Back to the Rio and Out

The trip back to Canada was a little less strenuous than our trip to Chile and Peru but we figure we slept in as many different beds during our trip home, as we had so many of our friends and family opening their arms and homes to us for a fun but short visit. Cheryl figures that she slept in over 10 beds, including her trip to Edmonton. Karen fell behind by at least 1 bed! It truly was great to catch up with everyone.
We also did the Doctor ‘thing’ and found that we are aging well!
So back to the boat. We arrived back with 4 bags each around 50 pounds and our backpacks as carry on. The marina picked us up and dropped us by the boat so it was easier to put the bags on board. HOME!!
We didn’t unpack as there was work to be done in the V-birth. We had had a leaky new fibreglass water tank and had bought this new product called Brew Coat, a rubberized paint to seal it (it was like painting with candy floss). Once it was painted we had to wait the 7 days for full cure, then we could seal things up and Cheryl emptied the bags and found places to hide all our new treasures. Probably never to be found again. It is always like Christmas when you open the bags as you never remember all the treasures that you brought back. Karen is still wondering what all we brought back. It will be a surprise for us both as Cheryl probably doesn’t remember where she put it.
We had had other things shipped in, which Jonsey on Niki Wiki took care of getting and kept on their boat (thank you Jonsey!) So now we have to install all our new goodies that we bought. A new radio with MMSI and AIS, which meant running new wires, what fun. You have to be a small malleable monkey to install new things on an old boat. We opened the Xantrex battery charger and we found that we needed items we couldn’t get here to install it. Luckily another cruiser had friends coming down and could bring us some parts. Cruiser guests are wonderful, after all GUESTS really means: Get Urgent Essentials Sent To Sailors. After the paint has been applied everywhere down below include some in Cheryl’s hair and the floor with new coats of non-skid and the new baby Bruce anchor for the dinghy has been stored as have the dozen fuel filters which are a necessity for every boater! The boat almost looks liveable.
No more leaky hatches as we have replaced all the gaskets and Karen has been sewing up a storm, mostly fixing things, but also building a hanging closet and a cover for the 4 HP outboard engine. Karen and Lynn (High States) also did some repairs to the UV on the head sail.
Then we hauled out. As we approached the yard we radioed and called on the phone, but no one answered! We saw the guys on the dock and drove right into the slings. For the first time the lifts scales works and so we know our weight, 24,000 pounds! With an empty diesel and low water tanks and very little wine on board! Oops, that is a lot more than we thought. Once we were chocked and power washed we inspected the bottom. We had blisters, but only in the bottom paint. So they had to do some extra poking and sanding and they raised our boot stipe another 2 inches! The first time they painted the boot strip they used the wrong colour paint and it was runny, but they fixed all the next day and it is perfect. While the boys were working below we replaced the fresh water hose for the aft head, Cheryl sanded the prop to 1500 grit, so it was very shiny! (Cheryl got into a contest with another boat called At Last, to see who had the shiniest prop. I think that Cheryl won, but credit to Mike on At Last as he has two props! By the way, sanding the prop seems to be the only way to keep barnacles and ick off it.) We also put 6 layers of varnish on the stairs, handrails, drawer fronts and oven handle. And 4 layers of varnish on the table. So we sparkle!
We launched without paying! As the yard did not have our bill ready and was not concerned if we didn’t pay right away. Only in the Rio! The boat yard work was amazing, we would highly recommended Abel’s for their professionalism and workmanship. We stopped at the fuel dock to fill up the new now non-leaky diesel tank. A bit of a problem as the inspection port was not closed, but Cheryl caught any spills in the diapers and we are fine. Back to the dock!
Then we went off to Guatemala City with 6 other boats to go to the Kite festival on the day of the dead. We overnighted in Guatemala City at the Biltmore, we stayed in one of the newly renovated rooms, which are nice. But to have a warm shower in the morning it was necessary to phone the front desk and have the hot water turned on. The next day we were off to Sumpango just 45 minutes from Guatemala City for the Kite festival. The kites were amazing, up to 13 metres across and they were works of art. The kites were on bamboo supports, the front a collage made of tissue paper telling the stories of the village all supported by a plastic backing. Starting at 4pm they flew them, which was also amazing. Most got up for a short bit, then came crashing down. But a few were up and stayed up. (The next day in Antigua we met a tourist who was at the kite festival and broke his arm when he was hit by a falling kite.) Cheryl , Kathy and Tom from Jumbie had time to fly their own kite meanwhile Karen got to entertain kids with her bubbles she bought, to be kids again all was good. Well, all was good until the corn field ate Cheryl’s kite! Then back to the city.
We left the next morning for Antigua with Tom and Kathy on Jumbie. We walked around the city visiting various shops, saw some amazing art work and ate well! Kathy and Cheryl rearranged the furniture at the hotel so that we had a table looking out at the volcano while we had our wine and nibbles. We climbed the hill to the cross overlooking the city and boy was it a great view. We had breakfast at the monastery and toured it the next day. It really is an amazing ruin. One thing they have done at the monastery that is really impressive is that they had modern art from around the world done and set beside similar themed works of the Mayans. Very interesting.
Then we went to Lake Atitlan. In a word, beautiful! Or two works, beautiful and peaceful. We stayed in a Hotel called Casa Lola, it turned out to be 100Q a night ($13US) with a lovely view of the Lake. We sat on the veranda each night with a bottle of wine and enjoyed the amazing view. We walked to the next town, San Jaun, which was very quiet. Many of the local ladies still follow the old ways of making dyes out of plants and still make the beautiful coloured clothes that they wear and sell. We took a launcha to San Marco to see what is there, the answer is not much, unless you are into yoga or massage, we walked the town in about 3 minutes and that was at a slow pace. We did have an excellent conversation and Mojito with the owner of one resort. He was able to fill us in on what is happening to the lake. The water level has risen net 4 metres last year and another metre this year. There is no natural egress from the lake, it empties by evaporation and they have been having too much rain. So many houses and businesses are literally underwater. We went to Santiago, the largest city on the lake and we have to say that it is very touristy. We overheard a guide pointing out were the water level was in 1950, which was another 10 meters above todays level. Which means a lot more business could lose their land! Lastly we went to Chichicastanegro, a town known for its Sunday market. While there was a lot for sale we didn’t buy much. It was interesting to see all the ‘hand made’ stuff with not only Guatemala printed on it but Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador. Did we take a wrong turn somewhere….we thought we are still in Guatemala, so it appears you don’t have to leave one country to get the lastest tourist trinkets from another.
Back to the boat to see if we can get done what needs to be done before we leave the river. The SSB we ordered came in, in about 2 ½ weeks, which is amazingly fast. We took this as a sign the we should cast off and make the high tide. Cheryl wanted to clean the anchor locker, good thing, as we found that the ‘I’ beam that supports the forestay was VERY badly rusted. Karen called Abel’s and they would have a place for us the next day. They replaced the ‘I’ beam with a much heavier one and then again it was back to Mario’s. A last taco night, a last pot luck, and then good byes to some truly amazing people at Mario’s. We will see many of the cruisers again, but as we are heading south we may not see the staff again. This is the hard part of cruising.
We crossed on the high tide on the 22nd of November, Enchantment (Michelle and Vern) went first as they only draw 5 ½ feet. Michelle quietly called the depths they were seeing, her voice didn’t even go up when they saw 6 feet. (We draw 6 feet 1 inch or so and have new bottom paint!) Our path was a little further south and we didn’t see less than 9 inches under our bottom, so the paint stayed were it should be! High States (Lynn and Randy) crossed last. We anchored for the night at Tres Puntas and had a great sleep. Lynn radioed us all that it was time to leave, at 9 a.m. the 3 of us where off to Roatan. While we could have hoped for more wind, we had to settle for motoring all the way (we did put sails up for a couple of hours, but only as an assist or least to see if they really work). We are always happy to make east by motoring! We had to slow down after midnight or we would have been in too early and we really wanted the light and we had to wait until the 2 cruise ship got out of our way, we could smell the bacon and the coffee as the cruise ships made their way into Roatan. So by 7:30 a.m. we had all picked up our mooring balls and by 8 a.m. we were napping!

Early morning wine tour…. wine not??

We left Nasca at 7:30 a.m. for a 2 hours ride on a local bus to the wine region of Peru, Ica. We dumped our bags at Cruz de Sur in Inca as we were taking the 2:30 bus to Lima that day. After negotiating with a cab drive we were off in search of a winery or 2. First stop Tacama, we have been enjoying their wines while we were in Peru. The winery was a beautiful restored monastery where we got to try some new wines and of course the famous Pisco. Then off again; this time it was the cab driver choice for a winery and he took us to an artisanal Pisco winery, it was a great choice. We learned how Pisco was originally made plus this particular winery still stomps it grapes by foot..yup by feet power. Back to the bus station and a quick lunch and off we went on our 5 hour bus ride to Lima.
We stayed once again in a Pirwa hostel in Miraflores a suburb of Lima. First day we decided to go to downtown Lima and take a free walking tour of the historic center. Free really means they work for tips. The tour was 90 minutes long and gave us tidbits about Lima’s historical centre and of course more info about the Inkas. Next day we hiked around Miraflores and went for a relatively expensive lunch on the water front at La Rosa Nautica. (We found out afterwards that this is one of their premier restaurants.) As we were sitting there watch the surfers and the waves coming in we felt a slight movement in the restaurant thinking it was just the waves hitting the pillions we continued on with our appetizer seafood lunch. Later that day we learned that we had experience a little earthquake.
We woke up to a beautiful sunny day which is not normal for Lima this time of the year and took a bus tour around Miraflores and just enjoyed the last day in Lima/Miraflores before our flight back to Canada the next day. We had planned to do some shopping for final souvenirs but Lima was at least twice as expensive as anywhere else and at the airport 5 times more.
Next stop Canada via San Salvador El Salvador then Toronto. While we left Lima 30 minutes late (and we only had 50 minutes to connect in El Salvador) we had no problems and arrived early in Toronto. Karen’s brother Bruce was waiting for us at the airport and whisked us off to Niagara Falls. It has been a while since we have experienced traffic jams, and at 10pm you really don’t expect them. We guess it was Toronto’s way of saying “Welcome home”!

Little Green Men made the Nasca lines Right???

As we arrived in Nasca at 8 a.m. having taken the overnight bus from Cusco were our hostel host picked us up and took us to her family run hostel called Nasca Trails. Not only is it a hostel but is also a travel agent so we checked in and started to arrange our tours for the day and our flight over the Nasca lines. As we went wondering around town to find breakfast and to book our bus ticket to Ica and Lima we noticed that every second street was under construction and most of the street are made of sand and dirt. After the spectacular cities like Cusco and Arequipa, Nasca was just a little town with no architectural history but it certainly has other claims of fame to bring in the tourist. So after paying a small fortune for breakfast, $8US, shopping for food for dinner and booking bus tickets we spent the day relaxing and having a glass of wine in the garden at the hostel. That evening we went off to the planetarium named after Maria Reiche who spent 50 years of her life studying the Nasca lines. We got to see Jupiter again thru a telescope and saw a 45 minute slide show on the Nasca lines and learned about all the theories of how and why they were made. Just in case you want know the number one theory, much to Cheryl’s chagrin(she liked the theory of little green men making them) is that the lines were made by the Nasca Indians to identify where water was….yup it is a desert. Okay why is there a spaceman in the lines Cheryl asks??? Cheryl will have to wait and see the next day if it really a spaceman.
Up early for our flight over the lines, after we got weighed in and received our safe briefing off we went. First stop a whale, then it was the little spaceman…but the locals believe the spaceman really represents a shaman…okay but Cheryl still like her theory that little green men made the lines therefore it must be a spaceman. It seems since we went early in the morning the ride was not that bumpy and it was well worth the $120 per person. It is still amazing that they; whoever they are, made the lines in the first place let alone that they are still here.
After a quick lunch we were off to see an aqua duct (not what we expect) basically a round well in the desert, generally the water table is about 10 meters down. Then a 45 minute drive into the desert to see some more pre-inka ruins. Yup we think we are ruined out. Next morning Ica, some wineries, then Lima.

Legs and Lungs Don't Fail Me Now!!

At 3:30 a.m. we heard our wake up knock on the wall from Mark and Deb, our signal that today was the start of our trek. Our guide Miguel was at the hostel at 3:45 waiting for us and to tell us a little bit about our day and our next 4 day adventure. First words, okay the second words out of his mouth was this was not that easy of a trek ….gasp….no problem we have an emergency donkey to ride if we need to… can we get 4???? We thought we signed up for the easy trek but apparently the little villages along the way do not want trekkers camping near them because some trek operators have been leaving garbage so we are going a different way and it is not easy…..okay lets go back to bed and re think this one…but we are up anyways and the words “not easy” had not sunk in, probably because we hadn’t had coffee yet, so off we go. We stopped in a little village so our cook and assistant cook could pick-up some last minute provisions and fresh buns and we ended up picking up some candy for the kids which we would apparently we will meet along the way. We opted not to pick-up a coffee as Nescafe is not high on our coffee list. Where is a good cup of coffee when you need it? As we drove through some beautiful valleys, our guide and van driver stopped along the way to give some buns and candy to some of the mountain kids who were tending their herds (sheep, cows and alpacas), the smiles on the kid’s faces and big wave gave you such a warm feeling.
We arrived at our start point at 3700m to wait for our donkeys and to re-pack our day packs. As we said goodbye to our van driver and said hello to: our new 4 legged vans (the donkeys) and their handlers Humberto and his 9 year old son Moises. Our cook Isidro and assistant cook Rony had come with us from Cusco, prepared our first coca tea and our snack package (fruit and chocolate bar)for the first day trek. As we were getting our psyche ready for the first climb to 4600m; yup up a mountain 4 hours UP…UP UP and yes UP and 2 hours down. No problem. So off we went. Okay we got about 20 minutes into the trek and we had to stop and start to strip off the layers….really it was an excuse to have a rest. As our lungs started to scream and we then realized what the guide meant by not easy, boy it is going to be tough day….By the way the first day was supposed to be the easiest.
For the most part of the trek you are looking at your feet, so as we made our way up, we stop every 20 or so minutes to look at the amazing valleys and mountains with a few lagoons thrown in for colour, at least that was our excuse for now. Oh, look snow up there in the hills!…..Oh, look Karen is about to throw a snow ball! Yup we walked throw snow and ice. As the donkeys, and our team, passed us our guide Miquel kept offering encouragement saying the “top is just around the bend”. Okay the next bend. After 4 hours we final made it to the top, with high 5’s all around and a few pictures, we started our way down. After an hour we stopped for lunch by a river where our crew had set up the dinning tent for a lovey meal starting off with guacamole with wonton wrappers for an appetizer, then followed by an amazing soup. We thought that was it, then came port chops, fried potatoes and fresh veggies all cooked in garlic. Wow. We could not eat it all …we then said that we need to have smaller portions in the future because the meals are huge. So after our lunch we rolled off our stools and continued our trek. A couple hours later and 12 km we finally saw our camp site. There were 2 other trek groups there, they had walked the road from Lares after a dip in the hot springs, now why did we not do that! As our crew set up our tents and the cook and his assistant started our dinner, we hid from the light drizzle and wondered how our legs were going to feel tomorrow. We had a 1 hour before dinner so we got our stuff ready in our tents so after dinner we could collapse. A huge and amazing dinner then it was off to our tents and bundled up for the night.
Next morning as we stuck our noses out and could see our breath. Moises and Rony delivered coca tea and a hot water wash basin outside our tent door. Room service, who would have thought! Breakfast of pancakes and hot chocolate and we were off with our snack pack to climb to 5000m only an 8 hour day today. About an hour into our trek we see this young girl sprint pass us with a full load on her back and what do we see at the first mountain pass about 3 hours later the girl selling water, beer and souvenirs. So we bought a little figure puppet and gave her some fruit and candy. We climbed/crawled/panted our way over the 5000m mountain. 6 hours up and 4 hours down. One hour before we hit the top we were greeted with a little snow storm, yup snow. Just for fun, at the top, it changed to hail. Our emergency donkey and 9 year old Moises stayed with us for the climb and when he got to the top even the donkey looked tired, but we all made it on our own two wobbly legs. At the top we didn’t even stop for the “I made it pictures” we just started down in 2 inches of snow on our trail. (Yup we all had running shoes on except for our guide) It would make a great running shoe ad. “Yes these shoes can go through anything”. An hour and half from the top we spotted the dinning tent and our crew at a creek (they had passed us about 4 hours earlier). Once we got there, lunch was served. Once again appetizers, soup and full course meal (Cheryl is now thinking of marrying either the cook or his assistant). As we left the crew to take down the dinning tent and cleanup we looked around to see the mountain that we had gone over and realized for the past 6 hours we were the only one around and what a feeling….beside the feeling in your lungs and legs. As we made our way down the valley we passed streams, wild horse, alpacas and llamas it was just truly amazing. We kept wondering where our crew was as they had not passed us yet, at 3:30 p.m. we saw our crew coming along the narrow path behind us. Miguel asked us if we want to keep going and have a shorter day the next day, so we all agreed a shorter day would be great, what is an extra hour after you have climbed Mount Everest. As we continued on the hour turned into 2 and it was starting to become dusk we wondered when we would see our camp, but finally we spied our tents all set up and our gang waiting for us at a beautiful waterfall in a valley surrounded by mountains and picturesque hills. Just us, awesome. You could not pay enough for this view. After 22 km we crawled into camp at 5:45 p.m. It was pure determination that got us through the day or logic as there really was no turning back.
Day 3 room service delivery was at 5:00 a.m. and a great breakfast and we were off by 6:30 we had a van and train to catch at 12:50 p.m. to Aquas Calinetes (now called Machu Picchu Village). It truly was short hike and all downhill to a little village where once again our cooks wiped up an amazing last lunch in the front yard of a B&B. As our van driver drove us away to the train station we waved goodbye to our houseman and his son even though they didn’t speak much, the smiles from both sides said it all. They were super. At the train station in Urubamba we said goodbye to our two cooks, Cheryl was still torn between which cook to propose marriage too but she was more interested in the real bed and hot shower waiting for her at in the Inka Town Hostel in Machu Picchu. After standing in the shower for ages we put on somewhat clean clothes and went out on the town….we really are back in civilization with tons of restaurants and souvenir shops. Miguel joined us for dinner and a celebratory drink and made plans for the next day, when we would finally see Machu Picchu.
We arrived at the bus station at 7:30 a.m. to line up for the hair raising bus ride to Machu Picchu. These bus drivers are nuts. Miguel gave us a history lesson and tour around the highlights of Machu Picchu and after 3 hours we said farewell to our new friend. He was an amazing guide, he loves the mountains and it certainly showed. With some tears and a wave we were on our own to explore this amazing site. We can’t imagine living there but we can certainly see that they knew how to adapt to their environment. We had a 3 p.m.??? train to Poroy (just outside Cusco) so we had lunch back in Machu Picchu Village picked up packs and we were off on a 4 hour train ride. As we arrived just outside of Poroy we got picked up by our van driver who left us the day before and he drove us back to our hostel in Cusco.
We did it and we are glad we did and yes we have bragging rights but we do know that we will not try Mount Everest. Climbing a mountain was not on our bucket list so I guess we are one ahead now. Apparently the Lares trek is harder than the Inka trail.
Would we do it again NO. But we are glad we did it. The views where spectacular you could say figuratively and literally breathtaking. Our lungs are now recovering and so are our muscles. Now we are looking for flat land for a while.
The next day after a great meal of Roast Beef and all the fixin’s at the Real McCory, Cheryl and Karen hopped on the 6 p.m. bus to Nazca leaving Mark and Deb until we meet again in Panama. We miss them already.
Tidbits
Cost for the trek including: 5 donkies, 2 handlers, 2 cooks, 1 guide, all the food tents, van start and finish, train from Urubamba to Machu Picchu and from Machu Picchu to Poroy, bus round trip up to Machu Picchu ($15.50), entrance into Machu Picchu ($47.00) and one night stay at Inka Town Hostel(a double was 90US). The train from Ollantaytambo to Agua Caliente was $35US and the train from Agua Caliente to Poroy was just over $50US. All of these items were included in our price $480 per person plus $25 for sleeping bags. We rented 2 hiking poles for $5. While this trek was on the expensive end of the scale, we would recommend it highly. From those that we have talked to who paid less they got a lot less!
Day 1: We started the trek in Quishuarani 3700 m, climbed over Abra Hulliquikasa Pass at 4600m, first night at Cuncani 3780 m. 12 km, 6 hours
Day 2: 22 km, 8 hours over the Nevado Pumahuaca pass at 5000m and camped at Chapasonco Orgo 4851 valley overlooking the Scared Valley.
Day 3 – Down 4 hours to the Pumahuanca Valley then to village of Ahuamarca where we said goodbye to horseman. We picked up our van which drove us to Ollataytambo to take the train to Aguas Calientes town (Machu Picchu village). Stayed in Inka Town Hostel.
Day 4 – Caught the 7:30 a.m. bus to Machu Picchu spent the morning then train back to Poroy (just outside Cusco).

Cusco wow

We took a whirl wind tour from Puno to Cusco called the Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun). Our $40US bus trip of 10 hours started at 7:30 a.m. on Inka Express with our first stop at Pukara an archaeological site in a pre-Hispanic city. It is known for its statues and monuments. Then off to La Raya the highest point along the way at 4335 m to view the snowy Andes reaching for the heavens, and to have the opportunity to buy more ‘precious stuff’, yup for a “good price” too. Of course one always needs food along the way so we visited the town of Sicuani and had a Buffet lunch where we got to try all kinds of traditional dishes. After filling our stomachs and looking at more “precious stuff” we got back in the bus to go to the Temple of the supreme God of the Inka at Radchi, here we only had 7 minutes to wonder around after the site had been explained to us, and this was definitely a place you could spend an hour or so….oh well next time?? Last on the list was the church de Andahuaylillas (the “Sistine Chapel” of the Americas). They are restoring the church but you can still see the amazing paintings and of course the glitz of all the gold.
Finally we arrived in Cusco at 5:30 p.m., where we were picked up by our hostel representative (Pirwa) and as we made our turn towards the main square, the Plaza de Armas all we could say was WOW, the building and setting is just WOW… the buildings and the setting is amazing.
Our first hostel was on the Plaza de Armas, it was okay but noisy. We met up with our trek operator (Qente Adventure Trips) the next day and made arrangement for our briefing with our guide. We wondered around town for the first couple of days, scouting out warm clothes and places to visit. After two nights we moved around the corner to our new hostel another Pirwa and settled in. The new hostel is clean and confortable but there is disco 2 doors away which starts at 10 p.m. and go until 5 am every night, so ear plugs are in order.
The main square (Plaza de Armas) is bustling with activity day and night and is completely surrounded by beautiful churches, cathedrals and old style buildings. As you wonder around the city you will be approached about every 5 minutes by someone who is trying to get you to go for a massage or to their restaurant. If you want a retreat from having someone bothering you, the municipal police patrol the main square and do not allow anyone to solicit for anything. One thing we notice as we walked around is that if someone is physical challenged or begging, the locals, even if they don’t look like they can afford to give anything, will give something.
Cheryl was down for the count as a cold and altitude caught up to her so much so that the Karen called a doctor. A doctor came to the hostel and 2 days later Cheryl was somewhat up and around and went to the clinic for a follow-up visit, the total cost was $40 US. Cheryl had a week to recover enough to hike the Lares Valley.
While Cheryl was laid up Karen, Deb and Mark toured Cusco. We went on a walking tour one day, it was supposed to be 90 minutes, but turned out it was 4.5 hours and fantastic. While we did go to the main square we also went to several other areas, San Pedro and San Blas being the two most important. San Blas is a rich, touristy area, on the hill, with great old buildings and amazing views. San Blas houses a great French style bakery, which makes amazing sandwiches; we had lunch there while on the tour and went back several times. We also tried fermented Chicha, a corn beer, which I would seriously NOT recommend! San Pedro on the other hand is not touristy. It houses the local market and many, many street vendors. In the market they had about 4 rows of ladies making real fruit slushies and another 4 rows of men and ladies serving a variety of soups. The locals just pull up a stool and enjoy. The Spanish tore down many Inka structures and used the stones to build their own buildings. The Peruvians call the Spanish the destroyers, not just the conquerors.
If you are in Cusco you really must visit the remains of the Sun gods temple. The Spaniards raped the site, but you can still get an idea of its glory. A gentleman approached wanting to guide us, as it turned out he had come to Cusco to study the Inka and as Mark asked him more and more questions he got more and more excited. We had a great tour! We now know how to find the black Llama in the sky, the secret is that the Inka look for the dark (black), were as we look for the stars . The Inka had been great builders; they knew the secrets to earthquake proof their buildings, something that was lost for centuries.
We tried to meet up with our friends Mark and Sam (who we met in Chile) who had just finished the trek but we missed them by a couple of hours. Through e-mail we got some little tidbits on what it was like t and what not to take. Then we met up with our friends Harry and Karen (The Kiwis) who had just got off the Trek that day and had dinner and picked their brains for some more survival tips. Armed with our new found information and questions, the next day we had our trek briefing, our guide was still on a trek so another guide gave us the low down. His enthusiasm added to our excitement. So off we went to buy our last bits of whatever and to pack our 6 lbs worth of “got to have stuff” and the rest of our gear we stored at the hostel.
To continue our training we took a tour to the Scared Valley to see Moray and Maras. Moray looks like a coliseum of walls or spiraling terraces but it was in actual fact a Inka biosphere, where the Inka’s built circular terraces to determine the best crops to grow at various altitudes and temperatures. As the terraces spiral down the temperature difference from the top to the bottom is 15 degrees C. Then we were off to see the salt terraces in Maras, a working salt field where salt creeks feed the terrace ponds and the workers, by hand, skim off the salt that the sun has dried. We were late leaving Maras, so the driver and guide decided to try a short cut. That was working quite well until we arrived at the spot that the road was washed out! The guide got out to walk the route we would take with the bus, he was smart! It was not an easy cross country trek in a 45 passenger bus, but we made it!
On the Sunday it was an early night as our van was going to pick us at 4 a.m. the next day. Legs and lungs look-out !

Disneyworld in Peru

Disney would be proud of Puno Peru…. sort of. We arrived down at the pier in Puno at 8:30 a.m. to set off to see Lake Titicaca, famous for being the highest navigable waterway in the world. So off we ventured to the pier where there where hundreds of boats waiting to take the next batch of tourist to Uros, the famous reed floating islands on Lake Titicaca. Off we went with 16 other tourists armed with warm clothes and our cameras. As they pushed and poled the boat away from the pier….we thought that was not a good sign and we were wondering if we had to row our way to the islands but they soon started the engine with a big puff of blue, black and white smoke, nope the boat wasn’t named Sleepy or Dopey but it could have been name Smoky. Mark and Cheryl climbed up onto the roof of the boat to get a better view of the traffic jam of boats heading to the reed islands. As all the boats formed a single file though the canal, it looked like they were being pulled on an underwater cable. As we headed toward the islands yup we passed through a ticket booth where the first mate threw a roll of coins at what we guess was the toll collector, of course dressed in traditional Peruvian attire. We have paid the toll and now we really have entered Disney World.
There where over 50 floating reed islands complete with men, women and children beckoning you to come to their island. As each boat pulled up to their respective reed island we were greeted with a big smile and a little song from the women (We sort of were waiting for them to break out into the song “IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL”). We were led to a seat made of reeds to learn about the people and how to make a reed island, it was good thing that there wasn’t a test as we know for sure we would have wet feet trying. After our lesson we were separated into small groups and shown by an island family their home and of course some of their local treasures of which were all available for a “good price”. Cheryl wandered around and looked into some of the homes that were not on our tour looking to find their food stash or even their cooking stuff, but no luck. It appears that they don’t live there; they probably have a place on the mainland and just commute to the island to entertain the tourists. For $5 US a person you could get a ride in the luxury reed boats (they called it Mercedes Benz as it has 2 pontoons) but being cheap we opted to stay put and wait for our “Smoky” boat. We hopped on “Smoky”, and headed to another island called Taquile, this time the island was made of rocks but had 500 steps to climb in order to get to the town square…okay this is the training part of the trip for our hike up to Machu Picchu. As we climbed up the 500 steps to the top of the hill to see the ceremonial dances, have a great local fish lunch (apparently some of the trout in Lake Titicaca came from Canada around 80 years ago) and of course look at more “most buy” souvenirs we met up with 2 Kiwis (Karen and Harry) who hopped on our old boat “Smokey” and we struck up a friendship instantly with plans to meet up in Cusco Peru and New Zealand when we get over there. As we left Lake Titicaca what can we was say, it was a must see, an opportunity to try to understand their way of life and to realize that it was the Spanish who drove them off the main land and to build the floating islands. As for building a floating reed island, maybe, but we think we will stick to floating on our boats instead.
So what do you do in Puno besides visiting islands in Lake Titicaca? Being sailors you go and visit an old steamship called Yavari built in 1862. This beautifully restored steamship, was brought in pieces over land from Arica Chile by donkey and man power which took 6 years to do and then reassembled on the Lake were it sailed around for over 150 years and now it is a B&B. The brass is so shiny you can see yourself and you can tell that tender loving hands have been hard at work. Now that Mark has his new watch cap (with Yavari ensign on the front) he said his life is complete!
Next on your Puno tour, you go to some pre-Inka and Inka graves, rather funeral towers, in Silluastani and listen to the ancient spirits in the winds. The towers were built on high ground, so that the spirits would be closer to heaven. You could almost hear them talk to you, but we are not sure what they are saying as we don’t speak their language. The towers were a minimum of 500 years old and still in amazing shape. On the way back we stopped at a local farmstead and had a tour of their home, plus had the opportunity to try several local dishes: fried corn, fresh made cheese and potatoes dipped in a clay ‘Ketchup’ made from silt at the bottom of the river (Heinz you don’t not need to worry!). It was amazing how warm the adobe homes were, but we would still love a good electric heater!
And just for fun you go and watch a local Alpaca wool spin-off. What is a spin-off, well you start off by taking a handful of Coca leaves (the leaves you and the locals chew to prevent altitude sickness) and start chewing, and then you take your pile of Alpaca wool and wrap it around your arm and then test your wooden spinner. The rules are simple; you must spin the raw wool into a thin tread in 20 minutes. The winner is the one with the right thickness and the most tread on their spinner. Simple? Yes….well we picked our favorite right from start and we think she won but Mark had had so much excitement watching we had to leave before the winner was crowned. Between chewing and spinning the contestants worked up a thirst so they all received a free bottle of coke which by the way, originally had Coca leaves it, but Coke stopped using the leaves a number of years ago as the leaves have .4% cocaine in them. This tidbit was learned at the Coca museum in Puno where we had the opportunity to learn all the things Coca is good for besides a cocaine buzz like altitude sickness, circulation and stomach problems.
In Puno we stayed at Vargas Inn the first three nights, as Edison’s cousin owned it. That was a mistake, it was not clean and it was cold. They ran out of diesel, so we couldn’t even have a hot shower. Mark and Deb couldn’t even get towels. We tried 3 heaters the first night, the first didn’t work, the second went up in smoke, but the third was just right! All for 70 Soles a night, $25US. Next we moved to Posada Luna Azul, which was lovely and only 80 Soles a night $27 a night. We had a clean, large room with a heater, hot showers, rooms cleaned each day and Raul to help us plan our days.
Puno has some exceptional restaurants and as we did not have cooking in either hotel, we tried many of them. We had pizza (of course) and the fixed menus, often including Alpaca. But most memorable was the restaurant Colours. Colours had a beautiful Greek salad, were they made their own feta and an amazing beef dish with mushrooms and a balsamic vinegar sauce. We ate there twice, Deb, Cheryl and Karen all ordered the beef the second time, on Cheryl’s suggestion.
Mark determined the price of the restaurants by the price of ‘the girls’ wine! And then it was obvious that a bottle was cheaper than buying by the glass, so we bought by the bottle. Someone had to do it!
Cheryl was sick, so Deb and I followed Mark to the Dreyer museum, not our best plan. The sign for the museum was only visible if you walked backwards, so we climbed hill and dale before we made it. It did mean that we said “hello’ to the 9th Inka King whose statue overlooks the city. The highlight of the museum would be the mommies, preserved in the fetal position (which Cheryl says is because they are so stooped from carrying too much weight) but experts says is because they are waiting to be reborn in the next life. We also got to see a display of pottery from various pre-Inka Indians showing a variety of patterns and styles used by different tribes.
Well it time to head to the next adventure, Cusco. This time we are taking a tour type bus for 10 hours with 5 tourist stops along the way to Cusco… yes to see more Inka ruins and a few churches.

Peru or Bust!

Yup we on the road again, heading north to Peru for some warmer weather and to meet up with our friends Mark and Deb from Seacycle. Being Canadian it seems weird to head north for warmth. We left Arica Chile at 9:00 am via a local bus to cross the board. We could have taken a taxi for the 20km at $8 but the local bus was only $3 so off we went. At the boarder we had to get out of the bus and go through immigration and our worry of bring in food was all for nothing as they didn’t check our bags there…yup we had some food (which you are not allowed to bring any food into Peru).. but stay tuned. We arrived in Tacna, the first little town in Peru, where we are to catch our bus to Arequipa. As we wondered around the bus terminal we found our bus line where we checked in bags and they showed us where to exchange our Chilean money. There are 2 bus terminals in Tacna an international and local terminal, so off we wondered around the 2 terminals. In the international terminal we could not believe the number of little shops that the main item for sale was rolls of toilet paper or paper towels, not tourist stuff like t-shirts. We are not kidding when we say there were 1000’s of rolls. It seem that the women from Chile come over on the same bus as we took to buy toilet paper, broom handles and Peruvian pop then head back the same day, they sell them on the streets in Chile for 3 to 4 times the price they pay in Peru. The local terminal is where you can exchange money and buy everything from shoes to cookies all for a “good price”. We went to pick up our bags and the guy from the international terminal had picked up our ticket and then walked us over to the local terminal, showed us where we had to pay the local departure tax and then checked us in. We had to chase him down to give him a tip, first experience in Peru amazing. Okay we are now on our new bus line Cruz de Sur after having our hand luggage checked and our picture taken in our seat. After our bus driver had a breathalyzer test we are off for a 6 hour bus ride. Two police spot inspections and one security check for the driver later, we were then stopped once again, this time we had to get off the bus and go into a gated area and our entire luggage was taken off the bus. They searched our hand luggage and then they check the bus. In Peru they certainly like police checks, “Okay we are not in Kansas anymore Dorothy”. We are not sure what they were looking for, but it seemed our food was safe. We finally arrived into Arequipa about 2 hours late. We got to our hotel and meet up with Mark and Deb and then crashed for the night.
Arequipa is the white city and the second largest city of Peru and it really is beautiful with all the old buildings which have been immaculately kept or restored.
We wondered the city, partly to get our bearings, partly to buy the last things we think we need for the trek to the Inca ruins. We had lunch in a Peruvian restaurant, and we have to say that Peruvian food is much better than Chilean, more flavor, more spice. After lunch we meet with Edison, a Peruvian who sells tours, which Mark and Deb met at the bus station when they came in. With Edison we arranged to change hotels (as our first hotel, Hotel Viza was a dive, despite it’s 3 star rating), we stayed the Tierra Mistica at same price ($33 US), and it was amazing. The rooms were all built around a courtyard, the floors were old wood and the breakfast was fantastic, not just buns, but eggs and fruit.
Edison arranged a trip to Colca canyon, thought to be the deepest Canyon in the world. On the way we saw Vicuna, Llamas and Alpaca, the camels of South America. We also saw ducks (potential l’orange) and birds. Our tour guide showed how to chew coca leaves which the locals use to reduce the effects of altitude sickness. So with a wad in our checks, we passed through an area just under 5000 meters. Mark and Deb where really breathless, had headaches and felt dizzy. While being blond, I must say that while I didn’t really feel breathless, I was dizzy. With Cheryl, the altitude had no effect. So the jury is still out on whether the coca leaves work. We went to our hotel in Chivay, the largest town in the Colca valley. We had a buffet lunch as a large group, an amazing assortment of traditional Peruvian food. Once we were settled we were picked up to go to the hot springs. Awesome! The water was 39 degrees Celsius (or so they said), the setting was amazing, nestled into the valley.
The next day we were picked up at 6 am to drive down the valley to see the Condors. We stopped at several lookouts to take tooooooooo many pictures, but each spot was so different and spectacular. A large portion of the valley is terraced, actually terracing set up by the Incas and previous indigenous tribes, 400 years ago! They are currently only using 39% of the terracing. They grow a large variety of grains, fruits and veggies in the valley. We hiked about an hour to the Condors. Karen had some problems with the height, walking along the edge of the Canyon, but once you saw a Condor flying, soaring, just working the thermals, it was all worth it! They were close enough that you could see the wind gusts rippling their feathers. Once back in the bus we had another scenic stop, then lunch. A similar Peruvian buffet to the day before, but with many different dishes (one was particularly different, a dried potato, rehydrated and served with an egg and cheese sauce, this dish came from the highlands of the Colca Canyon).
After a couple of stops for pictures on our way back to Arequipa, we arrived at our new hotel, Hotel Casa Consuela (also $33 US a night). Cheryl and I lucked out; we had a massive room, with a queen and two single beds, even a table to have dinner on, although we did not have cooking facilities. We had dinner just half a block away, a Quinoa soup, a main course and tea for 6 Soles, just over $2!
The next day found Mark having succumbed either to altitude sickness or the flu. So he slept and Deb, Cheryl and Karen toured for the day. The morning was really about shopping, arranging our trip to Puno with Edison and then a bus trip through the city in the afternoon. Arequipa is a beautiful city, because of its setting, nestled amongst 3 volcanoes, also because of its buildings, made from sillar, volcanic ash stones. We went and picked up a rotisserie chicken and fries and Chinese vegetables and ate, and ate and ate in our palatial room. Needless to say the portions were not small.
Next day, after breakfast on the top floor of our hotel, which had an awesome view of the volcanoes, we went off to the Santa Catalina Monastery. It was founded in the late 16th century, while it has been rebuilt many times due to earthquakes and time, it was huge. It is 5 acres, a city within a city, with street names, a cemetery, churches, courtyards and 2 storey homes for the nuns.
Mark wanted to shop, so we did. Then back to the hotel after a stop at the supermarket for dinner and wine, of course. As we had eaten lunch out, this included lomo saltado, a local specialty of beef, onions and french fries with some veggies all piled on top of each other so needless to say we were not that hungry for dinner.
Our last night in Arequipa we went out for dinner and Cheryl dinned on one of the local specialties Cuy aka a guinea pig, not much meat on a Guinea pig so Cheryl was still hungry after dinner. Karen and Deb tried another specialty Alpaca, while Mark had Pisco Sour a local drink with lime juice, pisco wine and an egg, it sound weird but it is good and some food. The origin of Pisco Sour’s bragging rights is an ongoing debate between Chile and Peru but we happy to try it in either country.
Now we are on the bus to Puno, which is on Lake Titicaca, the claim to fame is it is the highest navigable lake in the world, plus it has reed islands.

Hot water bottles?

To hot water bottle or not, that is the question. Whether it is nobler to freeze ones b… off or to opt for the hot water bottle. OK, we decided on a heater for the second night.
We arrived in La Serena and toted our bags to the Hostel, El Punto. After been greeted and shown our room, the matrimonial suite. Conveniently located opposite a shared bathroom (even though we had our own), which meant lots of traffic and best of all, no heat. The hostel did offer us hot water bottles, that is if it got too cold, this Chile it is cold. The hostel advertised that there was a barbeque (and there was one) but it looked like it hadn’t been used in years and you had to go and buy charcoal. So no cooking here. We went out to dinner. As Chile is big on lunch and not so much for dinner we had food at a local restaurant, it was ok; the French fries were real potatoes Yeah!. Our first night without heating in La Serna, a night to remember!!
The next day we went off to the Mega mall and the bus terminal to book our bus to our next stop. As we were walking in the mall we heard “high mate”, it was our friends (Mark and Sam), that we had met at the wine tasting in the Casablanca valley. After a good cup of coffee (not Nescafe) we walked the city and had a late lunch, expensive and not good, but good company!
After our walk we chilled, until we got the rented heater working, Karen found a pot and she made a salad and of course a good bottle of Chilean wine.
Next day we had booked a tour of the Elqui Valley. Wow that was a jam packed day. We started at a Papaya plantation, not exciting for Caribbean girls, but the trees are different and we saw Artichokes growing (that was a first for us). Then up the valley to the most northern wine region of Chile. The valley was amazing because of its topography, sheer cliffs with no top soil, just rocks and drip irrigation to grow grapes and more grapes with an occasional avocados plantation thrown in. We stopped at the dam, that provides the irrigation for the valley. We were a bit upset at first because they had to put grape trees under water to build it!! But after seeing the valley with all the grapes we settled down. The valley only gets 3-5 days of rain a year; the water comes from the snow run off. The valley gets so much sun and wind that they have to cover the grapes and create wind screens. The views and man working with nature was amazing. Next stop was lunch cooked in solar ovens, and we finally got to have lamb! It was excellent.
Next day we checked out and went for a walk to the beach. This ended up being a 4 hour walk! We saw some surfer dudes, they were out in the same thickness of dive suits that we wear in the Caribbean in the winter and they shower off in agua frio!! Crazy.
We met up with Mark and Sam and took the overnight bus to San Pedro De Atacama. The desert! We checked into our adobe style hostel. While it too doesn’t have heating the walls keep in the heat so it is ok along with 3 inches of blankets! Although it is hard to turn over!
Then off to try our hand at sand skiing at Death Valley. Karen had a grin from ear to ear as she went down. Really cool, with amazing views. The hardest part was climbing up the hill with your equipment. Sand skiing is like skiing with sticky glue on your skies, so you have to go straight down, they did give us a piece of a candle, so we could wax our skies before every run it did help. We then went to the Luna valley for sunset to watch the colours change on the desert and the Andes with a glass of wine in our hands. It doesn’t get any better. As soon as the sun went down layers of clothes were added. Dinner at the hostel, with a Belgium couple and an American girl ‘dinning’ with us; sharing adventures and travel tips.
A lazy day because we are off to the Space San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Experience an outdoor observatory with 15 telescopes and a French astronomer as our guide (15000 pesos/person). Sam and Mark joined us, for an evening of star gazing and trying to stay warm in the desert. We had on everything we wore skiing and an extra blanket for Karen. The first thing we saw through the telescope was Saturn and her rings, just awesome. We saw nebulas, stars and a close up view of the man on the moon, which here is the bunny on the moon, go figure! We learned about the zodiac signs, as the astronomer drew them with a lazer pointer, he confirmed Karen’s conclusion that they were all on some type of drugs! After a lovely hot chocolate we were shipped home at midnight, way after any cruiser’s bedtime.
The next morning saw us off to the Rainbow Valley (Valley Arco Iris) at 8 am. It truly was a rainbow of colours, predominantly green, red, white, grey and black, with a few speckles and all of rock, as there is very little vegetation in the desert. After a picnic we crossed the Rio Grand, which was no more than a trickle, and headed back to San Pedro. We meet up with Mark and Sam for lunch; we tried some local foods (peppers stuffed with blood pudding, meat and nuts, ceviche with a light ginger vinaigrette, slow cooked pork over a puree of pumpkin and potato) and of course wine. Lunch was a long slow process as we were parting for Arica that night and don’t know when we will see Mark and Sam again as they are heading south.
We hopped on the night bus to Arica, while it was a semi-cama, the seats were much smaller than the last one. We arrived at our new hostel Sunny Days, at 6:20 am, to be greeted by Russ. We had a nap, then breakfast. We walked the waterfront, passed the fish market, and watched some surfers (they are still nuts) had a beautiful lunch with a lovely Sauvignon Blanc. It was supposed to be a slow day, but we had left the Hostel before 10am and returned after 4pm! We had stopped at the veggie market and made dinner at the hostel.
Next day we tried to find the supermarket, but didn’t, so picked up a few items at the veggie market for dinner. With dinner planned we were off to El Morro, the other side of town. El Morro was a fortification overlooking the city. While only 110m high it provided a great view of the water and the town. We walked back to the city centre and had lunch at a restaurant on the pedestrian street, watching the world go by. This day we had left again before 10, but arrived back by 3:30, we are very good tourists. We can’t take any food into Peru, so we have to eat up our cheese, so we had a fondue, and of course Chilean wine!
Last day in Chile and here our top interesting things that we noticed:
1. Chileans are obsessed with hot dogs. They have this hot dog called the Completo; which has mayo, ketchup, avocado and hot dog for the base and anything else you can fit on it.
2. On most major intersections there is a street performer of some sort.
3. There are tons of dogs wondering around and they are all well feed and look health.
4. Most of the builds are painted brightly coloured.
5. In the winter it is really chill. With no heat in the homes, restaurants, stores, local buses, cars, hostel…..etc.
6. The majority of the locals only speak Spanish but are willing to help and are very friendly.
7. You can get any type of fruit and vegetable here.
8. Inexpensive good wine.
9. The parts that we visited are amazingly beautiful but it is a harsh environment to live in as there are very few trees. You have to love rocks.
10. It was a great experience but bloody cold.

From 90F to 32F

Well, we left the river and our baby (Interlude) with the gang at Mario’s and headed on our adventure to South America. First stop: Guatemala city; where went to the dermatologist and met up with the Hooligans (Tim and Paula) . After checking out our favorite hardware stores and having some amazing meals, we set our alarm for our early flight to Chile.
We arrived in Chile and it certainly is living up to it name it is chilly……burrrrr. (By the way there is a story that is really how Chile got its name). Our first night we rented an apartment which was supposed to have heat, it didn’t work, so we piled as many comforters on as we could find and hide from the cold. Next morning was a hunt for a warm place to have a hot cup of coffee and breakfast. We had heard that in Chile the only coffee you can buy is instant and they were right. As we walked the streets for a warm place we noticed that all the stores and restaurants had their doors open, okay it is 36F out and all the patrons are wearing hats and mitts to eat their breakfast. Weird. So we changed our hunting criteria to anyplace that had their door closed and the patrons did not have their coats and hats on. Tough assignment. We did some food shopping and feel in love as one aisle which had all of our favorite Chilean wines plus more that we have not tried YET and all under $5. After stocking up we went back to our apartment and yes we had heat, but not much, in fact we had to turn on the oven and stove to support the heater.
Santiago is a very metropolitan city with great highways and transit system. The city has old mixed in with new skyscrapers, even one building shaped like a cell phone in a docking station. One thing we noticed is there are a lot of dogs wondering the streets, and well feed. It seems that police and the local restaurants feed the dogs and they live in harmony with the people, in fact they say the dogs are letting the people live in their city.
The highways seem to be all electronic toll highways and tunnels. The roads are amazing, hardly a bump.
Graffiti everywhere! Some amazing, but sad to see it when it is on old buildings. You don’t see the smog when you are in the City, but when you climb any of the hills in the City, your view is blocked by the smog. A brown haze. It had rained just before we got to Santiago, otherwise it would have been much worse.
We took an awesome walking tour of the City. We went by many of the buildings that we had already seen, but now with an explanation of the culture and history. It was a free walking tour we just had to give a tip so the price was right. We ended up go to a local restaurant and had a few of the local dishes suggested to us by our guide. We were joined by 3 young fellows who had been on the tour with us and all 5 of us enjoyed a bucket of meat and a corn pie. Then off to the local bar that was a must according to our guide, the name of the bar translated to “head Lice and of course we had to try their specialty drink called Earthquake (Pine Apple ice cream and white wine). The 5 of us could not finish one drink…it was bad. Not a drink to be had twice. Cheryl also tried a Tsunami, also not a repeat drink. We stumbled back to the apartment and had a very slow next day.
When we had been walking to Santa Cristobal, we saw a sign for a ski tour company. So we stopped in. In the end we got the professional skies, tuned up and a bus ticket to go to Colorado the next day yup the ski resorts are named Colorado and Nevada. We got the ride for half price as it was ladies day yeah! Forty some on switch backs later we arrived safely to the hill! Thankfully, an unbelievably good driver.
The skiing was spring like, with some awesome views. You can actually see Santiago from the hill! A dream come true, to ski in the Andes.
Time to move on, so we hoped on a bus and went to Valparaiso, Chile’s second largest city and biggest port. We booked the Yellow House, which turned out to be an awesome choice. We also booked a walking tour for the next day. The city has 13 funiculars, as it is built straight up and down. Much of the construction is wattle and daub, or Adobe, covered with corrugated tin or wood. Every home is painted in bright colors probably because no one could figure out which house belongs to whom. The homes are very small, and many of the ‘streets’ are nothing more than walkways. Most of the real streets are one way, as there is not enough room for even one car. They have a metro, electric buses, buses, collective taxis and funiculars, so it is really easy to get around and not expensive. We were very good tourists, as we would leave the yellow house after a good breakfast at 9:30 and sightsee until 5:30! Yes our feet were tired! One day we went to the fish market, (bought mussels) saw the sea lions, went to the museum, went to the stock exchange the oldest in Chile, saw a statue donated by the people of Easter Island, took 3 funiculars, had lunch and then head back to the Yellow House. Then just because we needed to continue to be good tourist we went to the Naval Museum! At the naval museum we had the opportunity to stand in the capsule used to recover the Chilean miners last year. It was not large!! Back to the Yellow House for Mussels in a blue cheese sauce and of course Chilean wine.
Next day we toured again. We took the trolley car and a collective to Pablo Neruda’s (a Chilean Nobel poet winner) house, quite a place. Then we went passed the museum under the sky, where they had 20 Chilean artists paint murals. Then we went to the fruit and veggie market and had lunch upstairs. We went to the 100 year old Sombereria, where Brad Pitt purchased a hat. Then we went on a boat tour of the harbor. That night we had wine and cheese with Martin and Lissette, who own the Yellow House. Martin bought a wine for use to try, a white blend, Sauvignon Blanc and Carmen ere! Great! And we heard about their experiences last year in the earthquake, 7.8 in Valparaiso! How the city is still standing is the question.
Next day saw us taking a tour of two wineries in the Casablanca Valley. Wine tasting/tours are expensive here and hard to arrange. We went to Casa del Bosque and Emiliana. Both were excellent winiers, Emiliana is an organic winery that really is, it was also a very relaxing place. We met a British couple on; the tour with us (Sam and Mark). They very much added to our day and we hope that we will see them in La Serena, our next stop.
We bid goodbye to Martin this morning and are on a bus to La Serena, a seven hour bus ride north. We had spent about $30 for the superior seats and they are! So life is good. We have an hour and a quarter to go. While we can see the snowy tops of the Andes every now and then, it is really very dry land, some beautiful ocean views. Cactus fences. You could film a western anywhere!
We arrived at our Hostel in La Serena and are offered a hot water bottle as they do not have heating and it is COLD! We will see how Canadian we are and if we can tough it out!

Before the Bar

What do you do before you are waiting to go over the bar and are stuck at a marina……you go and do some diving and more diving.
We spent a lovely time hanging around Mango Creek Lodge with Patrice and Terry the owners and their guests. The plan, such as it, was to only stay in Port Royal for a few days but a few days turned into 2 weeks of snorkeling, hiking and going in Mango Creek’s big power boat to go get diesel. Vroom …..Vroom. A tour of the hardward stores with Terry. Eye exams (full eye exam for $40 US) and food shopping with Patrice. Not to mention drinks at Sky, a new restaurant with marvelous views of both sides of Roatan!
So what do you do after hunting and eating conch in the Hobbies, you go and try and save them by doing a conch round up and herd them into a protected area. You get up on your horse named Trouble; okay our dingy and off you go to the neighboring reefs and cays around Port Royal, with a mesh bag in hand and your snorkel gear and case the speedy conch. Actually they are a fast as a one legged snail lugging their large house around. Along with Terry and Patrice we brought back to the protected area in front of Mango Creek at least 100 conch. They will be safe for a little while at least until they make the long track back out to the reef. “Get along little conchies”!!!!
We met up with another boat (Astarta, Michael and Barbara) that knew Footloose and were following our adventures coming into Port Royal so it felt like we knew them forever. Astarta introduced us to the art of cleaning and eating lion fish, yummy. Once you get the hang of snipping the spines off without getting stung, the meat is well worth the effort. Of course we both had to get stung once in order to really get the knack of it. It is like a hot bee sting that lasts about 2 hours once you knew what to do for the sting. Our new buddies on Astarta radio over with advice on what to do and did mention no one had died yet……sure enough we survived. So with our new found knowledge, off we go hunting again for lionfish. We brought back a small feast of lionfish to Mango Creek where we cooked them up for the guests. Everyone loved it and we even got some of the staff to try it. The locals are petrified of the fish. We were hoping just like us once you learn how to clean them they will eat them. And most all everyone survived.
It was time to say so long to Port Royal as we set our sails and headed all the way to the West End of Roatan all of 20 miles….and we even did it in one day. We arrived in West End which had been home for us for the part season and could not wait to go diving the next day.
We meet up for dinner in West End with some guests who stayed at Mango Creek Lodge who had moved to a cute little hotel in West Bay. Sue and PJ where great fun with lots of laughs, even if they had a funny accent, being Irish and all, and of course we had to go to “the pub for a wee one” the next day before they headed back home.
Our friends on Niki Wiki (Terry and Jonesy), Patience (Elian and Cal) where in West End so a girls day of diving was arranged and the boys stayed on their boats doing who knows what. The following week Hooligan (Paula, Tim and Negil) arrived and dinners on each other’s boats were planned. With Interlude doing lionfish appetizers…..yeah another group converted…and still alive.
What to do in West End while waiting to head into the Rio Dulce for the hurricane season knowing that the season is soon ending, you dive as much as you can, swim and of course eat and socialize. But mostly you try and stay cool with a dip here and there.
With the tide at 1.9 feet we are headed in on June 3rd along with Niki Wiki and our new buddies High States (Lynn and Randy) to the Rio Dulce Guatemala and cross the famous sand bar…which is affectionately just called the BAR. (Affectionately, if you make it over without running a ground and #@$@#$ if you don’t.) Because it is a sand bar the best advice to everyone is to put the petal to the metal and go as fast as you can over the bar and you should only bounce once or twice over it. Then there is a lovey 17 mile meandering river motor up to the same Marina as last year, where we hope to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones and of course do some boat work before we head to South America at the end of June.

Off The Grid

After much deliberation and hemming and hawing we decide to join our friends on Hooligan (Tim, Paula and Dog Nigel) and Footloose (Doris and Tom) for a 200 mile sail to the little islands/cays off the northeast coast of Honduras for a couple of weeks of snorkeling and hunting for our dinner but mostly just to go and explore somewhere new. So after getting a weather report which stated that Wednesday would be an excellent day to start the 200 mile passage going due East. East means that we hard on the wind and uncomfortable, so from a sailing perspective we don’t do east. (Karen always said that is why Cruisers sail around world, so they don’t have to go east.) Back to the weather, the definition of excellent passage weather to go east is: light winds and very flat seas as we are going to be motoring or if we are lucky the winds would be light and slightly south of east so we could put up those white things we have on the boat and sail.
So off we went at first light (5:00 am), but of course not before coffee. We turned the corner of Roatan and where greeted with 5 foot seas…that is okay because we expect that for about the first 6 hours…..but not for 24 hours. Hooligan called Footloose and us to say their new cutless bearing was making a lot of noise so they may have to make a detour in to a harbor, but after a little while everything settled down and all was good on Hooligan.
We had arranged to have regularly scheduled radio check-ins with each other, just in case we lost sight of the other boats. As we continued to be bounced around and we mean bounced, Doris radioed and said “is this ever going to calm down!” We had heard from another boat that was coming our way that they had no wind and flat seas, so with that information we all hunkered down with visions of flat seas ahead and maybe visions of sugar plums too! Then we see our fishing line start to jump, we have a fish…we have fish!…as we bring it in we see it is a beautiful Mahi Mahi about 2 ½ feet long. We get it close to the boat and just at the last second it breaks free with our brand new fish hook. Tom had given us the hook and the line and some instructions on how to catch a fish and did say that this hook would catch a fish, unfortunately he didn’t mean we would keep the fish. By the way that was the first fish we have ever hooked.
Okay all is well, Karen’s asleep and Otto (our third crew member, Otto Van Helm, our Ray Marine Wheel Pilot) is working hard and Cheryl is on watch and what do we hear but an alarm on the engine. So we spring into action…Cheryl turns off the engine while Karen goes off to investigate the problem. As Cheryl sails along Karen pops her head up out of the engine room to say our fan belt came off. So with the problem identified Karen launched into action while Cheryl radioed the gang to tell them we have a little problem but not to worry we have done this before, replaced a fan belt under way, so no worries. Footloose who was beside us slowed down with us to make sure we were okay, Hooligan, which was about 5 miles behind us was standing by on the radio for moral support. After 20 minutes we were back in business. We radioed that all was well and off we went.
Then not long after as we are looking off in the horizon we started to see things leaping and jumping in the air…yes a pod of dolphins are coming our way. They came right to us giving us an amazing acrobatic show of cork screw jumps and synchronized swimming.
With a beautiful sunset to finish the day and the memories of our first fish and our friends the dolphins we headed into the moon lit night with, … yes flatter seas.
With sunrise and our morning Latte consumed we enjoyed flat seas and winds from the southeast so we throw up the head sail and pretended to be sailors again. Since we did not get the expected seas nor did we go the speeds any of us predicted we decided to go another group of islands/cayes that are closer and easy to get into at night. So with our new waypoints given to us over the radio from Hooligan and the course plotted off we went but then “Otto Van Helm” decided it was tired and was not going to work anymore. What, we have to hand steer???? We have not done that in two years….
Around 5:00 p.m. we started to see on the horizon some palm trees, Cayo Vivorillo ‘home’ for the night. But what do we also see? Our fishing line is jumping again…this time we catch and keep a Cero about 14 inches long, perfect size. With the sun setting at our backs and a fresh fish in a bucket we arrived at the anchorage at 6:35 p.m. after a 37 hour motor/sail and dropped the hook for the night. A quick radio call to Footloose and Hooligan to say we have the anchor down and will keep the lights on to guide them in. An hour later Footloose arrived and Hooligan 2 hours after that. After a wonderful dinner with fresh fish in our stomachs, we crashed for the night.
We woke up to a beautiful setting, 2 small islands nearby and a reef ahead to protect us from the seas and just the 3 of us anchored. Morning wakeup call from Tim with a plan to go snorkeling which really means hunting for lobster and conch.
So how do we go snorkeling and catch lobster and conch…well one person ties themselves to the dingy and floats with it while the other person goes hunting. After finding a million conch we decided only to keep 5. We get a quick lesson from Tom on Footloose on how to clean the conch, we even got to use a catfish skinner, which made the task of skinning the conch so easy… Another thing to buy for Interlude. The question is where do you buy a Catfish skinner? According to Tim, at a Catfish store! The afternoon snorkel was for lobster, Footloose gave Cheryl a spear gun to try so with some practice of firing into the sand Cheryl was ready. But Cheryl didn’t know what to shoot at so she decided to go back to her lion fish spear and find lobster.
Eagle eyed Karen (the one towing the dingy) spied a lobster and Cheryl with her lionfish spear went in for the kill. First shot… success! One lobster, Yeah!
Appetizers of all of our catches of the past couple of days on Hooligan and another wonderful day away from everything ….Off the grid in Paradise.
After 3 days at the Virvorillo’s all 3 boats lifted the hook (aka the anchor) and off we went to make the long trip….20 miles to the Hobbies (Cayos Cajones) which was our original destination. We all tried to catch a fish along the way, but Tom was the only lucky one. We arrived at just past noon and went for a quick snorkel off the boat to check out the hunting grounds. It looks promising.
Since we all had a freezer full of couch, it was dinner on Footloose were we made conch and fish balls with shrimp cracker on the side. Hooligan made bread to soak up all the great couch chowder Doris had made. In case you have not noticed we are hanging out with some amazing foodies...in fact that is mostly what we talk about, after all, you need to know what to hunt for!
For entertainment one of the local fishing boats came into the anchorage asking for cigarettes to trade for lobster from Hooligan but they did not have any but Footloose did, so the guys went over or tried to go over to Footloose after almost running over the reef and having the chase boat crash into the mother ship. Footloose was the now in possession of the biggest lobster tail any of us had ever seen. So of course dinner plans were made for the next night on Hooligan, Lobster risotto.
So what do you do every day without internet in an anchorage with only 3 boats, well, pretty much every day we went hunting for lobster or fish. We have become pretty good at catching fish with Footloose’s speargun, which means that Karen shot one fish and so did Cheryl. But that was all we wanted because every other night we are having wonderful meals on each other’s boat in rotation, two night in a row, then a night on your own boat, with recipes begin experimented with, because you often don’t have all the ingredients so you make it up as you go along. Sometimes we will call out to the other 2 boats for a potato or an egg or whatever of to fill the pot. It might sound like all we do is eat so why are we not 300 pounds? Because it is a lot of work hunting! Into our busy schedule we had to fit in a garbage burning days with a bocce ball game thrown in for fun.
The Interlude nights were eggplant parmesan (a ship special made while we still had fresh vegetables) and chicken and shrimp Phad Thai. Interlude’s next night was a challenge thrown out to have a stuffed green pepper cook off, mostly because the peppers where going bad. Needless to say, not only where the peppers stuffed so where we!
After 2 ½ weeks of beautiful snorkeling, sunsets, fresh fish/seafood and most of all great friends we had a sendoff dinner on Hooligan to say “so long” for now with a super couch chowder, amazing appetizer and a scrumptious Key Lime Pie…okay food again. We even had a green flash at sun set and dazing red sky (sailors delight). Ok yeah we forgot to mention we did learn some new board and dice games and not to be too competitive but you know we are ….we won. Big hugs and kisses where passed around and a big sloppy kiss from Nigel Hooligan’s dog, as Footloose and Interlude prepare to leave Hooligan for our trip back to Roatan. The trek back to the land of civilization began with a beautiful sunrise with Footloose leading the way. As we looked back and saw Hooligan still anchored waving goodbye and sing our gangs signature song on the VHF radio we know we will see them again soon but we still felt sad to leave this amazing place and the time we spent there with the gang.
We were visited by 4 different pods of Dolphin who entertained us with jumps, and an occasional dolphin spit just to cool us off… okay it really was a splash. As we headed off into the sunset and into our night passage hand steering all the way (Otto Van Helm is still on strike), the seas flattened out and the winds were around 10 knots so we had one sail up and were motoring along at 6 knots making great time. Footloose radios over and said they had decided to go into Guanaja, to get diesel and then head off to Mexico from there instead of leaving from Roatan. At 3:18 a.m. just as we are making our shift change we hear the engine start to slow down, both of us ask each other what the other person did….the response was not from us it was from the engine….it stopped. So Karen went down and had a look while Cheryl took the helm….no visual reason so we started it up again…but it sounded like it had run out of fuel. We know that you can get dirty fuel around here and as much as you take precautions to filter it you can get a clogged filter…so Karen put on her mechanic’s cap and went down to change the pre-filter… it was dirty…good sign. So we go and start the engine again and off we go….it ran for about 10 minutes then the same thing happened….now we need to change the internal fuel filler….okay no problem….WRONG…!! the fuel filter is on so tight it won’t come off, after 45 minutes and much sweat and a few choice words said, it finally came loose. Okay, 2 new filters, so with fingers crossed we start the engine…nope this time it ran for 2 minutes. We have run out of ideas. So we radio over to Footloose at 4:30 a.m. to say we have no engine….and explain the problem to Tom, he offers some suggestions on what the problem may be and how to fix it….so off Karen goes to try and fix the problem with Tom standing by on the radio with words of wisdom and encouragement. We tried everything but ‘no worky’.
Since it is a downwind sail and now the sun is up we decide to throw up our Gennecker and debated whether to cut our passage short by 20 miles and follow Footloose into Guanaja. The problem is we know Roatan and some local business people, but we don’t know anyone in Guanaja. So knowing that we will need assistance to get into Port Royal, Roatan we phone our friends at Mango Creek Lodge (Terry and Patrice) to see if they can give us a hand to come into the anchorage. (Terry and Patrice circumnavigated on their 61 foot boat Mango Tango.) Terry made some more suggestions on how to fix or identify the problem. Karen disconnected the fuel line and blew into it to clear it, then sucked some fuel back into the hose, but the engine still didn’t run. Terry said “No problem” and if the wind dies they will come out in their big powerboat and come and tow us in…okay that is one worry off the list. We radio over to Footloose and tell them our plan…they still offered to help us get into Guanaja….and as we hem and haw but stuck to our original plan with the knowledge that our buddy boat is leaving us but we knew that Terry from Mango Creek would come and get us if the wind died. Unbeknownst to us Footloose had relayed our situation to Hooligan and others and suggestions where coming from afar…plus people we didn’t even know where offering help and suggestions on how and who to contact in Guanaja. Doris relayed the suggestions on some troubleshooting on the engine with no luck and also said that along with themselves there would be help in Guanaja….but if we were still thinking of heading to Roatan they will go pick up the diesel they needed in Guanaja and follow us to Roatan and make sure we are safe and sound. As Doris said “in for a penny in for pound”. What can we say, the cruising community is amazing. So with the gennecker up and a bit of wind we continue to sail to Port Royal.
Footloose radioed over to say they have the diesel and are heading to Port Royal and will be on the radio waiting for our call and will be out at the entrance to the anchorage to offer assistance….second worry over. We are sailing along fine, the wind shifts so we have to Gybe the gennecker. We did this by dowsing the sail and putting it up on the other side…..no problem….WRONG AGAIN!! It could not happen in a million years but the lazy sheet (rope/line) got caught under the boat….so don’t forget right now Karen is trying to pull down the gennecker and Cheryl is at the helm trying to keep the boat somewhat stable and dealing with the line that is caught under the boat. Then we get a gust and Cheryl looks up and sees the sail taking Karen overboard…..we have often said that lifelines are a misnomer because it just a piece of wire but this time we had to eat our words, Karen hit the lifeline, but did not go over. Okay with sail down and Karen still on board we decide we really do have to throw her overboard to untangle the line….the seas have calmed down enough and we made sure we have a safety line out and over Karen went…The line was only wrapped around the propeller 8 or 10 times! With Karen back on board and cooled off from her little dip we stowed our gennecker and put up our head sail and gave each other a big hug and off we continued to Port Royal…with 2 bottles of Champagne in the fridge cooling. The wind had picked up and we were now doing 5 to 6 knots and could see the opening to the anchorage…Footloose now anchored called and said they are so happy they can see us and they will be waiting in their dingy to help us in. We shorten sail as we now have 25/30 knots and are moving at over 7 knots! Terry from Mango Creek came out to tie his dingy with a 25 Horsepower engine to our boat to provide the motor assist we needed to get into the anchorage as it is a narrow channel and we could not sail in as we would be heading straight into the wind. Terry added a calmness and confidence and a bit of humor, he offered to make vroom...vroom noises so we would think that our own engine was running!! We are not alone, Footloose is on the other side at the ready and we made it in…the first attempt at the mooring didn’t work but the second we had it all coordinated with Footloose handing the line and Terry providing the vroom vroom…We are here and safe and sound…Yeah!!….Beer and Champagne was out within seconds of the lines being secured. What a relief and what an experience…You know this sounds bad but we learned a lot, plus a lot about ourselves and how special our cruiser friends and our friends that we have met on the islands along the way are. After a couple well-earned drinks Doris went back to her boat to tell Hooligan who was standing by via radio from afar that we were in safe and sound. Whether it was just a bad day or Murphy decided to be with us this day who knows but we do know for sure we do know some amazing people and we love them all dearly. A big Thank you to all!
It was a wonderful 2 ½ weeks off the grid and yes we would do again in a heartbeat but with hopes of a few less adventures!

Will's Visit to Interlude

I arrived in Roatan on Monday, Mar 28 after an extra long Canadian winter. This was the first time that I had seen a tropical jungle island. It is very green here with tall palm trees and dense forest. Much greener than other Caribbean islands that I have seen.
On Monday we went for a walk on the West End beaches, past some resorts and over the public beaches. At night Karen, Cheryl and I went with a group of other cruisers to do a night snorkel on the reef. With our under water flashlights we could see squid, shrimp and lobster.
Karen and Cheryl have become fearless Lion (fish) hunters. We did some dives on Tuesday and Wednesday from the dingy. Karen and Cheryl both caught several Lionfish. (I think that Cheryl is ahead by a few.) We also saw turtles, Spotted Eagle rays, many Parrot fish and others including a rare Sargassum Pipe fish. The town at West End looks very authentic and not manufactured for wealthy tourists.
Thursday we did two drift dives from a boat with 6 other cruisers. The current was very strong in the first dive. In 30 to 40 feet we only had to float as we moved over the ocean bottom for 50 minutes. At the end of the drift, we floated over a steep wall and then lost site of the bottom. Only the blue of the ocean for as for as we could see. That night many of the people whose boats are moored at the west end met at an empty dock and had a birthday party for one cruiser. The cruisers here are very friendly, people on boats here know their neighbours far better than I know the people on my street at home.
On Friday I got to help polish the stainless steel on the boat. (It gets rust spots, looks bad) On Saturday I helped clean the hull of Interlude. (All part of the cruising experience) We also did some more dives those days and on Saturday afternoon we did a zip line ride. That was fun to see the jungle while hanging from a cable. The zip lines took about 40 minutes and there were no other tourists around. A great time. We also went out to a restaurant near the beach on Saturday night. Good dinner, but too much food.
On Sunday we went to a brunch at a restaurant with some other cruisers, it was very good. We also had a rental car for 11:00 AM which finally arrived at 1:00 PM. We went to a grocery store, a big one by Roatan standards and then for a drive to the east end and the higher points on the island. Some good views from the lookout points. We also went to a resort called Fantasy Island where we saw some monkeys and other wildlife.
Overall, a very good trip. Warm weather, good diving, a good boat and great hosts. Winter should be over when I get home.

What have we been doing?

Well since our last guest left we have mostly been: playing with the fishies, visiting other boats for dinner, watching amazing sunsets and yes an occasional green flash thrown in. Of course there is some boat work too like cleaning the stainless steel and charging the boat batteries, engine checks and making water, even a little bottom cleaning.
Time to boast. We are card carrying lion fish hunters, and we even have our own spears. We know, why we would want to kill such a beautiful fish, well lion fish are very prolific and also very veracious eaters of other fish. They can decimate a reef of all the little fish in less then a month and to add to problem, lionfish are not native to the Caribbean so they have no natural enemy. So with our little spear and along with most of the dive shops on the island and some other cruisers in the anchorage we are out trying to make a dent on the lionfish population. By the way a 2 year female lionfish lays 2 million eggs a year. Anyway Karen to date has killed 15 and Cheryl 13 (Cheryl is behind because she was sick for a week but she will soon catch up….no we are not competitive on Interlude). We have noticed that there appear to be a lot less lion fish compared to say a month ago so maybe all of us are having an impact. One boat (Hooligan) has killed over 300 lionfish so they are our heroes.
When we are not growing gills, we have had a few terra firma get togethers on an old dock by us for a potluck with all of the boats in the anchorage, a night of great food and banter, but mostly of our days are filled with diving, reading and occasional water pole game thrown in….of course water polo is only at it best when there are high winds and seas, just to add some fun and lots of exercise.
Just a side note. Cheryl went to the doctor because she had a stomach bug, she got into the doctor in 45 minutes got some amazing drugs and was out in 5 minutes and the total bill including drugs was $35. Cheryl is all fixed up and ready to start the hunt again. For excitement next week we are off to get our teeth checked and clean all for $35. By the way the dentist cleans your teeth.
Well it back to another amazing sun set and time to get ready for our next guest who will be arriving at the end of the month.

Michelle's Wet Stay

Day I
Rain! Did I mention it was raining? The flight from T.O had to detour via Belize. We made it – eventually. Two hours late. The girls must have either loved me or wanted their goods because they waited for me. After a quick tour and roadside pee, we ventured off to provision. It seemed that we needed just a little! Unfortunately, I felt a little under the weather, and we had to postpone the Lobster/Champagne dinner until later.
Day II
It was still raining! We played games – Mah Jong/Sequence/Dominoes. And we chatted. It was still raining. We took a quick tour of town – the rain had done it’s damage. Finally, we had a break in the afternoon. We took the chance, and went snorkelling. We saw blue tangs, squirrel fish, grouper, banded butterfly fish and all kinds of coral! Wonderful! Then I took off my fins – not even blisters as there was no skin left! Yikes!
Day III
It was still raining. We got a break, and Cheryl and I walked the beach to West Bay. We saw a rainbow, a rickety old metal bridge, an ant hill, and lots of garbage along the shore. Cheryl let us play Mah Jong in the afternoon, as my feet were too sore to snorkel.
Day IV
It was still raining. Cheryl cleaned the boat in her underwear! We got to play Mah Jong again – thanks Cheryl. The evening brought appetizers and drinks at Somerset 33. What a great group of cruisers.
Day V
Off to town with Niki Wiki to see the Botanical Gardens. What a hike. Good thing we had our guide Scout. The view was great from the top. Back down to see the medicinal plants. A quick trip to Anthony’s Key – dolphins, gift shop and back in the collectivo to town. Slippery Sues offered good burgers and company. Thanks girls!
Day VI
A lazy day. It rained again in the morning. Have I mentioned the rain? We really did not do much. Cheryl was off – out and about and Karen and I had a great chance to catch up.
Day VII
Last day. It rained again, and then the skies opened. The sun came out, and what a beautiful sight. Plus, it was Daytona 500, so a trip to town to see the race was required! The girls went for a snorkel, while I caught the last of the warm sun before heading home. What a great visit. Thanks Interlude IX.

Deb and Jim's Week

We arrived in Roatan on Saturday 3 Feb 2011 and finally realized after multiple trips that life really revolves around Trouble (the dingy).
Trouble needed help with the luggage including 2 dive bags, 1 camera bag, 1 clothes bag, and 2 computer back packs along with Cheryl and Deb so the dingy from Highland Light provided assistance. You will learn that people's names are secondary to boat names. Karen and Jim along with the fruit from the local market – a guy selling out of the back of his pickup arrived in Trouble. From there, Trouble was our center of entertainment. Interesting facts about Trouble:
• Trouble is a frequent participant in dingy roundups (not nearly as disgusting as it sounds). A roundup is when dingies from a variety of boats tie together to share snacks and conversation somewhere toward the end of the day. The whole thing in Roatan was supervised by a Hooligan named Nigel (I think he is an American).
• Cheryl and Karen must alternate driving and it creates interesting banter when someone drives out of turn.
• Each trip ends with “another safe trip” which, by the way, is a good thing.
• Trouble is really fast with two people aboard but she doesn’t plane out when you have 4 divers, 4 tanks, and all of their dive gear aboard.
• Diving is easy from Trouble. There are multiple methods of entry from the back roll, the back flip which usually only occurs when Karen falls out of the dingy, or toss your gear overboard and get ready in the water but Cheryl occasionally needs help with a mask that falls to the bottom. Finally, the giant stride is not recommended.
Deb’s been on Interlude 3 times and Jim the last two and we’re progressing as Cheryl and Karen have finally come to the conclusion that we will continue to show up, so they might as well enjoy it.
The first trip in Trinidad the boat was on dry dock so Deb had to climb a 30’ ladder to get on board and her only opportunity to get on the water was going from one side to the other of the marina, of course, in Trouble.
Last year in Belize the boat was (you guessed it) docked. When we had the opportunity to go on the water, again, it was in Trouble. There was not enough wind to sail. By this time, we are convinced is that Trouble tows Interlude from place to place as Trouble is the only boat we had seen actually moving.
This year we’re progressing as Trouble secured our mooring ball while Interlude, yes, that’s right, Interlude, was detached from the mooring ball and was allowed onto the open ocean for 3 hours. There was not enough wind to sail (apparently Interlude requires a hurricane to push the sails). Our trip was really just to charge the battery but we did learn there is an engine on board and, more importantly, the sail went up for 5 minutes so there really is a sail. Not the Main, of course, but we have it on reliable authority that the Main is rarely seen. We’ve also been told we will sail next time which we believe is just a ploy for them to avoid paying shipping on boat parts but the aft cabin head is now repaired and there is an extra water tank on board for a future leak.
We had a great trip. Karen and Cheryl are terrific hosts, doing dishes every day is not all bad, we learn more about the boat every trip and Roatan is a nice place to visit. Thanks again!

Bruce's Replacement aka Janice

I arrived in Roatan on January 3, to lovely warm weather and blue seas. It was great leaving the big city behind me. I had met a lovely couple on the plane as well as a fellow who had just bought a boat and was staying at Fantasy Island as well. Small world.
Karen met me at the airport and we had a bit of a tour around the island while Cheryl was cleaning up the boat. We almost ran out of gas searching for a gas station. What a relief when we finally found one. Picked up a few groceries and wine then it was time to get to the boat and relax. So good to see the girls as it had been a while.
Tuesday we went snorkelling met the other boat people who were there and while Karen and Cheryl played a bit of volleyball I watched while the monkeys came down to try to get any goodies (including beer left in cans).
Wednesday found us snorkelling again but with Annie, Linda and Terry who were from 3 of the boats. Saw lots of lion fish amongst many others and feather dusters (a type of coral worm) which when you stir up the water close to it, it disappears. Volleyball was played and a sing a long at happy hour.
I am now officially known as “Bruce’s replacement” wherever we go.
Thursday we motored to West End and they let me “drive” the boat all the way there. Even though we couldn’t sail as there were no winds it was a lovely ride. Once we got there I was introduced to more boat people. Doug and Lisa from Highland Lights and Tim and Paula from Hooligan. Lovely people. More snorkelling was done and saw a green moray eel amongst the many corals and sea creatures. Doug and Lisa invited me to their boat for drinks (not the girls) and said they would pick me up. HAHA but we all get in the dingy and went over for nibbles and drinks.
Friday it was into town for a looksee around. Highland Lights and Hooligan were invited over that evening for a get together and gossip. A lovely time had by all. I also booked my first diving session at Roatan Divers.
Oh boy, Saturday and time for my Discover diving lesson while Karen and Cheryl rented tanks to go off to dive themselves. My instructor Richard was great and was very calm. I actually went down 50 ft. HOLY. It was amazing. Schools of blue tang, fabulous corals and array of fish. The weather couldn’t of been better and you could see everything so clearly. I was only supposed to go down 40 ft but he thought I did so well and we went a little deeper. I loved it. Time to book again for tomorrow. Now its back to the boat to watch the Saints game on the computer, a mandatory thing for the girls. It was a hoot even though they lost. (we lost contact as wifi was intermittent and we couldn’t sing our rooting song to continue to help them along). You had to be there for that one.
Sunday, more diving (yea). Went to the Blue channel this time for our dive. Down to 50 again but water not quite a clear. Richard told the girls he would take me anytime and that I was pretty good at it. His girlfriend Melanie took some pictures of me in my gear for me. Then it was time for a Champagne brunch with Doug, Lisa and John and Sharon from Sunbow. Then on to another place to watch the Greenbay packers play. Good game and they just managed to win it.
Monday, Wow a week has gone by already. Time sure flies by when you’re having fun.
Received a diving certificate from Roatan divers. How nice of them. Proof once again that I actually did it. Now it’s off to Coxen Hole, the capital by local bus to pick up a few trinkets. On the way back we stopped off at the butterfly farm where there really wasn’t too many butterflies but had some birds (Toucan’s, McCaw and few other animals). Was interesting but overpriced.
Fed our new found friend the ballyhoo (a local name) which is a type of gar. He really liked the chicken skin.
Tuesday we met up with Doug and Lisa again for lunch and to get gas. First place we hit was a Mexican place however the waiter didn’t remember our order or us so after a good 45 minutes when asked him if we could have our drinks. Guess what, he didn’t remember that either so we order them again. Poor Doug never did get his and we opted to pay for the drinks we did have and go elsewhere to eat. Good idea and I’m sure better food. Then it’s back to the boat for a water polo game with everyone. Another lovely day, what a hardship.
Wednesday found us walking the beach, again with Doug and Lisa, towards the West Bay where all the people from the cruise ships come in for the day. Wow what a crowd but the beach is lovely. Back to the boat for dinner and had an impromptu dance. What fun.
Thursday and Friday found us boat bound as winds and rains came in and prevented us from going anywhere. However reading and games kept us going. It’s always good when you’re with friends no matter what the weather. Looking forward to tomorrow when it’s supposed to get a little better by the afternoon. Will keep fingers crossed as it will soon be time to leave again, but at least I have great memories and hopefully new friends.
Saturday we thought would turn out nice but the weather forecast was wrong and we had another very breezy and turbulent water day, so it was another day inside .But by dinner time we were fed-up and since I had promised Karen and Cheryl a couple of meals out, we got a hold of the gang and said to heck with it. So despite the crappy weather and since everyone was sick of being boat bound for too long we all headed out for a lovely dinner at the Argentina Grill. It was unfortunate that Hooligan couldn’t make it as they got soaked from a earlier ride into town. Once our tummies were full we headed off to Rick’s Place to watch the Packers game since Lisa is a BIG packers fan. Had a fun time as usual and the Packers won big time. Didn’t get back until 10:50 pm way past the girls bedtime.
Sunday, the last whole day before I head back to Toronto and the cold. Boo. Headed back to Fantasy Island which is closer to the airport. Low and behold the weather actually got better and the seas flatter. A good sign I hope. Will be taking the girls out for my last night with them as a thank you for all their kindness during my stay. I will miss them as usual but know I will see them in the future. I say thanks to all their friends they introduced me to who treated me like one of the bunch during my time here. They made my time here even more special than it was. So adios amigos for the time being and may fair winds speed you to all of your new destinations.