The Taco Traveler

I realize I've left a lot of gaps in my itinerary over the last couple of weeks, so hopefully this will rectify that. After Barra de Navidad I headed farther south towards Bahia Santiago, which is one of the sub-bays of the larger Manzanillo Bay area. Before getting there, however, I joined Shiloh and Sailfisher for a night at an amazing place called Ensenada Carrizal. I think I've mentioned it elsewhere. Anyway, after some snorkeling the next morning, everyone left for Bahia Santiago. Lou and Lydia (Shiloh) had rented a house on the beach because their kids and some neighbors from home (Steamboat Springs, Colorado) were coming into town for a visit and to help celebrate Lou's 60th birthday.

The house turned out to be the social center of the universe for the next week, as Lou's birthday on the 11th was followed two days later by Al and Yvette's wedding ceremony on the 13th. Lou's party was great, and there were plenty of great people to talk to. Lou and Lydia each had kids before they got married. Lou's son Dusty is an engineer at Boeing. He lives in Lynnwood and works in Everett. Lou's daughter Kari is engaged to Spencer, and they live in New Orleans where he's a chef in one of the most competitive chefing places in the world, I imagine. Lydia's daughter Cara and her husband Lee live in Steamboat Springs, too. Lee's a diver, and we had a good adventure taking my dinghy down the beach closer to a dive shop where I could get a fill and he could rent a couple of tanks for the week. We landed and then launched from that beach in 4-5 foot surf. The landing was as good as it gets, riding the shoulder of a breaker right to the beach where we jumped off in unison and dragged the dinghy up, barely getting wet. Launching was just as fun, and we got good air and nearly vertical on a 5-footer that was almost ready to break.

Everyone went to Carrizal again on the 12th. I shuttled Sterling and Parker (the neighbors) on Chemistry, and Shiloh took everyone else, and we spent a long day diving and lounging around on our boats. I'd thought about staying that night in Carrizal, diving at night and trying to get some lobsters for the wedding, but ended up deciding I needed to work, so I headed back to Santiago where there was a good open wifi connection accessible to me on the bay.

I spent most of the 13th shopping in downtown Santiago with my bike and backpack (again, sober this time and carrying fewer cans of corn than the San Diego drunk over-loaded bike crash). After I returned to the boat I had only a bit of time to get ready for the wedding, which was very informal, but still... I stunk.

The wedding was great, with tons of great food prepared by the housekeeper, and tons of tequila for sampling and taste-testing. The ceremony was very simple, with an officiant who kept it short. I had a few words to say that I'd written after Lou's birthday party after a good conversation with Yvette. And the vows were sincere and excellent and generated some tears, though Al hid his behind his sunglasses. I even had a date, sort of. Yvette had been talking about her friend, Trish, who she really wanted me to meet. And she was great, and I'm sure we would have had a good time talking, getting to know each other... if she hadn't brought a date - a date who was staying with her at the hotel, no less. :-/

So the 14th was recovery day, with a fuel stop at Las Hadas resort (where they filmed the movie "10") and then over to Carrizal again. After I said goodbye (again) to Lou & Lydia and they and their clan motored back to Santiago, I stayed and had the greatest dive of my life. Amazing visibility and sea-life in 30 feet of water, with pinnacles rising 20 feet from the sea floor. It was about an hour-long dive, and I'd only worn the top of my 7mm semi-dry suit, and by the end I was absolutely freezing (the water is exceptionally cold this year - La Nina, they're saying). I took about a 15-gallon shower to warm up. Had a good night alone in the anchorage, and then left yesterday late-morning for here, Melaque.

There, all caught up, I think.

I'm currently in Bahia Santiago, which is basically "North Manzanillo." I stayed in Barra de Navidad one extra night to handle some work stuff - to ensure I had Internet and phone, and then Thursday sailed a quick 5-hour sail to Ensenada Carrizal ("ensenada" means "cove"). I pulled in at about 5pm and anchored in 35 feet of water in good-holding sand. There were only three boats there, and two of them were Shiloh and Sailfisher, and a big new motoryacht. What an absolutely beautiful anchorage! Such great snorkeling / scuba diving. I set out the next morning to dive a bit, but was having trouble with my octopus; there's an air leak in there somewhere that I need to get checked out. It wasn't leaking tons of air, but any air leak is enough to be concerned about. So I just fixed Chemistry's knotmeter wheel (a little wheel on the bottom of the boat that tells a gauge how fast we're going through the water) by cleaning some growth out of it with an old toothbrush, and then put my gear on deck and loaded the motor onto the dinghy to take over to the other side of the cove to the reef.

That was my first time actually using the motor on the boat, and that thing hauls. It's a Yamaha 15hp, and the dinghy is an Aquapro aluminum RIB. Lou from Shiloh was with me when I first took off, and he was probably a bit worried, as I was, too. The thing has some balls, and the steering tension was a bit loose, so I felt like it was difficult to control... had to slow down and take it easy. I've since tightened up the steering tension. Anyway, we went over to the reef and saw some amazing stuff - tons of fish, beautiful coral, some shelves under which I was hoping I'd see some lobsters, but didn't.

Now it's Sunday, and time is flying by and many things have happened. I'll go into detail on the big stuff in another post, but for the little stuff.... Yesterday (Saturday) I took the dinghy down the beach a ways and landed where the main highway starts to curve away from the beach. Landing was fun - the swells are quite a bit larger on that end of the bay, because it's more exposed to the west. So I motored back and forth for about 10 minutes before I finally decided that no beach break was better than another down there, and I just went for it. The waves were fairly small (maybe 4'), but still big enough to flip my 10' dinghy if I did something wrong. So I followed a big wave, riding almost on top of it till it bubbled out and my motor almost grounded, flipped up the motor, hopped out and drug the dinghy up onto dry sand. Success. Then I walked down the road to the Santiago plaza where there was a market going on. I was amazed at how many people were there selling pirate DVD movies of current films. I could have bought Juno, American Gangster... you name it, for $3 per DVD. In some cases, a film would have some other features the pirate thought might go nicely with it. The best combo, I thought, was Scarface, American Gangster and... Rambo. 30 pesos. I didn't even bother looking at the video quality.

The great thing from the market yesterday though, was the fruits and vegetables. Here's my haul:
4 avocados
5 roma tomatos
a handful of sorrano peppers
3 white onions
a bunch of cilantro
5 Gala apples (from Washington State)
3 peaches
3 oranges
Total price: about $4.

The most expensive thing I bought all day was a roasted chicken that an old guy had cooked in his front yard in a big pit. 70 pesos for that.

I got back to the dinghy and all was well - I'd beached it in a pretty good area, but still... ya worry. From the beach those waves looked even bigger. I got the boat a little ways into the water and waited, and finally pushed off when it was deep enough, dropped the motor, and was thankful that it fired right up. A wave was just about to break ahead of me, so I waited for it to become froth and be less steep, and rose over it no problem. Out farther, though, there was another one forming fast. I gunned the motor and went for it, and as I crested the wave I envisioned Tom Hanks when he escapes from the island in Cast Away, and thought "Hang on, Wilson!" We made it without even getting wet (outside of the thigh-deep water I pushed out to). Then I came back to the boat and made some kick-ass guac and some awesome chicken tacos.