05/02/2008, Puerto Adventuras, Mexico
I'm in Puerto Adventuras, a flashy resort in the middle of the Mexican Riviera. Touristy but very nice with a well protected harbor where I will sleep still but probably hot tonight. Not much breeze in there and it's getting pretty caliente' here during the day. Nights are still pretty cool, particularly if you have a breeze blowing through the boat which I think will be blocked by the tall condos all around. But hey, I'll deal.
Last night I stayed in Puerto Morales and had a very nice sail there from Isla Mujeres. Wind vane did the steering, all the way and the wind was right on the beam. Today I motorsailed in 20kts plus against a sometimes 3 knot current in the channel between the mainland and Cozumel. It was bumpy and wet but not too bad. The entrance channel here at Puerto Adventuras will, however, give your spincter muscle a hydrostatic testing. A very narrow slit between a rock jetty and a breaking reef maybe 30 yards wide with a bit of a cross sea and you sort of come surfing into it sideways. Once inside, however its a pretty cool place. Its sort of a marine park as well and I caught the sea-lion show and the dolphin show while waiting for the marina office, which closes from 2 to 4 PM for lunch, to reopen. Sea Lions are really interesting creatures, very intelligent obviously, a ravenous appetite for fish and they remind me of weimeraners with flippers. The level of audience participation, hugging, kissing and feeding is far and away more than you could get away with back in the states. The dolphin show was the same way. Outstanding to watch.
Anyway, I'm one whupped pup tonight and I've not really eaten all day, had a fig newton around 1 and two beers since I hit the dock and thats it. So I'm gonna pick one of the many restaurants, get my feed on and then check my eyelids for light leaks for about 8 hours.
Thanks everyone for reading.
HEA
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05/01/2008, Milagro Marina
Heading south today. First stop may be Isla Pasion on the north end of Cozumel or perhaps Puerto Morales. Well see how it goes.
A sad goodbye to all my new friends here. I hope I see you all again sometime soon.
HEA
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04/29/2008, Isla Mujeres, Mexico
"when you've got a Big Johnson"
the inscription on the tee shirt of a giant mexican guy as wide as he was tall with a face that looked like someone had let half the air out of an inflatable easter island statue. He stood behind me in the tiny internet cafe with the dimensions of a freight elevator where we got our visas. I was actually too close to read it myself...like on the front row of a drive-in movie. Janeen told me about it.
You should interpret my lack of logs for the past few days as a sign that I absolutely love Isla Mujeres. The weather, the people, the water, the island herself all conspire to keep a person as engaged and entertained as you care to be and the days slip past one after the other like fresh succulent oysters down a parched throat. Hell, even my wallet loves Isla and that grouchy bastard don't like nobody. You stick your little card in the ATM and it takes a couple hundred American dollars and gives you back thousands of pesos which you stuff in your pocket. You then stride around for days, depriving yourself of nothing, eating out constantly at the many, many restaurants which, to my experience, all serve delicious food, the freshest of fish, great wines, two for one drinks, which may or may not be a good thing, and when you check your wallet later there are still thousands of pesos left. You wonder if they are breeding in there.
It would be dead easy make the jump and join the thriving ex-patriot community down here. I have had the privilege of meeting a fair sampling of that group during my stay here. These are not assembly line production humans. They are the one-offs, the conceptual versions and custom designs that perhaps the mass market can not fully understand nor appreciate. But they are my people and Isla is the mother ship. I could easily be talked into shopping for real estate here...........in fact there is this pretty real estate agent I've met with a half visible tattoo................
Of the many things I have learned here in Isla, one is that Canadians really do talk exactly like Bob and Doug McKenzie from Second City TV's "Great White North". I had always suspected this. It is true. "Gimme another beer, eh? Take off, ya hoser." Just like that.
Another thing I've learned is that the time it takes me to go from charming to mildly irritating in the eyes of a pretty and smart Canadian woman is exactly 3.5 days. This is good news considering that since the weakening US dollar is now only worth about 0.98 Canadian dollars I should be able to remain charming with a US girl well into the fourth day before getting the first eye-roll. Of course this is only a theory.
Yet another lesson learned here is that southern boys must send out some sort of homing signal when they are separated from their brethren and placed in a foreign land. This primordial vibration allows us to find one another, gather together and mangle the King's English in the way that only we can. Considering the fact that a prudent shopper can get beer here for around fifteen cents apiece I'm surprised there's not more gun-racks, gumbo monster mudders and Confederate flags down here. Perhaps it's due to the fact that there are no mammals here that are legal to hunt down and kill. Also it could be that riding a moped with a little helmet on is just too far removed from the average redneck comfort zone for a mass exodus to occur. You know what they say about mopeds.......... Anyway, henceforth I will refer to this phenomenon as "The Brotherhood of Y'all" We are many, we are thirsty, we are ubiquitous.......whatever the crap that means.
"I heard dat!"
"Myself!"
So it is with great regret that I am plotting my escape from Isla Mujeres for tomorrow.....or maybe the next day...when I'll sweep up my remaining brain cells and make for Isla Pasion on the north end of Isla Cozumel where the Rauscher guide tells me lies pristine bonefish flats there for the exploration. The weather promises to be good which is no surprise as it has been nothing if not beautiful for the last week or two. No rain at all, nothing but sunshine and gentle trade winds. From Cozumel then its Punta Allen, Banco Chinchorro and Xcalak to clear out of Mexico then on to San Pedro on Ambergris Cay to clear in to Belize, then a slow mosey down to Guatemala through the turquoise waters of Belize protected by the second largest barrier reef on the planet.
I've put more pictures in the gallery. I always forget to take pictures. There's a party tonight, I hope I remember to take some people pictures. When I get far enough from here to avoid repercussions I'll tell you all about them. Alias's will be used of course. ;)-
On the homesick side I'll miss the Wooden Boat Show at Pirates Cove this weekend. Somebody have a bushwacker for me. Anybody wanna come to Belize, let me know by email.
HEA
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