02-Jan-15 to 19-Jan-15
The next two and a half weeks were spent at the marina socializing, swimming at the Marina Park Hotel, swimming at Playa Santa Cruz, provisioning and getting the boat ready for the next part of the adventure.
It was nice to have friends in the marina. Al and Sandie on Marova (Vancouver) and Barry and Armon on Sea Swift (Seattle area). Then there were our new friends, Chris and Gerry on Misty Michael (Nanaimo),
Jim and Linda on Liebling (Everette), Dominique, Heinz and Margarite on Meridian (California) and Jan and Ramona on Jatimo. That made for lot of socializing and story swapping.
We went to a great Blues concert on the beach with Barry and Armon. David Rotunda is from Montreal and puts on this benefit concert every year to help raise money for a centre in town that supports physically and mentally challenged children. This year he was backed up by several musicians from around the world - Spain, Argentina, Toronto and Los Angeles. The money that they made from the concert alone pays for one third of the operating cost of the centre which is not very much money at all. The music was a mixture of Blues and Rock and Roll and it was fantastic.
We also went on a roadside adventure with Al and Sandie to Cascadia Majica. We rented a car as the guys figured that we could cut the costs in half. Myself - I was pushing for the guided tour as we really did not know where we were going. I lost. Let's just say that a high clearance 4X4 would have been a better choice. We passed through several mountain passes and quaint villages and then finally descended down to the river bottom ( not literally). It is a good thing that David is such a good off road driver as we were on less than perfect roads. It's all the experience that he gained driving around the country in Napal.
David was more concerned about driving back out as the roads had many ruts, loose sand and our tires had little tread.
When we got to one of the four waterfalls we were directed to the "reception" area by some guy walking through the jungle with a machete! There was nothing official looking about this place, just a girl sitting there asking us to pay 400 pesos in order visit the falls. Her English was non existent and David could not understand her explanation of what the 400 pesos was for. Al and David were able to barter her down to 240 pesos which makes one wonder if we were being scammed. But then we saw two tour vans, got directions to the falls, were told that the money was a park fee and carried on, this time on foot.
So we followed the river for about 15 minutes and came out to this ....
It did not take any of us very long to get into the water.
And it was glorious. The water was crystal clear, with a combination of sand and limestone. The best was swinging on the rope swing into the large pool of water beneath the falls.
Sandie and I were in no rush to get out of the water so the boys went on ahead to see if they could find the second cascade. So here we are, two women, in the middle of the jungle, clad in bathing suits, alone! Did we feel safe? Absolutely!!
Upon their return, we were urged to get out of the water and follow them further up the path. We had to pass through two arches in the Rock
and then voila! Cascade number two.
The limestone rocks were not slippery and we proceeded to walk across a part of the falls with a bamboo railing for support.
We ended up at one of natures own natural infinity pools inside a cave. There were no bugs or slime or crawly things - just cool, clear water. It made the entire two hour drive worth it.
After we left my skin felt as if it had just had a spa treatment. Oh to swim in fresh water again!
We made it back to the highway without incident all due to David's excellent driving. But he was really ready for a cerveza by then!
When we got back to the boat we found out that our alternator would not be shipped from the factory until the 21 st of January. That meant that we would not receive it until the end of the month. There was a nice weather window coming up, for crossing the Tehuantepac so we started thinking of a Plan B.
Plan B involved having the parts sent to Chiapas instead. We could get hauled out there and do some of the installations on the hard. It is also time to have the bottom painted. Also haul out fees are really low in Chiapas - so the money we would save there could go towards the parts order.
We also asked David's sister to mail our interact cards to Chiapas. Oh right, I did not tell you that story! So pay attention you world travelers!
The interact machines could no longer read my card. And David's was intermittent. We were not sure of the activation process so I emailed my Financial adviser ( as she told me to contact her anytime we had a problem) and asked her to arrange new cards for both of us. Her instructions to make sure that David's original card was not inactivated until he got the replacement and to send them out by FedEx. We offered to pay the shipping fee - they could simply take it out of our account. Problem was, this was not her area of expertise and our instructions were not possible. Rather than consult with us the bank just sent out new cards via Canada Post to Mexico! and inactivated David's card. So we have no way of getting cash out of our account! After several more emails and delays I finally called card services myself. It seems that the bank does not deal with FedEx or UPS - just Canada Post. In this day and age of world travel I found this hard to believe. I informed them that regular post to Mexico could take up to 2 months at which time we would not be there any more. So they had to cancel those cards and send new cards to our Victoria address. Then we have to get David's sister to FedEx them to us. The cards still haven't even made it to the Victoria address yet! We are hoping that she will send them out by Monday or Tuesday. Good thing we were planning on staying here for a couple of weeks!
And Good thing our Visa is paid off every month. So we transferred a credit onto the Visa and are able to take cash out without paying interest. We do have a TD account that we could use in a pinch - something to keep in mind when you are traveling, for sure. Till then we are using our Visa as much as possible and holding onto those precious pesos for those places that do not take Visa ( and there are a lot of them)
So Monday we fueled up. Hours on the motor are now 3049.8. We took on 270 liters for $4020 pesos. Not bad as the last time we filled up was back in La Paz.
We left the dock at 1300 hrs. Our plan was to go to a couple of the other anchorages while the other boats got ready for the crossing.
1340 Abeam of Santa Cruise where we got a look at the Stattendam Cruise ship in port.
1630 anchored in 14 feet of beautiful clear water in Bahia La India.
Snorkeling gear on and David and I went looking for fish. And boy did we find them. Huge schools of them. I was hoping to use my GoPro but it was too late in the day and the camera could not pick up the fish.
Back on the boat for a wonderful dinner of a variation of Osso Bucco - small beef short ribs instead of veal shanks - garlic mashed potatoes and peas. Yes - peas! The captain was in heaven. And lots of leftovers for another day.
The anchorage stayed calm all night so we had a good night sleep in preparation for our 220 nm crossing.
David securing the ladder for our departure.
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