En Route Galapagos

1800 hrs
South Pacific Ocean
00 01.8S 83 40.3W
Winds 13-15 knots SSE @ 190m
Speed 7.8 knots
COG 273m

Now 190 nm into our 565 nm passage to San Cristobal Island, we left on schedule yesterday, but we were greeted with winds stronger than anticipated, and winds with a significant westerly component . The old addage still holds: the best predictor of wind direction is from the direction to which we go. Winds did ease and come more south by midnight, but we had 12 hours of lumpy bumps till then.

Morale remained high, bouyed by Jo's dinner feast including Chicken Marbella, cous cous, green salad, and fresh strawberries with whipped cream for desert. Last night was uneventful with nary a ship in sight, but the wind today has continued to be more forward of the beam than ideal, and we have sailed close reaching nearly all day in 14 - 18 knots of breeze. Seas are modest, and this has been quite manageable...although I find myself falling asleep dreaming of south-easterlies.

Another first will occurfor us tonight as we have our first high speed potatoe latkes - consumed at 8 knots. At this point, we continue to hope for arrival Tuesday evening around dusk, but it will be close. We'll keep you posted.

Bahia de Caraquez

Captains Log
Bahia de Caraquez
00 36.4S
80 25.3W

Today is the day we begin to head west as we will depart Bahia for the Galapagos Islands at 11:30 AM today. Our departure time is determined by the high tide at 12:40 PM; we will "hire" a pilot to navigate us out and over the sandbar, as we did on the way in. After we pass the bar, it is essentially a single port tack sail as we head barely south of west. We have been checking weather and delayed a potential departure yesterday as our Expedition program predicted a 12 hour period of stronger winds than we desired at the outset. It was a good move as we would have beem close hauled for the initial hours with winds up to 16 - 18 knots true, which is not a good way to start a passage...besides it was a Friday!

Today we anticipate SW winds 8-10 knots as we exit the bar and expect to be close hauled early on, but the wind should shift more southerly as we head west tonight, and we anticipate beam sailing around 10 knots for the remainder of the 560 nm. trip.

We will check into the Galapagos at San Cristobal Island, Puerto Moreno Baqueriz and we will plan daily updates.

Leaving for Galapagos

We leave tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 11:00 (high tide) for the Galapagos. It should be about 4 days which will leave plenty of time for some posts. Bahia has been OK, with the highlight being that I have played tennis 3 times with some of the other cruisers, including today for 3 hours starting at 11:30 in the heat of the sun. Lots of fun, but I didn't have near enough water with me.

Looking forward to seeing some boobies (the blue footed variety) in the Galapagos.

Fixing Your Boat in Exotic (?) Ports

Bahia de Caracas - Ecuador (NE of Manta)

Well, Bahia may not be that exotic, but we came here with some chores in mind and the last two days we got a lot of them done.

The first big job was unexpected as our second AC refrigeration circulating pump failed in one month. There seems to be some design flaw with these new jabsco pumps that eats through impellers and lip seals like there is no tomorrow. We replaced it with a spare March pump that we had for the AirCon and it works great in harbor, but I am afraid of using it long term as it is not self priming and the engine room isn't that far below the waterline. We will know more by the time we get to the Galapagos next week.

Our biggest job was replacing the membrane in the watermaker which entailed preserving the old one in "pickling" solution, flushing the system, and installing the new one. It actually went pretty quickly and we even had time to finally finish screwing the watermaker base back down into place.

The other big chore of the day was getting fuel. A big reason we came to Bahia is that the fuel is cheaper there, but not the easiest to get. We ordered about 300 gal which comes in 100gal increments on a panga with a black rotomolded tank and sketchy rotary vane pump. Carlos pulled his boat up and started the pump up. It immediately seized which required him to free the vanes with a kitchen knife. To re prime the pump he reaches into the tank, pulls up the pickup hose, fills it with fuel and blows the fuel into the pump, quickly pushing the hose back under the fuel level so it doesn't pull too much air in. This worked for the first 100 gallons. While Carlos went back to the gas station where apparently he fills his tank using a two long hoses and a few chairs to prop it up we went about filtering the fuel and distributing into our other storage tanks, being careful not to overfill and force fuel out the vents and all over the deck. When they returned 45 min later and started up the pump, it seized again, this time breaking one of the remaining 3 vanes. It didn't work with just two vanes, so they went about fabricating vanes out of scraps of wood. I supplied some more finished scraps, sandpaper, and a saw so they could stop using the steak knife to saw wood and in 30 mins they had created 4 teak vanes that fit the pump fairly well. This worked and we got our next 100 gallons. Again they went to fill back up while we filtered the fuel into other tanks, filling the aft and mid tanks and leaving room for 85 more gallons which they filled in two more trips as we underestimated the first time. In between trips I managed to fix the manual Salt water pump in the galley so we can conserve our water more easily. By 6:00 we had finally finished and headed in for showers and dinner, followed by a short walk to some great ice cream.

Hola from Ecuador

Where did Nov go??? Since I wrote last we have had a wonderful visit from Sierra, Rob and Emma which included some travels around Ecuador with them and then we spent another 2 weeks seeing more of this beautiful diverse country. We met up with the Dietz' in Quito on Nov 6 (Bill returned from a work stint in W. Va.at that same time). Had one day to explore the old city of Quito the highlight being La Compania, a church with more gold than any of us will ever see in our lifetime...the architecture and grandeur was quite something and one can only think how important the Catholic religion is to the 95%of the population that are in that sector. From there we went about 2-3 hrs North with a guide/taxi driver who showed us some interesting towns,treats and sights. Spent the afternoon in Cotatachi, the leather capital where Zak scored a beautiful leather jacket and Sierra and I drooled over some pretty bags in lots of colors. We ended the day at our pretty little hotel in Peguche..La Casa del Sol...complete with a few resident llamas, and colorful courtyards in a pretty little mountain setting. Bill and I went for a run up to the waterfall that is a very sacred place to the natives. We have loved seeing how important family and enjoyment is to the locals and note how much weekend time is spent doing things together with 2-4 generations of the families . Next am we all went back there to revisit these falls and had a great pre-breakfast hike.

After a yummy meal we headed in 2 taxis to our next stop...Hacienda Zuleta. Amazing countryside and colorful indigineous dress were part of our sights,along with windy,bumpy roads leading heaven knows where. 2 hrs later we arrived at Zuleta ...where the idea is of being taken into the home of a wealthy,old,Ecuadorian family....that they did. The first impression of luxury was flowers floating in the toilets in our rooms!!! Lunch was amazing as was every meal they served us those 2 days...local farm raised trout, cheeses from their dairy,quinoa soup,and deserts to die for. When they found that Zak wasn't fond of fish they asked if he would be OK with a beef tenderloin...twist his arm and watch him smile...We went on a hike that first afternoon up to a condor lookout point and despite the altitude we were able to make it up there...amidst some huffing and puffing/especially by the ones that had Emma in the backpack. The land here is all farmed and the places they are planting crops( at angles like 80%) quite a sight. Day two Sierra, Gram, Jo and Zak saddled up and went on a 4 hr ride with a guide who took us all over the Zuleta property. Bill rode a bike and R & E met up with us at the beginning when we saw the condor rehabilitation area they have set up. HUGE birds that were something to see. Afternoon had us milking some cows (Bill had the best technique) and Emma thought it all pretty funny. We spent the early eve. beside a roaring fire, tasting the various cheeses that are made here and enjoying some wine and the company before yet another amazing meal served up family style with a few other guests joining us.

Sadly the next morning (late as we could make it) we had to leave and headed to Otavalo, the town that is best known for it's fabulous market. So we shopped...got a few things for the store to resell and had fun with the haggling thing ...a colorful experience to say the least. Rob got a little sick,maybe from the altitude, maybe a bug but was better in 24 hrs at least. Next morning we took the bus back to Quito (windy road so not a terribly pleasant experience) and then flew to Guayaquil to return to the boat for a few days. LONG day but felt good to be able to settle in to something familiar for a couple of days.

Fri. was not particularly nice day...back to the grey skies of the coast so we went to the fresh market and fish market and showed Rob and Sierra this new way we shop for food. Laid low and just enjoyed being together and watching Emma be her totally cute self. Sat we awoke to a beautiful sunshiny day/the best one we had had in La Libertad. Hung at the pool all day! Back to grey the next day but we went to the beach in the next town for a bit of the afternoon anyway. Mon. we all packed up, bused back to Guayaquil and took a 50 min. flight to Quito. these short hops on the National airlines are reasonably inexpensive, very prompt and efficient and save 10-12 hrs on exhausting bus rides! Back in Quito we wandered into a Mongolian restaurant that serves lots of vegies and meats that you pile in bowls and they cook on a big grill. All you can eat(they lose money for sure on Zak and Bill) and the cost for the 7 of us with drinks was a mere 60.00. Can't beat that!

Next morning was a sad one as we were sending R,S, and E off to the airport to fly home. Realizing this would be the longest time I will ever (in our 34 yrs together) be away from Sierra was very hard. And Emma will be a different kid when I see her in May(next plan is for them to meet us in Tahiti). She was an amazing traveler and has more stamps on her passport than many grownups I know. Just a few moments after they left we got a text from Sierra saying that they had forgotten Dolly in their bed at the hotel. So we picked her up and now we will chronicle "Travels with Dolly" for Emma.

So they were off and we headed to the French Embassy to finish up our long stay Visas for the French Polynesian Islands. It was remarkably smooth..thanks to earlier legwork started in Boston before we left for Panama and we were out of there in an hour. So, trying a new approach to travel to have the flexibility of our own wheels we rented a car and headed for the Quilotoa Loop...a Park/highland area south of Quito. The roads and detours make driving the backroads of main look smooth as glass but the vistas were worth it. after 5-6 hrs we arrived at our next stop/ Black Sheep Inn..one of the many Ecotourist places that have gotten so popular in Ecuador. Very crunchy...Zak got his first view into how his hippy mom lived when she first arrived in Maine so many years ago..complete with composting toilet that like ours was in a greenhouse structure. The vegetarian meals served there were quite good and we enjoyed the family style dining once again meeting some interesting who were also travelling Ecuador. Hired a guide to take us into the cloud forest the next day and went on a good hike seeing the valleys below and all the native farmers tending crops and herding sheep and cows. These people work so hard physically it would blow your minds. Little old ladies carrying humongous bundles of crops and brush on their backs...and many doing it barefoot! We are such pussies. The boys drove back..getting quite lost along the way so we beat them back even tho' we walked back thru a few towns and over the hills and valleys to Black Sheep. Rainy afternoon so we relaxed(what's that??) by a woodstove reading and talking to some of the other guests.

Next morning we headed out, giving a ride and an enjoyable extra visit with Neda, a young Aussie who has been travelling in So. America for a year. We stopped at the famous Quilotoa Crater...a Lake formed in the crater of one of the Volcanoes and hiked down a ways. Drove thru more beautiful farmlands perched high in these steep steep cliffs and stumbled into an Artisans Gallery in Tigua where these somewhat famous paintings are done on Sheepskin. We each purchased one and will have great memories spurred on by them as they really do a good job depicting the landscape and the lifestyle of the highlands. Dropped Neda off in Latacunga and headed toward one of the more reknowned markets but it was kind of late so we missed most of it. On to next hotel near Cotopaxi Nat'l Park...a nice place that served quite a tasty dinner so we were happy once again. (Steak for Zak after 2days of trying to get into vegetarian cooking) .

The next morning was very cloudy so we decided to pass on going to see Cotopaxi(highest Volcano in Ecuador) as it would be shrouded in clouds anyway and will try to catch it on our way back thru in a few days. So headed south to Banos...a resort town known for its thermal baths and a place that Bills brother Matt had suggested as his best friend Charles' stepdaughter was working at an Ecohotel there. So, landed at la Casa Verde in the early afternoon, explored town a bit, and went to the baths early that evening before we went out for a fun Mexican dinner with Sophie and a few of her friends. Adventure for the next day was decided on...a bike ride thru a tunnel or two and along some roads and some bike paths on a route that followed a string of waterfalls. I think we saw 5 in total..hiking to some of them and stopping for lunch along the way. They were quite awesome and I'm hoping that you all are checking out the blog as many of the pics from these past few weeks have been posted I think...check the upper right corner for a link to the web albums on the blog...vofj.blogspot.com.Long, fun ride followed by another good meal out that night and back to our hotel for some good sleep.

Got going fairly early on Sun so that we could stop on our way to Quito in Cotopaxi...it was quite a sight to see that volcano coming in and out of the clouds and again the driving was beautiful albeit grueling...cobblestone roads make for slow go but the sights are worth it. Returned to Quito (rental car worked out better than expected...no incidents or accidents/hooray) for the night with an early departure next day for the jungle. We had booked ourselves at Sacha Lodge one of the premier jungle lodges and were in for a treat. Started with a 30min flight to Coca/an oil frontier on the Napo River, then a 2 1/2 hr motorized canoe ride up the river, followed by a 20 min hike and a short canoe ride across a tanin lake to the lodge. It proved to be more luxurious than we had expected and the food and activities there were awesome. Did evening hikes and canoe rides with and English speaking guide and native naturalist who showed us much of what life in the jungle has to offer. There are 2 towers which get you above the canopy and from there we could see amazing and abundant birds...never thought watching birds would be all that exciting but the variety and colorfulness made it pretty cool. We saw monkeys and lots of insects and learned alot about the medicinal plants that the indigineous Indians in this area all use. Pretty fascinating combined with relatively comfortable comforts and fabulous food made a great combo. Afternoons we had some time off which was good because they had 5:30-6:00am wakeup calls to get out and about while it was still cool and the animals were most active. The lake proved to be a great afternoon spot to cool off and get a nap in/not in the lake but on the dock of course! Had three nights at Sacha and would encourage anyone who wanted to venture off to Ecuador to book there. Return trip was the same as arrival in reverse putting us back in Quito early afternoon with a connecting flight to Cuenca...our last stop on this journey thru inland Ecuador.

Cuenca is very different...much more cultured, wealthy,and westernized. A colonial city with drop dead architecture we found it both charming and of definite interest as a place to live for a winter time escape from the frigid North. Had Thanksgiving dinner at a 5 star restaurant that was recommended to us by our innkeeper who spoke great English. All the other patrons were Ecuadorian and obviously were not celebrating Thanksgiving but otherwise having their own celebrations... We missed being with our families in particular that night as Tgiving is certainly my favorite holiday...having no retail bent and just being about family,food and being grateful. A four course dinner for all 4 of us (the boys eating all that they could indulge in) cost a mere 100. Would have been a 400. dinner in NY and couldn't have been any better! Saw some good museums, wandered the streets and gawked at the beautiful buildings vowing to return to Cuenca at a later date. Sat. we hopped on a late morning bus back to Guayaquil with transfer to La Libertad and our return to Visions...The bus ride was scarier than scary and all I could imagine was falling off the steep cliffs that had no guardrails and plunging down into a ravine to be written about days later...but we did fine and arrived safely if not terribly carsick and tired from the journey.

So that's the story/sage of our travels thru Ecuador...saw some fabulous sights, ate some wonderful meals and are readying ourselves for the next phase of this journey...to include moving the boat up the coast a bit to a place that more cruisers hang out in preparation for our next leg to the Galapagos in a week to 10 days. Zak has been working on getting himself a position at a research lab so that he can make sense of this gap year but not have to stick it out on the boat...no surprises but he really cannot wrap his arms around this cruising life and goes from miserable to minorly unhappy but it clearly is not working for him. So he will be able to get to enjoy the Galapagos( the most desirable part of the trip for him anyway) and then probably head home and on to Montreal or Bar Harbor for the rest of the winter...And then there were 3 (me, Bill and Gram that is) So more to follow..hope I have not tired you out or completely bored you with all the details...since nothing was written for a full month there was alot to tell...Miss our peeps and at times our comforts of home but all in all having a great time...love Jo

Amazon & Cuenca

Sacha Lodge - 00 29.2S 76 26.3W 2hrs down river from Coca, Ecuador

After a 45 min flight to Coca, we were met by a bus and taken to Sacha's City House for a box lunch and briefing. We then all piled into the long motorized canoe for a two hour ride down the meandering river. The skilled driver managed to find his way down the river without hitting any of the many downed trees or sand bars. We then had a 20 minute hike through the woods on a boardwalk in the rain to arrive at the black water lake, so called due to the high tannin content making it rather dark. A short paddle by canoe brought us to the lodge where we were served some drinks and apps while told a bit more about our coming activities before being shown to our very nice cabins. At 7:00 we got our rubber boots, at 7:30 we had a scrumptious dinner, and at 8:30 we got to appreciate our rubber boots during a night walk.

We saw many grasshoppers and crickets, a few tree frogs, a small snake, many spiders and a few stick insects (like a praying mantis). My favorite was the tree frogs, with their cute toes and big eyes. The late night was followed by and early 6:00 wake up for our first hike out towards the northeast corner of the reserve which included monkeys, some birds, and some neat descriptions of what some of the plants are used for by our native Spanish speaking guide Benjamin while our English speaking naturalist guide, Fernando, translated and discussed the insects we were seeing. Bill unfortunately got stung by a Bullet Ant, so called due to the pain involved in the sting. Luckily, he got hit on the leg muscle, which isn't quite as bad as a fatty area or highly sensitive areas like the hands. He recovered after lunch in time to fish for paranahs (no luck unfortunately, but they ate a lot of our bait) and at 4:00 we went to the top of a large tree via a wooden observation tower to bird-watch. Never thought we would enjoy birding so much, but it was quite enjoyable to find the colorful birds amongst the tree tops and view them either via my travel binoculars (thanks dad...they are great!) or the spotting scope Fernando had brought. We stayed in the tree till the sun went down and canoed back in the dark, looking for caimans, a smaller cousin of the crocodile (though not that small).

Our second full day started at 5:30 for a very early morning viewing from the steel canopy walk. Again, we were mostly bird watching, seeing toucans, parakeets, and many other colorful birds. The walk back included more monkeys, including a pygmy marmoset up close and personal. Our afternoon activity was a short hike followed by a relaxing canoe ride back to the lodge to finish off an amazing day.

Our last morning was a later start, then we replayed the arrival procedure in reverse, canoeing across the lake, hiking to the river, and motoring back to coca, then onto a plane to Quito. We followed that flight with one to Cuenca.

Cuenca - South-East Ecuador

We arrived late afternoon and found our hotel, Casa Ordonez, an amazingly restored colonial home still owned by the grandson of an old Cuenca land-owner, who used to own the entire block and much else before the 2nd generation blew the fortune by not working and gambling. He spoke excellent english, having served in the US Navy for 6 years. We went to a wonderful french restaurant for our Thanksgiving Dinner (how very american of us).

For Black Friday (not quite the holiday here that it is back in the states), we went to the Central Bank Museum, which includes a floor of art, a floor of cultural exhibits describing the different regions of Ecuador, a floor of archialogical finds from the ruins out back showing pre-Incan civilization and some info on the Incan & Colonial eras, as well as a floor showing the history of Ecuadorian currency, the most interesting exhibit as far as I was concerned. It gave an appreciation for our founding fathers establishing a central bank as Ecuador had several different currencies offered by the large banks in the country until the 1930's when they created a central bank and offered Sucre until the 90's when hyper inflation forced them to adopt the US dollar.

Saturday was the travel day from hell, spending almost 8 hours on buses before getting home to the boat at about 7:45. Now our vacation is over and it is time to get back to work so we can leave La Libertad on Thursday next week.

Roads... We don't need no stinkin' roads!

Quilatoa Loop & Banos – SSE of Quito

We parted ways with Sierra Rob & Emma 0n Tuesday the 17th and spent our morning at the French Consulate finally getting our French Polynesian temporary long stay visas glued into our passports. We then rented a car and headed south on the Panamerican Highway toards a loop of road called the Quilatoa loop. Getting off the highway a bit north of Latacunga, we headed west on some dirt roads. Shortly thereafter the worst detour in the world had us off-roading over dirt berms and up crazy switchbacks. The front wheel drive hyundai suv barely made it, but eventually we got back onto the normal dirt & cobbled road on our way to the Black Sheep Inn, located at about 11,000 feet near the town of Chucchilan. We settled in there while Bill got lost on a run up the mountain, getting back just in time for dinner. Served family style, the vegetarian meals where a nice time to meet the other travelers. We met two Washingtonites, Mac & Frouda (sp?), a Canadian/Finnish/Indian mas San, and a young Aussie, Neda...all very interesting and friendly people. Wednesday we took a local guide, drove partway up the mountain, and hiked up into the cloudforest, a high altitude (12,500') tropical forest. It had amazing trees and plants and more moss than you could shake a stick at. Luckily, the clouds parted for our lunch and we were treated to some amazing views of the surrounding countryside. After lunch, Mom & Bill hiked back down the mountain in the rain while Zak and I got very lost trying to drive back. After an hour and a half offr-oading on mountain ridges, we finally found our way back nd all enjoyed an afternoon near the fire reading and talking, while it rained outside.

Thursday morning we left the lodge with Neda keeping us company and drove to the Quilatoa Lake, set within a dormant volcanic crater. The day was incredibly clear and you could see the mountain peaks behind the large crater. We hiked up to 12,800 feet, the highest we have ever been as well as about 1/3rd of the way down the crater towards the lake before turning back to have enough time to see the rest of the loop. Our next stop was the artisan cooperative in Tigua where some talented painters do their work in a distinctive style on sheep hides. We bought a few keepsakes and one medium sized painting and were back on our way. Around 2:00 we dropped Neda off in Puji (we thought it was Latacunga till we got there 5 miles further down the road –oops, but we were sure Neda had already caught a bus by then, headed south towards Cuenca). In Latacunga, we rejoined the Panamerican Highway and headed up to Saquisili, in search of the famous markets. It seems all but the food markets were closed up by 3, so we wandered around, grabbed luch for the following day and headed to our hotel in San Mateo.

Friday, the weather was overcast, so we skipped our planned visit to mount Cotopaxi and headed southeast towards Banos, a resort town famous for their hot baths and active volcano. We arrived at our hotel in time to make lunch in their kitchen and meet Sophie, stepdaughter of Charles who rode bikes across Tibet with Uncle Matt, and the reason we were staying at the Casa Verde Lodge. In the afternoon we walked around town and made plans for the following day before heading to the baths and a great mexican dinner with Sophie and two of her adult friends in town.

Saturday Bill, Jo, San (who we caught up to the afternoon before), and I hiked up to the ridge overlooking the town (not very pretty really with a fairly dirty city in the foreground, and then we all (zak included) rented bikes for a 17k ride down the valley of cascades. We saw several amazing waterfalls, finishing up with Boca Diablo, the Devil's Mouth. Bill rode home while we took a truck up the hills.

Sunday we left Banos early and found our way, eventually, back to Cotopaxi, an amazing snow capped volcano and national park. We have to say, if it was as hard to find, and drive on the roads in american national parks, no one would ever go, but the views were amazing and well worth the sore back from the rough drive. We then drove back to Quito in prep for our flight this morning to Coca and our stay in the Sacha Jungle lodge.

Also note that Zak's Flikr album is now linked to on the right and is being updated more often, so go there to see some pics from our adventures.