Gabriellas G-Pa
03/30/2012, Chacala, Nayarit

Spent the remaining time in Barra/Colimilla waiting for a weather window to depart and going back and forth on the bus to Manzanillo. My stupid banda ancha was not working and the closest office of IUSACELL is in Manzanillo. I got no satisfaction from them and bought another brand (Movistar) to at least get online and check weather and Facebook. It was sad saying goodbye to Maria, Enrique, and Yoana. Had a nice dinner at their place and they gave me hand made(by them) gifts for Gabriella. Oh, let me step back a moment and tell you about my trip north in the car. I left Colimilla without Mayra and little Abby because Maria wanted to say goodbye to her daughter and granddaughter at the airport. She wanted to squeeze every last second out of the visit. So I planned on sleeping in the back of the van to save precious little cruising money for cruising. I drove straight through to Mazatlan (with a little mishap in the San Blas tidal lands) and got a hotel room for 250pesos. Then drove the rest of the way to Guaymas and parked in the fuel dock area of Singlar marina where I could plug into electricity and have fast wifi. Boy was that a rough nite...raunchy fish smells...noise..and a very uncomfortable sleep in the back of the van. I have a card key to the shower facilities, so that was a plus. I drove to Nogales the next morning to turn in my import permit for the car and get my deposit back. On the way there, I kept stopping to add water to the radiator because I sprung a leak partly because of the incident in the San Blas region and partly due to an unexpected leak when cleaning and changing the antifreeze. Anyway, on the way back it got to be every twenty minutes I had to stop and pour water into the radator. Then I remembered I had a can of stop-leak somewhere in the car. I found it and poured it in and what do you know...it worked. Got back to Guaymas and got a hotel room for 150 pesos...you get what you pay for...trust me! The next morning I said my goodbyes to Horacio, Marlyn, and sweet Ariana....who now has a serious boyfriend..darn! Got on the slowest bus in all of Mexico to Tepic where in the middle of the night got another bus to Puerto Vallarta. Then in Puerto Vallarta I got another bus to Barra De Navidad. to recap the car trip...three days of driving, then 40 hours on a bus...this is not cruising! I will leave here for Mazatlan in the morning and hang around Mazatlan for a few days waiting for a perfect weather window to cross the southern part of the Sea of Cortez to head for beautiful La Paz. About six weeks left for this cruising season.....Gabriella, I'm coming home!

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Gabriellas G-Pa
03/09/2012, Barra/Colimilla

We had another successful video chat with Gabriellas class and the entire Primeria escuela here in Colimilla. This time I went easy on the treats...Root Beer floats. All but 2 or 3 kids liked them. I happened to ask Mr. Joyce (Gabriellas teacher) if he could ask the 8th grade teacher if they would like to have a video chat with the 8th grade class here at the secondary school. She excepted right away and a few days later we had the video chat. Now let me tell you that there is a BIG difference between Gabriellas class and the 8th graders. I really wasn't prepared for this. The teacher here in Colimilla agreed to the chat and then the day of the chat only six kids showed up at Yoanas house. They were having a test that morning and the ones that showed up finished the testing. Anyway, the boys here kept asking who the blond was sitting in the back and they wanted her to move down front so they could have a better look at her...embarrassing. They also kept drooling over Lilly, who by the way was the most interesting in the chat because of all the questions she kept coming up with. And of course the questions were a little different than what I'm accustomed to. I think I was really relieved when that video chat was over with.
Yoanas' sister from Modesto came down for a ten day visit so her baby daughter Abby could meet her grandparents. At the Puerto Vallarta airport, Maria, (Yoana and Mayras' mom) walked right past Mayra and straight to little Abby. Then after awhile she acknowledged her daughter Mayra. Enrique and Maria (grandparents) have been taking their first grandchild all around the area to show off their nieta to all the relatives. I postponed taking my car north for a few days so I can take Mayra and Abby back to the airport in PV. It's a long winding road (about 4 hours one way) so it's easier for me to do it since I wil drive right by the airport on my way north to Guaymas. The photo above is of Tom and Barbaras' boat 'Hooligan' in the Barra lagoon. They departed today for points north and I won't see them again until next year. That's their boat cat laid out on top of the dodger.

Comments [4]

Gabriellas G-Pa
02/25/2012, Colimilla/Barra de Navidad

I had a wonderful 6 hour ride down from Santiago/Manzanillo with a few sprinkles and very little wind. After dodging a hundred-plus pelicans I dropped the hook in my favorite spot at the Isla. Lot's of pelicans have migrated to the area because of dying fish after days of rain. The lagoon is the recipient of farmland runoff with whatever that will translate into bad stuff for the fish. So a lot of them can't breath and they start choking off slowly and the birds are having full meals....nice description, eh? I've changed my mind as to coming home early this year because of the visa/car import permit thing. I will drive to the border and turn in my import permit and make a uturn and stop and get another visa and then continue on to Guaymas and store my car with my good friend Horacio. Then jump the bus northward to Barra while trying to enjoy an overnite bus ride with a thousand stops. Nothing exciting is happening around the Barra/Melaque area except 'Carnaval'. It's not exactly Rio or New Orleans but is quite a bit of fun for everyone. They have a parade from Melaque to Barra and trust me when I say 'these parades in Mexico would never be able to happen in the USA. I'm going to town this afternoon and try to stay late for the festivities as I don't like to be off my boat after dark. The pic above is of the sea mines..oops..pelicans as I was entering the lagoon.

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