Fiesta!

We are officially setting sail from Mexico manana. It is finally time to leave after a week of relaxing and enjoying Hualtuco. We have almost forgotten that we were waiting for a weather window for the dreaded Tehuantepec with all the fun we have had. We have had a great time surfing, meeting other cruisers and taking advantage of being tied up to a dock. We postponed our departure one day due to engine problems on our friends boat, Attu. We really wanted to continue buddy boating with them but it looks like they will be a few days behind us as they stay and wait for a new starter motor for their engine. We are sad to say good bye tomorrow but are confident they will be just a few days behind us. We have already sent pictures and updated you all mostly on our Hualtuco experiences but the other day we had such an amazing experience I feel obligated to share it.
A few days ago we took the bus back to our new favorite surf spot for our last day of surf before heading out. This time we made sure to bring baby clothes, school supplies and some paper plates and plastic cups that were donated to us from the Royal Pelagic. We were about three fourths of our way through the three mile hike to the beach when we saw a bunch of families blowing up balloons and decorating for a fiesta! We offered them our paper plates and cups for the party and were graciously repaid by an invitation to the fiesta at two o' clock. We told them we would go surf and meet them in the afternoon. A few minutes later as Brandon was paying to enter the private property that leads to the beach I saw a little girl run across the street and called for her to come over. She was only about three and so precious. I showed her my bag of clothes and handed her a pair of pink pants with a big heart on them. She held them looking at me very confused and just kept repeating "Que", "Que"?? Eventually she realized that I was giving them to her and she giggled and ran off with them. It felt so good to make her day. We continued down to the beach and had another great surf session.
On our way back through town I gave a family the rest of the baby clothes and we came across the beginning of the fiesta we were invited to earlier in the day. We quickly learned that it was a birthday party for a three year old little girl when we saw her all dressed up in her princess outfit. Their were long decorated tables and tons of balloons. The whole town seemed to be invited to her birthday. We followed the family as they headed up the hill to the church. Before we knew it we were sitting in a beautiful church awaiting the baptism of the little girl. To say the least we felt a little out of place in our grungy surf clothes carrying boards as we were surrounded by almost the whole town who were all dressed up. It was such a special experience and they were so gracious to invite us in that we decided to stay anyways. It was so magical listening to the ceremony. The whole church was decorated and everyone participated in the prayers and songs. Sitting in the open air church on the top of a hill with a view of the country and town, listening to the ceremony brought tears to our eyes. As we were walking out of the church Brandon grabbed my arm and told me to look next to him. Their she was the little girl I had met earlier and given the pink pants to. She was all dressed up for the party in her new pink pants. It was so cute!!! She had them on backwards with the big heart in the front. She looked so proud. As we made eye contact she gave me a little smile, blushed and quickly looked away. Moments like those make this whole trip worth while.
We stayed through the ceremony but considering our attire and the fact that we had not had anything to eat or drink all day we decided to head home. We hitched a ride in the back of a truck back to the marina. It was such a great experience and hard to leave all these new people that we just began to make friends with. That is what we have learned most about traveling in the last few months. Life moves like waves do. Both good and bad times intersecting your path for only a short moment and sometimes following you for great distances. Likewise for the people we have met, some you only talk to for a split second, some end up being life long friends. Whatever the circumstances you are always left to wonder where they're going and from where they came, your happy when they arrive and sad when they leave. Either way we will continue on our journey...in search of waves.

Hasta Luego Mexico!!!!!!!!

Hasta Luego Mexico!

After four colorful exciting months we are preparing to leave Mexican waters and head for central America. We have been heading down the coast, hurricane season closing in ever since we left Zihuatanejo. We had an amazing few days in Zihuatanejo with my parents. We were anchored right off their incredible hotel and spent four relaxing days catching up pool side. The first day they arrived we met them at the airport and convinced them that taking a taxi was way to much money and a bus ride would be more fun. So off we headed with a bus full of people for their hotel. We had seen their hotel from the beach and had even tried to walk through off the beach the day before they arrived but got denied. I guess it may have had something to do with the fact that we were carrying two back packs and a huge bag of dirty laundry. But this time as we entered the lobby were treated with the up most respect. It is so great to travel with parents!!!! They quickly checked in and within minutes we were sitting on the beach sipping of margaritas. Being Easter Sunday we decided to go into town that night and see if we could catch some of the last activities of Semana Santa. The night before Brandon and I went in and walked the crowded streets ate at local vendors and listened to live music in the square. That night their were all the same vendors and it was great to walk the streets with my parents before stopping in a local restaurant, Coconuts, for dinner. The next few days consisted of hanging out by the pool, exploring town, drinking cocktails after cocktails, eating delicious food and just enjoying each others company. The day before they left we decided to take them sailing on our boat. We went into town early in the morning and shopped at the local market for Poblano chilies, pineapple, shrimp, and the most amazing steak “Arrachara” to barbecue that night. Their was quite a swell running in the water so it was quite a scene getting my parent to our boat and even more of a scene dropping them off later that night after a few too many drinks. It was all in good fun though. We had a beautiful sail and anchored up at a beach in the bay to surf and swim before heading back to the anchorage to barbecue. Just as I had paddled out into the line up to meet Brandon I looked back to see the Mexican Navy pulling up beside our boat talking to my parents. Brandon and I quickly paddled back and went through the paper work fiasco. They were really polite and did the usual inspection that we had been through twice before. My parents got the authentic Mexican welcome! That night our friends Mark and Linda on Attu joined us and we had a huge barbecue feast.
The last night my parents treated us to an amazing barbecue buffet on the beach. Just before we were sitting down to dinner we were invited to help let baby turtles go into the ocean. It was the most amazing experience to hold these tiny little creatures. Sailing, there is not a day that goes by that we don’t see these jaw dropping prehistoric creatures swim by us.. We even end up standing on the bowsprit yelling at them to get out of the way so we don’t run them over . We never do hit them but it gets close some times. They are the most fascinating creatures and to hold brand new ones and watch them make their march out to the sea was so touching. They are now protected animals after many years of commercial exploitation and there are many organizations like this one that raise the turtles from eggs and then let them go back to the sea. The man in charge of the non profit organization told us that only thirty five percent of the baby turtles we let go that night will actually survive. The rest will be eaten by predators. To watch the instinct of the tiny little turtles which are blind all head directly for the ocean was unbelievable. They all got tossed and fought their way out into the surf and after many attempts they all made it out to their new home. Good luck out their little guys! We will be looking for you!!
It was so fun to have my parents visit and to relax for a few days and just enjoy each others company . I think we might of relaxed a little to much because after they left we both felt a little down as we looked around our boat and faced the reality that we were leaving the next morning for Acapulco.
The sail to Acapulco was a smooth 20-25 knots straight down wind and turned out to be just what we needed to get back in the swing of things. We arrived early in the morning and anchored up. Acapulco was one of out least favorite stops. IT is a city that has gone from four hundred thousand to four million in the last four years and the impact is definitely apparent. It is huge, polluted and touristy. We found it a very good place to get some work done though. The next few days we did a lot of boat errands that we had been putting off. The most exciting errand was trying to find a new pulley for our alternator. We bussed into town early in the morning and ended up spending the entire day wandering random streets and talking to all sorts of mechanics , machinists, electricians and Car salesmen. It was a long hot day but it ended successfully and it was really interesting to talk to the locals about their expertise. We found a pulley that was the right size had a machinist make some adjustments to it for us and got one step closer in our attempt to interact with the locals. The next few days we finished up other boring boat projects like changing the oil and fixing our skiff before taking off. It is amazing how the simplest things like changing the oil or grocery shopping can take an entire day.
We headed off after three days for Puerto Escondido! Waves were back on the mind and we were eager to see Puerto a place Brandon has been drooling over for years. We arrived at Puerto Escondido at sunset and spent over an hour anchoring. We were told that the anchorage was tricky but had no idea how tricky. We finally figured it out and dropped our hook in about ninety feet of water. Yikes! And we were practically right on the beach. The anchorage is a submarine trench that goes down to one hundred feet with rocks on either side. Our friends Attu spent hours trying to anchor also and not being surfers decided it was not worth it and pulled up anchor around midnight and left. We were determined though and it actually ended being fine although we were always on high alert. Brandon surfed the next day and had a great time. The waves had ten foot faces breaking right on the beach so I quickly decided to that this was not a Jamie wave and watched instead. The town is really neat and we had a great time walking around. Brandon bought a classic T-Shirt that you will all have to wait to see until we come home!!! The next day the surf wasn’t working because of the sand and the swell was building making the anchorage pretty intense so we pulled up and headed south for Hualtuco. Another beautiful night sail with a sky full of stars and warm wind got us their early in the morning. When we arrived at the entrance of Hualtuco marina we saw the Royal Pelagic, the newest and most advanced surf exploration and charter boat. We circled it trying to get a good look and were quickly greeted by the owner and captain. They asked us how the waves in Puerto were and then invited us to come aboard for a cup of coffee. Excited we quickly pulled into the marina tied up and hopped on one of their skiffs for a grand tour. To our surprise Aubrey a girl that we surf with back at home was working aboard. It is so great to run into people from home after being gone out at sea for so long. She made us coffee, showed us the boat, and gave us some inside info on the good waves nearby. We were so ready for surf. We spent the rest of the day cleaning up the boat checking in and hanging out at the pool that is free for guests staying in the marina. That night Attu welcomed us with red wine and homemade pizza! Such a treat!
The last few days as you could guess have consisted of twelve hour surf days. Barra de la Cruz “the rip curl wave” is about a twenty minute bus drive away from the marina and we have done the trek day after day. The wave is so much fun. It is a perfect wave for both of us and we surf until we cant move or at least until we were so sunned out that we had no choice but to leave. The town is also a magical place and we spent afternoons eating mangos and talking to the other surfers. Today we took today off to get our alternator pulley switched and figure out our future plans. Another swell is supposedly hitting in the next few days so it will be interesting to see how long we stay here. We have to be extra careful when we leave here because the next passage is through the Gulf of Tehuantepec. It is notorious for the Tehuantepecers which are 60 knot plus winds that blow throughout the year. Because of the Theuantepecer this is rarely a easy passage and if caught in one can be truly dangerous. We are lucky that Enrique the manager of the marina is very helpful and keeps a updated weather forecast. He has also informed us that this is the best time of year to make the passage because the Theuantepecers have mostly stopped and the hurricanes have not yet started. So we will catch a few more waves, wait for a good weather window and then it will be Hasta luego Mexico and Hola El Salvador! IT will be a long passage but so rewarding to be in Central America.

We have had many adventures and rode many waves since we last updated our webpage. We have really been enjoying Mainland and the weather has defiantly gotten warmer. Last time we posted we were in Bandareas Bay near Puerto Vallarta. After reprovisioning at La Cruz we headed to Yelapa on the other side of the bay. It can be a very dangerous place to anchor because it is so exposed to swell and wind. With no swell predicted to hit for the next few days and the wind light and variable we decided to make a go of it and we are so glad we did. It is the most amazing little town that you can only reach by boat. We anchored our bow anchor in about 75ft of water and our stern anchor was pretty much on the beach in 5 ft of water. Needless to say we were very close to shore. We had the most amazing next two days of exploring this little town. It is quite the little hippie stoner retreat area. WE met a very nice man, Brad as soon as we went ashore . He owned the hotel right on the beach and gave us great information about the town, let us use his shower, and gave us three movies that have not even come out on DVD yet. He thought they would be good to trade with cruisers along the way! The second day we were their we hiked back into the mountains along the river that runs down to the ocean to a waterfall. It was such a different environment from the touristy beach palapas that we saw when we arrived. With in fifteen minutes we were walking through little local villages that lined the river. Their were tons of horses, pigs and roosters. Their were authentic old barns with amazing saddles, women doing laundry in the river, men using horses to carry wood to different construction sites and small stores with all the local produce. We lhad learned from Brad that when tourism hit Yelapa most of the locals moved back into the mountains along the river. WE feel so blessed not only to be able to visit little anchorages like Yelapa but to have the opportunities to see how the locals live and experience authentic Mexican villages.. Yelapa was a great place to stay for a few days but we decided not to push our luck with the weather and to head on to find those oh so needed waves at Punta Mita.

We had an amazing day sail back to Punta Mita where to our surprise their were some small waves. We dropped anchor and had a short evening session before dark. The next few days were heaven for us. A south swell had hit and their were fun waves for four days in a row. We went on one crazy adventure to find a local spot we heard of and ended up taking four buses, hiking on private property and squeezing our boards and bodies under a barbed wire fence before we found the little spot. It was a fun wave but we are still not sure if it was worth the effort. After fun waves and to much sun we decided it was time to head on. We made one more run into Puerto Vallarta for boxed wine and a headset so we could hook up skype and took off south. We were all prepared for some good strong winds while passing Cabo Corrientes which is often compared to Point conception but we got not a breath of wind and ended up motoring the whole day to Ipala. Ipala was a small little town and the anchorage was not that great but we ended up meeting two guys from Santa Barbara on Ciao Bella so we stayed the night and hung out with them. It actually ended up that we had some major coincidences with Jim the captain of Ciao Bella. We were having cocktails on their boat when Jim told us that he used to own a Downeast 32 just like ours. We told him how much work we had to put into her to make her look like this and how she used to be an ugly brown color before we painted her blue. He then went on to tell us that the Downeast he used to own was an ugly brown also and that it was named Tropic Cloud! At about that point both of our jaws dropped and we started laughing. That was the same name that we found on our transom when we sanded her down to paint her. We gave him a tour of our boat and sure enough it was his old boat. It is moments like these when you realize how small the world really is.
We made another stop at Chamela for a few days before heading on to Tenacatita and Barra de Navidad. On our way out of Chamaela we heard Attu, the Westsail that we cruised down the entire Baja with call us on the VhF. WE had not heard from them in over a month and it was great to finally meet up with them again in Tenacatita. When we arrived at Tenacatita it was hot and we were tired and feeling kind of bored. We were sitting in our cockpit trying to decide what to occupy ourselves with when we got invited to get towed on our surfboards behind this guys dingy. It was such a god sent. We both really needed a pick me up and with no waves in sight this was the next best thing. For the next hour we took turns surfing behind his dingy all over the bay. The sun was setting and the ocean was as warm as a bath tub. We were incredibly sore the next day but it was such a blast! While we were getting towed around the bay Brandon noticed that Caringoram, the boat that we left San Diego with and had not seen since Ensenada was anchored up just a few boats away from us. It was so great to meet up with them and exchange stories of the last few months. Currently they are heading north to Puerto Vallarta but there is still a chance they will head down south still. We only spent two days in Tenacatita before we went around the corner to Barra de navidad. It was a great little town and their were a few small waves to be had. We ended up staying almost a week because we liked the town so much. After baguettes and croissants form the French baker in town and a few surf sessions we once again pulled up anchor and headed out of Barra with our friends Attu. We were both sailing along at sunset when we looked back and saw Attu’s sail caught around something and it didn’t look like they could get it down. After a while we learned that their sail had somehow wrapped around their forestay and it broke their forestay leaving it streaming aloft. NO Bueno! They ended up motoring into Manzanillo but we kept on a straight track to our next destination where we were praying we would get the wave we had heard so much about.
The first morning at Caletta we were woken up to a military boat with fifteen men with machine guns right outside our boat. They ended up boarding us, checking our paperwork and all of our compartments and then left. All in all they were very nice and polite but it was kind of intimidating to wake up to. The next week though was non stop fun. We surfed and surfed and surfed until we literally collapsed. WE got so lucky and got their just as a huge swell was hitting. I was only able to surf the first few days and then it got way to big for my liking but it was awesome to watch and I haven’t seen Brandon so giddy in years. It was a great little hideaway that we would either have to hitchhike, take a taxi, or ride on the back of and ice cream truck with horribly annoying music to get to but it was so so worth it. The town was so great and since it is not a major stop for most cruisers it was not touristy at all. It was an old cowboy town with leather shops and carnecrias everywhere. The carnecerias were pretty intense with cow heads, eyes still attached, hanging from the ceiling. YUCK! The people were so nice and it was so great to connect with all the local surfer kids. It is amazing how just having a surfboard in your hand instantly makes you best friends with all the local kids. The local surfers were nice and they had such a great attitude in the water. One morning we were heading in to surf and a little boy was sitting watching the waves and asked if we would rent him a surfboard. After saying no dinero a few times and walking away I saw him sit down and watch all of his friends out surfing. I couldn’t leave so I turned around and rented him the board. On our way back to the boat the little boy ran up to us and with a grin from ear to ear he gave us both a high five. Having just had a great surf session ourselves we all shared the same feeling and it felt so good to have helped him out.
We got lucky with surf but not so lucky with a calm anchorage. The price you pay when you are sailing to surf. So after five days of great waves and rocking back and forth in the huge swell we decided to leave and head for Zihuatanejo. We stopped in Ixtapa first where we spent a night in a marina and washed down the boat and filled up our water tanks. It was only the second night we have spent in a marina since we left and it felt so good to tie up and not have any worries for a night. We are currently in Zihuatanejo and it is crazy. It is Semanna Santa which equates to Mexican Spring Break. Everyone in Mexico takes the week before Easter off and goes to the beach. The entire beach is packed with people and the anchorage is constantly bombarded with jet skiers, parasailers, hobie cats and pangas. It is pretty fun to watch but I cant wait for it to calm down tomorrow. Tomorrow I pick my parents up at the airport. We are so excited to hang out with them for a few day. Zihuatanejo is a great place and it will be a lot of fun to see the town with them. It will also be nice to see some familiar faces!