Huatulco (Marina Chahue)

     We left Chiapas on Friday, the 11th of December around 10:00.  There were several other boats waiting for the Tehuantepec to give the window of opportunity for a safe crossing.  There had been a couple of week wait for the opportunity for boats going north and south.  Friday was the day.

   

     The starter battery on the boat was low or something because the boat wouldn’t start, so we plugged back in to shore power and charged it.  The Velvet Sky started up, we unplugged, untied, and shoved off the dock at 10:45.  Other than the batter being low there were no other issues.  There was not enough wind to start out sailing so we motored for several hours.  Secretly I was hoping to motor the entire passage.  If the Tehuantepec could (and has been known to) act up without warning, I did not want to be caught with the sails up and the battery dead.  We did motor the entire way.  We were half way across around 07:30 on the 12th, still nothing happening out there.  I had really been hoping for a grand experience of glass-like seas and loads of sea life.  We had none of it.  The passage was pretty dull other than a brief showing of dolphins at dawn and dusk.

     Marshall took shift after me.  He had the 23:00-02:00 shift which means I had just fallen asleep when ***BOOM!***   something hit the ship!  All the sleeping crew was up and out in the cockpit within seconds.  “What the heck was THAT?”  We didn’t see anything in our wake and Marshall had spotted nothing before hand.  We checked the bilge (all clear) then heard this growling sound coming from the front of he boat outside.  This was not good.  Captain Scott called it out right off, “Sounds like our bobstay is broken.”  He and Marshall took flashlights out to the bow, it was 00:24 and a moonless night.  Sure enough. It was the bobstay and we still had 6-7 hours to go before we reached our destination.  The boat, she was not happy, she sounded like a momma lion disciplining her toddler cub.  She growled steady for the remainder of the tour.  This made it near impossible for any of us to sleep.  So, we kept each other company in the cockpit until 07:45 when we arrived at Marina Chahue (Chaw-way) in Huatulco (Who-aw-tool-co) Mexico.  We tied up, washed the boat off, covered the main, put up the shade covers, looked at the broken bobstay, then fell asleep until lunch time. 

     There are not any rigging companies in this area, so, Mastermind, Captain Scott devised a temporary fix to the bobstay until we get to Nueva Vallarta where we can have the proper stay replaced.  

     We thought we might be heading out and north from Huatulco on Wednesday the 16th, however when we went to start the boat….you guessed it…..the battery was dead.  We had an electrical issue.  It turned out to be corrosion……. easy fix.  Well, it was an easy fix after Scott hauled the battery to a local Auto zone and had it tested then brought it someplace else and had it fully charged then back to the boat and found the corrosion before reinstalling.  The Velvet Sky fires right up, just like new.  

      Oh! Before that…..while out in the middle of the Tehuantepec we realized we had no radar.  An electrical gremlin. Marshall took a look at the connections and discovered the radar connector was not plugged in all the way, another easy fix. Next issue, the lights were flickering and the voltage meters were not in sync, all three had different readings.  Oh shit! I love having electricity, I love using electricity, I bow to the inventors and the scientist who give us the gift of electricity.  If I had to create electricity from scratch, I would be back living completely primitive because it is so so far over my head.  Thank goodness for the men on this boat…..they had the panel to the switches opened up, all the battery compartments exposed, the multi meter going from one connection to the next.  While down in the lazarette they noticed the wiring to the icebox had corrosion and some bad connections.  Marshall had that all repaired and ship shape in less than two hours. 

     Scott and Marshall made the whole exorcism of the electrical gremlin look like a simple game of shoots and ladders….up the ladder to the cockpit back down into the living area….in just a few hours they had all electrical systems up and running.  All three meters read the same 12.8 v.  

     Last night we went to the cinema and watched the new Star Wars.  It was interesting because it was opening day and I would say there were maybe 30 people in the theater.  We were the only Gringos.  We decided that the rest of the attendees were there by school assignment.  Maybe they were taking an english class and it was required to watch a movie spoken in english with spanish subtitles.  It was a great time!  

     We fueled up this morning (December 18, 2015) using 82 liters to top off the tank and plan on leaving Huatulco Monday morning.  It is likely we spend the remainder of our time here across the street at a hotel that charges us 50 pesos to use the pool and internet.

Adios Chiapas.....on to Huatulco (Marina Chahue)

Enrique and Guermo (Memo), El Heffe's De La Marina Chiapas
(The Bosses of the Marina)
These are great guys who would do anything for anyone, although they always reserve the right to do it "Mañana."
They have taught us to take it easy....enjoy the moment....do it tomorrow.

Shrimp tacos underway....better than street tacos?  Possible.

The Velvet Sky got Tehuantepec-ed! She came away with a broken bobstay.   She is a tough cookie!
And Scott will make the repair...

As Memo would say, "Mañana." Today he is going to cool off and kick it by the pool at the Hotel across the street from
Marina Chahue.

And Grant is making his initiation into the tropical ocean.....90 degree, salty sea....
Life is AWESOME!

This is mañana and the temporary fix is a success ...... with a Crescent wrench (and a brilliant mind)
a man can conquer the trials and tribulations of the Tehuantepec....

This will hold until we get to Nueva Vallerta (tentative date, January 3rd, 2016)

Road Trip From Chiapas to Guatemala

      I can’t apologize for the lack of availability of the internet, since it is beyond my control.  Usually I post while sitting in the vicinity of wifi.  I haven’t really have a convenient place to do any posting, and the internet has been pretty sketchy, so I have just put it off.  This is where my apologies come in.  Since I have procrastinated there are a lot of days, activities, and details that are going to be askew or left out.  There is this really cool thing called “text edit,” it is an application that allows me to journal now and copy and paste onto the blog later.  It is a lovely tool and I am encouraging myself to use it more often so that I can journal while my thoughts are fresh.  

     We got to Marina Chiapas and spent a couple of days in the town of Tapachula where we ate A LOT, shopped a little, and purchased a sim card for the telephone.  We had ordered some new zinc for the prop shaft and had to wait for them to come in.  This would take a week or so, so we decided to take a little side trip into Guatemala.  Grant would stay at the marina and become more familiar with the Velvet Sky and tend to the business of polishing her stainless.  We left on a Thursday afternoon, it was December 3rd.  We loaded into the a van with five of us.  Paul and Judy from a boat named Grace, Marshall, and Scott and I.  It was a short 4 trip to Quetzaltenango, AKA Xela.  It is a pleasant little town, we had arrived just in time to drop our things at the hotel and walk downtown to find dinner.  We had dinner that consisted of the local dish of meat and sauce called “pepino.”  The sauce is very popular and has a couple of different variations.  We were back in our hotel by 7:30 to meet with our tour guide, Gabby.  We made arrangements to leave Xela after breakfast and head toward Antigua.  We stayed in Antigua a total of 3 days.  We saw many museums, including a jade museum, and archeological museum of Mayan artifacts. 

     On our second day in Antigua we went on a coffee tour.  We met one of the 35 families that share in the growth and production of the coffee brand "De La Gente" (meaning "Of The People").  We walked through the coffee plantation, then to the home of Cecilia and Armando to roast, grind, cook and drink a cup of the freshest coffee I may ever drink.  While we were exploring the plantation we came across a fruit, new to us, called jocote.  We also enjoyed some of the oranges that had fallen from the trees nearby. We had the pleasure of viewing a volcanic eruption while on the coffee tour as well.  Actually it was Scott who spotted the big clouds of smoke being emitted from the mountain top.  He called us away from the ripening coffee beans to enjoy the three eruption show.  

     The next day we went into Guatemala city and went to a couple of different museums, drove through downtown, had lunch at “Pollo Comprero,” a local version of “KFC,” we do not recommend it.  We ended back in Antigua at our hotel (Hotel Lucia), around four o’clock and were in desperate need of a nap before we were to walk downtown to join in on the “Quema De Diablo,” festival.  This is a celebration that starts off the Christmas season for Guatemalans.  It is translated to “The Burning of the Devil.”  It is a customary ritual that is performed on December 7th every year.  It is meant to symbolize cleaning out the trash, negativity, the years bad memories, unwanted thoughts, etc.  once the “devil” has been burned, the house is now clean to welcome the celebrations of Christ. 

     While napping, the bed started shaking, slowly at first, then it felt a little rumbly.  I knew we were experiencing an earthquake.  This was Scott’s first ever earthquake.  Later we found out it read 5.1 on the Richter Scale.  

     The next day, we started out after breakfast, and headed back to Quetzaltenango.  We were just beginning this leg of this journey when we heard there was a nationwide highway strike.  The medical staff, who were striking for more medicine and better medical facilities, would be blocking the major highways until they got their demands met.  Would we be getting back to Chiapas anytime soon? This was the question we all had.  And if not, by van via highway, how?  As it turns out, the strikers take a lunch break and they all clear the high way at the same time, leaving an exit route for a couple of hours. Funny! We made our break and made it Xela with time to walk around and enjoy the quaint little town for more than half a day.  We needed to get up and out early enough to beat the strike the next day, it started back up at 8 am.  We left at 6 am and made it to Chiapas by 10 am with no issues.  Who’s to say the driver that was heading back to Xela didn’t get caught up in the strike.   And we never did follow up to see if the medical demands were met.  I hope so.

A small peak at the banana orchards that surrounds both sides of the highway for at least five miles.

If you don't have a visa or a passport you can raft or swim across the boarder....good luck.

Follow that motorcycle....

There were trucks lined up for miles waiting inspection to cross the boarder....we could see no end.  They must plan on a 24 hour lay over.

The cemetery was the most colorful part of this small town in Guatemala.

Who is that guy sitting next to me?   The one with the gray hair?
Notice we are wearing warmer clothes....we were at 10,000 feet elevation....70 degrees felt cooooold!

I am looking for design features for my house (if I ever live in a house again).  This will be  the knob for my front door.

This graffiti was completed on 12-04-2015....it took one and a half hours.

Our hotel in Quetzaltenango.

Banana, cream, raisins, and chocolate.....local dessert of Antigua.

This is what you get when request a room for three.

Bunking' it!

Morning coffee at a french cafe.

Raw coffee beans.

Raw coffee beans being dried on the roof top.

Scott trying out the coffee grinding apparatus.

This is Cecilia....co-owner of De La Gente Coffee of Antigua.  She is carrying her 7th child.

Eruption number 1.

Separating the bad beans from the good.

Marshall knows a good bean when he sees it.

Scott going to school on roasting beans to perfection.

Sometimes it takes two....

A picture of Cecilia and Armando's expanding business.....you can buy their coffee online "De La Gente Coffee"

They are in it for real.....

Still roasting

Grinding the perfectly roasted coffee beans.

A small sample of farming on the hillsides.....a must see!

Who could resist buying something.....it was "For the baby."

Such a common photo.

This is called a "Chicken Bus," they are unbelievably elaborate!

Seven yards of hand woven material.......

Will make ONE of these traditional wear Guatemalan skirts.

Traditional wear for men (yes...the men really are this short, and yes....they really do wear skirts.)

At the market

A photo of the exact statue we watched go up in flames on December 7th.

Chiapas in December

     We arrived in Chiapas on Monday, November 20th in the afternoon.  It was a 46 hour passage.  It started our a bit rough we put the mainsail up and immediately blasted with two huge waves.  The hatches were open so the inside of the boat got doused with a good bit of salt water (man I hate that!).  The cock pit got  a good dousing as well so we started out pretty sticky and sweaty.   We got tossed around enough that I blew chunks in the galley sink.  Grant, who is new to the ocean experience got a little green around the gills but managed to hold his own.  After a good five hours of rough seas things began to calm and smooth out.  The remaining of the trip was uneventful, not even much sea life to be seen.

     December 1, we made our rounds to customs, immigration, and port captain, where we got all the official checking in done.  We are cleared to wander Mexico as we please.  Our first meal was here at the marina....I love Mexican food!  It is even more flavorful after a week of eating Salvadorian food which is good, however, can be fairly described as spice-less and bland. 

     On the 2nd of December we took a collectivo ride into Tapachula for lunch and a little exploring.  We were hoping to catch a movie.  We all got excited when Star was one of the featured movies on the board.  Later we found out it won't show until December 17th. We opted out of the movie idea since all shows were dubbed in Spanish with no subtitles.  We are true gringos.  We did find street tacos that were nothing like you get in the states.  Our drinks came in plastic bags tied at the top with a straw stuck inside and for extra support placed in a plastic picture.  I guess I am not the only one who can come up with innovative was to not have to wash dishes.  

     Bucket, for you, we took Woody along on this day trip.  He had a great time flopping around on the back of my pack.

     Now we are waiting for a window to cross the  Tehuannapec (I need to check the spelling on this one).  Right now it looks like we might be here until next Wednesday and maybe even later.  There are many many boats waiting to cross both north and south.  We will all be crossing at the same time. It seems the Tehuannapec has been unsettled for quite some time.   We will probably be doing some inland travel (maybe Guatemala)while we wait for the window.  We will also have the boat hauled out again to touch up the bottom paint and replace the zinc.  

     Love to All

     

Tied up at the dock, freshly showered, ready to enjoy a "make our tongues happy" meal.  

Woody joins on in on the days adventure.

He found some friends of his own.

Lunch time.

A plate covered in a plastic bag means no dishwashing.

Grilled green onions add a sweet addition to the plate.

Drinking in style, with style

La Musica makes the day complete.