Grand Cayman Island - the island of wild chicken

Grand Cayman Island - the island of wild chicken
May 7 - May 27

   How long you would like to stay in paradise?  Well, we stayed 21 day and liked every minute of it.  We arrived in Grand Cayman from Cayo Largo, Cuba not in very calm conditions. We started sailing practically with no wind (we were making just 2.5-3 kn), then, during the night wind and waves picked up, and in the morning we got squalls all over, wind over 25 and high waves.  It's a miracle how we made it through the cut into a bay, we were practically surfing in on the crashing waves.  But we made it and with huge relief docked at the Barcadera Marina.  At once we noticed huge contrast between Cuba and Caymans, so, we were back to civilization.
   Well, of course, prices are according to the level of living.  The next day for the Mother's day brunch we spent nearly $200 at the marina's restaurant where the food was absolutely outstanding!  That was just a start of the cultural shock. Nevertheless, we love this beautiful, clean and vibrant place.
Since it's a UK territory,  traffic is on the left side and, we appreciated the local government postings of the signs "Look right"/"Look left" when crossing the streets (in Camana Bay shopping mall). I guess, locals got fed up with tourists not paying attention on the streets.

  The next couple days we moved to the anchorage in Governor's Creek Bay (locals call it The Queen's bottoms) which is surrounded by the most expensive huge houses of the island.  There are palaces around here which deserve to be on the list of the attractions for tourists. We got a chance to visit one of these houses for Sunday BBQ: our friend (met in Isla Mujeres), a young German girl who is sailing single handed, docked at her acquaintances mansion for engine repair and she invited us to that house. We had a wonderful BBQ evening where we met with other locals.
  The Grand Cayman is an island of the wild chicken. There are many beautiful healthy looking roosters each with couple hens around and half dozen of little chicks walking on the streets, in the shopping markets parking lots, near trash cans, crossing roads, everywhere! For some reason locals don't try to catch them for their dinners, and these chicken is considered to be an island pest. Sometimes they are slow to cross roads and then they become Cayman's "speed bump".  The story we got from the locals is that the last hurricane destroyed the chicken farm, and whatever chicken survived became roaming wild chicken.


   The best attraction of the island is Stingray City - it's a sandbar in the bay where near a hundred huge stingrays are swimming to feed on fishermen treats.  Crowds of tourists transported here by boats every day, hanging out in the shallow water, feeding stingrays, touching them, petting them and even putting them on the top of own body.  This is very unique experience!  We visited this magic place twice, just to play with these magnificent creatures.  They are huge!  Of course, the question is why stingrays do not sting people, and locals say probably because they feed them and never harm them.
   We stayed on the island enough time to visit all attractions on the island.  We rented a car for two weeks for just $57 a week. This is the cheapest purchase we had on the island!  Usually, afternoons, we would park our dinghy at the Yacht Club and take a ride in our rented A/C car.  That definitely helped us survive the very hot afternoons!  We loved to hang out in Camana Bay shopping mall (similar to our Domain in Austin), where we would catch a new movie in a very expensive movie theater ($14.50 per person), visit the Italian ice cream cafe ($7 for one cone), Jessi's Juices place for my favorite green juice ($8 per glass).  The National Gallery was a very nice surprise - a lot of interesting modern style painting from the local artists (again, A/C worked great there!!!). 
 
Another interesting experience we had at the Ice Bar, located on the waterfront in Georgetown.  The entrance was $15 including a drink, and everybody gets a coat and gloves before entering the "freezer".  It was so cold there that I was not able to finish a drink.  One of the nights we got lucky to see "Foreigner" performance on the beach.

   We ate out almost every day because the food was very delicious at every place you ate.  Our favorite was an Indian restaurant "Southern Spice", with the biggest dosas ever!
 
  
  The island is amazing for stuck up on provision. You can find any type of fresh fruits, salads, berries, meets, fish, cheeses (!!!), dairy products, anything you want, in just couple supermarkets. There are "Cost U less" with the best cheaper bean coffee (Rainforest San Francisco); couple Foster's food stores (a bit expensive), and, Marina's favorite, "Kirk" with organic food, delicious cafeteria, fresh crusty breads (similar to Whole Foods in US).

  What else happened in this beautiful place?  Marina broke a finger while shutting a window, the next day we had to visit a hospital to have x-rays.  Marina had to visit an eye doctor, still trying to figure out what's wrong with her eyes.  Dr.Krishna Mani, an Indian, living on the island longer than 30 years, was very helpful.
   The best event on this island was a meeting with long time Russian friend Tatiana (we met in Austin), who, with her boyfriend happened to be travelling on a cruise ship and had a stop in George Town!

Havana, Cuba

Havana trip
April 27- May 1

To get to Havana from Cayo Largo seems to be very easy. We saw some airplanes and big catamaran ferries landing and departing almost every day. But, as turned out, to get the seats in these means of transportation is not so easy. After acquiring around we found out that ferry takes only trabajadores (the local workers), and tourists are not allowed on it. We had more luck with an air transportation - the manager of marina "pulled the strings" and got us two seats on a flight after three days (and, of course, for some extra friendly fee). In just couple of hours we had to move the boat to the marina and park our luggage. Our flight to Havana turned out to be a helicopter! The old, possibly repainted and rebuilt inside, army helicopter for 20 people. We felt like participants of the "Survival" TV show. The ride was very loud (we did not have any ear protection), and every part of this machine was shaking crazy. This amazing flight over nearby islands, bay of Batando, marshlands, villages and fields of the Cuba's mainland lasted one hour and 15 min, but it was very memorable.
 
Havana shocked us by huge contrast between old unkept buildings for general population and grandiosity of old beautiful hotels for foreigners. Taxi driver did a very good job helping us to find a place to stay at any casa particulares near Prado area (near Havana Viejo). We were surprised that nightly fee is not so cheap as we expected - it's $30 a night, and $40 with a breakfast. We slowly were running out of money in Cuba, starting with the expensive check-in in Las Moras. And, as US citizens we are not able to use US banks issued credit and debit cards. The accommodations were nice and clean, even had hot water. In the morning we had our first Cuban coffee (the best coffee I ever tried) with a Cuban sandwich (for Kevin), and cheese sandwich for me. This is seems like a typical local quick breakfast. Still, it was not cheap, $8 (who said Havana was cheap?). We slowly strolled along Prado, the grand street in Habana Vieja, packed with old beautiful buildings, like grand hotels Englaterra, Telegraph and Sevilla, theater, capitol and Museum of Revolution close by. These hotels are just for foreigners, and only money accepted around here are CUCs, not Cuban Pesos. In Nueva Gerona (the capital of Isla Juventud) we bought a lot of vegetables and fruits just for about 50 pesos, but we spent 5 CUCs on seven bananas in Havana (tourist tax?).


 
 Internet is still problematic in Havana. There are wi-fi portals around city where you can connect to the world, and one could recognize such place by the crowd with different electronic devices in hands. People hanging out in places like that all the day and night long, coming with whole families, having dates there, drinking beer, keeping kids in the strollers. Couple smart guys selling the Internet cards there (3 CUCs for 1 hour of Internet) and gladly help their customers to connect your electronic device to wi-fi.


 We loved Cuban coffee! The authentic coffee is served black, in small white cups and with a serving of raw sugar. It is very strong, but very small. In the morning, locals buy coffee and a Cuban sandwich at small stands in the neighborhood.
 We visited a famous La Floridita bar in the old city - the birthplace of daiquiri, invented by Hemingway. The drink is represented in a lot of variations, like strawberry, lime, etc. and cost a lot (6 CUCs). So, all day long, tourists show up in the bar to taste the original daiquiri for 6 CUCs and take a picture with the iron statue of Ernest. And, we did the same, of course.

 On the third day of our stay in Havana, we made it to Museum of Revolution, which is, of course, on the list of the places to visit in Cuba. To get there, we took a public bus, orange P1, from Vedado district (gastronomical district of Havana). As the bus station we joined the long line to the bus, got pushed in the bus, squished, stripped out of any personal space, and, finally, delivered to the museum near the Capitol. The entry ticket was 8 CUCs, and we got very disappointed with the museum. Even though outside the building which hosts this museum looks very grand, inside it is just very run down and dirty. Basically, there are no any artifacts presented there, just some stories printed in Spanish on the old fading photo posters. And, of course, a lot of stories and pictures about Che!!!! The hero. I guess, we just gave donations to Fidel's government.
 



 At the hotel Cevilla, we bought our return flight tickets to Cayo Largo for May 1. This is an International Labor day, and a big celebration in Cuba. We missed the huge parade on this day, but we were really happy to get back to our boat in Cayo Largo.

Cuba, South-West coast and Isla Juventud

April 7 - 25, 2016
We had to stop in Las Moras for the check-in to Cuba. Otherwise, this place doesn't have any attractions. The cost guard guys saw us on the radar, and commanded to dock at their dilapidated concrete dock, which have seen better times and now is just dangerous for docking. The surge was so bad that we were seriously afraid for our boat to be damaged (remembering the nightmare in Los Mojes island) But we survived this rough night, and gladly left in the morning. The next stop was La Bajas, a little village in the Bahia Carriente. It's possible that this village used to be a prosperous fishing settlement, but these days there are no any boat is found around there, very strange. We woke up from the coast guard's request (over VHF) to sail immediately to Maria La Gorda for check-in. Funny, but the guard doesn't have a boat to conduct his business, so the cruisers supposed to pick him up and drop him off on his demand.-There are couple mooring balls around, but cruisers are not allowed to use them, and the bottom doesn't have very good holding. This is a beautiful place, with very transparent waters and white sand beach along the whole coast of the bay. There is a diving resort where we paid for our stay in this bay (cost us 10 CUCs, this is the other Cuban currency for tourists, 1CUC is roughly 1EU), everybody has to pay even if you stay on the anchor. The purchased resort ticket included drinks, the cheapest one was rum - $0.50.
It's not much to do here, or to buy anything. We spent our days snorkeling, swimming and trying to catch lobsters or fish (however, without positive results). It seems that this place is very popular tourist place: we were surprised to meet a lot of US tourists, among others from different countries, yesterday two 150 feet sailboats showed up filled with tourist (the flag was Greek), and today we woke up from the loud intercom messaged from the big cruise boat Celestyal Cruises.
Fished today again... Kevin spired one little (baby) crab, hardly enough for a snack. It's just a row of unfortunate attempts for fishing: first was an unfortunate eye horse jack - it was huge! and we thought it's a pompano fish, but we found his description in the book, and "oh,well, it has to go over board", they have ciguteria; second was unfortunate huge lobster we spotted near the cliffs - Kevin shoot and wounded him multiple times, but it got away; third was an unfortunate little baby crab.. but it was very tender and tasty!
Almost all the day today Kevin spent helping Drew from "La Cruz" to fix battery problem, and we hope tomorrow afternoon we will be off for Isla Juventud.
Unfortunately, we had to motor sail all the way (22 hours) to the anchorage in Isla Juventud, at the anchorage at the entrance of the Marina Colony. We separated with our friends from La Cruz,; they went to Nueva Gerona to try to extend their visas. We really hate to go East, but there is no other ways as motoring into the wind! I guess, we will have these conditions all the way to the Cayo Largo.
Next day we planned to visit a capital Nueva Gerona on the north site of the island. There were couple options available to do so, including a car rental for $60, but luckily, we were able to catch a public bus from the nearby Hotel Colony. From the marina we walked about 20 min to the hotel (if you lucky, you can potentially spot a crocodile in the little pond near the road, we did not), where we were able to use internet!!!! for 30 min for $1. It was very slow, loading of emails and sending two took about all the time, but that was a nice surprise. Very conveniently we spotted a public bus departing for Gerona. That was a treat to take this bus: it cost only 1 CUC (we overpaid). We stopped in every little village to pick up and drop off locals, and we participated in conversation with the local women, who were very friendly and happy (finally Kevin had a chance to give a pencil to one lady). About pencils and other "gifts":  we were told by other cruisers that we absolutely have to bring pencils, pens, soap and candy for presents. However, for two weeks while staying in Cuba, we still were not able to use our little gifts as exchange for food or just as tokens of appreciation. The bus ride was long, more than an hour, but we saw the most of the Isla Juventud. The town Nueva Gerona reminded me much of my childhood in Soviet Union, the same cars (but looking very old, like Moskvich, Lada, Volga); people live in the same concrete block buildings, which desperately need a face lift; women dressed up in very bright colors, and  none of the closing items of outfits are matching (I guess, you wear what you can get?). We took a bicycle taxi (strange looking thing) to the town docks, and visited there our friends from La Cruz. The river was very very stinky and dirty (sewage discharge?), so we decided not to bring our boat here. At the local agromercado we bought fruits and veggies (which was about $3 for a load of food!). At the main street we stopped by at the Western Union hopping that maybe we can get money this way (our cards are not working in Cuba's ATMs, not yet...), but the sign in the window let us know there is  "No connection", so.. no money. It was very interesting to visit local supermarkets - all products have both prices in Cucs and pesos, and it's kind of cheap. We bought a little red bucket in one of the stores, very similar to our old one which we bought in Venezuela. That was a good deal too. There are not many choices in the food stores, which again, reminded me old Soviet times of my youth. In one store we saw a line of people for the big pork legs (and you have to bring your own rapping material), in the same store you could buy eggs, powdered soft drinks and alcohol (7 different types of Havana Club rum). I was excited to see Panaderia, and bought there "the bread" (there is only one kind of the bread in the whole big store). The other stores had some shoes (haha, the same ugly crap we had in our old Soviet stores), some ugly ladies outfits, multiple types of shampoo, soap, some electric appliances, and a lot of plastic goodies. All restaurants serve about the same food - all pork prepared in different ways, rice and plantains. For desert we got an ice cream at a little stand on the main street, dirt cheap - two for less than a $1, but you have to wait for your ice cream to freeze for about 20 min (the ice machine doesn't work very well). There was only one kind of ice cream - chocolate, and it was very sweet! At the nearby gas station we saw a tractor filling up with the gas, and oddly  enough, it was old soviet tractor of brand Belarus, I really felt like back in time at home in Ukraine. On the way back we had to take a taxi (only 15 cucs), because we missed our public bus (there are no any schedules available anywhere).
 
The weather prediction is not very suitable for our travel to Cayo Largo, again.. we have to wait a week before we can travel. Our next stop around the corner is just 15 miles away, the Punta Buenavista. The coverage against NE strong winds, which should hit us for another four days, should be sufficient here. We are the only boat around all west cost of the big island, and we feel very alone at this deserted place. During the day we tried to fish, got couple needle fishes, and that's all... well, the vegetarian supper today again. In the afternoon I spotted a local rowing on the weird looking water transportation, resembling the craft our friend Igor from Calcuta built himself.
 
Is you are looking for the total isolation from the human world, this is a place to stay - no radio, no internet, no phone, no people, no roads, no passing boats, just "nada", well, there is a flock of pelicans lives here. Sometimes total silence hurts your ears, and this is the case here... Today Kevin figured out that the diesel we bought in Marina Colony from a dive boat crew has more water than actually diesel content. We got screwed up by the Cubans a big deal, considering we spent our precious cash on this garbage. Kevin asked "how do they sleep at night?", I am sure they sleep wonderfully and planning another revenge action against stupid greengos.
We are in total isolation at these lonely bays of Isla Juventud - nobody is around, and it's very quiet. The radio has only one station which is a Communistic party station, and today for two hours we were listening Fidel Castro's speech about Cuban's achievements for the current Communistic party session in Havana. It's the same crap we had in Soviet Union all the day long on the radio. But it's a nice comprehension lesson in Spanish! Most of the songs are about revolution, and "International" is very popular too. They have an English station which transmits the same crap, but in English, crazy!
The next two nights we anchored in Ensenada de los Barcos. This is a very huge and very shallow bay, the protection from NE was ok, but the sound of hauling wind was very eerie at night, seemed like boat is going to drag any time. Because of the long distance to the shore we did not go explore around, and there were not actually anything around... as well as in the water of 7 feet deep, just mud...
There are no more convenient anchorages close by anymore, so we have to cover distance of 26 miles today. It took us eight hours of sailing (Oh yes, we finally sailed in Cuba!!!!) and motorsailing (last 3 miles, running from the rain) to Estero Simon anchorage. Finally we saw more live around - while passing Nueva Gerona channel, saw couple big fish boats and three small makeshift cubans "boats" (some look more like a raft, others like a former car???). The land looks interesting with a lot of low mountains (or rather high hills), but very dry and not much lush vegetation. We saw the whole complex of nice buildings composing a former prison, where Fidel Castro was kept during Batistas regime. Now it's a state museum (at least according to some guidebooks), but we did not find a dock to leave a dinghy near the prison. So, we gave up our only excursion to the land, and maybe for better, because theoretically we are not allowed to go to the shore without permission of the coast guards.
Early morning, just right before sunrise we were on our way to Pasa de Quitasol, did not have any problems crossing, the channel was very well marked. Surprisingly it took us only 7 hours of motorsailing upwind to the Canal de Rosario, where we finally saw other sailing boats (actually, just charters). Kevin discovered a new oil leak in the engine, and it doesn't look good. However, next day we had to use our sick engine again to take us to the last destination in Cuba, Cayo Largo. It took us 17 days to get from the north-west side of Cuba to the south. Going East, against the wind, really did not work for us well: instead of sailing we had to run our engine hard just to make right in time to the next stop, and we did not get much enjoyment staying at the deserted muddy "not a living thing around" anchorages all 15 days. We were exhausted physically and morally by the time we made it to Cayo Largo.


Cayo Largo, Cuba 

April 26, 2016
This place is very beautiful: water is clear and blue, there are reefs around (we did not swim there yet), which supposed to be populated with lobsters and big fish. Will see... We easily checked in at the Marina, met Sr.Piele who speaks Russian(!), and moved to the nice and windy anchorage nearby. A lot of the catamaran charters parked there among the cruisers. Sometimes, it gets loud at nights, and people are here from many many different countries.

The island itself is cute little town right close to the airport. To get the flight to Havana is not very easy here - we already waiting for 2 days for the empty seats. There is not many businesses in the town: there is a bank to exchange the money (dollar is not in favour here, the EU does considerably better); the hospital with ambulance, couple restaurants, gift shops with limited choices, a tiny grocery shop with grumpy cashier and very expansive, and a museum. I am so glad that we still have some groceries left for another week. Meanwhile, Kevin is trying to fix the engine, we hope that exchange of the defective injector will fix all our problems.

Isla Mujeras, Mexico 
March 1 - April 6
The short stop at this beautiful island on the way to Cuba turned into stay of more than a month. We are still waiting for suitable wind direction and speed to sail to Cuba on the south side. We anchored here in the beautiful open bay with the view on the town, constant local traffic of the tourist snorkel boats and loud party catamarans. The bottom holding in this area is very bad and unpredictable. On one night of the strong northern wind (up to 32 m/h), we had multiple boats drugging, some of which caused damage to our friend's boat, Calcuta. Almost all the night we were on the watch dogging from the dragging passing by boats with the sleeping crew, helping others to re-anchor after loosing an anchor, taking a crew with sudden heart attack to the shore, and all that in one short night. We met with many cruisers stationing here for indefinite time, saw our new friends sail off to south, and saw old friends from previous travels come to stay at Isla Mujeres (Wanderer and Kokopeli).
We got into mundane cruiser's life here: teaching yoga three times a week, playing Mexican train on Sundays, Tuesdays - happy hour and cheap taco diner, Friday - pizza night. We thought that Mexico will be the first country we are not going to visit doctors, but Marina got problems with the tooth crown and had to visit wonderful dentist Victoria at the Splash dental. Near her office we found a local girl teaching Spanish, with who we are taking some classes.
On April 6 (Marina's birthday) the weather finally decided to change to our benefit, and we left this beautiful island for overnight crossing of the Yucatan channel. For 24 hours we motor sailed to Cabo San Antonio, Las Moras, our first stop in Cuba.

Mexico by boat cont.

Puerto Morelos (El Cid marina) and Playa del Carmen 

February 23-29, 2016
As soon as notherlies light up a bit, we sailed to Puerto Moreles where we stayed in El Cid marina.
The weekly rate was $0.75 and amenities included restrooms and showers (with water!), usage of lavanderia and access to the all inclusive resort (pools, bars and restaurants), but it was not free, so we did not use much those facilities. There are manly local fishing and entertaining boats parked at this marina, and the movement of the tourists starts very early. Turned out that our checkin papers were not in order at all, so, the next day after arrival we had to travel back to Cozumel's authorities and request one final and most important document. That was fun too, because otherwise we would not visit Playa del Carmen, which is a gem of the Mayan Rivera. From El Cid marina we walked to Puerto Morelos town (about 40 min), where we first had a break in a very cute french coffe house  (I got my favorite green juce!). Then we took a publico bus (8 pesos) to the carrera 307 (main interstate road) where we got in the bigger public bus going to Playa del Carmen (44 pesos). There are three different companies who run frequent ferries to Cozumel, and we got on UltraMar (about $10 per person). In Cozumel we got an important paper (after we made the authorities to call the person in El Cid), and we are back to Playa del Carmen.  On the way back we had an Argentinian band playing right in the ferry! It was much fun!

We really loved Puerto Morelos town - it still has it's own character, and not overpopulated with tourists. Seems more like an old hippy town with yoga instructors walking around. There are a lot of nice not too expensive restaurants serving food all over the world, each place with its own charm. On the weekend they had a swimming competition at the malecon and then First Ceviche Festival. Kevin had a chance to participate in the stunt of the traveling Argentinian circus (mainly clowns) and be a target of the FritoNacho's throwing knives.

On the beach we spotted an old rusty handmade catamaran which served Cubans to cross the ocean. It's amazing they actually made it alive on this structure with the engine without even transmission....

Mexico by boat

Xcalac, Bahia del Espiritu Santo, Bahia de la Ascencuion, Punta Allen and Cozumel

February 1 - 13,  2016
Sail to Xcalac was easy and we stayed there only overnight. Not much around here...Could not check in Mexico because there are no any authorities except of capitania, we just got a letter from the port authority that we were passing by.
Bahia del Espiritu Santo - came in very late, in panic were looking for the cut in the reefs, but luckily figured out. Seas were kind of high, so we could not go fast, but we made it right before nightfall and anchored in the darkness at the Owen Island. Next day was very long, and rolly sail to Punta Allen.

Bahia de la Ascencuion, Punta Allen - stayed here for 12 days, waiting for the northerlies calm down. We were very glad to discover this hidden gem not fully populated by the tourists. This settlement is based on the "farming" lobsters, and known for the natural preservation park of mangroves. Seems that this settlement was before a mayan's fishing village, but since it became a nacional preserve, almost every day a lot of tourists come here by lanchas or jeeps (very bad road!) to explore nature. However, at night it gets very quiet when all tourists leave. There are couple hotels for tourists fishermen (the best is Fisherman's lodge - very good wifi) and a campground for the backpackers, couple mini grocery stores and a veggie/fruits. One can buy fresh chicken and other meets on Saturdays! And, there is a bakery in town in the blue building without a sign. We met interesting people here, like Piter (French Canadian) with his wife working at Serena's hotel - he makes very good coffee. Surprisingly enough (for such a tiny settlement), there is another coffee place which is open from 1pm - 2pm? at the days when tourists show up. We met the owner Alina from Mexico City, very young girl who exchanged busy and energetic life of the huge city on the sleepy passing time in Punta Allen, which most of the people even don't know this place exists.
Food was kind of cheap there, especially at Lucy's Economical Comida - for $0.65 (there is no any ATM in the place, so we had some change from previous Mexico trips) we got two lobster soups, rice, tortiallas and juces!

While staying in Punta Allen, we took a day trip to Tulum - to get money at ATM, visit Mayan ruins and be in civilized world for a day. We took a public lancha (just 1 hour) via lagoon from Punta Allen to Tulum, then hitchhiked, taxi, etc. to town. The ruins were not so much impressive to us, since we have been already to Tical. On the way back we had to wait for the lancha to pick us up for about 2 hours, this time we spent sitting in the mangroves, drinking and talking with other passengers.

We saw a crocodile on the way back to Punta Allen!


February 14th - Punta Allen to Cozumel, Mexico
Finally we made it out from Punta Allen and successfully arrived in Cozumel. The sail was uncomfortable due to the big broken waves, but we made it in a good time and finally, we are back to civilization.
Stayed 2 nights on the anchor, near the ferry dock - very uncomfortable, rolly. There are no any suitable places to park your dinghy - while parking on the beach need to walk through the corrals. But it's nice to be right in the heart of the island. For better protection we moved to the newly built marina - Marina Afunatur, near the Marina Colleta. The entrance to the marina is kind of scary, but a local boat helped us in. We were only the third boat at the big marina, and there are no running water in restrooms and showers. To get to downtown need a car or the taxi (which is kind of expensive - $10 both ways).
Cozumel is not the same as we remember it from 15 years ago! Now it's a tourist attraction with huge all-inclusive resorts and very expensive chain restaurants. The ferry running every 30 min from/to Playa del Karmen and taxis are waiting for arrivals to take them snorkling, diving and drinking tours.
The first day in Cozumel we spent just on checking in: started in Capitania, who sent us to Immigration (too guys from there picked us up on their truck), then a short ride to Airport to put a stamp in customs. The next step, still in Airport, was checkup at the agriculture window. These guys were very serious and followed protocol: we had to take an official to our boat to check all our provision (especially, that we came from Guatemala). Poor girl got wet while helping us to drag a dinghy to the water, then couple waves splashed, then, we don't have a stair to get on our boat (it requires some physical strength). All our "fresh" stuff was ok, because we shopped for it already in Mexico, in Punta Allen, and the girl had a story to tell her friends after the trip to the anchored boat!
The next step was a visit to the hospital and sign off from the doctor that we are ok and not having weird symptoms. We did that too... then back to Capitania, where we got a copy of the document with all the signs and stamps. Uhhh, what a day we had! But, we visit almost all the parts of Cozumel, that was very helpful.

I enjoyed a great grocery shopping in Mega and Chedraui: such abundance of yogurts, breads, poltry, and all! One of the days we rented a jeep, for free, - that was a deal for attending the sail pitch of the "vacation ownership" in one of the grand resorts. How much our free time of 4 hours costs? Not much, just renting a jeep for 24 hours. It was kind of fun to listen and talk with the salespeople, Kevin made everybody laugh... Next day we went to the movie, that was fun.

Rio Dulce to Belize

Rio Dulce to Belize

October 24 - November 19, 2015
After about 6-7 weeks of travel in Central America we are back "home" in Rio Dulce at the Marina Nanajuana. At the end of October, it's still very hot and humid here. This weather has very demoralizing effect on me, the A/C unit is sure will be much more helpful than a big fan we have, but sure we can hold on another month here. Despite of the heat, humidity, bugs, and foul smell in Rio, we had so much fun with people we met here, and made friends for live. Everybody chipped in in organizing fun events, including yoga, aqua aerobics, circuit training, Sundays BBQs, birthday celebrations, happy hours on Fridays, and the best Halloween 2015! And we drank a lot of Close wine, sold in packages...

At the end of October a lot of boats started leaving for the next adventures. Our time came too and we sailed off to Texan Bay on Rio Dulce. The weather changed from the bad to worth, it rained non stop for 3 days which caused mold to flourish inside of the boat. We traveled together with S/V Garua, our argentinian friends, from Texan Bay to Livingston, then checked out there without using an agent (it's easy when you speak Spanish finally!). Both of our boats successfully passed the shallow spot in the channel on the way out to Tres Puntos, and the next day we arrived in Placencia, Belize. We did not know yet that we will spent more than two months here!
On the shore in Placencia we found all the businesses closed due to the nacional holiday of Garifunas. Oddly enough, that is the Kevin's birthday. We ate lunch at Brenda's shack right on the beach (local food, but she charges too much, so, everybody is allured to this shack only once), found ATM, cim card for the phone, etc. Next day we took a local bus to Dangriga city to check in our boat there (somebody told us that we should not check in in Placencia because it's much expensive than in Dangriga). We were able only to check in with Immigration, but Customs sent us back to Placencia (actually, to Big Creek, where the port is). Took the bus back to Mango Creek, then taxi to the Big Creek port area where we finally checked in with customs, health, and port authority. And, the cost is the same as it would be at any other check in place (each day staying in Belize cost $2.50).

Belize and Guatemala City trips

November 20, 2015 - January 2016
I fell in love with Placencia right away! It's a very nice, little and cute, clean and charming beach town. There are a lot of good restaurants with very delicious gourmet food, little local lunch taco places, multiple very fresh veggies/fruits stands (can buy even herbs like dill, basil and mint!!!), fish coop store and weekly the local fishermen boats return with their catch from the reefs to the city docks. There are a lot of chineese grocery stores in town where one could buy fresh milk, hand made delicious yogurts, cheeses, cream for coffee, chicken and much more. That was very pleasant surprise to discover Placencia. We met a lot of expats from Canada, US, UK and other places, and seems that prices for the properties here are still very affordable to most of the people. There are more hotels on the shore with wite sandy beaches, bars and restaurants. Everything you wish you could find in Placencia. My favorite place was a coffee house Aboveground, where they sell absolutely the best guatemalian coffee (from the highlands of lake Attitlan), and the best green juice.

In couple days our friends, Garua, left to Mexico, and we left alone on the anchorage, not counting charters sometimes.
Our eldest daughter with her boyfriend visited us on Thanksgiving holidays. Unfortunately, the weather was not much cooperating and we could not enjoy sailing to the outer reefs, and even staying at the cays in the inner channel was very uncomfortable due to the strong northern fronts all the week, not counting rain every day. The other problem in Belize is that there is only one road in good condition, the main road, which is not a connection of Placencia or other southern parts of Belize with Belize City. So, the trip on the public bus from Placencia to Belize City, airport, is about uncomfortable 6 hours, especially, if you did not get used to the third world countries travels.
Early December we had to go back to Guatemala City to see couple doctors, because even Belize city doesn't have any acceptable facilities. To get to Guatemala City from Placencia is not very easy, and it takes about 15-20 hours. There is no direct route, so... first, you take an early Hocky-Pocky water lancha from Placencia to Independency town; then take a public bus from Independency to Punta Gorda, about 2.5 hours, get lunch and hang out in this delipidated town for about 2.5 hours; then take a sea ferry (leaves at 1pm) from Punta Gorda to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala (takes about 1.5 hours of salt water splashes); checkin to Guatemala on the way to the Litegua bus station and take the last bus to Guatemala City at 4pm (it takes about 6 hours, sometimes longer when there is an accident on the road near capital city, which happens almost every day), and, at about midnight you finally make it to Guatemala City! The way back is the same, but waiting time between stops shorter, so, you can make it back to Placencia in 15 hours. We have done this trip four times, and each time we had a lot of fun! People you meet! That is the best treasure.
In Guatemala City we stayed in Zona 15, one of the high end areas in Guatemala City. The place we rented through airbnb and enjoyed our stay in the apartment near the house of the former president. The walk to the Medical center was just about 15 min, our hosts lived the next door and gave us a ride couple times. On the day of surgeries, they even made us chicken soup to help our recovery. While staying in Guatemala City we visited all the malls and cinemas available in capital city. It was so nice to be back to civilization for a short time.

On December 19th we came back to Belize and decided to ride the bus all the way to Belize City in order to meet Kevin's mom next day who traveled on the cruise ship to Belize, such coincidence!
We kept our Lucky Seven in the marina Thunderbird, Placencia while our travels to Guatemala. It's not the best place to stay, but, it's very safe, not too expensive ($200 a week), and a free laundry. There are no any cruisers staying there, just boats parked, and marina is very small, maybe for about 10 boats max. The traffic all day there is mostly from the local lanchas and fishing charters. The town is very far to walk, need a taxi or travel by dinghy.
While our hands still were not healed, we stayed at the Placencia's town dock - just for $12.50/day, that was cheap and relatively safe choice, but very very rolly, so we had to move to the anchorage. While staying in Placencia we met a bunch of our Rio Dulce's friends come and go: Miss Molly, Matador, Walking on Water, Kokopeli, etc.
We had a very nice Christmas and Fillip's birthday with Miss Molly and Matador. Then, had a lot of fun on the New Year's Eve at the dinner in Fishrum restaurant, and watched fireworks at the beach.
And finally, the day came, when we sailed off to South Water Cay together with Miss Molly and Matador. But, unfortunately, we experienced a problem with engine - took in some water, so, the next day we had to return back to Placencia, Thunderbird marina for the repairs! Back to the same place, and it feels like home! Luckily, the repair did not take long time and in couple days we are off again - cought up with Miss Molly and Matador in Twin Cays.

Twin Cays - it's a range of couple mangrove islands, which situated to create a very nice protected area, from any direction of the winds. We stayed there 10 days! because of the bad weather. There is not much on the islands and around, and we have not walked on the tierra firma for all that 10 days (not counting a couple min walk on the near by SouhtWater Cay while looking for the dirt to plant an aloe). But, we loved staying there every minute: we cought and ate our first lion fish, saw spotted eagle rays playing near our boat, spotted a blacktip shark on the reef in SouthWater Ca, and saw a manatee. We spent a lot of time on our companions boat, Miss Molly, for happy hours and playing mexican dominos.

Twin Cays to Fly Range - we had a great day sail, but the anchorage was not very protective, and, in while sailing off in the morning we ran aground at the brown bar (which is on the map!). Thanks to Miss Molly who helped us out.
Fly Range to Drown Cays for the birthday party, then Shag Cay Bogue, Drown Cays, to Cay Caulker, and then to San Pedro. There we anchored in very shallow waters, ran aground couple times (luckily, it's just sand there) and the anchorage was very uncomfortable. For all that time in Belize we even did not have time to enjoy trips to atolls, the outer reefs. But we will be back sometime later, and better in summer.