Island Way, La Marina, Acapulco, Mexico. 13 April 2002
Dear Everybody
We have almost reached our jumping-off point for the 3000-mile trip to Hawaii - in fact we thought we had reached it, until we found out that clearing out of Mexico from Acapulco is an expensive and time-consuming business, and that it will be much better to continue westwards along the coast to Zihuatanejo and depart from there. So we plan to leave Acapulco on Sunday and to start our longest voyage so far on Tuesday or Wednesday. If we are lucky with the winds, the journey should take about three weeks, but four seems more likely, and we’ll be stocked up with food for at least six.
As you will have gathered from our e-mails from the Panama Canal on 13 January, our transit through the final two locks into the Pacific had more than its fair share of scheduling uncertainty. After receiving several different estimated departure times, we were unexpectedly brought forward, resulting in a mad, though ultimately successful, scramble to get the boat ready and to get our line handlers to the Boat Club in time. The revised timing was evidently too much for the website camera operator at Miraflores who steadfastly refused to believe that we were approaching the first lock at 0935 when his scheduling sheet still said 1100. By the time his disbelief had been overcome, it was too late, and we were out of camera shot. So, to all of you who wasted a small or large part of your Sunday looking for us in vain, we apologise! Better luck next time!! Apart from our rather hasty departure, the transit through the two locks went very smoothly, and we had the unusual experience of having them entirely to ourselves - 43 million gallons (around 150 million litres) of fresh water sluiced into the Pacific just for us! Much as we had enjoyed our landlocked two months in Panama, it was good to be on the move again, and we quickly set off for the Panamanian islands of Las Perlas to contemplate what the next move should be. Several beautiful, isolated anchorages in clear water provided serious temptation to go nowhere, and our reluctance to leave Panama was fortified by more delightful island stops as we headed towards Costa Rica.
Since arriving there at the beginning of February, our lives have been dominated by volcanoes, wildlife, winds (or lack of them) and Easter.
The whole of Central America is peppered with volcanoes - large ones, small ones, active ones, dormant ones and extinct ones. This makes for a very spectacular coastline most of the way from Panama to Mexico. While in Costa Rica, we were able to leave Island Way at anchor, under the watchful eye of friends on another boat, while we took a series of buses to Volcan Arenal. Arenal erupted violently in 1968, and has been quietly simmering ever since, spewing molten lava and rocks and attracting many thousands of visitors hoping to see some (not too violent!) volcanic activity. We took our little tent and found a campsite in the grounds of a very nice hotel overlooked by the volcano, from where, during the day, we were treated to superb views of the gently smoking/steaming summit and occasional deep rumbles as the next minor eruption took place. Sadly, at night the clouds descended and the glowing lava flowing down from the summit was hidden from view. Nicaragua offered a real feast of volcanoes, but no secure anchorages for leaving the boat, so we decided to wait until our return journey (if we come back this way next year), when we hope to explore what sounds like a fascinating country from neighbouring El Salvador. We did, however, try to visit the perfectly conical volcanic island of Tigre, in the Gulf of Fonseca. Tigre belongs to Honduras, and our pilot book said that its anchorage was very secure and provided good shelter from the northerly Papagayo winds. We now wonder whether the authors had ever been anywhere near Tigre in more than 10 knots of wind! We anchored there just as the wind was revving up from nothing to 25 knots, and within minutes Island Way was bucking like a rodeo horse. J made a quick visit to the Port Captain while B stayed on board to drive the boat out of danger if the anchor should happen to drag . The Port Captain agreed that it would not be a very good idea for us to stay, and five minutes later the anchor was up and our brief visit to Honduras was over! A pity, as the climb to the top of the volcano would have been fun, with great views across the Gulf to Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. Next stop was El Salvador, at one of the best marinas so far - the Barillas Marina Club. The approach from the open sea is across a shallow sand-bar, with waves breaking heavily on either side of the channel - but with a series of GPS waypoints and a panga (high-speed launch) to guide us, not too alarming. Several miles up the mangrove-lined estuary, the marina has dozens of mooring buoys to which the boat can be very safely attached, and onshore (yes, with a couple of volcanoes punctuating the skyline nearby) the facilities include two swimming pools, a jacuzzi, restaurant, showers, internet and even an immigration office, plus delicious, safe, fresh water from the marina’s own bore-hole. All for only $8 per day! We were surprised to find no more than a dozen or so other boats there during our stay. Happily, there are now few reminders of the violent and bloody 12-year civil war which ended in 1992 and which gave El Salvador such a fearsome reputation. We found the people to be some of the friendliest we have met and although there are undoubtedly areas of the capital, San Salvador, where it would be unwise to venture at night, outside the city there was no feeling that one’s personal security was in danger. During our three-day visit inland, we finally made it to the top of a volcano! Volcan Izalco, another perfect cone, is a very recent phenomenon. It started to appear in 1770, erupting and growing continuously until 1957, lighting up the night sky so much that it became known as the Lighthouse of the Pacific. Then it suddenly stopped (much to the dismay of the nearby hotel which was just nearing completion, about to offer fantastic views of the eruptions), and has only had one minor eruption since, in 1966. It is still officially active, and there are steam vents all around the summit which are very impressive. It is small enough to be easily climable and we spent a strenuous morning, involving a steep downhill trail through the rainforest to the foot of the volcano, then an even steeper climb up the clinker/lava-covered volcano itself, and all the way back again. The last few hundred feet back up through the rainforest felt like very hard work!. But well worth the effort for the surrounding views and for the crater itself with all the steam pouring forth.
Costa Rica is renowned for its wildlife, and we felt especially glad to be there on the boat, able to visit many of the places that cannot easily be reached by road. In Golfito, where we checked in to the country, we rather optimistically took our bikes up the nearby hill - even bottom gear wasn’t low enough to pedal up most of it, though the ride down was exciting! On the way we came across troops of monkeys swinging through the trees and a family of young toucans out for a flight training morning. Ever hopeful that we would find a three-toed sloth (something we had failed to do in Panama), we continued up the coast to Bahia Drake (reputedly one of Sir Francis Drake’s stops on his round the world voyage). No sloths, but, as we were coming ashore in the dinghy in a small bay south of Drake, a flight of six scarlet macaws came wheeling out of the sky to settle in the nearby palm trees - a most spectacular sight, with their brillant red, yellow and blue plumage. Further north, we anchored at Punta Leona, which happens to be on the dividing line between the southern tropical rainforest (always green) and the tropical dry (deciduous) forest which at this time of year is mostly brown and leafless. Punta Leona was an exceptional stop. Behind the palm-fringed beach was a superb hotel with swimming pools, showers etc and with a huge network of forest trails - all of which we were able to use for no charge other than buying the occasional meal in the hotel restaurants. The trails are home to a huge variety of wildlife, birds in particular, and the hotel has its own naturalist who takes groups into the forest three times a day, including a night-time, torch-lit walk which we found particularly interesting. Tiny tree-frogs, scorpions, ant-lions, armadillo, and even centipedes which use cyanide for defence and attack (and smell of almonds) were found by Joshua, the guide, who also showed us various medicinal plants and trees. We were also fortunate enough (well maybe fortunate isn’t quite the right word!) to come across a fer de lance, Central America’s most lethal snake - death within three hours if anti-venom is not administered within 60 minutes! Joshua saw it crossing the path ahead of us, and instead of slithering off into the undergrowth, it very obligingly coiled itself up by the side of the trail so that we could all have a good - though not too close! - look as we went past. Nice to know what the enemy looks like, though we hope this will be our only encounter with this particular species. Our early-morning walks were also very rewarding, though the sloth remains a creature of mystery and zoos. Apart from the birds, including lots more toucans, we also came across many more monkeys, a family of coati-mundi and best of all an anteater, who, after the mutual surprise of discovering each other, slowly climbed up from the path into his tree, which gave him a rather safer view of things - and people!
Northern Costa Rica marks the beginning of the Papagayo winds - named after the Gulf of Papagayo at the top end. Until about seventy miles south of the Gulf itself, we had only seen very light winds on this side of the Panama Canal. The Papagayos are caused by the acceleration of winds funneling between the mountains to the north and east, and they can reach speeds of 70 knots (well over 100 km per hour). They are unpredictable, and spring up as suddenly as they die, and the best strategy is to keep as close inshore as possible, so that there’s no space for the sea to build up while they are blowing. We found ourselves under the influence of the Papagayo winds for the last 100 miles or so of Costa Rica, all the way up the Nicaraguan coast, and finally lost them in El Salvador. While they didn’t blow all the time (in fact we had one 24-hour stretch in Nicaragua with practically no wind at all), when they did appear, they were impressive, sometimes blowing steadily at 35 knots (gale force) and gusting up to 43 knots. However, with flat sea and sails appropriately set, we found that we had some of the most exhilarating sailing so far, in depths of 50-80 feet, and the boat apeared to be loving every minute! We were prepared for a similar experience in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, at the southern end of Mexico. Under certain conditions, the wind there can blow steadily at gale or storm force for days on end - but at least these winds are predictable, and the reality for us was exactly as forecast - light winds all the way, and we motored on one of the calmest, flattest seas we have ever seen!
Semana Santa (Holy Week) - the week leading up to Easter in Antigua, Guatemala was, we had been told, something not to be missed. We anchored in the Naval Base at Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala, where we were immediately ‘adopted’ by Al, an American who owns and operates the aptly-named Mega Ton, an ocean-going salvage tug of huge proportions. Not only did Al treat us to some wonderful seafood meals on board Mega Ton, but he also introduced us to his favourite restaurants in town. He also found us a room in one of the most central hotels in Antigua (a converted convent, really delightful) - no mean feat during Antigua’s busiest period of the year - and drove us up there. Back in Puerto Quetzal, Al then kept a watchful eye on Island Way for the rest of our stay in Antigua (and, on our return, fixed the long-term problem with our anchor windlass). Thank you, Al!!
Antigua itself is a beautiful Spanish-colonial-style town, much visited by tourists and kept spotlessly clean. The pre-Easter week is famous for its religious processions which can last for up to 9 hours as they wend their way slowly through the streets. The participants, all dressed in purple robes, carry huge wooden platforms with statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and each procession is heralded by a group of Roman soldiers, either marching or on horseback. At the end of the largest procession on Easter Day, the Crucifixion is re-enacted in the central Plaza. What make Antigua unique are the ‘alfombras’ (‘carpets’) which decorate the streets. The whole population (or so it seems) turns out to create incredibly intricate designs out of coloured sawdust, pine needles, flowers, vegetables and so on. Some alfombras are quite small, but others, up to 10 feet wide, stretch for hundreds of feet. Making the alfrombras takes many hours and often they are finished only minutes before the procession arrives, to walk over and destroy them. On some streets, where several processions take place, new alfombras are made, to a different design each time, for each procession. The work of creating these ephemeral masterpieces often goes on right through the night, and we had a fascinating walk through the streets in the pre-dawn hours of Good Friday, watching numerous family groups carrying sawdust, spreading pine needles, spraying with water, sprinkling glitter and lifting patterned stencils. During our night-time walk, we were also lucky enough to see the top of one of the three volcanoes close to Antigua, which has been slowly erupting since Christmas; we watched the glowing red lava oozing slowly from the crater at the summit,and occasionally large boulders or dollops of lava would tumble down the side of the mountain - quite awesome!
So now here we are in Acapulco, where we seem to have busy ever since we arrived. B has spent many hours creating a website, which we hope you’ll like (it beats trying to send photographs with e-mails!). The address is:
www.geocities.com/gayfords
and you’ll find lots of photographs of the places we’ve been to since leaving Trinidad eighteen months ago.
One last thing - if you were planning to reply to this newsletter, PLEASE do so before Tuesday (16 April) or wait for about a month, which should give us time to get to Hawaii and log on to AOL again. Unfortunately, AOL ditches any mail that remains unread for three weeks or so, and if you were to write next week, we’d probably never know!
With love from John and Barbara