SATURDAY 4/14/07
We found a tiny little restaurant called Rene y Renee's where the husband and wife team will fill you up with fresh bread, tortillas, juice and jam before you even get to your huevos rancheros! Needless to say we have made this our regular breakfast spot before heading to spanish class. This morning was our third and final spanish lesson. We would take more while we're here, but the amount of information that Betty gave us thus far is enough to study for weeks (which is exactly what we plan on doing!). We said our goodbyes, took a couple of pictures and were on our way to meet Scott for some quality boat-lounging time before happy hour and dinner on his last day here. Travis and Joanne arrived from their inland excursion with lots of pictures to show and stories to tell.
Sunday 4/15/07
Our whole crew went inland this morning to enjoy a farewell breakfast with Scott before waving goodbye as he disappeared inside the ferry headed for Cancun. There was a bit of a silence as the four of us headed back to the dinghy dock. He has added so much to this adventure so far, and though we were sad to see him go, we know we will see him again down the road no matter where we end up! Thanks again Scott!
Monday 4/16/07
This morning Joanne recieved an e-mail from a former co-worker of ours in Key West, Nickola. Nickola is originally from northern France, lived in Key West for a while working as a baker, and has been traveling around mexico for a couple of years. We had not had much contact since he left Key West, but managed to catch him via e-mail over the last couple of days. This gave him just enough time to get to Cancun and catch a ferry over here before we left. It was great to see him again and hear some of his stories about traveling around Mexico- especially while enjoying a rum and coke happy hour on "Calico Jack". We all went in to town for another tasty meal at Picu's cocktereria before heading back to the boats for the night.
Tuesday 4/17/07
After saying goodbyes to Nickola, filling the boats up at the fuel dock, and checking out of Mexico, we're on our way south for a two day crossing to Belize. This started out beautifully with an incredible catch only a few hours after leaving the waters of Isla Mujeres. We heard the drag whiz away and i jumped to the reel while Jeremy fastened the fighting belt around my hips - and i needed it! It was a tug of war that surprisingly only took about fifteen minutes (I'm such a stud, huh?) before we could see the 4 1/2 ft. wahoo just below the surface. One of the tastiest fish in the ocean- and a big one! We packed the fridge and freezer to the top with 18 large steaks! What a great day back on the ocean! Tuesday night Okay, so maybe I spoke too soon... or perhaps i shouldn't have had that wahoo sashimi-style. Either way, halfway into my 11am-3am watch I began to think that my wahoo bit back. For the next 24 hours I am what can only be described as wickedly ill.
Wednesday 4/18/07
Yup, I'm still wallowing around on the cabin floor. In fact, I honestly cannot recall anything but wallowing up until about 4 or 5pm when I finally began to come around a bit. By nightfall I was just barely well enough to keep watch. It proved a pretty long night with heavy cruise ship and tanker traffic (ships the size of small cities that travel about 5 times as fast as us and generally don't keep much of a watch out for smaller traffic) and the fact that we were both pretty exhausted- me from being deathly ill and Jeremy from having to make up for my watches all day long. We miss you Scott!...
Thursday 4/19/07
By dawn things were finally starting to get a bit rosier with Belize's Ambergris Cay in sight. Entrance to the island is quite nerve-wrecking because the entire area is surrounded by a very shallow barrier reef. The giant spanning coral that make us so nervous with the 6ft. of keel underneath our boat is the same thing that makes this area perhaps some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world. The water is so crystal clear that 30ft. of depth looks more like 5ft.- and once we were in only 7 or so feet of water at the entrance to the shallow anchorage it looked like at any second our boat would be sitting on the ground, or worse- the reef! But our charts and GPS proved well and we had just enough water to safely sail in and set anchor at last! After what should have been a relatively painless crossing, we arrived both weary and myself several pounds lighter. Calico Jack arrives only a couple of hours after us and in a similar state. We had all hoped for slightly calmer weather- but we've made it to Belize, and it is just beautiful! Clearing in through customs takes most of the afternoon, after which we pick up some fresh local produce to enjoy back on the boat with some wine and four of the beautiful wahoo steaks (this time it does not bite back!)... Also, special thanks to the girls at Banana Cafe for the wonderful well-being care package you all put together for our trip. Those vitamin C packets and the tea really came in handy on my road to wellness-and the papaya enzymes are perfect following the beloved delicious but sketchy Central American taco stands! You guys are the best!!
Friday 4/2o/07
This morning after putting the boat back together Jeremy and I went snorkeling. There are only a few other boats in this anchorage and the water is so clear that we decided this area would be fine for a quick first snorkel trip. We loaded our fins into the dinghy and went to the reef just at the edge of the anchorage (about a 1 minute dinghy ride). The water is so clear and we saw several stingrays and lots of tiny brilliant reef fish dodging in and out of the giant sprawling coral heads. We only stayed in for a bout 45 minutes or so since we had not yet had breakfast and there was still plenty of cleaning up to be done on the boat, but it was wonderful to see such life right in our back yard. Once we got back to the boat we learned a little more about the life in our back yard when we saw a very large dark shadow head in our direction from about 400ft. away. We are not yet sure what kind of shark it was, but we had a blast keeping an eye out for the 8-footer as it circled around our area all afternoon! (Did i mention that we had thrown a couple of the wahoo steaks overboard earlier to make room for fresh veggies? Hmmm...) This evening was spent strolling around the little Ambergris Cay town of San Pedro. It is a really fun, clean island town. I think there are more tourists here than most of the other islands we will be visiting further south in Belize, but this also makes it a more convenient place to stock up on fresh groceries again (though the prices are much more expensive than Mexico- of course). We did find an awesome little tortillaria with three tacos for $1 Belize (that's 50 cents US!) and little delicious hand made fluffy corn tortillas (that's the only way I can describe them) layered with veggies, cheese, beef and pork! I cannot remember what they are called, but What a find! There are four main streets in San Perdo. The beach is one of them, followed by front street, middle street and back street. Also the three main modes of transportation are walking, biking or golf cart. Simplicty is a beautiful thing! ...
Saturday 4/21/07 This morning I am heading to the internet cafe (the Coconet) to post this last week's activity. In a couple of days we plan to head south to some of Belize's much more remote cays. I promise to keep taking lots of pictures and will post more as soon as I can find internet service again, but am not sure when that will be. Please keep checking in on us! Love & miss you all. xoxoxo
