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.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
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!
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!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
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!
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!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, March 25, 2011
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.
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.
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