Well, we've been anchored here in Santiago Bay since January 21 so I'm going to write a very condensed version of what we've been up to. We're keeping our computer at SolCasa (our friend's house) and there just hasn't been much of an opportunity to sit down and write.
We play darts with Stan and MJ at SolCasa in the afternoons.
We go for walks in the hills and on the beach to collect beach glass for SolCasa's outdoor planters.
We eat: pollo rostizada and pizza para llevar; fish tacos and ceviche at La Suerte; tacos de adobada (with the best homemade corn tortillas I've ever eaten) and chachitas (like an empanada) de frijoles at Los Gordos; tortas (toasted sandwiches) at La Casita; and the best appetizers at Bar Social, a historic botanero in Manzanillo, where little plates of food (guacamole, ceviche, yummy potato salad, and jicama) are free with your drinks. If you go to Bar Social, wait until after 2 PM when it should be livelier. We were starving and went in when they opened at Noon, and were the only customers. Oh, and today we had John's famous vegetable curry over rice.
Sunday afternoons are reserved for futbol (soccer) games. Manzanillo has two divisions that rotate weekends so you can see a game played every weekend. Last weekend we saw the Manzanillo Picudos (swords/stingers) beat the Autlan Caneros del Grullo (cane growers) 2-1. Tickets were 20 pesos, beers were 15, and three delicious tacos de carnitas were 21. The stands were in the shade, and it was a great way to spend an afternoon (especially listening to the fans calling the referees, "pendejo" and "cabron" - not nice words in front of the kiddies...). After the futbol game we went to El Caribe, a sunset beach bar, to have a drink while we watched the Queen Victoria (Cunard) cruise ship depart after her maiden stop in Manzanillo.
We give SolCasa a call on the VHF and our driver (Stan) picks us up at our favorite dinghy landing - up the estuary and just inside the pedestrian bridge at La Boquita, where we park it right where the cars park. This is nice because we don't have to land or launch in surf, and there's usually no problem with meeting other boats going up the estuary in the morning. But when we go back at the end of the day, MJ goes with us and walks out to the end of the point to watch for incoming pangas and breaking swell if the tide's going out. One time she signalled that there was an incoming panga and we turned tail and hustled the dink back into a wider area where we could pull off to the side to let him pass. They come in at full speed and throw quite a wake, so it's best to stay out of their way. We've also timed the swell sets badly but, thanks to MJ's signals and John's skillful driving, we haven't had a wave break over the bow yet.
Stan and MJ have been great about taking us to Wal Mart, Soriana, and Mega in search of esoteric items like pretzels (Wal Mart) and roach motels (never found any so they gave us theirs). They've also shared the location (Super Comacho) for the best teleros in Santiago. These are the rectangular rolls used for tortas, and are great for sandwiches on the boat. We've done most of our provisioning already, and will make one more trip to try to fill every bin on Nakia before we leave.
We're waiting for mail from the States to arrive with Jayne on Adios in Barra de Navidad, and then we'll leave for Zihuatanejo. We'll miss hanging out with Stan and MJ in SolCasa, but we have to get moving south!
Linda and John
{GMST}19|06.358|N|104|23.671|W|February 2008|Santiago Bay{GEND}
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