there has been quite a bit of time on land which we are enjoying very much.

So I will go in reverse chronological order… today is Thursday and we’ve had a leisurely morning reading, eating breakfast and talking about our plan for the next month. We also captioned all our recent photos and hope to take the laptop into town to post some tonight.
Yesterday was also pretty low-key, but Tuesday was a full day of exploring. We got up at 6:30 a.m. and met Pippa and Beto for a jungle river tour. An early start was a good idea because there were fewer boats out and it wasn’t yet hot outside. The river has lots of crocodiles, turtles, iguanas and different bird species and our guide was really good at pointing things out. Doing the tour with Beto was great because he is Mexican-American and could translate everything that our guide was saying. There are lots of photos so check them out. After we got back from the jungle tour, we took Pippa and Beto out for the afternoon on the boat. Unfortunately there was no wind and so we just motored around to Mantanchen Bay and anchored for a couple hours.

The day before that (Monday) Pippa and Beto drove us to the crocodile reserve/breeding ground where crocodiles of all ages are living and having lots of babies. The apparent reason for it is because the population is endangered; however, our river guide said the river is actually overpopulated so we’re not sure. On the way home we all stopped on the side of the road and pigged out on fresh lobster for about $8 per person.

Fresh oysters are widely available in this area so I’ve been eating all I can get my hands on. The streetside restaurants have them sitting in the sun for God knows how long but if they’ve stored them in salt water they’re fine. We also got a bundle that we cracked open ourselves and it’s so much fun once you get the hang of it — you store them in a mesh bag overboard until you’re ready so they’re still alive when you crack them open. So yummy…

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Two days ago (Wednesday) we “broke the vacuum” (as we heard Ron of Whirlwind say) of Marina El Cid and finally got underway after over a month of marina time. We sailed a little over 1/3 of the 95 miles (in 19.5hrs) to Isla Isabella. We were here last April, and it is still a beautiful spot!

Janet went ashore yesterday, about an hour after we anchored, with Jacaranda (Chuck and Linda, friends of ours from last season) and Encore (Buzz and Maureen - Chuck’s sister) while I took a nap (I had just finished my 6hr watch). The island is a bird sanctuary, with mainly boobys and frigates. I guess Janet took a lot of photos, so next set of pictures will be full of boobies and still safe to look at in the workplace!

There were 7-8 boats here when we arrived yesterday morning, and now there is only one other one left, Sanctuary. One of the boats that left, to remain nameless, had quite the time getting their anchor up. There was a lot of yelling, screaming, swearing, and screwing up only a few hundred feet away from us. Nothing like cheap entertainment while enjoying a cup of coffee! One of the guys eventually put on a wetsuit and dove on the anchor freeing it. Hopefully we won’t have any of the same troubles when we leave tomorrow (even if we do, we’ll be a lot nicer to each other about it:)

We are just hanging out on Tupo today, cleaning up and getting ready for our next passage. The wind has really picked up, so it’s a bit rolly here. It is supposed to continue through tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll get a good bit of sailing in on our way to San Blas (~40 miles S of here).

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Copper Canyon was incredible! We left on Sunday, January 6 and got
back Friday, January 11. We had tried to leave on Saturday the 5th
but when we got to the bus station, we discovered that all the buses
were full, so that was a bit anticlimactic.

The best way to see the canyon is on the Copper Canyon railway, touted
as one of the most scenic rail journeys in the world. The train
begins in Los Mochis, and the bus from Mazatlan to Los Mochis was
about six hours.

After spending the night in Mochis, and eating some amazing carne
asada tacos at a place called Cabanya’s I think, we got to the train
station by 5:30 a.m. and the train left at 7. We took the train all
the way to Creel that day which is as far north as most people go
(although you can stay on the train all the way to Chihuahua). Many,
if not most, gringo tourists take the first-class train which is a bit
nicer, faster, and has a sitdown restaurant and bar. Second class was
fine for us (and half the price, though no beer). For most of the
train ride there is an amazing array of scenery reminiscent of
Colorado and Arizona: lots of forests, windy rivers, rock formations
and wildflowers. There are over 80 tunnels and 30 or so bridges along
the way. You can hang out in between railway cars for an unimpeded
view.

In Creel we stayed at Casa Margarita which is a hub for backpackers.
The hotel arranges five different types of tours into the canyon –
everything from hiking, horseback riding, biking, etc. I was really
excited about the hot springs so we signed up for that, but we were
only two people and they said it required four so we weren’t sure we
would be able to go. Then this couple named Laura & Chris from
Edmonton, Alberta signed up so we got lucky. We left the next day at
9:30 a.m. and the jeep drove us for about an hour to the trailhead.
After an hour’s hike down a steep trail into the canyon, we arrived at
the hot springs and we had it all to ourselves except for one Mexican
guy. Unfortunately the hot springs were more like lukewarm springs
but the scenery was truly amazing (please see photos of our entire
trip). We really enjoyed hanging out with Chris and Laura that day!

Back at the hotel, all the guests eat dinner and breakfast together in
a big room so we met people from all over (French, German, Spanish,
and this guy from Chicago who lives in Japan). We met a couple of
guys from the US who had just been tubing in the canyon’s rivers for
seven days who ended up getting lost and ran out of food and needed to
be led out of the canyon for about 30 miles.

That night I was tired but Eric ended up going out to a local bar and
getting drunk with a couple 20-year-old Mexican guys. They were
playing drinking games with tequila. When Eric came back to our room
in the middle of the night he could not stop talking about how cool
these guys were and that he had lined up a ride with them to
Divisadero. I wasn’t sure whether to believe him, but they (Luis and
Frederico) were waiting for us outside at 10 a.m.! Turns out they are
students in Chihuahua, I think they said studying architecture and
technology/engineering. Anyway we had a great time with them — in
the car they were playing all this Mexican modern music including a
band that sounded just like Rage against the Machine but in Spanish.
“Chinga tu madre” was one of the songs…

When we arrived at Divisadero there were tons of street food vendors
because the train stops there for 15 minutes. I had two chile
rellenos wrapped in tortillas and they were delicious (unfortunately
most people in our party were too hung over to partake of anything).
After that Luis and Frederico drove us a few kilometers down the road
to Posada Barrancas. We walked around for awhile and found a cheap
hotel called the Trailhead Inn.

We really wanted to stay in one of the super swanky hotels perched
right on the edge of the canyon and I even e-mailed them ahead of time
asking for a discount but they didn’t answer. So we decided to have
dinner in their dining room and it was overpriced and not very good,
but we were really paying for the view which was spectacular. When we
got back to the Trailhead Inn, the manager had built a fire for us in
the common area which was very cozy (it’s very cold in Creel; no snow
but I had my winter coat on and the elevation is about 7000 feet). We
hiked on the rim of the canyon both days we were in Posada Barrancas
and again please see the photos.

The next day we wanted to jump back on the train and head to El
Fuerte. We knew that the train passed through town about 2 p.m. and
by then about 20 people were gathered on the platform. Here comes the
train… here comes the train… there’s the conductor… why isn’t he
stopping? There goes the train!! Whoops… what the hell happened?
Turns out most of the other people were waiting for the train going
the other way and apparently we were supposed to flag down the train.
The only other person going our way was this Spanish guy and he asked
this guy in a pickup truck to drive us to the next station for $20,
which we thought was a bit high, but there was no time to bargain if
we were going to catch the train at the next stop!

So we made it but we were pretty confused. The Spanish guy was in our
same hotel both in Creel and in Posada Barrancas and when we got off
the train with him in El Fuerte we went to the same hotel also –
named Guerrero.

El Fuerte was a really charming town. We spent the next morning
walking around town, up the hill to the museum which had a great view,
and on the towpath next to the El Fuerte River. Back at sea level, it
was much warmer there so that was a nice change.

We spent the rest of that day (Friday) on the bus back to Mazatlan.
We had dinner at one of the yummiest restaurants in Mazatlan called
Las Brochetas. There we saw Chris and Laura, the couple from Edmonton
Alberta we went to the hot springs with in Creel! Small world. . .

Now we are trying to get ready to head out again onto the water.
We’re going to see a few friends before we leave –we’re having dinner
with 4-PACK tonight (Karl, Andrea, Casey and Patrick; Casey was the
kid who stuck his head into our engine back in May in Santa Rosalia)
and this morning we are going to go say hi to Linda & Chuck on
Jacaranda in Marina Mazatlan. Before we left for Copper Canyon, I
also visited with Nancy & Jerry on TNT who are some of the first
people we met last January and Ron & Marianne on Whirlwind who were on
this same dock with us in April when we were heading north.

We have put up photos from pre-Xmas Mazatlan time, our holiday time in
the States (Lockport, NY and Glen Ellyn, IL), and another set of
post-New Years Mazatlan stuff including our trip to Copper Canyon.
There are also four more videos up and just to warn you now, they are
not nearly as entertaining as the last set!

Janet and I really enjoyed our time back in the States (Lockport, NY
and Glen Ellyn, IL) and Santa was very generous this year:)

We are now back on Tupo (in Mazatlan) after (mostly) recovering from
the flu. Now it’s time for some land travel so we’re going to Copper
Canyon!

Copper Canyon is 4 times larger than the Grand Canyon (and also much
deeper in places) so stay tuned for our report!

The last night before we got here we spent anchored off a town called =
Pixalta and it was pretty miserable. We know it wouldn’t be a very =
well-protected anchorage, but we wanted to stop there to break up the =
journey between Altata and Mazatlan. I didn’t really sleep at all =
during the night, so I finally took some meclizine which helped with =
the motion sickness and also put me to sleep. We headed out really =
early and I was still so tired that Eric let me sleep practically the =
entire day, and we pulled into Mazatlan about 4 p.m.

Be sure to check out our new video section. The last two I took early =
one morning while Eric was asleep, and I’ve never seen so many =
dolphins at once. I was thinking about waking him up and I did call =
his name softly, but later when I asked him if he would have wanted me =
to wake him, he said, “only if the dolphins are asking for me by name.”

One day while we were anchored at Altata, we took the bus into =
Culiacan which was an unbelievably large and developed city. Not =
having any guidebook for this area (there are plenty of Baja books =
that covered the peninsula, but all of our other books start at =
Mazatlan and go south) means we are always surprised when we go =
somewhere new. Anyway, there were multiplexes and casinos and the =
town seem to stretch on for ever. We had to take two buses to get =
there and it took awhile. When we finally got to the center, we spent =
the afternoon in the central market and checking out the park and the =
cathedral. I really enjoyed it, but Eric was getting a little tired =
of dodging the crowds and he said I should have left him on the boat. =
We were all set with food on the boat, so the only thing we bought all =
day was a horschata (almond milky drink, my favorite).

One interesting thing that happened while at anchor was that our dingy =
flipped while the outboard was attached, which means that our outboard =
was submerged in salt water, which is very, very bad. We were not in =
it at the time, but Eric’s Crocs were and more importantly the oars!! =
Eric ripped off his shirt immediately and jumped right in (the water =
is so cold that we have not been swimming once; this is a good reason =
to be heading south). He got to the oars first, managed to get one =
shoe, swam back, and a nice fishermen brought us the other shoe. It =
was too rough for us to go out anyway! I have to say that Eric was =
really glad that I bought him neon green Crocs because he had =
retrieved them from the water at another time a couple days prior =
(that time he had the oars and rode out in the dingy though).

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