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.