Dolphin Fiesta!

This was beyond cool!

Sailing from La Paz to Cabo to hook up with friends from Sioux Falls we encountered a crazy dolphin crossing. They don't really show up in the distance in this video plus there was well over a thousand of them swimming around us, jumping and doing their world famous dolphin dives and their daredevil antics of jumping across the bow of our boat.

See You Soon Baboon!

I'm writing this post from down below in the galley (hee hee, that's geek boatspeak for lounge and crash-out spot) while I should be up above on the (poop) deck admiring the scenery...

An Interesting Week

As we read other people's blogs on their travels, we notice one major difference between our experience and theirs: they're socializing, connecting and making friends. And us? We're naming seals (which by the way are SEA LIONS and not as we guessed SEALS how do we know it? Our NEW FRIENDS told us!!!)

Yes! We made contact! I now have a sense of what it will be like the first time people on earth come into communication with space-peeps! Giddy! We've been chillin' with our peeps & going out! GOING OUT!  Two nights in a row at that. Late. Very late. Friday night we (finally) went to a really great local concert. And she sang in Spanish!

My ongoing joke has been "I don't want to go and listen to some old white fat dude belting it out to Hotel California." But long story short...

We made friends! Yes! Indeed we did! And they joined us on a trip! Yes they did! And oh they were prepared... They showed up with a canoe (like a funky fold up kind), fishing equipment (and a SPEARGUN), food, booze, spices (SPICES!), musical instruments (A BANJO - Ayyeee!), snorkeling equipment and stories galore to keep us fully animated til we couldn't keep our eyes open!

Scott (the Outward Bound type of dude) and Kay (who grew up in a commune - how cool is that?) joined us for one full week touring Espiritu Santos and Los Islotes. During this trip we met Damon and Desiree from the Gaya (Gaïa?) and their uber cool steel boat with the funky red sails pictured above. These guys have been living aboard their boat for 9 years. NINE YEARS! They've sailed to Hawaii and the Ecuador making us look like stay-at-home scaredycats!

So... today we hugged and waved them goodbye as they left for their long journey back home to San Fran. And we are now faced with so much space on our small boat! And wondering: could we ever again host people on our boat? It's really not an easy thing to do to bring OTHERS aboard!  Even Desiree who's been doing this for 9 years mentioned how they rarely ever do this...

Oh and shall I mention where we're at in repairs?

1. Fuel injector lift pump (or something like that, as if I know what I'm talking about!) in our motor - broken.
2. High pressure hose for water maker - tore.
3. Bird poop on deck - yes. A lot!
4. Headache - now on day 3. Ugh.
5. That's it. For now. Knock on wood (ouch that hurt my head).

Hasta luego mi amigos y amigas!

Everything Takes Time... And Patience.

Broom Hilda? Come se dice en espanol?

Which we have plenty of (time), but the patience part? A whole n'other ball game! At least where I'm concerned that is! Not very patient at all...  *sigh* (Just ask Leonard in regards to the ongoing torture I've put him through these past few days because of my internet connection issues!)

La Paz has stores on every street corner. Some stores are "tiendas" like small general stores and hold everything from parts to build your own propane BBQ, to awesome terra cotta dishes and brooms. (Oh yeah, most stores have buckets of brooms right out the door, it appears as though these are always in need, especially when people sweep the sidewalks!) You can always find the unexpected...

The problem is finding what you're actually looking for!

And it's cool how some stores are almost organized per district. If you see a "everything-you-need-for-making-a-piñata" store chances are you'll find another right around the corner, and another one across the street.  And yes Virginia, there is a piñata store!

See? I told'ya!

But back (hee hee, I just said "but back", ya get it?) to finding what you're specifically looking for... Here's the simple stuff what we've been struggling with:

• Markers. Regular old Crayola Super Tips Markers that WalMart sells at $5 for 40 markers of all colors! Kids are forced to color with crayons (wax kind) or pencils (wooden kind). Isn't that a sad thought for Mexican kids?
• Pie dough. No dough! Here if you want pie you gotta make it yourself! And that means that I now also need a pie plate!
• Half & Half Cream. Yeah they drink coffee here, but I guess they use milk or drink it black. If you ask for "crema para cafe" in a store they'll show you a can of cream that once opened has the consistency of sour cream. WTH?
• Sunscreen. Oddly enough the sun shines here. Plenty. You would think this item would be a given. Actually I found some today, but it was total block. I don't want to block the sun I just don't want to be scorched by it!
• Mushrooms. Am I hallucinating or are they simply not there? Again, today I finally found some mushrooms after searching and searching numerous stores, markets, etc. But still no baby bellas (my all-time fave) or portabellas. Sigh.
• Caps. More specifically caps for gas cans. We have 2 diesel fuel jugs to hold extra fuel for the long distance runs and for some reason the caps broke! They just simply snapped off the top from being over-tightened. Our jugs are fine (at least I know my jugs are okey-dokey) but the caps are now useless. I've used up my shoes walking this town looking for caps. Nada. (See how at least I put good use to the Spanish I'm learning?)
• 12-Pack of Coke. Forget about it. At least the regular Diet Coke with no added flavors of vanilla, or cherry, or other weird stuff. Can't do it. I guess Mexicans aren't about stocking up like their Northern neighbors - and simply purchase soda one can at a time. 

Mmmm... beer! Now THAT'S a tall one!

p.s. with everything coming in the quantity of "some of this" and "some of that" and "can't find some" you'd think the word "some" would be something I wouldn't struggle with when it comes to translating to Spanish!

Dive! Dive! Dive!

Why didn't I start diving earlier? This is such a fun sport! Can I even call it a sport? To be quite honest, the hardest part of diving is the before and after (getting the gear ready and rinsing it all out with fresh water) because believe me when I tell you - it's by far the most relaxing "sport" I've ever engaged myself in!

I'm still limiting myself a lot in internet usage so these are only the highlights, there are plenty more pictures on my hard drive!

But did you see that close-up? We can see the whiskers of that seal he's so close! And no, I wasn't using the zoom! Did we see Squeaky again? Not quite sure... but I do think he was among those who teased us and came real close (enough to bite). Once we were done with the dive and were just bobbing above one little dude popped up, touched his nose to Leonard's ear and dove back down. It was hilarious! But by then Leonard was quite fed up with how "aggressive" our friends were.  Hahahaha!

Such fun...

Yay! More Pictures!

These are NEW pictures... Most are from our recent trip to local islands. We saw some really cool stuff! Sorry about that pig head to start off. Or to think again - I'm not sorry. I thought it was really freaky to see that head sitting in an open meat counter. Can we say that? A sitting head? And the dudes got a kick out of watching some little gringa snap a quick shot of their meat.

That came out all wrong.

But you'll see lot's of bones on this slideshow. I think a good deal of those bones are whale bones. Really cool. And skulls. Probably leftovers from the meat market displaying the heads... Who knows.

Its a new year and we're getting more and more thrilled by this little journey!

Cheers! And like we say in this neck of the woods: hasta luego!