We spent New Year's Eve with our friend Alejandro at his girlfriend's mother's house in Zihuatanejo, eating delicious carne asada tacos washed down with Margaritas, Johnny Walker Scotch, and cerveza, and dancing in the steamy night until 4 o'clock in the morning. At midnight there was the nonstop sound of guns being fired into the air, including a couple of revolvers that Alejandro brought along. The popping sound of gunfire was accompanied by the popping of champagne corks as midnight arrived.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
|
Comments [0]
Right now we are overhauling the engine. I spent most of yesterday taking the engine apart, stripping it down to the block, so that it can be removed. The whole engine is way too heavy, but in pieces we think we can man-handle it out of the boat. That will probably happen tomorrow. Once out of the boat, it will be 2 to 3 weeks in the shop, then we bring the engine back onto the boat again, piece by piece.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
|
Alejandro, the mechanic that has been working on our boat, invited us to come to his house for Christmas dinner. "We'll pick you up at 10 PM". Dinner would be at Midnight. We arrived at his brother's house where there was a sumptuous feast...camarones en mole, pollo asada, pesca puttanesca, everything was delicious. Bruce played some Mexican music on his accordeon and the boys played in the street with the Mexican kids, lighting firecrackers. Right around Midnight the real fireworks started-- every house in the neighborhood brought out their guns and started firing into the air, some of it on full automatic. The kids were called into the house so they wouldn't be hit by falling bullets.
After dinner we went to the house of another of Alejandro's brothers, where there was another party going on, with music and dancing. After that we went to another house, with more music and dancing. Alejandro said that we would be visiting seven houses that evening. We were on house number 2 and it was already after 3 a.m.!
We were at house number three at 4 a.m., and the boys were very tired, so we went back home to get some shut-eye.
It was a memorable experience.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
|
We sailed to Isla Ixtapa, an island north of Ixtapa, where we anchored, enjoyed lunch and scuba dived to a nearby reef. Francois and I swam along the bottom from the boat to shore in order to stay clear of the many jet skis. The water temperature was the same as the air temperature, 82F (27C).
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
|
Francois and Bruce went to some islands off of Ixtapa for some deep water scuba diving. It was terrific.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
|
Baby turtles, just hatched, make their way to the surf at the beach around sunset.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
|
Antoine decorates the Christmas tree on board Calou in Ixtapa
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
|
12/10/2009, Ixtapa
We spent the afternoon at the pool at the Crystal Hotel in Ixtapa and on the beach. The pool and the ocean are both invitingly warm. Huge surf on the beach! We met some new arrivals, the crew of Blackdragon out of Vancouver (Tracey, Steve, Foster (11) and their dog Scupper). They participated in this year's Baja Ha-ha.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
|
