Posting from Mazatlan, Mexico. Cruising can distort your calendar. Just like sitting in front of the computer can suck away hours of your life. We have been anchored here in the Old Harbor since November 25, Thanksgiving Day. That's 9 days. So has it been just over a week or almost 2 weeks?
Ah, who knows. No matter where we are there seems to always be something to do either on our boat, or another boat. Once we hit a port it's time to replenish our resources of water, fuel, food and of course spare parts. In some ports it is easier to accomplish these tasks then others. Here in the Old Harbor aka Puerto Viejo, the chores are very time consuming and require having a working dinghy and a strong back. Having a vehicle here is really a luxury. The alternative is bus, taxi or walk. There are no nearby services.
Earlier in the week Caroline, crew from SV Blue Dolphin and I took the night bus North to Guaymas to retrieve the Simmburban. It was almost a 24 hour trip up and back and cost about $250 in bus tickets, gas and tolls. The bus ride took just over 12 hours and it was freezing cold the entire journey. I should have packed a big blanket. I instead only had my "CAL" sweatshirt and a towel. I always carry a towel just in case I might happen to have an opportunity to have a hot shower. In this case I wish I would have packed my BIG towel. I was hoping to get some sleep on the bus but was to busy shivering most of the time. We played scrabble, Mexican version, until I got a little motion sick. I was very happy when the bus pulled into Guaymas. I had planned on jumping on a local bus but decided we needed to walk a bit just to get the feeling back in my feet. We only had time to grab a quick breakfast before we had to get back on the road and head South to Mazatlan. When I took the night bus I had figured I would have plenty of time to drive all the way to Mazatlan during day light hours. Time flies when you are having fun I guess and I never did get my shower, it was closed for repairs. We did not get onto the MEX 15D until very close to 12:00 PM. It's an 8 hour drive if you drive like me, a 7 hour drive if you drive like my friend Moses and Doug said it was a 6 hour drive. Ah, who to believe.
The drive to Mazatlan was pretty uneventful except for a road detour that involved driving surface streets through one entire town, one herd of goats and two small boys crossing the highway, one wrong turn and one road block.
We arrived in Mazatlan at around 8:00 PM, which meant I had to drive for 2 hours in the dark. We went through only one pretty scary road block in which the Federally dressed in black holding a very big weapon peered into the truck in amazement, I guess he wasn't expecting to find two tourist women smiling out at him. I'm not sure what he asked me so I just guessed and said we were traveling from Guaymas to Mazatlan. He looked a little puzzled and waved us through.
I was able to negotiate parking my truck inside the gate at the dinghy dock, at no additional cost but I need to move it outside the gates before 7, 8 or 9 in the morning, depends on who I ask. This works out o.k. since I need to get up and take Tucker to shore anyways.
We have enjoyed the huge convenience of having the vehicle here and have been able to purchase diesel and gas in jugs to refill the boat. There is no dock surcharge on fuel purchased in jugs from the gas station in town. We have also done our provisioning from the grocery store, taken Blue Dolphins' watermaker over for repair, a few trips to the laundry and one trip to the dentist.
I plan to leave the truck here in Mazatlan when we depart on the boat. I will leave it in a friends condo parking till we returno. There is a ferry here in Mazatlan called Baja Ferries and it departs Mazatlan and crosses over to La Paz. The plan is to return to Mazatlan via bus (with really big blanket) and put the truck on the ferry to La Paz. Once in La Paz we will drive North to Napa.
