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.