Dia de los Muertos

Day of the Dead in Mexico, unlike the American over the top celebration of Halloween (of which I have been and enthusiastic participant) has considerable religious significance. It begins on the night of October 31st and continues through Nov. 2, celebrating All Saints Day and All Souls Day respectively. Many Mexican families erect altars to the dead in their homes and in cemeteries.  These altars include ofrendas, offerings of favorite food and drinks for the departed when they return to visit their loved ones. They also have many candles and orange and purple flowers. Traditionally Nov. 1st is the day families await the return of dead children, los angelitos, and there may be sweets and toys on those altars.

Most of my information came from the Baja Citizen, a local newspaper for the English speaking residents.
One of the joys of this journey is learning about different (and yet, not so very different) peoples.  The Mexican people of our experience are warm, generous and very  tolerant of our communication skills and quite excited when we order breakfast in Spanish and they actually understand us!

From the sublime to the ridiculous...

Woke up this morning (still in the marina) to 69 degrees amd sunny skies and a 10 knot wind.  Our coffee maker finally turned up in a box marked "last minute packing for Milagro" as well as our delicious 8 o'clock coffee so I brewed a pot and we took it up on the deck.  Just beautiful!  The air is fresh, the coffee delicious and the water sparkling.
I spent the rest of the morning on housekeeping duties, cleaning Buddi's cage, washing dishes, making our bed and generally continuing to put things in their places.  Larry has another plumbing job; the shower sump which draws the water out of the shower stall and down the drain has been less than satisfactory.  It is noisy when it works and that is only part of the time.
I stop at 11:30 and shower and dress for the ladies luncheon, a monthly gathering of mostly grinogos whose sole purpose is to get together to meet, greet and eat.  This month there were over a hundred ladies of all shapes and ages, both land lubbers and boat people, and we met at a French restauran called La Boheme just off the Malecon. We started off with limonade and shopped at a Christmas Bazaar set up just for us. Beautiful crafts and clothing which I admired but didn't buy as we already have too much "stuff" on the boat.
Lunch was  an avocado and cream and shrimp starter, Caesar salad, Coq au Vin (I had a veggie substitute), garlic bread and chocolate mousse for desert all for 120 pesos or less than $10.  A new acquaintance and I decided to walk the 2 1/2 - 3 miles back to our marina and it was a great walk.  We had a a stiff breeze off the water and lots of good conversation. That was the sublime.
Now for the ridiculous.  When I got back to the boat Larry was knee deep, literally in sump pump mess.  I had planned to do laundry, actually a pleasant way to spend a afternoon. The laundry room is pristine and with soft drink and snack from the marina store and my kindle I can get clean clothes and a couple of hours under a palm tree.  But no, my duty was to vacuum out a bilge type area then rinse it with disinfectant and water and then rinse it again with fresh water. It was a yucky, yucky job, but certainly not as bad as Larry's!  Three hours later he is just back from a third plumbing store run trying to get a hose or connector that fits.  Oops, I just heard a bad word!  It's a good thing Buddi doesn't talk. 

A day in the life of 2 sailors

We actually did arrive in La Paz on October 2nd at 3:15 p.m.  More on that later!
Today, October 22nd.  We woke up this morning aboard Milagro, somewhat settled.  Still can't find our coffe pot and will probably brave the WalMart Supercenter to buy one today.  We listened to local boating community news via the VHF radio and the Cruisers Net then dressed and got our bicycles for a ride down the Malecon and breakfast.  We stopped at a lovely coffee/wine bar for marvelous coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice and a "vegetales" omelet. Food presentation is very important here and my plate offered sculpted tomato and avocado as well as a beautiful omlet and grilled potatoes and sweet onions.  Yum!
We had a leisurely ride back to Marina Palmira.
Next more unpacking (yes, even two weeks later!) and then on to get our "green card" at the local embassy and to the bank for more pesos!

This is our main salon with table and books shelves (of course!) to the left and the galley beyond.

The Journey Begins

Journey of 2 Sailors

Background info:

Purchased 43’ Spindrift, Milagro.

Visited La Paz, B.C.S. Baja California, Mexico several times.  Fell in love!

PBC offers a retirement buyout in January 2010.

We accept buyout with retirement date of Feb. 28, 2010.

We retire and set a takeoff date of May 1^st.

So much to do: house is on the market, working with lawyer towards short sale or deed for lien, sell Century, Dusky and Irwin.

Also pack and move household items to either climate storage or Rutherfordton storage (will take several trips), have yard sale for and auction for unwanted items, continue purchasing items for Milagro.

Had cardiac episode April 25.

Larry called back to work after Ken Rogers’ death.

Everything takes so much longer than we thought.  We make long, long lists and work hard on them almost every day.  Complete some items but keep adding more.

Many ups and downs!  Seems as though when Larry’s feeling positive I’m down…and viceversa.

After a week of “maybe we’ll leave tomorrow…"We lockup the house in Palm City for the last time and take off with Larry driving a 9 year old Chevy pickup and pulling a 12 ‘ trailer and me driving a 10 year old Mazda Tribute and pulling a trailer with our 10’ dinghy on Monday, September 20, 2010, 4:00 p.m.

We wanted to “make it out of Florida” so we drove to just south of Bruswick, GA stopping at 11:15 p.m. Whew!

The next day we drove to Fuquay Varina where we stayed with the McCoys.  In just one day we managed to conduct business with Jeff, do a birthday breakfast and shopping trip with Gracie, a birthday lunch and shopping spree with Anna, a visit with Holly and family and dinner at Roger's, a yummy stir fry with wine and the good company of roommate Nyssa and her parents. What a great day.

Skimming across the water!

ay mid-afternoon we hooked up trailers again and headed for Charlotte to meet up with our friends the Hockadays.  We joined them at their house on Lake Murray and after a good nights rest had a fun and relaxing day on Saturday. The weather was glorious, perfect Indian Summer and we spent the morning on the lake in Larry H’s new 28’ Chris Craft ( we did 50 plus!), had lunch in Columbia, then back for a moonlight boat trip in the Carolina Skiff.  Sunday was rainy so we just relaxed then left for Charlotte in the early evening. Spent the night there then left for Rutherford county arriving mid-afternoon.  Larry unloaded the last of our storage items, fixed the tailgate on his truck, then met with one of our renters.  Another long day.

Tomorrow we leave here with Jackson MS as our goal.  If all goes well we’ll be in La Paz in a little over a week.

Today is Sunday, Oct. 3, 2010

We didn’t get away until noon on Tuesday the 28^th.  Original plan was to drive to Jackson MS but due to late start and finding that our average speed is about 50 we got to Birmingham around 8:30 and had, for me, a stressful search for food and lodging.  On day 2 we again got a late start and drove to .  On Thursday we had a good day, 450 miles and got to 50 miles east of Shreveport. Next day we achieved Abilene TX where we had a wonderful family style dinner, catfish and fried chicken with all the fixins at a restaurant called Belle’s.  On the next day to El Paso, again a late night arriving amidst heavy Friday night traffic.  Whew!  Larry and I got split up. It was dark, the traffic was insane and I wondered if we’d ever find each other!  All of a sudden I heard his voice on the cb radio…and realized I was 2 cars behind him!  Finally found a motel on the west side of El Paso with a good Taco restaurant next door. The following day we made Casa Grande, AZ

Now we had to decide how we would schedule the next part of the trip in order to arrive at Tecate in time to cross the border and get to Ensenada for the night.

We decided to drive the 200 miles to Yuma and spend the night and the next day there in order to catch up on laundry, and service both vehicles.  We’re both eager for bit of rest and excited at the prospect of actually getting to Mexico.

Love these rock formations....

Haven’t mentioned this in the discussion of our travels but…we have been blown away by the scenery. The mountains are spectacular and a brand new vista greets us at every turn.  Hope to share pictures and also hope the pics give some idea of the beauty.. From west Texas to Yuma Arizona…never a dull view.  Larry and I keep calling each other on the cb’s and saying “wow!” and “did you see that?” Truly America the beautiful! I only wish we could have made the trip earlier, as planned, so we would have had more time for side trips. Still, a wonderful trip.

Climbed a mountain, came around a corner and there it was!

From Yuma we go to Tecate to cross the border and after that, another 750+ miles to La Paz. (paz means peace in Spanish; I’m looking forward to that……..).