Vamos a Bahia de Asuncion 1.19.08

We've finally left Turtle Bay, headed for Bahia de Asuncion for the evening. We should arrive by about 4pm or so. We have had a ton of fun in Turtle - I tried like heck to always speak Spanish to everyone I could and did pretty good. We spent a lot of time talking to a couple people in town and they were so patient when I was talking and looking up words in the English Spanish dictionary! It was fun. We walked around town each day, I got a little more time on the internet, but only about 15
minutes or so. I wasn't able to take the laptop in to update the website yet. Next time, I hope. We've met about 5 or 6 other cruisers and we're buddy boating with EZ Lady, the boat out of Channel Islands. The guy, Bob, is a retired plumber, his business was EZ Plumbing and Louise did healthcare administration. They're following us at least for the next couple stops. We're in a bigger hurry than they are so who knows how long it'll last. We spent some time with two couples from Canada - a
powerboat Mick & Pan on Mola Mola (which means starfish in latin) with their two kids headed down to Cabo and a sailboat, Bandit, a couple who have been cruising for about 9 years - have spent the last 7 years cruising in the Caribbean and then brought the boat through the canal and up to Canada...they're taking to boat to Puerta Vallarta now and it'll be shipped back out to the East Coast. Chad talked to them for quite a while and he may have a job to re-rig the boat out of it. I will tell you,
I'm amazed how none of the other boaters we've met have been trying their Spanish at all - only 'una mas', 'hola', etc. I keep remembering that I'm in their country now - and am trying to do what I feel like in the US - speak their language! In Turtle, most of the locals didn't speak any english, not even the kids. There was a political rally there last night for the El Presidente....but only for the locality - kinda like the mayor of the county or something. We had spent some time with JoAnn,
who was going door to door passing out political invitations and she took us to the rally, where they were having music, dancing, & comedy, but after only a few minutes, we felt VERY out of place and left. It was very interesting - JoAnn was all for the El Presidente, and our other friend, Enrique, came onto our boat with his employee and was telling us how bad the politics were, that this El Presidente's family had been in charge for so long and nothing good was coming out of it. They expected
1000 people at the rally. Enrique spent about an hour visiting with us on the boat - his employee was definitely his employee and sat very quietly, not speaking unless he was asked. Michael gave him a book of Spanish art & history to look through & read and he was content with that. Michael & Chad made steak & shrimp fajitas and we all had some - yum!! I made clam chowder in the morning for today's passage and we purchased some fresh rolls (bollitas) at the bakery. The bakery also had some fantastic
cookies - they were kind of like a gingerbread cookie, very soft but not sweet at all, which is different because every thing around has sugar all over it, especially at the bakery. They were very very good so I purchased an extra 3 for the trip! The last week finally felt like cruising - not in a big town, tied to a dock, just like at home. It was really nice. Experimenting with the local fare, walking through town, getting to know the locals, etc.

Ooh, ooh, we just saw WHALES!! Our first of the trip - they were quite a way off of our beam, but the first one and last one did tail flips as well! I don't know if they call that something. It was way cool...I'm sure I'll get a chance to get some of those on video or film, I hope! We're going to the San Ignacio lagoon where you can rent a panga that will take you inside and sometimes the whales will let you pet them. I want to do that sooo much! That'll be on Monday I think.

Michael's eating chicharones which is like fried pig fat...gross! Actually, I like them when they're warm fresh out of the fryer, but you don't see that too much. Chad's got both hand lines out and is also trolling, looking for fish. Our buddy boat is slower than we are - they cruise at about 5-6 knots and we're 7-8, so we'll beat them in the anchorage and have been radioing them back and forth each time we see stuff - whales, buoys, etc.

I'll write more later and tell you about the trip & change our position!
Rene