On Saturday the 9th of February after feeling like we had been held hostage at Marina Mazatlan for our last few days (red flag had been up and would not allow any boats to leave the harbor) we shoved off of the dock early in the morning with the help of a handful of people as they waved goodbye. Peter on Jugete followed close behind.
But I will back up a moment to make sense of my cryptic title…. On the night before we left Mazatlan, we had dinner at La Mona. We ordered salads to eat at the restaurant and also ordered a pizza to go that we would have to eat on our overnight sail. After dinner, we headed back to the boat. As we were walking, I received an alert from my bank on my iPhone stating that there may have been some fraudulent activity on my Debit Card and asked for my approval of the last few transactions. The transactions showed attempted withdrawals of up to $800.00 U.S from the pizza place. Well, I immediately called the bank and told them that I DID NOT authorize these transactions and to please stop them from going through. Thank goodness they were caught in time. Only inconvenience was figuring a way to get a new Debit Card to me while in Mexico. So that’s the “Rob You” part of the title. The next part, “They poison you”, has to do with me being sick to my stomach starting around 1:00 a.m. on our overnight sail. We ate our pizza from the night before which may have been the culprit to my upset stomach. I was sick the entire way to San Blas and actually sick for a total of 6 days on and off after that. So maybe it wasn’t the Pizza. But using the word “poison” made for an interesting title.
As I mentioned, I was sick to my stomach and I was lying on the couch down below the entire sail basically. I was no help to Rick whatsoever. Not only was I feeling completely miserable (wishing that death would come soon), I was very disappointed that when we got to Isla Isabella (an island that has the Blue Footed Boobies that I’ve been wanting to see each year, but we never are able to) we couldn't stay. As we approached the Island, Rick summoned me up to check out the island and asked me if I wanted to stop. I sat up in the cockpit barely holding my head up to see the island. It looked like a perfect time to anchor, the wind was nil and there was little to no swell. But, since I still felt rather nauseous, my answer was no and we just motored slowly around and then headed towards San Blas. I went back down below for the next 8 hours. Even when we arrived in Mantachen Bay in San Blas around 3 P.M., I was still feeling crummy. So we stayed on the boat the rest of the day and evening.
Monday, the next day, I felt so much better but still a little wonky and I wanted to go to shore so badly to say hello to our friends Barro & Alicia at Playa Hermosa (a tiny palapa restaurant across from the beach). I thought getting off the constant movement of the boat might help me feel a little better once on land. So, we got Harley, put the dinghy in the water, and zipped over to get Peter on his boat. We all went to shore, had a bite to eat at Playa Hermosa, but no Barro (he was apparently not in yet). We took a brief walk along the beach after eating and let Harley romp in the water and on the sand. She was in heaven! This was her real swimming/beach time she had had since her surgery. After a little exploring on the beach, I was starting to wilt and decided I needed to get back to the boat to rest. So, Rick took me and Harley back to the boat…dropped us off and he went back to join Peter on the beach and they continued on a longer walk and did a little more exploring.
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| Playa Hermosa |
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| Ana and Alicia |
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| Marco (Alicia's Nephew) and Barro |
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| Mia aka Vanna White |
That night, we had Peter over for dinner. He brought the Bonita he had caught on the sail over and since I wasn’t feeling perfect, he cooked the fish for us. He also cooked the Bonita that Rick caught on our sail to San Blas as well. We had lots of fish…even enough for leftovers the next day.
Tuesday morning, I was feeling so much better, but still very weak. But I wasn’t going to give into feeling sick any longer. It was time to get out and show Peter the town of San Blas. We also wanted to go to town to make an appointment for the Tovara Jungle Tour for the following day. We left Harley on the boat that day which she was not happy about. I'm always nervous about the dogs of Mexico wanting to pick a fight with her or that she might even catch something from one of them. There are the most pathetic looking dogs especially in San Blas. Poor Harley doesn't understand...it's for her own good. She just sees us abandoning her.
Once in town we walked around, had a late breakfast and walked some more. We ended up walking to Fonatur and checked out the marina there.... Inquired about possibly leaving our boat there for the summer just in case we don’t make it all the way to Chiapas. We’re sort of realizing that we might be a little behind to make it there by the end of April. We could make it if we didn’t make any stops along the way. But we want to take our time. So coming back to San Blas might be a better option.
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| Taking a break on our walk around town |
In the afternoon as the temperature was climbing and feeling a little unbearable, I started to fade again. So we decided to head out of town, stopping to make our reservations for the jungle tour. As we walked, we stopped in front of an outdoor flower shop. Rick told me to pick out some flowers which I did not hesitate to do. And voila…Valentine’s Day came early. I was very happy that Valentine’s Day had even crossed his mind, let alone him getting me flowers.
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| Flowers for Valentine's Day |
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| Found a home for the flowers on the boat |
As soon as we got back to the boat and after putting my flowers into a ceramic vase with water, I rested down below and we just ate some quesadillas on board for dinner.
The tour went great. It was a perfect morning on the water as we slowly cruised through the mangroves, seeing all kinds of birds (not the 300 species they advertise but a few). We also saw crocodiles on land and some in the water, a few turtles on rocks and some iguanas up in the trees. Very picturesque!
After the tour we went straight back to the boat and had another uneventful evening just eating leftover fish for dinner.
Thursday morning, Valentine’s Day, we decided to take a Taxi ride to Santa Cruz and Miramar. I previously saw some pictures online and it looked like a beautiful spot. So we all went by Taxi to Santa Cruz. We ate a delicious breakfast at Leo’s in Miramar, right on the beach. We only had a few hours before the Taxi driver, Manuel, would be back for us, so we didn’t linger after breakfast and walked through town over to a gorgeous secluded beach in Santa Cruz. It was breathtaking which is about all I can say…words cannot describe it's beauty. Peter said it was the most beautiful place he had ever seen!
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| Lunch at Leo's in Miramar/Santa Cruz |
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| Peter thoroughly enjoying the day |
Later in the afternoon when we got back to where our dinghy was parked…in front of Playa Hermosa, we decided to stay a while before going back to the boat. We had to say goodbye to our friends that worked at the restaurant….Barro, Alicia and her nephew, Marco, his wife Ana and their daughter Mia. If we come back to store our boat in San Blas, we will see them again.
Friday morning we got up, had our coffee and tea, a little breakfast and pulled up our anchor and motor-sailed to Chacala which was about 4 hours away. We sailed for a little bit without the motor for a time even though we were basically drifting. It’s just so much more peaceful that way and we weren’t in any hurry.
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| Cooling off! |
Once we got to Chacala, we stayed on board except to swim around the boat with the dog. We did not go to shore as we have in the past. For us, being at Chacala this time, was just a place to rest for our longer sail to La Cruz the next day. We do like Chacala though and love it’s beach town charm.
Terrific entry... Hope the belly is better now. Stay safe and keep on making the most of it. Abrazos
ReplyDeleteGracias! Abrazos a usted!
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