Sunny and 82 everyday
Now, sometimes the cages were a bit more crowded then we are used to seeing.
Quetzacoatl is a really, not nice town. A 40 mph wind blows all winter off of the ocean scouring the paint and coating everything with salt. The first hotel (hostel) we stopped at based on trip advisor reviews, was kind of smelly and seemed only half constructed so we moved on and found a Fairfield in that was very nice. We then went to Planeque which was a very nice town before spending the night and heading to the border.
Day #15 (01/21/2016)
Our blogging has been kind of sparse so far, as it is usually late when we sit down to type. So , to fill in a little detail...
The drive down to Baja was long. The miles alone don't do it justice. Coming through the mountains of Baja, the roads are narrow. I think both lanes would make one good one at home. There are no shoulders and frequently sheer drop offs into oblivion. There are also stray cows and horses along and in the road. The many, frequent roadside shrines attest to the danger involved. I would not want to be on these roads at night.
There are several military check points along the route with Mexican army men in fatigues and holding assault rifles checking all cars. They have universally been very friendly and apparently amused by our family trip. We have never felt unsafe. There are also frequent convoys of military trucks with mounted machine guns passing by.
The people we have run into have all seemed very happy and eager to talk.
We have seen many animals, coyote, roadrunner (not together), dolphins, sea lions (which would play noisily around our boat at night and was a bit unsettling until we figured out what it was), puffer fish that would eat from our hands and let us pet them, stingrays swimming in formation (I think those are stingrays in the video above around seconds 25-30), lots of birds. Haven't seen any whales yet, it was too rough to spot them on our sailing week.
The sailing was nice, but again, rough. When we tried to sail north from Isla Partida to Isla San Fransisco, the waves were crashing over our decks and occasionally sheeting over our cabin top and several of our crew were getting ill. The anchoring was easy in sand. We did drag anchor once and had to move to another cove because of the winds. We noticed the dragging while out in the dinghy...the boat was MUCH closer to the rocky cliffs than when we had left. We came back as quickly as we could to reset the anchor which wasn't very fast at all because of our overloaded dinghy and tiny outboard engine. . At night we set an alarm, but don't normally worry about it too much during the day.
The ferry trip was a long day. We had to be at the port 2 hours early because of the car. Loading was a treat. The car had to be backed on, up and down ramps between rows of tightly packed trucks and cars all the while unable to see out the back because we had piled all of our luggage inside for security during the crossing. The ferry ended up leaving about 2 hours late for reasons given at length, in very rapid Spanish. The boat had 8 decks, bottom 4 for vehicles, 3 for passengers and 1 for the bridge. We got a couple of cabins which were very nice. There was a restaurant and a bar where they sang enthusiastic karaoke of Spanish songs in English. We got to the other side of the sea after midnight and had about a half hour drive, through fog, to our hotel. The hotel was the Ibis in Los Mochis. Very nice, clean and secure and only $38 per night. The 18.5 to 1 exchange rate is awesome.
We appreciate all of the emails to check in on us. We will post some current pictures tomorrow.
Day #5 (01/11/2016)
Over the past 2 days, we have driven from Mexicali to La Paz, at the southern tip of the Baja. 850 miles and about 20 hours of actual driving time. We over-nighted in Guerrero Negro, about half way down the baja peninsula. It is hard to describe 850 miles of 99% empty desert. Towns are few and far between. The roads are for the most part better than we expected, but some portions of their highways are still unpaved and the paved roads can be very narrow (ie... very scary, especially for the limited time we let Clare drive). The unpaved sections are very rough. The southern 15 miles of Highway 5 , south of San Filipe was especially rough mainly do to the rocky nature of the dirt road. We saw discarded and mutilated tires every half mile or so. At the end of the road, in the middle of nowhere, was a large business selling new tires! I am so glad we spent extra on commercial grade tires. We are now 2500 miles from Carrollton.
We accidentally missed the immigration office on the border and managed to get all the way to La Paz without being checked in officially. We took care of that little detail when we got into La Paz. Tomorrow, We will leave for a week of sailing. We will be unable to update our blog until the 19th or 20th when we get to Puerto Vallarta.
If you look closely, you can see the smoke trailing from the mountain on the left.
MEXICO
Day #23 (01/30/2016)
Today we left Puerto Vallarta. Apparently, Monday is a national holiday in Mexico and we were unable to extend our stay. We drove about 10 hours from Puerto Vallarta , through Guadalajara to Contepec. The first 200 km were through the mountains and seemed long. The last half was toll roads and was very fast, well worth the money. Tolls are usually about 100 pesos and are collected every 100 km or so. I think we paid about $30-$35 US today, it is well worth the money. We are staying in Hacienda Cantalagua for the next 2-3 days and will visit the butterfly preserve while we are here.
Clare's mom and a group of local volunteers at their English language school.
Days 6-13 (01/12/16-01/19/16
We boarded our rented 41 foot catamaran and sailed north from La Paz. We only sailed about 30 miles as there was a constant strong (16-20 knot) wind dead on our nose and it was pretty rough going. We spent most of the week at a national park Isla Espiritu Santo and Partida. These are two uninhabited islands, no wifi , no cell signal, no place to buy anything or get water all week. Tomorrow we board a ferry to take us to Topolobampo across the sea, then a long drive to Puerto Vallarta the next day. We saw sea lion colonies, had dolphins swimming in our bow wave and a bunch of fat puffer fish living under our boat apparently living off of our table scraps.
Day #26 (02/2/2016)
We are now making our way south to Tikal, Guatemala. We should cross the border into Guatemala this Friday morning.
We have a busy couple of days. Two days ago, We went to The El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Preserve, where the monarch butterflies go over the winter. It was a fairly strenuous hour walk to the top where the butterflies are. The walk was mostly paved, but climbed from about 9500 feet to 11,000 feet. At the top, there are literally millions of monarchs. They coat the trees and completely fill the air.
Today, we went to the Teotihauacan ruins and climbed the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.
We are staying tonight in Puebla, Mexico with a view to a 17,000 foot erupting volcano from our hotel room.
Tomorrow, we go to Quetzacoatl.
And safety may be secondary, but it was a fun zoo.
Day 13-14
We took Baja Ferry across from La Paz to Topolobampo, which is 10 hours north of Puerto Vallarta. The Mazatlan crossing, which we would have much preferred, had been discontinued last week. The ferry was very large with 8 decks holding 4 levels of vehicles and 3 of passengers. It was a 7 hour trip across the Sea of Cortez, which saved us 3 long days of driving. The ferry left an hour and a half late, putting us into Topolobampo after midnight. The drive down the coast today was very nice. It was strange to see the corn ond other crops growing in January. We will be in Puerto Vallarta until, at least, January 30th.
Day 21 (01/21/2016)
We went to the Puerto Vallarta Zoo today. The zoo is a little different than zoos at home. When we arrived, they gave us each a bag of food. To feed the animals with. We fed hippos, giraffes, camels and all kinds of different animals. At the end, they let you hold baby lions and and panthers and monkeys.
Yesterday, We went on a 4-wheeler ride up into the mountains.
Two days ago, I got pulled over for speeding (96 kph in a 60 kph zone) . I was given the option of having the officer take my license and returning the next day with the 400 peso fine, or... if I didn't need a receipt, I could pay right then and not have to come back. Of course we didn't need a receipt, so we paid our fine right then. 400 pesos is about $22.
Monday or Tuesday we are headed to the Monarch Butterfly Preserve aas we make our way to Guatemala.