Quevedo, Ecuador

Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/svnakia/BusRideFromPortoviejoToQuevedo

Today we took our first long trip by ¨chicken bus.¨ We didn´t set out to go second class but we chose a rural route from Bahia de Caraquez to Latacunga rather than going around via Quito. It was a more direct route and we wanted to see a part of the country outside the usual tourist path.

We said goodbye to Ziggy at 6:30 AM when Jack and Hermy of Iwa gave us a ride to PA in their dinghy. They go in early every day for their walk so the timing worked out perfectly. When no pedi-cabs appeared we walked the short distance to the bus station wearing fanny packs, my Chivas kids backpack, and carrying my regular backpack. John wore a nifty hand-me-down from Hooligan which is a regular sized piece of soft luggage in the style of a backpack. You wouldn´t want to fill it to capacity and then try to carry it on your back, but it´s perfect for John´s gear and our jackets and pillows, with room left over for souvenirs.

There are two bus lines running out of Bahia and we took the first one departing for Portoviejo which happened to be on Reina del Camino. For a whopping $2pp we had a comfortable two hour ride on a nice bus. We arrived at the Central Bus Terminal and found the Reales Tamarindos ticket window just to the left of Reina´s. They had a 9 AM bus departing for Quevedo ($5pp) which gave us time to use the bathrooms (.25 for a huge supply of TP from the attendant for me; free for John!). It´s a good thing that we hadn´t gotten up early enough to make coffee since this was the last bathroom we would see until we reached Quevedo.

We knew to look at it that this was NOT a first class bus. We ¨checked¨ the big bag which was stowed in a bin missing one of its door latches, and we didn´t get a claim check. I could have checked my new powder blue backpack but the guy saw me eyeing the dusty dirty compartment and said I could take it on board the bus with me. We had locks on the zippers of both bags so only outright theft would be a concern. I got seats above our luggage bin and John stood outside watching it until we were ready to leave the station. If we seem paranoid it´s because the majority of cruisers have returned from their inland trips with stories of theft.

At 9:15 we were on our way with the radio blaring, a baby crying, and a $3 pair of reading glasses I bought from a guy outside my window (with John as ground support to bargain him down from $6). Four and a half hours, two popsicles, two varieties of cheese rolls, and very numb tushes later we made it to Quevedo. Along the way we passed through green fields, rural hamlets, and small towns, with people sometimes getting on and off the bus in front of their houses. We love the variety of bamboo huts (homes) here, and split bamboo is used everywhere for fences, benches, and bus stops. There are air plants growing on overhead wires and in trees, and horses, mules, and donkeys parked alongside the road. There´s no need to pack snacks for the trip because vendors regularly hop on the bus selling: a variety of fried and baked goods out of cloth covered baskets; what I call fruit juice in a to go cup, which is an orange with just the external rind cut off and a hole cut in the top, which is then squeezed and sucked to get the juice out; candy and gum; yogurt popsicles; watermelon slices; and bottled water and juices. It was a food court bonanza and really helped to pass the time. At last a grandmother boarded carrying a live chicken in a plastic grocery bag and it was official - we were on a ¨chicken bus.¨

At the central terminal in Quevedo we checked connecting buses to Latacunga for tomorrow (8:30 AM on Ambato for $4pp or hourly buses on Cotopaxi for slightly less), and then took a taxi to the Hotel Ejecutivo Internacional. It´s what by Stateside standards would be considered a dump - very worn out and not exactly spotless, overlooking a noisy street - but it has A/C and cable TV with a few channels in English. Since it only costs $18 for a double room we´ll tough it out for the one night.

Linda and John

Fourth of July in Ecuador

The cruising community had two opportunities to celebrate our nation's independence yesterday with a potluck at 1 PM at PA and an old fashioned party for the kids at 4 PM in a local park across from Hostal Coco Bongo. I made a bus trip to Portoviejo with some friends and didn't get back until after the PA meal was already winding down. John reported that the food had been plentiful and delicious, and I could see that there were lots of leftovers, but I was saving up for the party later. Along with the rest of the boats waiting to go up river, John and I strolled down to join the Saiananda crowd for their party in the park.

It got off to a bit of a slow start, but we were very glad we gave it a chance to get going because we ended up having a blast. It was the perfect setting for a Fourth of July party, and Linda Lea had put the word out in the neighborhood that there was going to be a group of crazy gringos having a fiesta in the park. Suzy, of Coco Bongo, provided a charcoal grill (the ubiquitous metal drum cut in half lengthwise and mounted on a rebar frame), kitchen support, and music (after electricity in the city came back on), and Linda Lea had done most of the food prep. Judy set up the ticket booth where tickets were 25 cents each: three tix for a hamburger, two for a hot dog, two for a pony bottle of sugary soda (the "Inca Kola" was yummy in small doses - sort of a bubble gum, cream soda flavor), one ticket for a cup of cole slaw or potato salad, and two for a piece of banana bread. There was plenty of Pilsener beer in the ice chest and Suzy's bar was open in Coco Bongo.

The cruiser kids (Yvette-10, Dana-11, and Fletcher-12) from Aquamarine and Desiderata did a fantastic job preparing the fixin's table for the burgers and dogs, while the two dads traded shifts manning the grill. The girls cut the delicious locally special ordered buns and put them in handy yellow "to go" plastic bags (which made eating them easier and less drippy), and Fletcher passed these to Mike or Chris for the meat delivery. Once the BBQ got going the local kids and their parents showed up in droves and the burgers and dogs flew off the grill. I'm not sure what they thought of the concept of paying for little pieces of paper and then turning those over for food, but they lined up for all of it with the rest of us.

When no one could eat another bite it was time for some action. The children at the Saiananda sponsored grade school had made an American flag "pinata" for us out of a cardboard box with lots of red, white and blue tissue paper, and it was filled with candy and toys. Half a dozen local kids had hung around long enough to give the cruiser kids some stiff competition taking blindfolded turns trying to whack it open. Mike learned a new skill as he dipped and waved the box which was hanging from a length of (very bent over) PVC pipe, even momentarily landing the pinata on top of one child's head. Eventually the pinata (and Mike) couldn't hold up to the assault any longer and the candy spilled out under the rush of miniature, and young at heart, scavengers alike.

After all the candy and discarded wrappers were cleared up from the paving bricks and the grass someone brought out the water balloons. Unfortunately there was a bit of confusion over the difference between a water balloon "toss" and a water balloon "fight," and the water balloons didn't last long. Eric and Sherrell played nice, but Sherrell still managed to take two to the chest and got soaked. Even innocent bystanders like John and me were splashed by aims gone bad. The parents were easy targets, but woe to a kid whose dad took one too many hits. I wonder where those boat kids learned to run so fast.

Finally we managed to round up some not so "safe and sane" fireworks to get started on the real fun. For starters we had a half a dozen You-light-ems, a large bottle rocket with an M-80 on the end. These were stuck in a convenient crack in the curb and the lighter was passed from dad to dad: "You light em", "no, YOU light em", "NO, YOU light em"... The big finale was a 3' paper mache effigy of he-who-must-not-be-named (you supply your favorite image) which was stuffed with fire crackers and set on fire against a curb in the street roundabout. Hilarity ensued when the thing wouldn't "go" until a little gasoline was applied. There was much yelling at the two pyros to "Run!", and we made sure the fearless local kids kept their distance until finally it went off with a brief but satisfying set of bangs and was left to burn in the street. We wound down by lighting off something I don't remember seeing when I was a kid which was much more fun than sparklers. These were like Roman candles but longer and skinnier which we held at one end, lit the fuse at the other end, and pointed (preferably) at the sky for a series of single launches 30' up in the air. You could feel the stick pulsing in your hand with each pop, and it was fun trying to aim for the power lines (but not at the thatched roofs!).

By 8 PM it was time for people to catch the last bus back to Saiananda, and we had a hungry cat to feed, so most of us called it a very good night. This is one Fourth of July I'm sure we'll never forget!

Linda and John

Re: Quiet week

This is in reply to Gallant Fox's comment, and I thought I should post it lest I give people the wrong idea about Bahia.

If you are already planning to come to Ecuador for a season, then Bahia de Caraquez is probably the best place to stay. We haven't been to Puerto Lucia, but have heard from Don and Marie on Freezing Rain that it has less of a social scene than here. Yes, you have all the nice amenities (which were off limits when they stayed there), but according to them most of the cruisers who stayed at Lucia were there to work long days on boat projects and had little interest in socializing. Here in Bahia there are over 40 boats (not all of which are occupied) with cruisers who are interested in things like Mexican train, cards, beading, yoga, learning Spanish, eating out, trading DVDs, swap meets, and plenty of socializing during happy hour at the bar.

I think most people are happy here especially if, as I wrote, you have plans to leave the boat and travel. For some of us (and I know from talking to others that I'm not the only one), it's difficult to park the boat in one place for six months and not be actively cruising. Even with easy access to shore the boat becomes smaller, and life becomes somewhat routine. I personally miss moving from anchorage to anchorage, seeing all the wildlife, and the swimming and snorkeling we did during our summers in the Sea. Most people wouldn't miss the heat, the bees, chubascos, etc. of the Sea and might prefer this. Lots of people are here because of the cooler weather, but the almost constant cloudiness can have a negative affect on some people.

If you plan to travel, Bahia de Caraquez is a great place to bring your boat. People have been taking wonderful trips throughout Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. And you can leave the boat to return to the States without worrying about it since even if something does happen, there are lots of other cruisers on hand to straighten things out.

The ecuatorianos we've met are friendly, open, and helpful people who are happy to have you visiting their beautiful country, and Ecuador is a great jumping off place for traveling the rest of South America. And when your visas run out you have many options for extending your cruising from here - the Galapagos, the South Pacific, Chile, return to Panama, etc.

Linda

Quiet week

Sorry to be so silent, but it's been a very boring week. The electricity in the entire city was shut down from 7 AM to 2 PM every day last week, and even longer over the weekend (to 5 or 6 PM). Today it's on again but may be shut down at 2 PM until 9 PM. This affects us primarily in the areas of showers (no water pump and no hot water) and internet, so we have to schedule those activities accordingly. I could still do email on the boat, I know, but has been hard to get motivated to do much of anything.

The days are cloudy and gray, often with light rain or drizzle mostly at night. The afternoon wind usually comes up out of the W/SW which gives me goose bumps even though the temp in the cabin is still around 78 degrees. Every once in awhile we get a hot sunny day. I miss wearing nothing but a bathing suit all day, and find myself constantly having to change clothes here depending on whether I'm going to town to shop, going to town to walk, going in to PA for a shower, going to town to eat out, or changing back into my old comfort clothes for life on the boat.

I force myself to continue going to yoga three times a week and have started taking Spanish with a small group. The teacher for the latter is not an actual teacher, but a young woman going to school to learn English. We have a two hour session at $2/hour/pp which is dirt cheap, but I'm not sure how effective it's going to be partly because of her lack of experience and partly because we're all at different levels (including two raw beginners). But it gets me thinking about it again and should at least be good practice.

We miss MX every day. I especially miss the excitement of raising anchor and slowly sailing off to a different place every few days. Staying here is like spending the entire summer anchored off of the dinghy landing at Bahia de los Angeles with every day revolving around going into town. Our summers used to be a chance to catch up on our budget because BLA is remote and we weren't spending any money. But life here revolves around spending money, especially if you do any inland travel. Yes, that travel is relatively cheap but if it isn't in your budget to begin with, it's going to be a big drain on your cruising time. So I can really only recommend coming here if you're already in the habit of leaving the boat to return to the States, or if you have the money to travel for weeks at a time in places like Ecuador and Peru. And of course this all works best if you don't have an animal on board.

We're grateful not to be swatting bees every morning, but we miss summer in the Sea of Cortez!

Linda

Pictures of Bahia

I've added a link to pictures in the recent "Beaching Batwing" post, and I've also added a brief description of John's "hospital" stay with pictures dated May 21 (so go back to the May posts to see that one).

Here are some nice views of Bahia de Caraquez from the top of the cross on a hill above PA. The cross has stairs in it letting you climb to the top to get even higher above the trees.

http://picasaweb.google.com/svnakia/ViewFromCross

John doesn't like this way of doing pictures and prefers to have them in the blog itself. But it's much easier and faster for me to use the Picassa links so maybe we'll try to do a little of both.

Yesterday we had a delicious almuerzo with Iwa at Hugo's. We still can't get over the fact that they can serve us a full meal for less than $2.

I'm continuing to take yoga classes three times a week. They're in Spanish so I'm gradually learning the parts of the body. I hope to start taking Tai Chi from a gringo guy the other two days of the week, with weekends off for other activities. John sometimes goes for a long walk while I'm in class, and Monday mornings we can walk to Leonidis Plaza for the street market. Yesterday I found a pair of Bill Blass denim capris in perfect condition for a whopping $5. Your Goodwill donations at work!

Everyone we meet here is so friendly and eager to engage us in conversation or to help us find whatever it is we're looking for. We're really enjoying this bustling town and all it has to offer.

Linda

Sturm und Drang

The "unsolicited" testimonials posted to the Southbound group on yahoo extolling the many virtues of PA are driving us crazy. We know for a fact that TM has asked cruisers to write letters on his behalf and this is so uncalled for. So far we have restrained our natural instincts to respond to these "oh, everything is lovely" missives on the Southbound group, but I'm afraid John's going to really let loose one of these days. We're still working to get the boat to Saiananda but in the meantime this is the most divisive issue we've ever experienced in the cruising community.

It's so weird to us that people feel a need to defend the integrity of PA when it's the only game in town, it's obviously a lovely facility, and Saiananda clearly isn't for everyone. In fact only a minority of boats would probably ever want to go there. It's remote, there's no permit to build a dinghy dock yet, no alcohol is allowed on shore, and use of the kitchen is limited to vegetarian meals only. So why is PA so threatened by this tiny haven? Probably only because the moorings cost $100 less per month there, and anyone leaving their boat for the entire season wouldn't mind all the rest of the inconveniences.

A friend argued that it was our choice to stay at PA when they blocked access to Saiananda. He pointed out that we could have moved to one of the three other approved host facilities in Ecuador, and that we weren't forced to stay in Bahia. Well sure that's true, but cruisers are by nature social animals (for the most part), and we wanted to be where our friends are. We don't know a single boat staying anywhere else, and heard from friends who stayed at Puerto Lucia last season that everyone was there for boat work and that the social scene was non-existent. So that's not really a reasonable argument for us since we're going to be living on our boat for most of the season. In fact cost is no longer even the issue since we've elected to stay on a PA mooring while we wait to go to Saiananda. We'd just rather stay here with the rest of the Saiananda refugees in the hopes that the situation changes.

We're trying to make the best of a bad situation but we're not going to let the issue get swept under the table either. A lot of people seem to want to ignore the politics and pretend that everything is hunky dory which is easy to do because on the surface PA is set up to offer most of the comforts of a U.S. style marina. Cruisers love the easy life PA offers and they really don't like to be reminded that there are two sides to every story. For instance, do they know that a lovely couple (from a boat that has been here longer than most) has actually been banned from the PA premises over a silly misunderstanding? Just recently another cruiser now living in Bahia full time had the temerity to write an article to a newspaper defending attacks made on Saiananda by a radio station. In the article he gave his opinion that he thought the mooring fees at PA are too high. The knee jerk reaction to this by PA is that they would love to be able to ban that cruiser too, except that they know what a furor it would cause. It's this kind of emotional reaction to the mildest form of criticism that makes the atmosphere so poisonous here. It's inconceivable to us that a former cruiser would single-handedly divide the cruising community as has been done in Bahia.

Do the new arrivals know that prior to Sailor's Run being refused help entering Bahia (when they wouldn't commit to paying for an entire season's stay at PA) the Port Captain didn't even care if boats moved to Saiananda? Do they know that an official in the Port Captain's office takes special pleasure in telling cruisers that Saiananda is illegal and they can't go there? That this same official (Sr. Guttierrez) started reading a letter addressed to the Port Captain until the cruisers who wrote it asked him not to because it wasn't addressed to him? People who tell us to "get over it" don't understand that we resent one (American) man deciding to mess with the local status quo to protect his piece of the pie. Because it's fairly obvious that during the few days delay between Sailor's Run's initial request to enter Bahia and when they finally got in everything changed.

People also say that Saiananda is "illegal." Legal and illegal are nebulous concepts in Ecuador and it's easy for people to use both terms to paint a picture to their own advantage. Yes, PA will assert that they jumped through hoops to become "legal," but as the Minister of Tourism herself pointed out, "legal" is not the only factor to consider when you're doing business in Ecuador.

PA is already crowded. If Ecuador/Bahia wants to grow its marine tourism industry, Bahia needs to keep the river open to further marina expansion. That includes an opening bridge, and eliminating the agent/host club requirement so that cruisers are allowed to interact directly with the Port Captain/Navy if they choose to process their own check-in/out. There's room for more than one game in town, and PA should be encouraging choice in Bahia, not doing everything they can to take it away.

Linda

Snagging Sarana

This was a dragging of a different kind entirely! On Saturday, June 7, the R/V Nautilus was moving moorings from the south end of the mooring field where they were in the way of the bridge construction. The Nautilus was literally dragging the heavy mooring blocks along the river bottom to their new locations opposite Puerto Amistad. Up on deck for some chore I noticed that the Nautilus was slowly making its way towards Sarana's bow. At this point I didn't understand what it was doing or that there was any danger, and I watched for awhile and wondered why it was moving so slowly. All of a sudden I heard Jan on Claire de Lune shouting at the Nautilus and waving them away from Sarana's anchor. But it was too late, the Nautilus had already caught Sarana's anchor chain.

Jan put a call out to PA and dinghies came racing out to lend a hand, followed soon after by Carlos in the PA tender. Carlos dove on the mooring and untangled the mess in no time at all, and Sarana was just fine. Here are some pictures of the sequence:

http://picasaweb.google.com/svnakia/SnaggingSarana

This is the first time we're using Picasa for our blog pictures. Please let us know if you have any problems viewing the link to our web album. If it works well for people, we hope to post more pictures using this method.

Linda

Business Casual

Wednesday we had a meeting at Saiananda with the Minister of Tourism for Ecuador, Veronica Sion, for which we all wore our best town clothes in an effort to look respectable for her. It was such an honor to be able to sit down with a government representative and chat in an open, friendly environment. She took all of our comments about cruising in Ecuador, asked us pointed questions, and was very positive about making some important changes to current policies which would make cruising easier here, especially for boats wishing to spend more than six months in the country. The colonel in charge of the bridge project in Bahia attended, and we understand that he would also like to see an opening bridge across the river, so there's still hope for making that change.

Alfredo, the owner of Saiananda, graciously invited the owner of PA to attend the meeting as well. Instead, in a classic maneuver, Tripp worked with his Ecuadorian business partner to arrange his own meeting with Ms. Sion at PA. Except that here the cruising community was not invited to the meeting and was reduced to standing around basically eavesdropping on the officials seated at the table.

We noticed an obvious difference between the earlier bridge meeting at PA and the tourism meeting at Saiananda. We distinctly got the impression (from the way the question and answer session was handled) that the bridge meeting was a carefully orchestrated show to placate cruisers. We weren't really there to be heard, it was just meant to look that way. In complete contrast, the Minister of Tourism engaged us all in a give and take conversation, took notes, and asked us for our input - what a pleasant surprise.

We were very pleased to be invited to attend the meeting at Saiananda where we were served a fabulous vegetarian lunch and received gift bags from the Ministry containing beautiful tourism brochures and a souvenir T-shirt. It was an uplifting and hopeful meeting during which we felt our voices were finally heard.

Linda

Beaching Batwing

Friday, June 6

John and a few of the other guys got up before dawn this morning to move Batwing over to "the wall" during the slack before ebb. This is a spot north of the ferry landing where the Bahia Yacht Club property juts out into the bay creating a solid east/west "wall" where a boat can be tied off and beached at low tide. Batwing was towed here to Bahia by Sarana on their passage to Ecuador from Panama after they lost the use of their engine due to a problem with their shaft which made the propeller literally fall off. The new part finally arrived and the tides are big enough this week for "hauling out" to replace it. Several of the locals had the same idea and we saw boats up on one of the small beach areas being repaired and getting new bottom paint applied. Two catamarans, Archie's Way and La Nave, beached across the river from PA to do their bottom paint as well. All went smoothly with Batwing's repair and she was re-floated under her own power on the high tide late in the afternoon (with a little push from John in our dinghy).

http://picasaweb.google.com/svnakia/BeachingBatwing

In other news Ziggy has twice jumped into the dinghy while it was trailing behind the stern, which is a new trick for him. The first time John thinks he did it because there was a cricket in the dink (there are tons of crickets here which is fine once you realize they're not roaches!). It was just close enough to Nakia for him to jump in from the pushpit which hangs over the stern. John pulled the dinghy up close to Nakia so Ziggy could jump back up with some help from the kitty rescue rope now hanging from the pushpit - and he promptly jumped back in again. This morning during slack tide the dinghy was gently bobbing back and forth in the waves behind Nakia, and I watched Ziggy sizing up the gap. After my repeated "Be careful"s and "No!"s in an effort to make him think twice about doing it, he jumped and landed in the dink (not in the drink!). This time John told me to let him stay there to learn his lesson. Ziggy prowled around while I finished my morning exercises in the cockpit and I kept an eye on him when he started sizing up the gap again. When I heard the approach of a panga engine I knew he wouldn't want to stay in the dinghy and sure enough, he made a leap for safety as my heart jumped out of my chest. Good boat cat that he is he caught the top of the rescue rope and pulled himself up onto the pushpit - not an easy feat considering all the junk that's stored back there!

I don't think I mentioned that our trip to Canoa cost a whopping 35/pp one way for the panga ferry (complete with life jacket) and another .35/pp one way for the bus ride from San Vincente to Canoa. The local bus is only .18, pedi-cabs for two passengers are .50 for travel around the city of Bahia, and regular taxi cabs are around $1-1.50. The reason for this must be that gasoline is about $1.50/gallon and diesel isn't much more than that. This was a nice surprise after what we thought were the high prices of fuel in Central America - until we were shocked to learn that those same high prices were the norm now for the States. We feel for all of you, and hope that Obama will be able to turn things around for the country next year.

I'll close by stealing something from my friend, Cheryl on Fortuitous (sorry Cheryl!). We were in the woman's shower which is adjacent to the men's, both of which have open air ceilings. She was talking over the noise of the shower water to a male friend off of another boat when she said, "I think this is the first time I've spoken to a man in the shower who wasn't my husband!"

Linda

Is That Boat Dragging?

As I wrote previously we are experiencing the extreme tides of the new moon when the river current really rips. Our friends on Blew Moon arrived Tuesday and had a difficult time complying with PA's new request to anchor bow and stern. This is supposed to create more space in the mooring/anchorage area, but it's a bad idea given the currents we face here. It's far better to let the boat swing to the current on one anchor because, if the anchor should happen to drag, there's a better chance of it re-setting itself again. Having a stern anchor out creates tremendous sideways pressure since the boat is never lined up perfectly straight to the current, and further complicates things if the boat drags. It took Blew Moon two or three tries to get their stern anchor set that first day, and they were up early the next morning repositioning once again. Since they gave it their best shot, PA management can't really complain that they finally re-anchored using just the bow anchor.

That same night the big Denmark ketch, Stormdis (unoccupied), broke loose from the stern anchor that PA had set in their absence, and Bruce on 5th Element re-anchored the next morning to make more room between the two boats. Yesterday afternoon we watched Yorikke drag both anchors up river in the flood while its owner was in town. John went out in the dinghy with several other people (including TM from PA) to get it stopped and re-anchored. I think I already wrote about Batwing dragging back in May. When they returned from their inland trip they re-anchored using only a bow anchor. Then when Cynosure tried pulling up their stern anchor to move to a mooring yesterday, John went over to see if he could help. He couldn't figure out why the crew was heaving and straining to pull it up until he saw that they had hooked Batwing's bow chain and were pulling it up along with their stern anchor. What a mess.

With over 35 boats at PA and more still to come it's getting a little congested. I understand this number of boats hasn't been a problem in the past but things have changed dramatically with the construction of the new bridge. The corps of engineers doesn't want us anchoring where the bridge will be, even though they haven't begun doing anything more than taking core samples from the river bed, and the Port Captain has issued a letter saying that we can't anchor south of bridge construction beginning in August. For some mysterious reason that rule is being "enforced" (no one has tested it) effective immediately and PA is in the process of moving unoccupied boats north of the line.

Since the anchorage is also restricted to the south and to the east by a huge sand spit which the locals actively fish at low tide; to the east and north by the ferry routes; and to the west (directly in front of PA) by another ferry path, there's not much room left for boats to anchor safely. PA has lost a couple of mooring spots to bridge construction, and the 20 remaining moorings are all occupied. In fact TM moved his own boat off its mooring so that Cynosure could have a mooring. Those of us still hoping to get our reserved moorings at Saiananda are hoping the Port Captain will amend his previous restriction and allow us to move there. That would surely help take some of the pressure off of the crowded conditions at PA. Even the dinghy dock is a zoo. When you have 15 dinghies tied up on a busy day it's tough to find a parking spot, especially if the current is running hard.

But the $1 rum drinks during happy hour help make all our troubles go away for a few hours!

Linda

Re: Galapagos Comment

Yes, you can take your own boat to the Galapagos, or rather, you can take your boat to one of the Galapagos Islands. Prices vary greatly. Hiring an agent to clear you into more then one Island can get very expensive. Once at an island you will probably have to hire a guide if you want to go to one of the visitor sites. Most areas are completely off limits.

Basically, we think we'll enjoy it more if we take a plane instead of NAKIA. At least it will only take 3 hours to get there and back instead of 6 days...

Bahia de Caraquez

We're settling into living in Ecuador for the summer, trying to find some semblance of a routine for our days here. We haven't delved too deeply into boat projects yet, although John has taken care of a few minor problems like replacing the fuel lift pump (to try to stop diesel from getting into the engine oil) and repairing a tear in the main sail. It feels like we spend most of our afternoons on the internet in the bar, which inevitably leads into happy hour, which often turns into an excursion with friends out to one of the many small eateries for dinner, and then it's back to the boat to watch a DVD from the borrowed collections of other boats.

One of our favorite new discoveries, inspired by the loss of satellite radio access, is the free online NPR podcasts. John downloaded iTunes to the laptop and we went to the NPR web site to subscribe to our favorite shows. Now whenever we turn on the computer we bring up iTunes, and the latest episodes are automatically downloaded. So we're back to listening to shows like Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, Car Talk, and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. I discovered a new one called Coffee Break Spanish which is produced out of Glasgow, Scotland. So not only can we learn some new Spanish, but John gets to practice his Scottish accent at the same time! It's a weird combination but, having lived for a year just north of Glasgow, I enjoy it.

We are experiencing some big tides at the moment and the current in the river really rips, especially on the ebbs. Occasionally we see some big trees floating by, but so far nothing has knocked into Nakia's hull. It can be a challenge getting the dinghy up to the boat for loading and unloading, but we're getting the hang of it.

Monday morning we walked south half an hour to Leonidis Plaza for their weekly tianguis (swap meet). There was no food to speak of, and it was mostly clothing and housewares. I managed to find one second hand clothing stall that had a "dressing room" where I could try on a pair of light blue capri pants, which I bought for $5. I'm going to have to invest in a few more cool weather items so that I'm not wearing shorts and tank tops all over town during what is essentially their cold season.

Saturday we went to Canoa with two other couples. This is a beach "resort" town which was reached by taking a panga ferry from Bahia to San Vincente, across the river, and then a bus the rest of the way. There wasn't much more to Canoa than a few beach restaurants, some beach vendors selling jewelery, and a few "hotels" catering to the back-packer, surfer crowd. But it made for a nice outing and we got to hang out with Rob and Linda of Cat 'n' About before they headed north to the States and then to Guatemala for the rest of the season.

So life is quiet for now, while we wait to see what happens next. We're looking into making a trip to the Galapagos by air, and hope to do that before we leave here. In the meantime, we'll try to make short trips to places like Guayaquil, Quito, Otavalo, Banos, and Cuenca, all in Ecuador.

Linda and John

John's "hospital" stay

May 21, 2008

After 2-3 days of running a fever (Friday - Sunday), and then diarrhea starting after the fever broke, John decided to pay a visit to the doctor for some lab work today. John's been religiously consulting our copy of "Where There Is No Doctor" as his symptoms changed. So we thought, no problem, a doctors visit is cheap insurance, we'd get the results, get some drugs, and go home. We got to the recommended clinic at 10 AM and the recommended doctor ordered up lab work for everything under the sun (including HIV, hepatitis, cholesterol, liver, you name it) before going in to deliver a baby by C-section (we assume, because he said surgery, and an hour later there was a newborn). After finding out that said blood/urine/stool lab work cost $60 I made a quick trip to the ATM machine to get more money for the doctor's exam (another $50). Finally at 2 PM the lab work came back and the doctor took us into his office. Everything was excellent except for some pesky amoebas that appear to be the cause of the problem. But instead of a prescription the doctor told John he needed to stay in the "hospital" for 48 hours to be on an IV for rehydration and an antibiotic for the intestinal infection. So before we knew it they had John taking a shower, getting into hospital pajamas, into bed, and then hooked up to an IV.

We heard this is the best doctor in town so John is in good hands, and of course we want anything serious to be completely eradicated. But we certainly weren't expecting this, and [I'm updating this a month later] it turned out to be overkill. He had a private room with its own bathroom, A/C and a small TV with channels in English. There's even (oh joy) another bed in case I want to sleep over with him. But it's a little depressing to look at. At the moment I'll be content to return home to Ziggy in the evening.

http://picasaweb.google.com/svnakia/ClinicaViteri

Since, except for the diarrhea, he seemed to be getting better, this is one of those "not good" cruising experiences. But we'll keep our fingers crossed that it all turns out for the best, and at least it isn't anything terribly serious. [He was fine, and nothing further was done at the follow up visit. Total cost was $290.]

I'm off for a late afternoon hospital visit to take him things like his Gameboy and ear plugs (for the roosters next door and the newborn baby downstairs in the nursery).

Linda

Puerto Amistad

Last Tuesday morning we had arranged to be brought across the river bar of the Rio Chone to enter Bahia de Caraquez. I believe it's a requirement of the local Port Captain that every boat use a licensed bar pilot (at a fee of $30 for a single boat, less if you can get more than one boat to cross at a time). Apparently the licensed pilot is away for some time so Tripp Martin, the owner of Puerto Amistad (PA, a river front restaurant/bar with a mooring field out in front), came out with an employee of his, Carlos, and they came aboard Nakia to point out the way. After signing a waiver absolving PA of responsibility should Nakia come to any harm, we were fortunate to have completely calm conditions and a favorable tide and thus entered without incident. Carlos helped tie us up to a mooring buoy and we paid him the $30 fee.

The cruising situation in Ecuador is a new one for us. Currently there are four "host" "yacht clubs" which were created after last season's furor over the whole expensive agent mess, during which boats were required to use an agent to check in and out of every port at a cost of over $100 for each arrival and departure. As a result of the cruiser outcry at this price gouging four of the largest facilities catering to cruising boats banded together to create the current system wherein they will check a boat into the country only if that boat pays to stay at their facility.

On January 1 of this year we made a reservation at a small resort called Saiananda to stay on a mooring there. We first heard about this charming spot last summer from our friend Garth, on Inclination, and then read even more about it in Latitude 38 and SSCA Bulletin articles by Migration and Iwa. Saiananda is farther up the Rio Chone from PA and we were attracted to the quieter surroundings and smaller group of boats since Saiananda has fewer moorings and no anchor outs. As Garth described them to us the moorings are of a type that are very secure, and we had heard reports of boats breaking loose at PA. As a major animal lover I fell in love with descriptions of the animal and bird rescue menagerie located on the premises. As full time liveaboards we looked forward to making Saiananda our summer home for six months, with a few inland trips to keep things interesting. We were unsure of how we would feel about being parked in one spot for that long, but we thought Saiananda would make it all worth while. We figured we would be making visits for drinks and meals with friends staying at PA and that it would become a home away from home when we needed a town fix.

Our plan was to stay at PA while we got checked into the country. This process includes a visit to Immigration in Manta, a two hour cab ride away, along with a shopping expedition and any errands requiring the services of a larger city. So we figured we'd be staying at PA for at least a week to get checked in and oriented to Bahia before moving up river to Saiananda. Unfortunately just before we departed Costa Rica, Tripp Martin became annoyed by boats coming in and doing just as I described. His policy is that any boat he checks in should stay at his facility for the entire season. He reported Saiananda as an "illegal" destination to the Port Captain, and no one has been able to move there since.

PA is a lovely facility with nice showers and bathrooms in an upscale restaurant/bar overlooking the river. There is inexpensive laundry service and wireless internet on site. Unfortunately the PA business model is designed to limit the WiFi signal to the restaurant only and not to extend it out to the mooring field. Undoubtedly this is to help boost bar and restaurant profits, but it's a major inconvenience for anyone living on their boat full time to have to schlep everything back and forth in the dinghy whenever you need to go online. For $270/month/mooring or $100/month/dinghy dock (for anchor outs) fees, it seems reasonable to expect WiFi to reach the boats, especially when PA has plans to invest its profits in additional local WiFi hot spots.

There's also the issue of a bridge which is being built just south of the PA mooring field. In their great wisdom the Ministry of Transportation has decided to go with a low, fixed bridge, preventing any large boat traffic from continuing up river when the bridge is completed. So not only will boats be physically unable to get to Saiananda (most likely not until next year), but there will be first bridge construction, and then bridge traffic noise and dirt right on top of the PA mooring field making it a less attractive option for cruisers in Ecuador. It's a crime against the local economy that bridge planners took such a short sighted view, and didn't design a higher span or an opening bridge with future marine expansion up river in mind.

So here we sit, living in limbo, in hopes that Saiananda will be able to jump through the bureaucratic hoops required to make it a "host" facility so that we can move there before summer's end. If we liked Ecuador, we had initially planned to spend two summers here, but given the lack of freedom to move about the country by boat we doubt we'll return next summer.

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?0,36.481,S,80,25.267,W,Puerto%20Amistad,

Pics from Equator Crossing

Here's a picture of the GPS, just to prove we were actually there. Take a look at the temp and humidity on the thermometer.

Here's Linda sending off her tribute as Neptune departs...

Here's John taking a little swig before he sends Neptune off with his tribute...

and here's the king of the deep himself, Neptune.

Day 8, Ecuador Passage

1900 Monday, May 12

Neptune came aboard NAKIA this morning to supervise the inauguration of three Pollywogs into the ranks of the Shellbacks as we crossed the equator. He was resplendent sitting on his throne of sea foam, in a cape made of blue from the abyss, holding his trident, and wearing a crown of silver made by the denizens of the deep. (The crown was a little crude because the denizens don't have thumbs, but Neptune doesn't mind and wore it at a jaunty angle). He posed for a picture against a backdrop of golden sun. We will post the picture shortly for you land dwellers. He left with tribute from the crew: a bottle of Damiana which he shared with John, some cream cookies that he shared with Linda, and his likeness which he shared with Ziggy.

Shortly after crossing the 'the line' we set sail to make for our land fall at Cabo Pasado. Finally, the wind came aft of the beam and we were reminded how well NAKIA sails. Either the bucket that was tied to the keel fell off some time this morning or the current finally let go of us, and we had our best sail of the passage covering 36 miles in 6 hours an average of 6 knots! Compared to the 3.5 knot averages of the last couple days it felt pretty good to be sailing fast again.

We dropped anchor shortly before sunset and started the water heater to take hot showers in celebration.

(Note: only a 10 hour day)
Distance traveled: 55 nautical miles
Distance made good (towards our destination): 49 nautical miles
3 hours motoring, 7 hours sailing

John and Linda

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?0,21.708,S,80,28.610,W,Cabo%20Pasado,

Day 7, Ecuador Passage

0600 Monday, May 12

Well, I guess we're beginning to understand what people mean when they say Ecuador has weather "just like San Diego." Once we hit the Humboldt current we saw a completely new pattern emerge. Most of the time there's a marine layer which might break just enough in the afternoon for a glimpse of the sun. Then you get a day like Sunday when the rising sun just barely kept its head above the clouds until it burned them off entirely and we had a crystal clear blue sky, blue sea day again. Then it started rolling in again in the afternoon until it cleared off later that night. The great thing now is that even when you're standing in the Noon sun, the breeze is nice and cool. John actually broke out his favorite fleece jacket for night watches. It's reminding us very much of the California coast.

We had a great day of sailing, and even put the wind vane on to steer instead of the auto pilot for a change. We weren't able to go straight to our waypoint, but it was nice to be sailing along at a reasonable pace again. The wind shifted against us and then subsided so we put the pedal to the metal in the late afternoon to try to eat up some more miles.

My sister wrote that it's hard to imagine that we're out here so far from land (and home), and the weird thing is that it's often hard for us to grasp that idea too. Nakia has been our home for over 16 years so it's old familiar territory, and it's only our back yard that's constantly changing. Since we're always "home" do we ever really leave home? I think it kind of takes the edge off of visiting new places to have your home travel with you. But it also means never completely getting out of your comfort zone to have a familiar place to return to at the end of each day. This might make us take our adventures a bit for granted, especially when we stay in one place (like Mexico) for so long. And so what may sound exotic to someone else, is just our life. We're not on vacation, we're still doing the dishes, cleaning the toilet, fixing things that break, cooking meals, socializing with friends, and learning new things, just like everyone else. We're just doing all those normal things in foreign countries afloat in a boat.

Funny the things that pop into your head. This morning I came on watch at 0400 and found myself singing (to the tune of "Shenandoah"), "Oh, Ecuador, I long to seeeee you!"

Distance traveled: 96 nautical miles
Distance made good (towards our destination): 87 nautical miles
14.5 hours motoring, 9.5 hours sailing

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?0,06.749,N,81,13.692,W,Day%20Seven,

Day 6, Ecuador Passage

0600 Sunday, May 11

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this!

We had a bit of excitement Saturday morning when we started hearing whistles and odd cries. I thought it was birds (which shows you how out of it I am!), but John leapt up and ran on deck to find three guys in an open panga waving at the fishing gear they were frantically pulling in so that we wouldn't run over it. This was the first boat of any kind we've seen since we left on Monday. They were sooo nice, all smiles and waves, as we quickly rolled up the jib and started the motor to avoid the tail end of the long line. John asked how many days they had been out fishing and they told us 15 days! And this is over 200 miles from the nearest land. We passed over some cold Cokes, and decided we'd better quit feeling sorry for ourselves at that moment.

Ziggy had us worried after refusing food and water for over 24 hours, even turning up his nose at tuna water (drinking water with a little water from a tuna can) which he's never passed up before. I finally got him to take some of it in the afternoon, after which he actually got out of bed and ate a few bites of his kibble. He took a cautious walk around the boat, and I know he would like to play, but the motion is too rough and he has nothing to hang on with. We'll keep trying the tuna water and hope that the seas flatten out enough for him to perk up.

We took showers while we were motoring and not heeled over sailing. It was still a little bouncy but that's what the seat and grip rail are for. We are obviously in the Humboldt current now because our tank water is cold again. We are so disappointed not to have been able to watch that temperature transition on the fish finder, and will have to get it fixed before we go back north to Panama this winter.

After consulting our bird guide, "Seabirds" by Peter Harrison, we're fairly certain that the new birds we've seen on this trip are the masked boobie and the swallow-tailed gull. We've had up to 10 of the latter birds follow us at night to fish for squid attracted to the glow of Nakia's running lights. Ziggy sure knows when one of those little squid (only up to about six inches) lands in the cockpit. Last night he managed to sneak by me with one in his mouth and carried it into the cabin. I feel terrible about taking them away from him, but I'm not sure an entire raw squid is good for him, and I really don't want to find out when his stomach decides it isn't...

The past couple of nights have been cloudy with only a few stars visible now and then but last night was clear until 2200 with clouds only low on the horizon. We'd hoped to take one last look at Polaris (the North Star) but it seems we've seen the last of it until we return to the northern hemisphere next year. Polaris is just too close to the horizon for us to see above the clouds. We had some sun in the afternoon yesterday, but it was overcast and grey the rest of the day. This has meant cooler temperatures (79-81) which has been nice for a change. A few more sprinkles but no serious rain, and just some overhead cloud lightning at night.

Distance traveled: 89 nautical miles
Distance made good (towards our destination): 78 nautical miles
12 hours motoring, 12 hours sailing

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?1,08.517,N,83,10.750,W,Day%20Six,

Day 5, Ecuador Passage

0600 Saturday, May 10

Now I know why those cruisers less delusional than me looked at me doubtfully when I described our plan to "bounce back and forth between Ecuador and Costa Rica/Panama just like we've done with the Sea of Cortez and mainland Mexico." Because once you've done the passage to Ecuador you'd have to be insane to do it again (no offense Iwa and Secret o' Life). It might be more comfortable and less of a strain on a boat and crew in a bigger, more weatherly boat than Nakia, but here we are again, bashing into head winds and seas, going nowhere very slowly. My current knee jerk reaction is to live in Ecuador permanently, sight unseen, or bash back to Mexico next spring. But I sure don't see any more long distance passage making to unknown ports in my future.

How on earth do really old people do this (no offense old people)? It's a huge effort just to move about the boat, hanging on with both hands and still getting slammed into things. I washed my face at the sink with one hand Friday morning so I could brace myself from being thrown across the cabin with the other. Going to the bathroom requires strength of will, let alone doing something more complicated like making a sandwich. It's bad enough just motoring, where you have basically two motions - forward pitching and side to side rolling. But when you add hard on the wind sailing to that equation you get a herky jerky motion in the extreme heel on top of the rest that's enough to knock you off your feet. The bow coming off the top of a big wave slams into the water with a bang as if we've hit one of those logs we saw earlier in the trip.

John anxiously pores over the weather faxes and files in an attempt to figure out what to do to get us out of this mess while lining up the best possible outcome for the final days before landfall. We don't want to go too far east yet in case we get more south winds before we've gone far enough south. And there's a wicked north bound current as we close with the coast that we don't want to be north of either. It's almost like reading tea leaves, you just can't predict what's going to happen.

There are also issues with where we planned to spend the summer once we arrived in Ecuador. We have a reservation for a mooring in Saiananda, which is a couple of miles up river from Bahia de Caraquez. It's a quiet retreat with a smaller community of boaters, lots of animals and birds on the premises, and secure moorings, and we were really looking forward to making this our summer home. If you have a Yahoo account and are interested in reading why we may be forced to stay at Puerto Amistad instead, go to Yahoo Groups and pull up the Southbounders list. Follow the recent thread on "Entry Procedure for Yachts in Bahia de Caraquez." Needless to say we are extremely bummed about this turn of events because we foolishly based most of our decision to go to Ecuador on the premise that we would be staying in Saiananda.

So if we'd had a crystal ball to see the events of the past couple of weeks, would we be where we are now? No, we'd probably be in the Sea of Cortez enjoying another summer in Mexico. However we're hoping Ecuador will turn out to be as fabulous as everyone says it is, making it all worth it.

Ziggy refused his kibble Friday night for the first time in his life. Not sure what the problem is there. He managed to eat half a small squid later that he found in the cockpit. He's become quite the flying fish and squid alarm. He manages to hear the fish hit the side decks and races for the nearest porthole and then out the companionway. He has to be out in the cockpit to see the squid hop in since they are more slippery silent. It's too bad all this action occurs at night when we keep him on a tight leash in the cockpit. But it keeps us on our toes when we hear his little bell jingle.

Distance traveled: 95 nautical miles
Distance made good (towards our destination): 74 nautical miles
9 hours motoring, 14 hours sailing, 1 hour hove to

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?2,08.517,N,83,10.750,W,Day%20Five,

Day 4, Ecuador Passage

0600 Friday, May 9

Cloudy, rainy, windy (not terribly windy but enough to make progress uncomfortable)...

So much for our nice motor sail over calm water. We finally made our turn towards Ecuador early Thursday morning and ever since it's been a struggle. Nothing dangerous, but NAKIA is not very good at sailing into the wind. 320 miles to go as of Friday 1200 UTC, hopefully it will get better.

Distance traveled: 86 nautical miles
Distance made good: 73 nautical miles
9 hours motoring, 14 hours sailing, 1 hove-to

John and Linda

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?2,59.222,N,84,04.752,W,Day%20Four,

Day 3, Ecuador Passage

0600 Thursday, May 8

On Wednesday I woke up at Noon to go on watch and my eyes felt gritty for the first time. They will feel like this for the rest of the passage as my sleep deficit begins to grow. The bad thing is that we haven't had to do anything to tire us out yet since we're not even sailing. But at this point the most important thing becomes the ability to sleep on your off watch. Our watch schedule is our usual:

0700-1200 John
1200-1700 Linda
1700-2100 John
2100-0100 Linda
0100-0400 John
0400-0700 Linda (my favorite because of sunrise)

John checks in to the Panama-Pacific SSB radio net at 0800 and, because our auto pilot goes wacky when we transmit on the radio, I have to steer while he does this. So I don't usually get to bed until 0900 for that off watch. Then John loses about the same amount of time or more during his afternoon off watch from pulling weather faxes off the radio and sail handling or navigating. It seems like there's always something to keep him up. Plus it's usually too hot by then for him to be able to sleep well. Then there are those pesky things like eating and personal hygiene eating up your precious sleep time.

John got about an hour of sleep Wednesday afternoon before I had to get him up to zig-zag around a few rain clouds. That morning we woke to an almost clear sky with just a few small rows of cloud on the horizon. But by mid-afternoon we were into a row of gray clouds, some of them obviously raining. We didn't see any lightning but you never know what kind of wind is underneath them so we chose to avoid them. Afterwards we wondered if we might have missed out on an easy boat wash!

Earlier in the day, when the skies were still clear and the ocean was glassy calm John spotted a large object off in the distance. We usually don't divert for floating junk, but this was too big to pass by without investigating. It turned out to be a huge tree trunk with the root base floating on its side. Two large black and white boobies (a new kind we've only seen on this trip) were sitting up on the top edge of it, and as we drew closer we could see fish and over half a dozen 3' sharks in the water beneath it. The water was crystal clear and it was so amazing to see the fish swimming from the tree over to their new home base, Nakia. We took some pictures and then had to leave them behind as we sped off south again.

It was soon after our diversion that the weather changed so dramatically. Once we were clear of all the rain John decided it was time to change the engine oil. So we rolled out the jib and shut off the engine to enjoy an hour of blessed silence. John toiled over the hot engine while I walked Ziggy on deck as we slowly drifted along at about two knots. When he was finished with that chore we got to take showers!! Man, did it ever feel good to get clean again, even if I'm sweating already as I write this four hours later.

Distance made good:110
23 hours motoring, 1 hours sailing

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?5,42.525,N,85,08.650,W,Day%20Three,

Day 2, Ecuador Passage

0600 Wednesday, May 7

The brilliant blue of the sky overhead fades to a pale baby blue as it brushes the horizon. The ocean is a sparkling blue green with indigo patches of shade from the clouds above. The sky is mostly clear with a ring of raw cotton clouds low on the horizon. We watch in fascination as the puffy white clouds shape shift. They are beautiful in spite of the hint of menace behind each one. Dolphins pay a brief afternoon visit, going airborne directly in front of Nakia's bow, making it the "splash zone" on an E-ticket ride.

This morning we changed jibs from small to large in hopes of eventually sailing. It's hot in the cabin (high 80s) during the day making it hard to nap even with all the fans pointed right at us. We try to stay on deck in the shade of the sails where the breeze is coolest.

Monday we passed three fishing vessels but saw no boats on Tuesday. We went through a patch of water thick with jellies and saw two turtles making a fine meal of them. John saw a few whales, and a booby tried roosting on our solar panel before I tipped him off. We encountered a strange convergence of currents, creating what we call "jumping waters" similar to something we saw north of Bahia de Los Angeles one year. After we were through that we saw a minefield of logs, some of them obviously trees. Fortunately those seemed to disappear before sunset.

Life is very slow on Nakia during passages. We concentrate on trying to get enough sleep, eating when we feel like it, and watching the world go by (very slowly). Ziggy sleeps and strolls the deck when it's calm enough. The noise of the engine has everyone's ears ringing, and Ziggy actually escaped to the cool and quiet of the sink in our forward head. I didn't think he could still fit, but he curled up tight and managed to squeeze in.

I don't think an hour goes by that we don't see one or more pieces of plastic garbage floating on the surface of the water - a milk crate, a styrofoam cup, plastic wrappers, bottle tops, and mostly bottles in all shapes and sizes.

Last night we heard a couple of small thunks meaning we probably hit two small pieces of wood in the dark.

We had a favorable current most of the night which is still with us this morning. Our top cruising speed is at 2,000 RPMs but in conservation mode we keep it at 1,800. With the help of the current we can cut this back to 1,700 and still make 5-6 knots over the ground. This is nice but a 10-12 knot sailing breeze out of the west would be even better!

Nautical miles covered: 130
Water Temp: 81-85 degrees (our Furuno LS-6000 fish finder, which we use as our depth sounder, went on the fritz this morning; everything but the water temp reading is fine, but we're getting water temps of 99 and 100 degrees now)
24 hours motoring, 0 hours sailing

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?5,42.525,N,85,08.650,W,Day%20Two,

Day 1, Ecuador Passage

0600 Tuesday, May 6

A starlit night so bright that I saw a piece of white plastic trash lit up against the glassy ocean. The southern cross like a beacon off our bow as we finally head due south (after so much easting, southeasting, and even northing). Dolphins making an occasional brief visit (weird how we can hear them so well through the toilet!). No lightning or rain yet, although we saw some of the latter under one or two clouds off in the distance. The rain clouds show up well on radar, but so far they are few and far apart so we're able to skirt them. And we had enough wind yesterday to sail 6.5 hours. Not much but we're anxious to get through the convection as quickly as possible before we relax and take things easy.

Nautical miles covered: 112
Water Temp: 82 degrees
18 hours motoring, 6 hours sailing

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?7,52.554,N,85,02.730,W,Day%20One,

Bahia Ballena, Costa Rica

We said hello and goodbye again to Fortuitous and Zephyrus at Islas Tortugas. They arrived from Bahia Ballena before we got there on Friday. We had a dinghy raftup cocktail hour to catch up on what everyone had been doing since we left them in El Salvador. They did an inland trip to Guatemala from Barrillas which they enjoyed very much. They're going to Golfito from here before jumping off for Ecuador.

Saturday morning we had a slow sail against the current to our last stop in Costa Rica this year. We're anchored close to the fishing pier in Bahia Ballena right in front of a row of small houses built out on pilings over the beach. They look a little ramshackle from a distance but we took a walk on the road behind them today and they have lovely landscaped yards and gardens. The hibiscus is in bloom and people have planted a wide variety of ti plants in all different vibrant colors.

John dropped me off on shore after we arrived yesterday so that I could walk the short trip to the local grocery store in Tambor. Charlie's Charts (our guidebook) is overstating things by calling it a super mercado, but I guess it's a step above a tienda. Unfortunately we missed an organic produce market that is supposedly run on Saturday mornings. The Tambor mercado (Super Lapa) had a number of surprising items (Nutella, sliced dill pickles, and a healthy liquor section) but was woefully bereft of fresh produce. I bought some tired broccoli and a few green tomatoes (hoping they'll last for the passage), and two big pineapples that haven't started to ferment yet.

Those will last us awhile after we eat the two beautiful mangoes that Carmen, on Isla Jesusita, gave us. Thursday, May 1, we went for dinghy ride around the two islands and stopped in at the house we were anchored off of to see if they wanted a jerry jug we were no longer using because of a small crack it had developed. They were happy to take it off our hands and we made the acquaintance of Angel (the grandfather), Carmen (grandma), Alexander (son), and his son Brandon. Alexander's wife and newborn baby were up at their house on the hill. They kindly invited us back later for fried fish or to walk the roads and trails from their property, but we were getting ready to leave soon. We'll look forward to returning for a longer visit with them next year.

We thanked Carmen again for the mangoes, launched the dinghy, and went around to the south side of the island looking for the howler monkeys we'd seen through binoculars from the boat. Jackpot! We counted 20 monkeys, including babies clinging to their mother's backs, in the trees above our heads. They didn't seem disturbed by our presence so we got a nice long look at them before quietly rowing away.

It's amazing how the weather has changed since we left Puntarenas. The days are consistently cloudy now, with rain every night. Sometimes it's just a sprinkle but there are times like last night when it poured for a short while. So we get up and close all the hatches and portholes and then go back to bed. The flies have been noticeable after all the rain, but we haven't had too much of a problem with no-see-ums or mosquitos yet.

And now a word about garbage. For as progressively "eco" as Costa Rica is touted as being we have come to the conclusion that we've seen more garbage in the water and on the beaches here than anywhere else, including Mexico. I can't recall seeing any educational signs or slogans in Costa Rica asking people not to litter - we saw these everywhere in Mexico. We have been dismayed to find that a literate, eco-friendly, tourist oriented country could have such a huge problem with trash on its beaches and in its waters, and not appear to be doing anything to correct it.

Costa Rica has a beautiful coastline with friendly people, and we hope to return for another visit next year.

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?9,42.957,N,85,00.557,W,Bahia%20Ballena,

Islas Jesusita and Cedros, CR

We're currently lying a dozen miles south of Puntarenas, tucked into a calm large bay formed by an elbow shaped channel between the two islands. There are a few homes in view, each on its own small beach and landscaped with palm trees. The homes are basic and a bit run down, but the properties are large, and sea walls, cement walks, and beautiful shade trees hint at former prosperity. One father regularly transports his elementary school aged son to and from the beach on the opposite side of the channel by panga. Yesterday afternoon the boy, still in his school uniform of short-sleeved white shirt and long black slacks, was allowed to man the outboard tiller on the trip home.

John completed the checkout process Monday morning. It was probably the most difficult one yet because it was split between offices in Puntarenas and the nearby commercial port of Caldera. For anyone who is interested, John wrote a detailed description of each step required to checkout of Costa Rica from Puntarenas and posted it to the Southbounders group on Yahoo yesterday.

We enjoyed our stay at the CRYC very much, and got a huge internet fix there. Laundry was still expensive at $1/pound but using the hose on our float I was able to do a small amount of bucket laundry. It was nice to have the opportunity to rinse out salty shoes and hats, but the water pressure was very low so we skipped doing a full boat wash.

Ziggy loved having the extra "real estate" of the float and an unoccupied boat tied up on the opposite side to explore. He became quite adept at catching the small crabs that climbed the mooring lines. We didn't mind him playing with them on deck and then eating them, but we drew the line at him bringing them down below to run around on the cabin sole. He also did the neighbor boat a favor by knocking down an old bird nest which had been tucked under their main sail cover.

Buses to Puntarenas (heading west towards the end of the spit) were inexpensive, frequent, and stopped right outside the CRYC gate. We found decent shopping at the Super Mega and Pali grocery stores, though neither is as nice as the Luperon store in Playas del Coco. John bought a new lightning protection system in the form of jumper cables from a great little auto parts store we found by asking around (who knew "jumper cables" translates to "cawbless de yumper" in Spanish?). There's a very complete pet supply store/vet just down from the Pali, and I bought another 20 lb. bag of Tidy Cat litter because it was almost the same price as in the States. With over 80 lbs. of cat litter now stowed aboard Nakia, I don't think John will let me buy any more - but who wants to run out of cat litter in the middle of nowhere!? I'll feel better about using it all up once we find some in Ecuador.

The only form of street food we saw were takeout empanadas - fried pocket breads with fillings of beans, cheese, potatoes, or meat. We ate too many of the flaky fruit pastries at Musani, PPK (Pan Per Kilo), and another panaderia, and we stocked up on high quality Zaragoza sandwich meats at a nice meat store on the same street. Terry, on Secret o' Life, was in the mood for pizza so we joined him at La Terrazza one night. The Fantasia pizza (bacon, garlic, onion, sweet chilies) was so good that we all returned a few nights later along with Shared Dreams (Frank and Gisela) and Caravan (Gene, Vici, and Fiona). John and Terry had calzones (a small is too small but a large is big enough to have leftovers) which were tasty but needed some marinara sauce on the side. Eight year old Fiona had a huge plate of spaghetti with butter (hold the garlic) and Parmesan cheese. Frank also had a generous plate of spaghetti de carne and I had "lasana de carne" in which I actually detected the nutmeg flavor of a bechamel sauce! It was very cheesy but I was thrilled. La Terrazza was a great find and we would definitely return for more. We also ate at the CRYC where the best deal on the menu is their fish sandwich with fries. Terry says their steaks are excellent but we didn't have time to get to those during this visit.

After topping up our water and fuel tanks we're ready to go, but from the satellite photos it looks like rainy season hasn't ended yet in Ecuador. We've had a little rain (and lightning off in the distance) for the past two nights but we're in no hurry to leave here while the weather is still decent. And although we don't make a practice of buddy boating we may wait for Terry's boat to get out of the yard and back in the water before we start our passage. John estimates it will take us about eight days to get to Ecuador so it wouldn't hurt to have another boat out there in the general vicinity for company.

A big Happy Birthday to one of our loyal readers in Santiago Bay! You know we wish we could be there to help you celebrate!

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?9,50.644,N,84,53.104,W,Isla%20Jesusita,

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

After our snorkel at Islas Tortugas we hauled up the anchor and motored off towards Puntarenas. We took the tricky shortcut in our guide book between Punta Quesera and the Islas Negritos and only had a few heart stopping moments in the rocky waters. An hour later we were sailing downwind, flying along with the flood tide, and an hour after that it was time to turn the engine back on for the shallow passage down the narrow lagoon. The Costa Rica Yacht Club (VHF 06) sent a yellow panga to lead us through the maze of moorings and "docks" and we were still flying along in the last of the current. John did an absolutely amazing job of steering through the narrow aisles of boats, one of which we only missed by less than a foot. After hearing other people's horror stories of docking here we felt very fortunate to tie up without incident.

There's no longer any room to anchor, nor would you probably want to in the swift current which changes direction with the tides. CRYC has moorings for shallow draft boats and "docks" for deeper draft boats. The docks are wooden floats anchored fore and aft, and are just long enough to tie two boats up on either side. Nakia is 42' overall and we're hanging over at both ends. We were told that the reason for docks is so that when the tide goes out the boat will be tied in place and won't heel over as much when its keel is resting in the mud! At low tide this morning the top of our rudder was exposed by about eight inches and we were listing a bit to starboard (we're tied up on our port side). Hopefully that's as bad as it will get since the moon is past full now.

We're getting WiFi at the boat, there are nice showers on shore, we don't have electricity but there's a hose on our float, and we have a free lightning show off in the distance almost every night (but so far no more rain since Playas del Coco). This morning John struggled in the small space of the lazarette to fix our salt water pump, and now he's in the process of jerry jugging diesel so we don't have to mess with tides and currents to get Nakia to the fuel dock and then back to our float again. We dropped our laundry off at the office this morning (still at $1/pound), and maybe we'll hop a bus into town tomorrow. We plan to be here until the end of the week.

Oh, I forgot to write that on the 17th I let Ziggy out of the Pullman porthole at 3:30 AM. A little later I heard a scuffle on deck and he bounded back through the porthole, and then I must have fallen back asleep. John heard him playing wildly with something and got up to investigate. He had cornered a large turtle dove under the saloon table which John caught and released (hopefully it made it to a safe tree back on shore). Later that same morning I was making banana bread which called for six tablespoons of melted butter. Said melted butter was in a measuring cup on the galley counter and, when my attention was elsewhere, Ziggy jumped up and started lapping away at it. In my hasty "NO, Ziggy!" I managed to knock over the cup and Ziggy had two very buttery paws for the rest of the day. Maybe we should have named him Butters...

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?9,58.918,N,84,47.690,W,Puntarenas,

Islas Tortugas, Costa Rica

We were underway before dawn on Sunday for the all day trip to the Gulf of Nicoya. We sailed for an hour until the sun came up and the off shore breeze died away. We had a favorable current and as we approached Cabo Blanco the wind freshened and we were sailing with a reefed main. It's really feast or famine with the wind along this coast. Two more giant manta rays made spectacular appearances, one rolling over on its back alongside the boat, and another doing a back flip out of the water. John landed a small dorado at Noon and we sailed the rest of the afternoon in the SSE breeze.

We decided to bypass Bahia Ballena which is open to the SSE. There was heavy wind chop blowing straight into the anchorage, and we didn't feel like spending another rolly night. It was only another 10 miles to the Islas Tortugas where we set the hook at 5 PM and jumped in for a much needed sunset swim.

According to our guide book the island is private property so we didn't go ashore the next morning. There is a large beach concession with canvas chaise lounges, umbrellas, volleyball, kayak and paddle boat rentals, a banana boat, and a Welcome sign mentioning "Eco Tours." Promptly at 9 AM the first tour panga disgorged happy tourists, followed by a stream of various craft including a charter sail boat and a huge power catamaran that looked like a sailing catamaran topped off with a sport fisher bridge deck. The latter was actually very cool (M/V Manta Raya). Fortunately we left Nakia at 9 AM to snorkel a few spots around the island, and we were back in the dinghy after our last snorkel just before three pangas pulled up to the same spot. It was so nice to be in clear, warm waters again (wait, how often have we had that combination?!), and we enjoyed seeing all the friendly fish (who were obviously used to being fed since they followed us like puppies).

This was a lovely spot, perfect for the weather conditions we had, and we hope to return to it again on our way out of the Gulf.

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?9,46.444,N,84,53.562,W,Islas%20Tortugas,

Bahias Potrero, Samara, and Carrillo

As John alluded to in our last post, instead of meeting up with Harmony in Brasilito we anchored overnight with them at Playa Potrero, just half an hour down the beach from "Playa Cristal." We were a little sorry we made the move because Cristal had been a charming anchorage (with only a small hotel and two houses on the sandy beach) and it was rollier at Potrero. But it had taken us two tries to set the anchor at Cristal and we didn't want Harmony to have any trouble so it seemed the prudent thing to do. Robert and Virginia came over for lunch and we had a nice time catching up with them before it was time to get ready for the next big jump along the coast.

We were underway before sunrise on Friday for the 12 hour trip to Bahia Samara. The day was a mix of sailing and motoring with everything from flat calms to reefed sails, and 180 degree wind shifts. There were scores of mobula rays popping out of the waters around Isla Eyre at Punta Salinas, and we saw several black and yellow sea snakes, dolphins, and a few turtles. We had originally intended to go to Carrillo, which is the preferred anchorage, but we wanted to check out Samara along the way. Since we arrived at the latter late in the day, and it seemed fine, we decided to set the anchor for one night there.

Bahia Samara is a spectacular and scary anchorage to enter. It has one of the biggest reefs we've ever seen up close on its NW end, a smaller reef inside the bay to the NE, and an island with off lying rocks to the SE. Huge swells were breaking over the big reef creating a lot of wave chop in the anchorage off the village, so we chose to anchor between the island and the smaller reef where several pangas and small fishing boats were moored. We had a brief visit from Carlos and Enrique on the panga, Roca Bruja, on their way out for a night of fishing. They suggested we might be safer anchoring a bit closer in and away from the "window" between Isla Chora and Punta Indio if the north wind came up. It was rolly enough to use the rocker stopper but it was only very bad for an hour or two at the highest part of the tide. We had plenty of room and the bay was lovely.

The Roca Bruja stopped by Saturday morning to exchange a fish (sierra) for two liters of water and I threw in cold cans of soda and juice for each of the crew. Then we dinghied in through the small surf for a walk on shore, though we didn't go all the way to the village itself. This part of the coast is much greener and there are lots of beautiful new homes. We heard and saw several howler monkeys both in the trees along side the paved road and from the beach. After our walk we put the dinghy up on deck, hoisted the anchor, and headed a couple miles up the road to the next small bay, Bahia Carrillo. We had been warned that the best anchoring spot was full of moorings for small boats, but we were still very disappointed to see that there is next to no room left to anchor in the tiny protected cove in the SW corner of the bay. We started to head over to the opposite side of the bay, carefully skirting the underwater rocks noted on the chart (which were visible only by the glassy slick covering them), but it was quickly apparent that we were better off returning to Samara.

It was an especially hot day again with humidity in the mid-60s, and water back up to the low 80s. We were slamming down cold water as fast as the refrigerator could chill it, and John was especially overheated by all the sail handling. The trip could have been a waste of an afternoon, but the day was saved by a giant manta ray (8' wing span) which came gliding down the side of the boat just under the water's surface. It was absolutely magnificent, and is the only one we've seen since our first winter in Banderas Bay. Those are the kinds of things that really lift your spirits when you're hot and sweaty!

We're currently underway for Bahia Ballena in the Gulf of Nicoya.

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?10,26.972,N,85,46.674,W,Playa%20Potrero,

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?9,52.120,N,85,30.694,W,Bahia%20Samara,

Happy Zenith day

Playa Cristal, Costa Rica

I'm not really sure if that's the real name of the place where we're currently anchored, but it seems to fit seeing how there's a fancy hotel above the beach with a big sign saying 'Cristal'.

We ducked in here since the wind is blasting from the east and we hoped hills backing the beach and hotel would provide us some protection. It's working out ok, except the wind is very gusty and I know as soon as it shuts off tonight we'll be rolling terribly from the swell coming in from the south west. Oh well, there's good days and bad days...

But that's not why I'm writing this blog. Today is our Zenith day! So I thought I'd wish everyone else whose Latitude also happens to be around 10o 28'N "Happy Zenith Day" too. I'm sure you're wondering, what is Zenith Day. Well it's sort of complicated, but I'll try to explain.

Everyone who lives in the temperate zones of the world are familiar with the seasons of the year. In Winter the days are short and in Summer the days are long. This, of course, is caused by the tilt of the Earth on its axis. This tilt is about 23 degrees. The Sun, on the day of the Spring Equinox, is directly over the Equator and the length of the days all over the world is basically 12 hours (a little longer really, but we won't go into why now). As the year progresses, the Sun continues to climb higher in the Northern Hemisphere sky until the Summer Solstice at which point it will be over the Latitude of 23o 27'N. Northern Hemisphere days will be long and the Summer will be in full bloom. Of course it's all 'down hill' from there. After the Summer Solstice the Sun begins to recede to the South until the Winter Solstice, when it pauses over 23o 27'S before climbing back to the North.

Now, if you can picture the trek of the Sun as it makes it's way North and South, you may be able to picture NAKIA directly underneath it. Today. At about 12:42 local time. The Sun went directly over our heads, or passed through our Zenith (at least as close as it's going to get this year). Thankfully, as I said before, it's all down hill from here! While our days will not be getting shorter (we are, barely, still in the Northern Hemisphere where days are getting longer), we'll at least get a little break from having the blazing Sun DIRECTLY over our heads!

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?10,28.396,N,85,46.980,W,Playa%20Cristal,

Bahia de Culebra, CR

The bus trip to Liberia was over an hour each way for 450 Colones including a free polizia inspection on the way to town. We passed with flying colors using our California drivers licenses (or rather the color copy laminates we had made in Mazatlan to carry around with us instead of our real licenses). It was a long hot trip for a better selection of produce at the super mercado conveniently located across the street from the bus station, but we wouldn't make the trip again just for shopping. The day before we met Gene, Vici and Fiona from Caravan for another delicious daily lunch special at Soda Papagayo. This time it was fish soup which I almost didn't order because it's so hot out. But it had a mild curry flavor with big chunks of vegetables and firm pieces of fish similar to dorado which we learned was sailfish. We topped that off with another visit to the gelato place, and were happy campers.

Sunday we left Bahia del Coco for Bahia Huevos which had been highly recommended to us. At first we were delighted because it felt like a smaller version of Bahia Santa Elena, but after discovering that the road on the southern shore is private property guarded by men wearing Papagayo Peninsula T-shirts we weren't interested in staying more than one night. We anchored right in the middle of the bay and had no bugs come out to the boat at night. We heard many howler monkeys (yes, that's what the growling noise turned out to be) calling from all sides of the bay in the morning, and we finally saw four in the trees just inside the entrance to the mangrove river trip. Which was a good thing because we were immediately swarmed by a cloud of flies around our heads, cutting the river trip short. There were several interesting birds, but we couldn't stand to slow down for long to watch them. We visited a couple of the beaches but overall the water was green and murky so we didn't snorkel.

Yesterday we moved to Playa Panama to visit the Caravaners. We had them all over to Nakia last night (sans Clipper, the schipperke), and Fiona gave Ziggy a good play workout. This afternoon we're all going to the huge beach in spite of the gusty wind blasting away today.

Tomorrow morning John and I will depart for Bahia Brasilito to meet up with Robert and Virginia on Harmony so they can hand off our mail packet as they head north back to Mexico.

Then we'll be on the move to the Gulf of Nicoya, our last stopover in Costa Rica before sailing to Ecuador.

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?10,38.324,N,85,40.724,W,Bahia%20Huevos,

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?10,35.518,N,85,39.486,W,Playa%20Panama,

Bahia del Coco

I hope everyone understood that the blog on Santa Elena wildlife was supposed to be sort of tongue in cheek (poor us, we didn't see any howler monkeys, just all these other phenomenal things...). John came up with the idea to try to make it humorous, but I'm afraid my execution wasn't as good as his premise.
From Bahia Santa Elena we made a three hour sunrise trip to Bahia Murcielagos and anchored at Key Point rather than the islands since we were only going to be there for one night. We had hoped the water would be clear for snorkeling the nearby reef but it was green and murky and John couldn't even see the rocks that he knew were down there somewhere. I spent the day on the boat while he explored with the dinghy. We were somewhat surprised to be paid a late afternoon visit by the park ranger in his panga. He came aboard and explained that the park entry fee is now $15 per person no matter how long the stay (there may be a maximum stay but we didn't ask; this fee is up from the old $6 per person per day fee that we had read about). Needless to say we were a bit peeved not to have known about this ahead of time since we could have easily avoided the stop altogether, and gone directly to Coco. The fee is for the marine park area from Cabo Santa Elena south, including Bahia Murcielagos, the Islas Murcielagos (Bat Islands), and Bahia Potrero Grande. The marine park does not extend north to encompass Bahia Santa Elena.
We made another dawn departure for the five hour trip to Bahia del Coco just south of Bahia de Culebra. We had to skip the latter to get to Coco for laundry, provisions, water, gasoline, etc. but hope to go backwards from here to explore that area. Playas del Coco is a beach town with lots of dive and souvenir shops. Yesterday we checked in with the Port Captain, Immigration, and Customs for no charge (yay!). We also paid about $27 to have our laundry done (13.5 kilos - yikes); made a first pass at the grocery store; had a great $4 per person lunch consisting of cubes of beef in a sauce with sides of rice, black beans, mashed potatoes, and a vinegary red cabbage coleslaw; and followed that with two scoops of gelato. We were starved by the time we got to the food (after taking care of all the other chores) so everything tasted delicious.
While we were in the internet cafe waiting for our laundry to be finished it started raining buckets, and John raced out to the boat to close up all the port holes. This was our first experience with a hard rain in months. Unfortunately the bulk of the rain storm passed through the opposite side of the anchorage from us and we didn't get a very thorough boat wash this time. As John was leaving the cafe I pointed out a monkey that was climbing up a trellis on the side of the building where we were standing. That sure was surprising!
John is getting water and gas ($5/gallon - yikes) today and we hope to take the bus to Liberia tomorrow for fresh fruits and veggies. The produce section in the market here is not very exciting. Oh, and we're having to learn yet another monetary system. We've been exchanging our U.S. dollars for Colones at just under 500 Colones for one dollar. So we multiply by two and drop three decimal points (50,000 Colones = $100); I'm having a terrible time with the big numbers!
It's been very hot - high 80s to low 90s in the afternoons, low 80s overnight - and the humidity has been 50-80% depending on the time of day. So we're drinking water like it's summer in the Sea of Cortez. Oh, and I forgot to write that the water temperature climbed 10 degrees while we were in Santa Elena from low 70s to low 80s, so swimming is nice again!
Linda and John
{GMST}10|33.260|N|85|42.360|W|Bahia del Coco|Bahia del Coco{GEND}

Bahia Santa Elena, CR (hiking)

During our week at anchor in Bahia Santa Elena (March 30 - April 7, 2008) we enjoyed several morning hikes along the dirt roads accessible from three different beach landings in the bay. We had some difficulty finding the roads, mainly because we were looking in the wrong place. So the main thing you should keep in mind is that none of the roads are difficult to access from the beach. If you find yourself bush whacking through the underbrush and trees, you are NOT in the right spot! We enjoyed catching glimpses of wildlife and birds including iguanas, spider monkeys, a white-faced monkey, two kinds of kingfisher birds, a small falcon, the ubiquitous white-throated magpie jay (any interesting noise you hear is likely to be this bird it being so gregarious), white-tailed deer, butterflies (including a beautiful, large, iridescent blue kind), and paper wasp (?) nests.

TIPS
We've heard that if you're not checked into or have already checked out of Costa Rica, the navy may kick you out of Bahia Santa Elena. This didn't seem to be the case as we saw only panga fishermen and a Guardia Costa (Coast Guard) boat which made a brief pass by both boats in the anchorage solely to ask us if everything was okay. Friends saw a park ranger on shore but were not asked to pay a fee.

High tides can go right up under the tree line at the beaches so be sure to lock/tie your dinghy to a tree. Conversely low tides expose the shore so you'll need your dinghy wheels.

The deer/horse flies and other bugs can be a nuisance so you might want to take/wear insect repellant.

There are lots of thorn trees so watch where you step especially in the dry brush on the beaches. Flip-flops are not recommended (I found out the hard way)!

Take plenty of drinking water, especially for the longer hikes. It was very hot and dry when we visited.

HIKE #1 (Falls and pools)
Wear shoes suitable for walking on dirt roads, rocks and boulders, and wading through water.

10 54.543'N 085 47.599'W Beach landing (at the SW end of the bay)

10 54.481'N 085 47.588'W Beach road T's at the main road (take a Left)

Cross two small (probably dry) stream beds.

10 54.339'N 085 47.167'W Road crosses third (and larger) stream bed (there's a palm tree on the right side of the road); turn Right to walk up the dry stream bed; we found water in the stream bed before we reached the fallen tree visible from the road.

10 54.032'N 085 47.159'W Falls and first swimming pool; there are a few smaller swimming pools up and over the falls if you feel like going farther.

HIKE #2 ("Monkey" road)
10 55.115'N 085 47.235'W Beach landing (at the SE end of the bay north of the mangrove rivers; it looks like a single lane launch ramp cut into the mangroves).

From where you've pulled your dinghy up high into the mangroves take a Right and follow the back of the mangroves around a rocky ledge to the dirt road. The rocky ledge may be under water at high tide. It might be possible to leave your dinghy tied off to the mangroves there (a stern anchor would help), although this is where tour pangas unload their bird-watching passengers so be sure to keep out of the way of their landing.

10 54.604'N 085 46.635'W Road crosses a large stream bed (it was before this point on two separate walks that we saw three spider monkeys in trees off to the right of the road; you will hear them first, if they're there).

10 54.360'N 085 46.515'W Road intersects the main road to the falls and Playa Blanca (to the right); we took a Left.

10 54.346'N 085 46.415'W Road crosses stream bed again (probably leading to one of the two mangrove "river" rides at the head of the bay, both of which are navigable in a dinghy at high tide).

There was another road forking off to the right which we didn't explore. This road is not on the chart.

10 54.310'N 085 46.074'W Top of the rise in the road (this is as far as we went; this road continues on towards Bahia Cuajiniquil and beyond).

HIKE #3 (Playa Blanca)
We recommend timing this hike to arrive at Playa Blanca during a low tide. The high water mark came right up to the tree line, and it would be very disappointing to have walked all that way and then not be able to walk the beach. We arrived to find sand flats, an estuary system walled off by the beach, no birds, and no shells. However the hike itself was interesting in that it passed through several varieties of vegetation, and crossed dry, rocky, river beds (which would be amazing to see during the rainy season).

10 55.338'N 085 49.116'W Beach landing (this beach is to the south of the rock islet, and the road is at the north end of the beach).

10 55.298'N 085 49.273'W Right turn at main road

10 56.272'N 085 51.701'W Road ends at Playa Blanca

SIDE TRIP FROM HIKE #1 OR #3
For a nice photo opportunity of the bay either turn towards Playa Blanca from the beach landing for the Falls hike, or turn towards the Falls from the Playa Blanca beach landing. The overlook is a little closer to the former.

10 54.833'N 085 48.261'W Scenic overlook to anchorage

We hope you enjoy your visit to the Bahia Santa Elena area of the Santa Rosa National Park as much as we did!

Linda and John

Bahia Santa Elena, CR (wildlife)

The bay here is surrounded by the Santa Rosa National Park which we were told is known for its population of howler monkeys. We have yet to see a howler monkey but one morning we did wake to see a pod of dolphins swimming in the bay. And on an afternoon beach walk outside the bay we caught glimpses of four sea turtles in the shallow waters off the sand. Still no howler monkeys after five days here, but we do see green parrots flying overhead in squawking pairs at sunrise and sunset every day. Oh, and one morning at sunrise there was a humpback whale lying almost motionless in the bay. After watching her for over an hour we decided she had either come into the calm protected waters to give birth to and/or to nurse the calf that periodically surfaced by her side. They still weren't the famous howler monkeys, but on a hike one afternoon we were scolded by three spider monkeys watching us from a tree just off the dirt road we were walking on. And yesterday, on our hike to the nearby waterfall and swimming holes, John twice caught sight of deer in the dry tropical forest. During a morning dinghy ride in the bay we were drawn to what we hoped might be the long sought after howler monkeys walking along the beach, but they only turned out to be half a dozen of some other kind of monkey with cream colored faces and shoulders having a good time swinging around in the low trees above the beach.

There are interesting noises at dawn and dusk that sound like a cross between a very loud bullfrog and a large cat growling repetitiously, as well as a long one tone hoooooot followed by the same thing in a different pitch. Perhaps these are the unseen howler monkeys? They are the first sounds of the morning followed by a jumble of bird song, and finally the sleepyhead parrots join the chorus before flying off to wherever they go for the day.

All in all it's been disappointing not to have been treated to an appearance by the mysterious howler monkeys, but we'll just have to console ourselves with the everyday sort of wildlife that has come our way so far...

Linda and John

message for Colum Muccio

You didn't give us an email address when you posted your comment on "Barillas Marina Club." I highly recommend BMC as an excellent place to keep your boat. We haven't been to Bahia del Sol (west of Barillas), which is also in El Salvador and very popular with cruisers, but based on what I've heard about its bar crossing we wouldn't stop there. One person told us that it's just a matter of time before someone gets killed crossing the Bahia del Sol bar.

For us (U.S. passports) the entry to El Salvador was only $10 per person to Migracion. All officials come to your boat immediately upon arrival and then you go to the office to check in with the club and to pay Migracion in their office on club property.

I can't answer your question about renewing your "permit" since I don't know what kind of a permit you need. We did not require an agent in El Salvador or Honduras for checking in/out of those countries. I understand Guatemala is a much more expensive process, as is Nicaragua.

Please include your email address, if you need additional information.

Thanks for contacting us,

Linda and John