Sailing the Karina C

Anita's Rant

Gee it's good to be back in Canada. It was @95 or plus degrees when we were in La Paz, and the mosquitos at night made it difficult. Get bitten or bake in the oven of a cabin. Everything is so pretty and green, not the dry cactus landscape with burrs that get caught in your socks. You can turn on the tap and not worry if the water is potable, you can buy a huge selection of fruits and veggies that just aren't available, and they are fresh , not half rotten. Seedless oranges,grapes and watermelon are actually seedless, and you can plan a menu, not around what is not rotted on the grocery shelf. Apples are not treated like baseballs by the clerk who must pride themselves in making it into apple sauce before it leaves the store. When we return to our boat we don't find it chained to the dock and impounded because we were not present at the time they decided to check our temporary import. We can own an older boat that predates VIN numbers (a source to impound a boat). No dodging the ever changing rules. You can get a real mechanic and not just some Mexican who owns a set of wrenches, shows up late, charges US prices and breaks more while not having a clue how to fix anything. You can actually buy the parts, not make due with adapters , for lack of a 5/8ths (1/2 inch is close). You don't have to pay the exhorbant taxes plus merchant markup on any boat part or related item needed. You don't have to get trumped up charges against you when driving your car just because you must be a rich Gringo. The internet actually works at marinas here. Hot tubs are actually hot, not broken. Anchorages and marinas are so peacefully quiet for sleeping, instead of every single night the techno ear bleeding "music" that starts at 9 or 10 PM, and goes till 4AM. Nobody asks for 5 pesos for the privilege of using there unflushed black scummed toilet with a cracked or no toilet seat, no toilet paper, no soap and no water to wash your hands. No cockroaches crawling up the dock lines, and no fighting them and the scorpions in the shower. Best of all, no overnight passages. Good anchorages are plentiful, and only an hour or two apart. I'm so happy to not have to jump through the paperwork everywhere, and especially the reams of paperwork Jay had to do to get our boat shipped. Like the Hotel California,you can check in, but you can never leave. Well, I never want this boat leave Canada again. The hassle is too much, and leaving has shown me that we really are in God's country. We don't appreciate how wonderful and beautiful our own country is until you do a trip like this.