Feliz Ano Nuevo 1.1.2009!

Happy New Year everyone! What a spectacular year we have had and we hope to be able to continue this lifestyle for several years. We’re so blessed to have been able to go on this trip, while we’re so young (something we’re told almost daily!), and are really having the time of our lives out here. The cruising community is fabulous – friendly, helpful, & well…fun! The friendships we make here I’m certain will last a lifetime. OK, enough of the sappy stuff…haha!!

Today was another action packed day! I was told about a street fair in Melaque, a town just outside of Barra de Navidad and arranged to join a group of gals going. I hitched a ride with one of the other dinghies as we took ours in for service since we got the parts brought down by a boater. We had ordered the parts but they hadn’t made it to Mazatlan before we left so we asked Pacific Voyager to hold on to them for us but they knew they wouldn’t make it down here before we did, so they gave the parts to another boater who was heading down and we got them! Woohoo! It’s not pony express, but it made it!

Once in town, I joined Rita from Over Heated and Kim & Linda from Endeavor and the four of us walked up through Barra to the bus stop and then jumped on the bus to Melaque.

In Melaque, every Wednesday they hold a street fair that is probably 10 blocks long in one long straight street. You can buy anything here – arts & crafts, local handiwork, undergarments, clothes, shoes, kitchen utensils, watch batteries, sunglasses, DVD’s/CD’s, fruit, you name it, it’s probably there! I had a great time and walked away with some things that had been on my list for a while! A metal lime squeezer as my current one is plastic and has cracked in two places, a bean smasher since we’ve been cooking beans and need to mash them, a watch battery that works in our favorite timer on the boat, a tank top for Michael, a swimsuit for me, fresh eggs, potatoes, a couple DVD’s – Batman, 007, & a Richard Gere movie, and a couple other things. It was very fun to walk around & check out everything. We walked further in town and went to the ‘Super Hawaii’ store that sold lots of ‘gringo’ items and then walked further to find a restaurant where I had a fantastic meal for only $3, drink included! We jumped back on the bus and made it to the boat for a little rest and prepare for New Year’s Eve!

Most everyone went into town around 5:30pm and again, met at the Alondra Hotel for a drink and a fantastic sunset. We had dinner at a restaurant called “Mexico Lindo”, spent some time with Diane & Drew, friends of Joe & Deb from Canada for a while, and then basically bar-hopped from place to place as there were lots of live bands playing and we had to check out each of them! The Grand Bay Hotel shot off a wonderful display of fireworks at midnight and everyone raced to an easy spot to watch them. We listened to a few more sets of the bands and around 1am took a water taxi back to the boat. It was a very fun evening.

We spent the last couple days, well, recovering, taking it easy, relaxing, etc. After getting the dinghy engine serviced, it still isn’t quite right so we have an appointment to take it back tomorrow. We splurged and paid for 24 hours of internet that we can get on the boat and have been applying for jobs & just internetting like crazy. We called Xantrex and they told us how to adjust our changer so that it won’t kill the generator so we will be trying that out tonight. There are three ‘Extra’ class HAM operators in the lagoon and have setup a test on Monday for ham tests. Michael wasn’t able to get his when I got mine due to Uncle Sam calling him away so he’s studying like crazy and plans to take the test on Monday. We’ll leave Barra on Tuesday and go up to Tenacatita for a little while. That’s the plan! Of course, as you know, plans change sometimes hourly.

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and wish everyone a healthy & prosperous New Year.

Love,
Rene