We sailed out of San Diego on our Jeanneau 57 "Perfectwave" in October 2010. We have traveled over 4000 nautical miles and have seen 7 countries over the past 12 months. I thought I would give an update for those that are following our adventure.

Our first 6 months were spent cruising Mexico.
Going to Philos in La Cruz, Puerto Vallarta a couple nights a week was really fun. Every time we went I had the jalapeno pizza. It was so spicy that there was probably smoke coming out of my ears every time.
The CHICKEN MAN was also in La Cruz . Before we would sail out to Punta De Mita to surf for the week, we would walk up the street to the guy with the giant rotisserie stand. I miss the best chicken and taquitos ever!
There were many other highlights lights of Acapulco at night from our boat and all the crazy VW Beetles they used for taxis.
We had whales, dolphins and rays all around the boat as we sailed south.




Our next stop was El Salvador, Bahia Del Sol. A small run down marina up a dirty estuary in El Salvador. Famous for a bar crossing to enter the Estuary. Our trip over the bar was easy but getting out was a different story.
El Salvador was blistering hot and our only relief was the water in the murky pool to swim in. They had a painting class, and Pizza night on Mondays, which I enjoyed.
The boat was in El Salvador for a month, but over all we were there for a week or two.
During our stay we met Jorge, the owner of Tour In EL Salvador. He took us to Copan, Honduras and Antigua, Guatemala. We spent a week doing the Mayan triangle tour.
We also visited Marina Barillas in Southern El Salvador that was clean and very quiet.


We then made our way south to a crazy day of sailing across the Bay of Fonseca to Nicaragua. While crossing the bay we were so embarrassed that are bow thruster was showing! Puesta Del Sol was a cute little marina.
It was up an estuary like Bahia Del Sol but extremely clean.
While we were in Nicaragua we sledded down Volcano Negro practically on a piece of plywood.
The volcano was active; you could even see the steam and sulfur coming out of the crater. If you dug 1 inch into the ground and held the soil in your hand you could feel the warmth of the volcano.
Nicaragua also has the most volcano's in Central America.
Nicaragua was really cool, and the people were very nice.
We were surprised everyone decided to skip it based on rumors. One bad story makes everyone change their minds and skip a whole country

Costa Rica, We're Back! We spent time here in 2009 surfing. This time we arrived by boat and checked in at the magnificent Marina Papagayo.
We went to Tamarindo almost every day the surf was good and school was done.
Tamarindo, a tourist surf destination, that hadn't changed one bit, in the last 2 years. Except the good Pizza place was gone.
We always parked in this one lot and the guard from 2 years ago was still there!
Julian watched our car many times during the hurricane season while we were surfing. The best part was when Julian was off guard he sold snow cones! It was good to be back!





Julian making snow cones!



Panama

We haven't sailed to Panama, but we did take a trip there by land. Panama City was like a mini Miami, but better.
They had great food, the malls were unbelievable, and
We did get to see the Miraflores locks from the visitor center. Just watching the 600ft tankers come into the locks was so cool.
When we go through there we are going to look like a toothpick. We even watched 2 sailboats come in and a 700ft tanker was brought in 30ft behind them!
I can't wait to get to Panama; it is currently only a peninsula away! Right now we are in the Osa in
Golfo Dulce, whatever weather comes in, it seems to always include rain! It is hard to believe that we have been to 7 countries (not including the US) in just one year.

Hope to give everyone an update when we get to the Caribbean after going through the Panama Canal.

Written by: Whitney Wells
Vessel: Perfect Wave / Jeanneau 57!
Location : 08 32'. 676N 083 17'.923W