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March Pics

March's Log

March 1, 2003
This morning we had breakfast and I drank several cups of Coca Tea. Coca tea is supposed to help with acclimating to the high altitudes. We meet our friend Margot and see took us in to the locals market where we purchased some Alpaca wood and yard. Liz and I walked around the square and went back to a good local restaurant and ate lunch - it was wonderful. I had Alpaca and it tasted similar to venison and a little like liver. We got back to the hotel and we were picked up at 2pm and began the "city tour." This tour took us to 4 ruins and three churches and was lead by Juan Carlos Machicado Figueroa. The ruins were great in spite of the Spanish destroying much as they conquered the Incas. We became aware of the differences between the practicing Incas and what the Catholic church wanted from the people.

March 2, 2003
We woke up and sat on the steps of the hotel. We waited and waited for over an hour for the tour company to pick us up. Finally the tour bus showed up and off we headed for the Scared Valley tour. Today is Sunday and this is the best day to see the towns within the Scared Valley as each of them has wonderful markets and fiestas.

March 3, 2003
We were up and ready for the 5:30 call and headed to the train station. We were on the first train, at a backpacker status. We sat opposite a couple from Brazil. They were a doctor and his wife a chemical engineer and were about 55 years old. We had great conversation about economics and social issues in Brazil. We really appreciated their frankness. We also met a fellow from Poland, Martin Witkowski, who with several others owned a Internet advertising company. He was 31 and loved to travel. Even traveling in full tourist mode, we met great souls. It took four hours to wind our way down the Rio Urabamba to Augas Calientes, which was the end of the train line. The train ziz-zagged back and forth down the river. The river was at least a class 5 and a ton of re-circulation waves and undertows. On the shore there were many orchids growing down to the rivers edge, just above the high water mark. The mountains rose at least 3-4 thousand feet above the river.

The bathroom on the train gave me a reason not to walk the center of any railroad tracks. We arrived in Augas Clientes which resembles a town build barely on the side of a mountain that with the right earthquakes it would slide also to the center of the river. The town of course is 100% a tourist town but reminded me of what an Alaskan bush town would look like, except the gold was a tourist. The town is built between very steep cliffs and the raging river. The river was brown with run off and move with over 10 knots. This is largest of the Amazon's tributaries. While investigating the town of Augas Calientes we found several Internet cafes, many, many restaurants and hotels. Ours was at the top of a long street. The street is only 12 feet wide with a cement ditch down the middle for the rain runoff. We check in to our hotel and headed out to explore. This is the low tourist season and many of the businesses were hawking their services. On our way back up the street there sat a nice fellow with a glass a wine. We inquired whether it tasted good and struck up a nice conversation. The fellow was Swiss and we made a date with him to have wine and dinner later this evening. Since our colds were in full bloom we retired and took a brief nap before our rendezvous with Thomas. We bumped into Tim and also invited him to have drinks and dinner. I think we bored Tim, since we talked sail a lot during dinner. We left and prepared for our bus ride to Machu Picchu (MP) at 6:30 in the morning.

March 4, 2003
We caught the first bus up the switchback to MP and we were bummed as it rained a lot. We disembarked and headed through the gates and up the rain soaked stone steps. Immediately we caught a small, fog-hidden peak of MP - wonderful. As we walked higher we pass many people coming down. We were the first group to the mountain by bus there were many people that had walked the Inca trail and were heading back. The Inca trail is about 8 to 16 miles long depending where they get off of the train. These hikers spend either one or two night on the trail with a guide and their lamas, cute tall, very tall sheep.

We walked to the top of MP and waited to take pictures whenever the fog gave us a break, it was about 8 am. We walked the terraces and petted the lamas. The sun seemed to be breaking through. The three of us set out to climb Wauyna Pichu. This took about 2 hours round trip and the trail was very, very, very steep. Liz was a bit concerned but made it to the top. We met a girl studying Incas from South Carolina at the top. Small world? - or too many tourists. We made it back down to the main ruins to catch our guide beginning to explain these ruins. Since the Incas had no written language there are very little known facts and much speculation and interpretation.

At about 2 we caught the bus to AC and went back to our hotel where we talked them into giving us a shower. Even though we paid for hot showers, this morning was damn cold. We got hot showers and really needed these due to our walk and had some lunch and walked to our 3-oclock train. There was reportedly a small landslide and our train was delay for 3.5 hours. We arrived late into Cuzco and rapidly got to our motel and had dinner with Margot.


March 5, 2003
We got up and had a quick breakfast and I went shopping for a locally spun Alpaca rug. Margot brought several to the stall and we took pictures and said our goodbyes. We headed to the airport and of course our plane was four hours late. We were feeling poorly as our taxi fellow, Andres was waiting at the airport for us. We arrived and he grabbed us and took us for a historical ride and he laughed at our Spanish and helped with corrections. We were deposited at a rundown hotel and made our reservation on a luxury bus to Quayaquil.

March 6, 2003
We caught a taxi, and we didn't know it but we were to spend the next 3 hours listening to him sing Frank Sinata songs, visiting his optimoligist to fix my broken glasses and going to his favorite Chirronies restaurant. Chirronies is pork boiled in oil and tastes great. Our taxi driver ordered something else and we tried it. It was the veins of the pig stuffed with blood and other stuff. Andres picked us up at the motel and headed to the bus station, we said our goodbyes and boarded our 24 hours bus to Guayaquil.

March 7, 2003
The bus arrived in Quayaquil and we were lost, as the Lonely Planet didn't have the entire town on the map. This is the largest city in Ecuador, about 2.1 million peoples. We eventually got to the city center and found a hotel and decided to stay two nights. The town is great and is on very large bay. A ton of mangrove vegetation floats up and down with the tide. They have a up to date malecon and hundreds for people hang out and watch the scenery. We were very impressed. Liz and I had wanted to eat at an Italian restaurant but with our Spanish we didn't realize that they close early. We just walk around and decide to have a beer. Next to us we met a lady that spoke a bit of English and she was waiting for her husband. The owner and >>>>> talked us in to the bar's chicken dinner. In the next three hours we chatted with >>>> and her husband an watch the live entertainment, very similar to "star search." We had a wonderful night and hopefully we'll keep in touch with >>>>>>>.

March 8, 2003
We explored the city and the museums and churches. We hung out on the malecon and sipped wine. We found a movie theater and watched Clint Eastwood's latest movie and had dinner. It was a great day

March 9, 2003
We headed to the bus station and caught the next bus to Banos. The bus was old but we made it and finally retired to our boat. The boat was in great shape and Sea Host and another boat were heading off the next day for traveling. We heard Abraxas was anchored outside of the bar and would be coming in tomorrow. We hadn't seen Carl and Robin since Costa Rica.

March 10, 2003
We motored over to Abraxas as soon as they anchored and got settled away. We took them into town just as Satori had done for us. We headed to the Chinese diner and had a great lunch and refreshed our traveling with each other. Later in the day we continued to get Slainte ready for the single day to Puerto Lucia Yacht Club where we are hauling out to paint the bottom.

March 11, 2003
I picked up Polo and we did many odd jobs, sanding the teak, scrubbing the hull and eventually took him back to shore about 3pm. So we get 5.5 hours of work for $5 dallors. We feed him very well and he has opened up a lot since the first time he worked on the boat. We had a nice dinner on board and hit the hay early.

March 12, 2003
I picked up Polo but it was raining very hard. There would be no sanding today and I needed to find some opportunities for Polo. He cleaned our chain, cleaned the plastic covering over the portholes and made the cockpit shine. We headed in with Abraxas to start our market shopping. Thursday is the first day of the vegetable market and there is a flurry of people shopping, squeezing and visiting all of the stalls. We filled our pack and headed back to the boat to prepare lunch for Polo and stow the food. We had a nice lunch and I printed out a recommendation letter for Polo and some pictures. Polo started work with us and initially was uneasy of us. Today we have created a good friendship and I will miss him.


March 14, 2003
Liz and I completed the last of on-shore tasks including Interneting. We returned to the boat a 11:30 and the bar pilot came on board at 12:05 and we were up anchored and under water at 12:15. That is a dam quick exit. I spent 30 minutes trying to clean the anchor chain and just at 1:00 pm we paid the pilot for the bar crossing, he caught his ride ashore and we were off to La Libertad.s

March 15, 2003
We were lucky and as we sailed in to La Libertad Iron Lady hailed us. Within an hour we were hauled out of the water and in the metal braces on the hard. We had heard that the Puerto Lucia Yacht Club was unfriendly. We were treated very well and then hauled out went We negotiated with George Stuart, the yard labor master, and three of his men began to scrape and sand the bottom. The bottom was not that bad and the barnacle grow and slime was much less that I thought. I had scraped the bottom and prop in Bahia but the visibility was less than 8 inches so I was uncertain of the status.

March 16, 2003
We spent all day working on the bottom alone with two of George's workers. The sun is still hot in spirit of 100% cloud cover. Except for food breaks the day were long and Liz and I really appreciated the hot showers.

March 17, 2003
We are waking up after a tough night of fighting bugs and the local cats walked up the 10-foot ladder and ate our bread. We are heading to the port captain and waiting for a call from George who is checking on whether our bottom primer paint is the correct kind.

March 18, 2003
Today was another long workday. The epoxy that was applied last night had several flaws, and we need to rework and re-sand our work. Later in the day Charlie our mate that will be crew for Moonshadow arrived. Liz, Charlie and I wash, sanded and did other small jobs. About 7pm Liz and I after our showers (we were both blue, the color of the bottom paint, and with a hard brush remove most of the tint) headed to a shopping mall where we took advantage of a food mart and watched "Chicago." English with Spanish subtitles. All in all and good day.

March 19, 2003
The bottom sanding is finished and the primer epoxy is being applied. Two coats of baby diarrhea-yellow is now the color of our bottom. We have finished most of the major work and now I have paid $30 per coat for George's crew to paint. This is a splurge financially but they are using all of their equipment, and they really know how to work with this new primer, paint and epoxy in this heat.

March 20, 2003
Another workday; varnishing, sanding and checking the rigging. Showers were great and Liz and I slipped off to the theater and watched Gangs of New York with Spanish subtitles. Liz thinks there was much to much blood and guts and too little development of the history. Ah Hollywood.

March 21, 2003
Today was the big workday; this was Charlie's first day staying all night. We did two coats of varnish/Cetal and cleaned the boat top. We still have too much shit tied on the top of the boat, but she is looking pretty sweet and shipshape. We got all cleaned up and headed to a Spanish restaurant in Salinas. In the final count there were 18 of us sitting around a very long rectangle table. Of course we noticed that they did not handle that many meal and so three dinners arrived 40 minutes after all of us. It was a nice dinner and we got to meet the two sisters that own a hostel in a small town 20 miles north of La Libertad. Dede and Maria were great and were having a hard time saying goodbye to Charlie. Charlie had been staying at the hostel for 2 month and doing work for them. Dede and Maria are from Quebec and started a bar and then a hostel 3 years ago. They are 22 and 26 years old - very adventurous ladies, and beautiful as well.

March 22, 2003
I woke up early and sat on the breakwater and read the last parts of "John Grisham's The Summons. Fair book but slow ending. As the sun came up I started to shine the starboard side and after a close inspection I decided not to do the port side, as I couldn't see any difference except that my neck and arms were tired. About 8:30 we told the crane operator we would like to launch at 9:30. Liz and I took off, Liz to town for some extra money and I to the showers. We were popped into the water and next I was tied to the fuel dock. There is a large surge in the breakwater lagoon. We were finished fueling when I untied the forward spring line and the boat nearly hit the dock on it stern. Liz reacted quickly and got the boat in forward and saved us from squashing our windvane. We motor out of the breakwater and headed to the Galapagos Island. For the next 13 hours we motored sailed and looked forward to a great passage of 600 miles.

March 23, 2003
I had a great sleep for underway. With 3 on board I got 6-7 hours of sleep in spite of my insect bites. We motored for the past 20 hours with a favorable current and will make over 160 miles in a 24 hours. The only mistake was my own as I entered the wrong latitude in the GPS. The default on the GPS puts in North and we are in the southern hemisphere. Oops, since we are close to the equator it wasn't a huge booboo and probably the course of 295 magnetic gave us a calmer ride than the right course of 265 mag. With the favorable current we are moving quite fast - 7 knots. Since we have a clean-new bottom and a clean prop this is good. We hope to slow down and raise the sail since the wind has clocked.
 

March 24th 2003

It is early in the morning and the sea and wind have been great.  We are sailing 6 knots on a beam reach in 9-12 knots of wind.  We have ¾ of a knot of current and so we are nearly doing 7 knots over ground.  The moon hasn't risen and the stars are extremely bright, even with the lights of the radar and the GPS in the cockpit.  Slainte is outstanding!

 March 25th 2003

Today as yesterday was perfect - we sailed all day toward our target.  The food was great and I made cinnamon rolls from scratch.  Liz and Charlie loved them.  Charlie set up his hammock from the staysail stay to the lower shrouds.  Boy did he rock and roll.  I tried it and after 10 minutes I left as I didn't was to be rocketed into the deep blue waters.

 March 26th, 2003

It is a little after four and we jibbed 2 hours ago.  We are about 10 miles from San Cristobal Island where Moonshadow is.  Liz is at the helm and Charlie is asleep.  I am heading for another cinnamon roll.  We are still sailing but against the current and this is good as we don't want to head into Wreck Bay until it is light.  We arrived at 7 am and motored past Moonshadow and found a place to anchor.  We anchored between a Swiss yacht next to us and a German boat we had met in the Las Perlas islands of Panama, both wore no clothes - one of the boats should have been banned from that.  Oh well.  We had a visit from Moonshadow and eventually headed off to dinner on shore.  Charlie jumped ship and moved aboard Moonshadow. 

 March 27th 2003

Liz and I headed in to check in with the immigration and the port captain.  The port captain indicated he'd come to the boat and do the paperwork and inspection.  We refilled our beer bottles and headed back to the boat waiting for the port captain.  About 2:30 he arrived and came aboard with a Navy fellow.  We finished our paperwork and then the Navy fellow went through many of our lockers.  The port captain asked if we had "too much alchol and food on board."   Hummmmm - of course not.  Then he asked for a present - I am burning a CD for him and the Navy fellow and they seemed pleased.

 March 28, 2003

We work up early and were picked up by the panga.  We joined Moonshadow, Neva and Vesper.  We are heading off to see the Giant Land Tortoises, sea turtles, marine iguanas and many birds including frigates, red and blue-footed boobies and tropicbirds.  We saw them all and then swam with seals, rays and sharks.  The day started after a 2-hour panga ride and we went ashore between the sea turtles nests.  We walked about 2.5 miles up and back from several volcanic craters.  About half way we began seeing the land tortoises.  Some had numbers painted on their shells for identification.  The tortoises weight between 100 to 300 pounds.  These animals exist with very little water, usually only drinking once a year and storing the precious fluid in a sac in their breast plate.  The lifespan is about 200 years.  We reloaded the panga and headed to a small cove where we swam with a family of seals.  Steve on Moonshadow has a headache and has turned gray.  We continue around the island and snorkel in two other covers.  We hang out with four mother seals as they nurse their young and marine iguanas heating in the sun and leaving great track in the sand.  We head off to a rock island Leon Dormido (Spanish for Sleeping Lion, also know as Kicker Rock, as the island looks like a gigantic Nike) observing many nesting birds, the most spectacular was the red breasted great frigates and the pure white Tropicbirds with their 2 foot tail feathers.  After touring this 300 foot island four of us hoped into the water and spent an hours swimming along the steep cliffs.  The water grew to over a 1000 feet deep with in 40 feet for the island and was very clear.  The walls were covered with huge barnacles, red, yellow, green and brown sponges and many fish.  Between two cliffs we swam with sharks and large rays that we could touch.  We got back on the boat and headed to several islands covered with sea lions and marine iguanas.  We return back to the Slainte at 6pm - a long day, but very wonderful.  Allan had bought some lomo fino in Puerto Lucia, which is the closest to tenderloins you can come to.  It is a long skinny filete of meat.  I sliced 3 medallions, let them stand for a hour with garlic, pepper, a tablespoon of red wine and balsamic vinegar and sauted them.  The best beef we have had for a very long time.

 March 29, 2003

A long day.  We woke up at 5:40 because I set the alarm an hour early.  At 6:30 we started the day and waited for Moonshadow to pick us up so we'd be at the fresh market early.  We purchased the fresh items, and we needed to negotiate, as everyone wanted a $1.  So they'd price say a cucumber, or a bag of limes - $1.  But all in all, when you think about being in the Galapagos islands and everything that they can't grow or make here has to come from the mainland.  The choice of vegetables were tomatoes, green peppers, onions, carrots, potatoes, soft zucchini, limes, bananas, plantains, pumpkin, soft beets, papaya, passion fruit and some roots we could not identify. Later in the day, I emptied 35 gallons of fuel into our tanks and joined Moonshadow with their empty jugs.  We both headed to the beach and met the taxi that pick Charlie and Steven up and filled the jugs with $1.03 a gallon diesel.  That is the second cheapest diesel since we started - the cheapest was in Newport, Oregon.

 March 30, 2003

This morning we have nothing planned and se we are taking it easy.  Another cruiser told us that our Galapagos Island permit is ready.  We are surprised, as we haven't heard from the man trying to secure the permit for 5 days.  The permit will allow us to visit four islands.  The cost is $50 dollars that is really a bribe, but the normal way to obtain it is too visit Quito and apply for it.  So maybe the $50 is cheaper in the long run.  We delivered our sewing machine to Moonshadow and they are sewing together their mainsail that split into on their way from Panama.  I have been getting our pictures ready to mail to Tom our Webmaster and we have taken it easy today.

 March 31, 2003

Today, we took a walk on the island to the Interpretive Center.  It was very interesting.  Earlier this morning Allan went ashore to pick up our cruising permit for the other islands and with the New Moon we are having, the swells are unusually large.  It was a very wet landing.  Also, the motion in the boat with the swell coming into the harbor is not very comfortable, but it should only last another day or two.  After the interpretive center we had a beer with Moonshadow and headed back to the boat for another wet take-off. Allan and I spent the evening remembering our time cruising and feel that we are enjoying it much more now that our first year.