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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

Blog posts : "2013 South to Mexico"

Getting ready to leave Mexico

The past two days have been absorbed in getting ready for the three day/two night journey from Chiapas Mexico to El Salvador.  Provisioning and getting the boat all cleaned up and packed is now a well worn routine.  And last night we picked up Melissa's Uncle Bob and his wife Joyce who will be with …

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Argovia - Bye Bye

We awoke this morning to discover that we had no water in our cabin.  Turns out that the rain storm last night caused a tree to come down and take out some water pipes - probably when the tree roots came up.  We later learned that a number of people who were supposed to arrive at the hotel yesterday…

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Argovia - Spa

The second day we were at Argovia, we made a visit to the spa.  They have a Temazcal - which is a stone/cement round building that you sit inside.  Meanwhile a worker loads stones that have been heated to red hot in a fire into a pit below the building.  Once the rocks are loaded in, he dumps in a b…

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Argovia - Coffee, Flowers, and Infrastructure

Yesterday, we packed up for a visit to Argovia – a local coffee plantation that now also supports a boutique hotel.  We were super excited about this because it will be our first trip into a jungle.  It’s been on the “must do” list to see the jungle, and we expect to do more of it when we reach El S…

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All's Fair

Today Melissa headed into town to get a haircut and a pedicure.  Instead she was transported back in time to a beauty shop from 1952.  She found a local shop that looked like a beauty parlor and popped her head in.  She holds a hunk of hair and makes a scissors motion with her hands.  "Si Si" the pr…

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Dentist

Dave lost his false tooth again on the trip here.  This will be the third time he's had to have it put back in during the past 6 months.  So when we arrived, we asked for a recommendation on a dentist.  We tried to call for an appointment, but the receptionist didn't speak English.  So last Friday w…

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MacGyver brings back the dead

Yesterday it was so friggin' hot that we mostly stayed inside Apsaras and did projects.  Melissa got caught up on bills and emails, and she cleaned up the boat.  She also put in a cardboard separator between the head pump and the air conditioning intake.  Sucking air across part of the sewage system…

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Vivi Leaves Us

This morning Joan's finger was much improved - so she was confident she could make the 5 day trip to Costa Rica.  However, Steve remembered that he needed to get the oil changed.  He does it every 100 engine hours.  But there wasn't a mechanic anywhere around.  This would mean having to re-do all th…

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Medic!

Joan on Saltydog was so jealous of Dave's tour of the nearby Navy hospital clinic yesterday that she felt the need to make a trip herself today.  Their refrigerator has a countertop door with a hydraulic piston that helps support the weight when you open and close it.  Unfortunately the piston is fa…

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MacGyver tries out the Mexican hospital

Apparently Dave felt that a trip to Mexico was not complete without a tour of the Naval Hospital clinic.  And time was running out because we leave Mexico for El Salvador in under two weeks.

Today we had planned to do a few boat projects.  Dave wanted to go up the mast to check on several things. …

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A new boat name?

Today was a chore day.  Dave went next door and worked on Cat (yes that's really the name of the boat).  Their SSB radio wasn't working right - preventing them from getting weather updates at sea.  Turns out their cable wasn't plugged into the SSB modem.  That and a few other troubleshooting steps a…

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Tehuantepec? What Tehuantepec?

Sunday - We woke up at 7:45am for an 8:00am departure for the three day trek to Chiapas.  Must have hit snooze one too many times on that alarm clock.  Good thing Dave got the boat ready to roll yesterday.  We untied the lines and off we went.  Melissa fretting about the Tehuantepec ahead of us.  Th…

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Did you check the weather again?

Ok, Melissa is still threatening to get off the boat and take a bus to Chiapas to avoid being on the boat crossing through the dreaded Tehuantepec.  Dave swears the weather forecast looks good.

We spent the day provisioning the boat and checking all the boat systems to make sure we were ready to g…

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So what did we do wrong?

We headed out of Oaxaca back for Huatulco at 9am this morning.  It was a much better drive than on the way here - we took the southern route on HWY 190 through Salina Cruz.  This is the ONLY way to do this drive in a car.  Don't do HWY 131 or HWY 175 - both are horrible roads.  But HWY 190 - while s…

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Market Day in Oaxaca

In the morning Joan and Melissa went clothes shopping.  Then after lunch we all went Mezcal tasting and wandered through the markets.

First a stop at the chocolate store.  They had big grinders that would chop up the cocoa beans and make them into chocolate.  Melissa shot this video of them making…

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Monte Alban

After yesterday's venture in the car, no one wanted to get back in for a long drive.  So initially we decided to go see the ruins at Monte Alban tomorrow.  The weather forecast changed our minds because it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  So we pile into the car and head for the hills.

Monte Alban…

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Google said it would take how long?

So we planned an inland trip with Saltydog to Oaxaca.  We had read that going directly there from Huatulco on what looks to be the shortest path was a bad idea because it goes over a windy crappy road over the mountains.  So we choose a route (HWY 131) that went out of the way, but google maps swore…

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Magical Evening

Today was all about making reservations for our inland trip to Oaxaca this week.  Saltydog has decided to go with us - which means we need a pet friendly hotel.  A new challenge for "cruise director" Melissa as Saltydog has now nicknamed her.  She reserves a rental car and sends Dave and Steve to pi…

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The next few legs are long

So the next few crossings are going to be tricky.  We are now in Huatulco, which is the 2nd to last port in Mexico.  The next port is Chiapas - another three day/two night crossing - the first of three such long legs in a row.  This crossing to Chiapas can be tricky.  We have to cross the dreaded Te…

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Three day cruise to Huatulco

We left Acapulco around noon on Thursday for a three day/two night trip to Huatulco.  The first day out Dave spotted a black flag in the distance.  Usually that indicates a net.  But we don’t spot the boat the net should be attached to – and hence don’t know whether the net is to the right or left o…

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