Stopping for a day at Villa Palmar Bahia Candeleros

I want to remind everyone,,,,, we keep getting asked if we are getting the responses to our blogs... PLEASE remember that if you hit reply from the email that you get through the subscription we DONOT get those emails.  Please make sure to send us an email through the blog, comment below the our post or send us an email through GMAIL....  We truly love getting all the emails!  We may not stop be able to respond right away if at all but we do read all the emails to the kids so they know that their friends are thinking of them and US too!  It really does make our day to hear from back home and those that are traveling along with us or are hoping to in the future.

It seems to have been forever since I have been able to blog.  We have been having a great time tootling our way up to Loreto.  We had a lay over in Isla San Francisco for about 4 days because of the northerlies (strong winds that blow in from the north).  When they say you want to hunker down you really do.  They create this chop water in the sea that is miserable to be in.  So we had a great time in this fabulous bay looking for hermit crabs and pooka shells.

We met a really nice family from Tasmania that have two kids the same age as Alina and Amaia.  Chris and I ventured over to their boat while all the kids (theirs and ours) stayed on our boat and had dinner and a movie while the adults had a gourmet dinner of shrimp curry, curry chicken, rice and a few bottles of wine.  Melissa (Dee Dee too, friend from another boat) is a fantastic cook.  It was so fun to learn

about all their travels.  They started their journey in France with a new boat and have been in the Sea of Cortez for a year and are planning on putting their 2 boys in montessori school in La Paz.  The boys were so cute and smart.  It was really fun talking with them and hearing the kids all play.  I love the accents they have.  Ben and Huen would take us for walks on the beach and show and name all the shells that they found.  The also new a lot about the salt ponds and how they are formed so they taught the girls as they walked through them.  They got along so well we had a sleep over on our boat one night and watched a movie..  In the morning they had fun with science and making sailboats for the hermit crabs... complete with escape hatches, cabinets, jacklines, railings, and everything that can make a hermit crab safe and to stay in the boat.  Amaia and Ben teamed up and then Alina and Huen... each one with their own design.  After we did some nature journaling in our books.. the girls draw pictures and then we research facts about the animals they see.  Amaia choose to write about how to make a hermit crab habitat.  Nature journaling has been a really great way to tie in their experiences and also learning about the animals.

We were able to leave Isla San Francisco yesterday with still a strong wind on the nose and a little bouncing in the waves but it was really nice to get on our way again.  It was Thanksgiving and the kids really wanted a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.  Chris and I had provisioned in La Paz and bought a small turkey that fit in our tiny oven.  This turkey was probably albs and fit in a cake pan.  It was really fun having it for dinner and just being able to cook it.  We had instant potatoes, canned yams, canned cranberry, canned corn and stove top stuffing... what more could you ask for.  It was really but we really miss family and friends during these times.  We anchored at Puerto Los Gatos for the night.  It was a fun anchorage with a bunch of climbing red rocks for the kids and a fun beach to walk along looking for shells.  We had a great time with climbing, the kids found a bunch of hermit crabs and had hermit crab races.  After we left we and came back to the boat... tristan looked back at the beach and there was a coyote walking along the beach and retracing everywhere we had been.  I have been so worried about the things in the water that it was a nice reminder that there is also wildlife on the beach.  

Tristan and Chris have been having a fun time fishing first thing in the morning... yesterday chris caught a sierra and today tristan caught a mahi mahi... it is always fun and exciting to bring in dinner first thing in the am.  Especially when they are good tasting fish.  They did loose a few.  Today we had a huge mahi mahi on the line.  Chris was bringing it in and it jumped out of the water and shook the hook.... UGGGHHHHH!  Would have been so fun to actually bring that one in.

We got an early start and headed up here to Bahia Calenderos.  This is a bay that has a five star resort with free wifi for the boaters.  It is an all inclusive resort so they don’t have passwords on anything.  It is still really hard to upload anything.  I have been trying since we arrived to upload pictures.  I had 6 uploaded in 5 hours and then lost them because I lost the wifi connection.  I am trying to upload again but it really is an exercise in patience.  So sometimes I will need to just upload some photos.  

Today we discovered that our freezer wasn’t working any longer.  Oh the joy of boating.  So Chris and I had 2 repairs on our priority list.  One was my toilet.  The girls had once again flushed a diaper wipe and it clogged the toilet and was breaking the macerator again.  The second was to get our freezer water intake to work before all of our food spoiled.  Since there is nothing around for literally miles except desert we really need to keep the food that we have in eating shape.  

We discovered that we had all these little crystalized barnicles, coral and little critters that had plugged up all of our water intakes under the boat and had climbed up into our hoses.  Oh lucky us Chris and I get to take screw drivers and wire brushes to try and get these little guys out of our intake valves.  I discovered today that the underwater world so far is not for me.  Chris thought it would be great to get out the scuba gear so that we could just stay under the boat and poke and prod these little creatures out.  Soooo I thought I was going to die.  I thought my lungs would collapse and I kept swallowing water.  UGH... I wanted to help so bad.  Chris has an ear infection so it was really uncomfortable for him to be down in the water.  I originally didn’t have enough weight so I kept floating up to the surface and was getting exhausted trying to dive down so much.  I sound like a sissy but with the little sting rays and puffer fish swimming below... I am hoping that I can get more comfortable with this over time.  Chris ended up getting out of the water and I had a few more to clear so Tristan came down and was keeping me company and helping to clean the boat.  Lexi was using the scrub brush to clean the sides... it was a family affair. 

Good news is that we think we fixed both and we should have a cold freezer tomorrow.  In the morning we will go buy a day pass for the family to spend a day at the resort and eat and drink all the food we can in the 8 hours we pay for.  It is kind of expensive but hopefully well worth a day of play in pool water and pool boys bringing us some pina coladas.  

It was really nice chatting with the family yesterday for Thanksgiving.  We needed to use the satallite phone so they were quick calls.  We are missing everyone at home and it was really nice to hear some voices.  It does get pretty quiet out here... It is very rare that you hear any other sounds than the lapping of waves and wind.  Occasionally a bird will fly by but they don’t make a sound.  I heard crickets last night and the sound was so comforting.  I just sat outside and listened to their songs.  When the moon set, it was so pitch black.  There were so many stars and they were so bright.  They seemed so close that I could reach up and grab them.  It really is amazing the night sky when you take away all external lights and the only light is coming from the stars.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and were able to spend time with loved ones.  We are completely thankful for everything we have, our health, our family, our friends and the time that we are spending together.  

Hugs and Hugs to everyone,

Heather