All we've been hearing is how bad the weather is back home, rain, sleet and snow! I feel a bit guilty because Torben and I just finished eating breakfast out in the cockpit. We were discussing what Torben should wear for his trip back to the Bay Area for the next few days. We decided it probably would be a good idea to wear long pants and shoes!

Some how as we progress south the trip gets even better. We are finding ourselves doing things that we would never do at home. Like looking down the mouth of a live crocodile or putting our heads into the barrel of a cannon. We even slept in twin beds! (Too bad I couldn't remember where I stored those high heel shoes!)

After leaving Mazatlan, we headed for San Blas and decided to anchor in Mantanchen Bay to avoid the bugs that San Blas is famous for. Being bug phobic, I duct taped our Lewmar screens to all the hatches and opening ports only to find after a few hours they fell down! The only screen we had was for the companion way and that was because Torben customized a screen door before we left. That was good, but it would have helped if Torben would have tested to see if it fit! "Don't worry" he tells me,"I have a tool!" Torben has a tool? Now I am worried. He pulls out a dremel tool and proceeded to grind down the sides. It made a mess but fit perfectly! As for the rest of the hatches, I crawled back into the abyss and found my old screens I sewed for the boat for our delta excursions. Thank God Torben didn't find them earlier; he would have thrown them out!

As for the crocodiles, we really did see them in the wild on our jungle tour! It was pretty cool. We rode in a panga through the mangrove trees and over grown bamboo. Birds were every where. We were looking down at the water level for crocodiles when all of a sudden this thing came dropping out of the tree above us. It was an iguana! He hit the water, swam over to a log where he posed for a picture! No lie! Torben and I got the feeling that this was like a Disney ride and it was all staged. It was that incredible. The tour took us to a crocodile refuge, where we got out and could get up close without the fear of being eaten. Even so, it felt a bit risky having only a rusted chain linked fence between you and the crocodiles!

Our other adventure in Mantanchen Bay was taking a $15 cab ride to La Contaduria which is a Spanish fort that was built in 1768. It was located high up on a hill, and was equipped with multiple cannons. What was odd was that the cannons were used to fight off pirates but the fort was located a least a half a mile away from the shore line. It was like the range of the cannons was an after thought...The town of San Blas smelled of smoked fish and fresh tortillas. Kids played in the dirt streets and colorful laundry hung in the front yards. There were two Catholic churches in the town square, one was Father Junipero Serra's first mission. It was also the church where Henry Longfellow wrote "The Bells of San Blas".

Weighing anchor the next day, we sailed 22 miles to Chacala which was a small town right on the beach. Being the small world that it is, Torben knew Mattie and Alan Kerr from Brickyard Cove Marina who has a home in Chacala. We met up, and after several glasses of wine on Tivoli, they offered us dinner at their place and a non moving bed! We jumped on the invitation and found ourselves in a very elegant hacienda with a spectacular view of the ocean. It was really nice having a touch of civization like not having to wear my shower shoes in the shower kind of civilization! It was great to see Mattie and Alan again especially out of context in this small little beach town in Mexico!

OK, I got to go. Torben is rushing me to get this posted before he leaves. His bus leaves in 30 minutes for the Puerto Vallarta airport!