Welcome to Costa Rica

Jan. 29, 2007 Sunday
At daybreak this morning, we arrived in Bahia Santa Elena, our first port in Costa Rica after a strenuous non-stop sail from Barillas Marina - about 280 miles. How about this red sunrise? We made no stops in Nicaragua. It took us two full days and the last day and a half was in the infamous Papagayo winds - as high as 34 knots, but mostly in the low 20's. This is very different from the mellow Mexican sailing that we have seen for so long and, as a result of having relaxed our guard, we got some water down below because not all the hatches were closed tightly. We did get in a lot of sailing though, and once we learned to sail close to the beach, the waves were tolerable.
So we are resting up and drying out. It is still blowing like stink in this beautiful little bay. Bahia Santa Elena is almost completely landlocked with a small entrance leading into a large round bay. We had to time our arrival very carefully because we couldn't have gotten into here in the dark without relying totally on our electronic charts (which we hadn't yet been able to verify for accuracy). As a result, we spent much of last night trying to sail the boat 'slowly', not something we do often. We just crawled along in all kinds of wind so that we would arrive as the sun was rising. We timed it so well that we just had enough visibility when we arrived at the entrance. As it turned out, our electronic charts were spot on as well, so everything worked out nicely. It is a little dicey when you are running downwind with 30 knots of wind behind you, heading for a dark mass of land that reportedly has a gap in it somewhere, but if it doesn't, that dark mass of land could be very bumpy.
There were two other boats here when we arrived, but by the time we woke up, both had moved on so we have the place to ourselves. There is no development or human settlements here. The cruising guides speak of parrots and monkeys, but all we have seen so far is wind. Apparently this wind is going to last until Tuesday, we we'll just read and work on projects. It's not hot, so hooray.

Meeting the monkeys

Here is the monkey caretaker. The monkeys know that he is hiding bananas under his shirt. This is Maria and Pancho.
Here are some of the monkeys that live in a nearby teak forest, under the care of a local family. The monkeys really don't need any care as there are bananas and fruits everywhere, but for some reason they have a connection with this family.
On the walk to the monkey forest, we passed by this fresh water estuary with sugar cane growing right down to it.
Here's another view of the estuary.


This is Pancho, the head monkey. He is the only male. The rest are females. He doesn't look too bad, considering.
The man behind me is the one who has domesticated this tribe. I got to feed bananas to them.

More pix of Copan Ruinas

Here is a view from the top of one of the larger pyramids across the main plaza. Copan was in its heyday (500 - 750AD) a very large city. It fell apart from an economic standpoint when it's population got bigger than the local agriculture could support.
Here is one of the smaller pyramids at Copan. There are quite a few and some much larger. The rockwork is most impressive. You can see one of the contemporary rulers on the top.
Here are some parrots that were hanging around in Copan, doubtless due to the parrot feeders that were hanging in the trees.
Here us a boy who has bought a chicken and is waiting for the bus so that he can take it home. The chicken was not pleased.

Some pictures

Here is a poor example of what I mean by a TREEscape. It just wasn't possible to catch a good picture out the window of the bus. But there are so many variations in the plant life.


Here is a street scene from Antigua, Guatemala. The whole town is like this, really classic colonial style.

Here are some examples of the native dress. They don't just do this as costumes for tourists - they dress like this every day.
This lady sold Andrea some weavings, which they do very well. However, the vendors are very skillful in their sales techniques. In some ways they reminded me of the gypsy flower vendors in Granada except that the indians are much more friendly and not so obviously trying to get your money. Because of that, they probably have more success.

Here is Lake Atitlan..or at least a small piece of it..and the town of Panajachel.

Impressions of Central America

Jan. 24, 2007 - Wednesday - We are back at Barillas Marina in El Salvador after a bus loop through Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. If we had a decent internet connection, we'd like to put up a bunch of pictures, but we don't have even a reasonable connection so I am sending this by radio again because it works.
We were fascinated by the Central American landscape but even more by the TREEscape. Everywhere I have lived, there were about 5 species of trees around at any given time and usually one species was dominant. Here, I would say that there are about 40 species of trees and they are intermixed so that every time the bus came around a corner, there was a new landscape with rough volcanic overtones, but the variations in the trees projecting from the folded ground was amazing. There were evergreens mixed with bananas and coconut palms and then a variety of other trees with all different kinds of canopies, leaves, and flowers. I'll try to put up a picture later.
We passed through Antigua, Lake Atitlan, back to Antigua and then to the Mayan ruins at Copan. From there we went to San Juan Sula, which is a big and fast growing commercial city in Honduras that is a transportation hub. From here we were able to get a bus back to San Salvador and then back to the marina.
Last night, we went for a short walk to visit the local monkeys. The owner of the marina provides a small stipend for a family that lives in the middle of a teak forest. They have virtually domesticated an entire tribe of spider monkeys and enjoy showing off their tribe to the visitors. The monkeys were curious about us as we arrived and gathered in the trees above us. But when we arrived at the house of their guardian and he came out, they came down on the ground. He called them by name and they came running. I had a pregnant female climb me to get a banana that I was holding. The monkeys were very well behaved (for monkeys). Monkeys are native here, but the caretaker somehow manages to keep this troop together and living in the same neighborhood. Fun!
In a few days, we'll be off to Costa Rica, skipping Nicaragua entirely because our insurance for some reason doesn't cover Nicaragua. That will be a 2 day passage and hopefully, we'll avoid the Papagayo winds. But if we do get some, they blow off the land and so, if we stay close to land, there will be no waves. Lots of wind with no waves gets us places very quickly although it demands careful attention.

Exploring inland - Guatemala and Honduras

January 18, Thursday
We have really been impressed by El Salvador. It is much cleaner than Mexico and the people are even friendlier. There are still a lot of guns in evidence. There was a guy opening the door in a restaurant where we had sushi who had a shotgun strapped on! But they have a new democracy that seems to be working and they are very closely tied to the US. They even use US currency. The landscapes are beautiful. Pictures to follow.
We are now in our second day in Antigua, Guatemala. We passed quickly through Guatemala City, which doesn´t seem to have improved a bit since I was there in ´83. Very crowded and rough. But Antigua is the opposite. It is very tourist friendly and a charming destination. The camera is full of pictures, but I am in an Internet cafe and can´t use them. Tomorrow we take a day trip to a beautiful lake that Aldous Huxley considered the finest scenery on the planet. The natives are Mayans that still speak several unpronouncable (sp) indian dialects. Apparently, many still wear traditional garb. We shall see.
Then, we will go off to the Mayan pyramids at Copan, which has Andrea very excited. I haven´t gotten excited yet, but am open to it. I prefer people to buildings and like to sit around and people watch. Of course, they seem to spend a lot of time looking at me as well.

El Salvador

We are now moored in Barillas Marina Club in El Salvador. I was not really interested in going there at first because I was concerned about humidity, bugs, and the fact that we were going to 8 miles up a river. Well, I was wrong. This place is great. It has a tricky entrance. You have to cross a sandbar where it is very shallow and the water breaks on both sides of the boat. But the marina sends a panga to guide you in and we got though without any problems. By midmorning we were tied up at a mooring, had completed all the official paperwork, and were sipping a beer by the pool. Although remote and back in the mangroves, this club is beautifully maintained. It has a store, laundry, bar and restaurant, fuel dock, and a boatyard. They sent a diver over to change our underwater zinc anodes that were all nearly gone.
Here is the Admiral driving us in.
The fuel dock and a fleet of shrimpers tied up just past the club.
Looking the other way, there is Saeta on her mooring.
This is a bonus shot. You should have seen it early, but that´s life. It is a sunset taken at Puerto Escondido (I think).
Volcanos inland from the mangroves along the channel on the way up to the Marina.

Guatemala to port...

Jan. 14, 2007 - Saturday
Yesterday we finally made our escape from Puerto Madero. PM is a port with little charm, used mostly by fishing boats and local tourism from neighboring Tapachula. However, the people are fascinating. Mostly Mayan stock, they look like history dressed in modern garb. They seem very loyal to their state, Chiapas, a state often seen in our newspapers as a source of political discontent.
We stayed a week after our successful crossing of the Tehuantapec because our genset decided to leak out all it's coolant and then have fuel problems. We had a bad mechanic, me, who finally got it sorted out (mostly). Then, when we tried to check out, we had to deal with an immigration office who decided that they would charge yachts as if they were cruise ships - it cost us $262 to get out of town. We are going to appeal that to a lady set up by ex-president Fox to ensure that yachts are fairly treated. It may be useless, but I'm gonna try.
Now we are passing by Guatemala without stopping. Their port fees are ridiculous. They want to charge $1.50 per foot per night, just to anchor. I don't think so! Our next port is still a day away - Barrillas Marina in El Salvador, reportedly has excellent services for a reasonable price. It is up a river among the mangroves. That means it will probably be buggy. No-see-ums are the worst biting bug I've ever been eaten by. Their bites itch insanely and swell up for days. But at Barrillas, we can leave the boat for some Mayan temple visits and other land excursions.
For now, it feels good to be back at sea. I'm just finishing the dawn watch and pretty soon will be getting some shut-eye. We are getting to be a really good sailing team. Passages don't really tire us out that much - of course, we have had light winds almost all the time. Right now, we have no winds at all. We love our diesel engine!
There is a trio of shearwaters that has decided that we are the event of the day. For more than an hour now, they have been circling the boat and flying by just off the deck, about 2 feet away. They've done this over and over from every imaginable angle.
2PM - later update: the shearwater group kept getting bigger until there were about 20 of them. Finally one of them managed to land on the deck and then another one. The two of them began to bill and coo right under the cabin window and then suddenly, they were going all the way! And then some more of them joined. We became a floating bordello. At one point, there were 9 of them on the foredeck, interrupting each others conjugal bliss. Right now, one amorous couple has managed to hide under the seats of our dinghy and are enjoying some privacy.
You see what passes for entertainment while on passage. Fun is where you find it.
Here is one of the shearwaters. Cute little buggers, eh?

At the end of Mexico

Jan. 12, 2007 Friday - Puerto Madero
The past week has been a bit more challenging than previously. We got into Puerto Madero just fine, but our genset (the source of our battery charging) decided to leak out all of its coolant and then, after it was hot, developed air leaks into the fuel lines as well. That meant that it wouldn't run until we got out all the air. As you may or may not know, as a mechanic I am no better than a C-grade. I can follow a well-written manual, but in this case, the manual had nothing clear to say about bleeding fuel lines. So I had to figure it out by trial and error over the course of about 4 days. During all this time, we had to run our main engine to charge the batteries, which isn't my preference. After a week now, and some helpful emails from the folks who sold us the genset, I have it running again. Someone once said that cruising is fixing things in exotic places. Correct!
On top of all of that, I got a touch of the "turistas". No surprise because I eat everything. We almost made it all the way through Mexico without succumbing, but not quite. It wasn't that bad, but I'd rather be sailing.
We met a great couple, John and Elaine, on Goolka. They are from Canada and are on their way home after a 10 year circumnavigation. They loved Spain and Portugal and loaded us down with handy tips for good marinas, etc. Having just crossed Central America, they had lots of advise for our next leg, too.
There is no wi-fi here, so we are using Sailmail to send these missives. We used to get our radio links through San Luis Obispo, San Diego, or Palo Alto. Now, we find it easier to connect in Corpus Cristi, Daytona, or Rock Hill, SC!

Some cute kids were watching us as we motored our dinghy up a canal to the center of Puerto Madero.
This is a little local market on a street corner.

In the heart of the Tehuantapec

Jan. 5, 2007 1AM
We are more than half way across the Gulf. Thus far, it has been super-mellow, as promised by weather guru. We left Huatulco at dawn and started down the North side of the Gulf. For a while, we had a current pushing us along 2K faster than we would have gone otherwise. Then, we came to some whirlpools where two currents met. As soon as we passed through that, our favorable current was gone and we were pushing an unfavorable current of 1-1.5K. That means that with the motor and sails pushing us through the water at 7K, we are actually doing 6K. That is the case right now. We are now at the bottom of the Gulf, having passed Salina Cruz this afternoon and are starting a 130 mile leg up the Southern side to Puerto Madera. Even if the strong winds came up now, they would be behind us so we have passed the worst of it.
How bad has it been? Well, let's see. The seas have been flat and although the current is foul, we have almost always had a little wind, so by using the sails with the motor, we managed to hold almost normal cruising speed. There is a full moon and the smell of smoke off the land.
For dinner tonight, we had some of the tuna we caught yesterday - prime ahi! Andi soaked it in soy sauce, rolled it in fresh garlic and then toasted sesame seeds. Then she seared it quickly so that the center was still red and served it with wasabi mayonnaise. Mashed potatoes, a fresh salad, and a tolerable white wine filled out the menu. Nobody suffering here! Not bad for a stretch of ocean that I have been dreading for the last month.
After dinner, I had a hot shower and went to bed. Now I'm on watch and typing this. We are so far ahead of schedule that we may linger in Puerto Madera and maybe try to see some of Chiapas before leaving for Guatemala. Stay tuned and don't forget to write.

Here we see some of the low sandy stretches where Mexico is very narrow and the wind in the Gulf of Mexico funnels through the gap. But not today, gracias a Dios.
You know who this is.

Gulf of Tehuantepec!!

1-3-07 Wednesday
In an hour, we will officially be in the dreaded Gulf of Tehantepec where the trade winds of the Caribbean are compressed and flow across the narrowest part of Mexico. But our weather guru promises a weather window of calm winds lasting until Sunday. Yesterday it was blowing 40 knots! Keeping fingers crossed!
We are running way ahead of schedule. We haven't stopped to smell the daisies very much. On the other hand, we've enjoyed driving the boat. We were so concerned about the Tehuantepec and the Papagayo winds along El Salvador that we have pushed to get past them before they get truly wicked (February). So if we have extra time, we'll spend it in Guatamala and Costa Rica.
Tonight we'll anchor in Huatulco, the last port before we start the hard part of the gulf crossing. We need to take on lots of fuel in case there is no wind. We carry 135 gallons, so that gives us a range of 800 miles.
Changing topics, yesterday we caught a fine tuna - he was almost round and cut into some dandy steaks. Sashimi was enjoyed for lunch. There is a lot more visible sea life than we have in Calif. Yesterday, we sailed through fleets of turtles - some of them with birds standing on them. A few were even having sex! We gave extra points for spotting mating turtles with a bird on top. Andi is ahead so far. Another difference is that there are no seals or sea lions. They may exist somewhere, but we never have seen any since Cabo.
New topic - vegetables in Mexico are surprisingly good. Asparagus, chard, broccoli are all very green and rich tasting. We didn't expect this, being from Santa Cruz. Mostly they are cheaper except for onions, which are very expensive.
Sorry that we haven't posted more photos. We haven't had good internet connections and I can't send photos via radio (the way you are getting this). We'll make up for it when we get internet.
We can see another sailboat. That is rare. Around harbors, there are always fishing boats, but farther out, we go for days without seeing another boat.
Well, I've been up since 0300, so my compositional skills are flagging. Breakfast is here, so I'll leave it there.

Pictures of Barra Navidad - mostly

Here are some little girls on their way to a Christmas pageant in Barra de Navidad.
Here is a good sailing picture of the Princess. Sorry they´re all out of order, but thats the way they upload and I don´t have time to move them around.
Here is the main town of Barra as seen from the luxury hotel and marina where we stayed.
And here we were having drinks at the top of the hotel.
Here is Saeta in that fancy marina.
Here is the Anchorage at Maruata on the Michoacan Coast (where we had so many encounters with the Navy).l