Mexico by Bus
I’m 3 hours into my 24 hour+ bus ride through Mexico. Although this bus is extremely comfortable, with reclining seats, restrooms, movies (in Spanish), and a wifi connection (still not sure how this is done…), my 6’7″ frame is already starting to feel a bit stiff and constricted. My last beer that I brought aboard in my briefcase is now fully warm, but I’ll enjoy it anyway. There are no accessory outlets to charge any electronic devices that I can see, so I’m sure I’ll be out of juice well before reaching my destination.
Yesterday I drove my truck and boat trailer from Tucson, Az to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. Along the way I was lucky enough to learn some cultural lessons…Mexican styley;
1) While trying to navigate my way to San Carlos, I learned early on in the drive that my new iPad GPS system didn’t work. I was gonna have to find my way there using only road signs. About halfway through the drive, I decided a couple of beers and some chips would be good… MISTAKE!!!
In Hermosillo, at dusk I was trying to cross three lanes of traffic from the left side of the road to the right so as not to miss a turn I needed to make. Pulling a 35′ long, triple axle trailer did not make this move very easy. With my blinker on, I slowly made my way to the right side of the road, with a federali following very close behind. I’m pretty sure I didn’t break any law, but the cop thought so… then he smelled the beer. He wanted me to follow him to the station. He was talking about a $4000 peso fine. I was nervous and apologetic. Darkness was enveloping us and I needed to get to San Carlos which was still over an hour away. So, I opened my wallet, and emptied the contents into his greedy little hands. $1900 pesos and $11 USD later and this cop was my personal escort to the next turn.
Driving in Mexico at night is not highly recommended. Not so much for fear of a hijacking, or anything, but just because the roads are full of potholes and livestock which are next to impossible to see. My reason for not getting to San Carlos before dark was multifaceted, but due in large part to an extremely long delay at immigrations. Turns out that if you have a trailerable boat, and you want to temporarily import that boat into Mexico, you had better bring the boat and trailer together. So now I find out that my plan to leave the boat on the trailer in San Carlos can not happen without driving the boat up to Nogales immigration (5-6 hours), changing the two separate import permits (the boat is good for ten years, the trailer only six months), then I can drive them back to San Carlos. …That ain’t happening. Cat2Fold is gonna come back to Idaho for the summer (I’m pretty sure anyway).
In the next few days I’m gonna try and sit down and write some about the Banderas Bay area and what Deidre and I did during our time there. Cat2Fold has been sitting idle for nearly three weeks in the warm, crocodile filled waters of the Nuevo Vallarta river estuary, while Deidre and I traveled back to the Tetons. When I arrive, I’m sure she will have grown a beard so thick and nasty it will virtually be its own ecosystem! I am not looking forward to that particular job!
Although the high country in and around Jackson Hole has been having an extremely lackluster snow year, we still managed to get some decent skiing in. I hiked up Mt. Glory twice, and Deidre and I even skied Taylor Mt. Hiking and skiing up over 10,000 feet after spending nearly 4 months at sea level hanging out on my boat comes with some challenges, however, Dre and I did just fine!
While we were home it snowed plenty to whet our powder appetites, however my main reason for going home was not the powder, it was to hang out with my AMAZING kids!!!
Georgie (6) and Beo (4) are doing so many activities, it is really amazing! They are both learning to ski race. I got to watch Georgie do her first one! She did Awesome! Although Beo is too young to enter any races, he is skiing (training) with kids that are several years older than him. I also towed him up a popular backcountry trail (Coal Creek) several times and skied it together along with Cora, my 13 year old dog. I am SO proud of both of them! We also did some X-C skiing, ice skating, snow ball fighting, wrestling, and many other fun things. Georgie and Beo are the only reason I am not selling everything I own, jumping on Cat2Fold, and sailing off into the distance, chasing sunsets.
I’m now nearly 5 hours into this Bus ride and I am gonna upload a few pics and call it a night…
From Cat2Fold to Cat2Track….
It’s been exactly two weeks back here in the mountains and it’s been pretty amazing! Despite the lack of snow in the Tetons this year, we have managed to partake in many, many snow activities (including: ski-jorring with Saba, cross country skiing, backcountry skiing & skiing the Vill and Targhee, snowball fights and riding the back of the groomer attached to the Samuarai!! I have to admit, my nervous self was completely apprehensive of this activity. Before starting, I was imagining all the bad things that could happen…like running over the kids with the groomer, legs+arms+feet all being broken. Ends up, Georgie and Beo loved it and I even took a ride and it was a blast.
For those of you who aren’t aware of where Brian lives….He lives in Felt, and in order to get his house (which I call the ‘magic kingdom’), one must either cross country ski or take a snow machine in 3 miles from a parking lot on a farm. The farm itself, is 15 minutes from the closest town (Tetonia). So, by the time you get out to the parking lot, you have usually been driving for a good 45 minutes. Some of the picts below are of the ski out to house (and the samarai ride).
The time has seriously flown by and I can’t believe Brian is already heading back to Mexico on Tuesday. I have about 10 more days and plan on working a ton, but also doing as much skiing as possible before heading back to Mexico. It is pretty amazing here in the mountains, but I can not wait to get back in a bathing suit and soak up the sun on cat2fold!
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Chamela
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Vallarta Cup Race # 2
The Vallarta Yacht Club’s article on the race: http://tinyurl.com/75yyfzt.
“For the day, everyone was delighted that Brian Charette joined again in “Cat2Fold”, taking first place in his tandem-rigged folding cat.”
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Paraiso…One of our favorite spots so far!
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Chacala to Punta de Mita
Immediately after yoga, Keith from s/v ANON zoomed by on his dinghy and told me to get my wetsuit and snorkel stuff, because we were going swimming with the whales! Keith has studied whales for quite a few years now, and with a bit of uncertain trust, Deidre and I just followed along as if dinghying up to a pod of humpback whales and jumping in with them was as common as a walk to the store.
With his fast, 20 hp motor, we caught up with the pod fairly quick. When we got close, we all put our stuff on quickly and then after noticing a moment of hesitation, Keith said, “someone get in”! So with my GoPro camera I jumped in first quickly followed by Deidre and Keith. The water was very murky and hard to see any distance. We swam for a bit and after a couple of minutes, it was clear they were moving on… “Back to the dinghy” yells Keith.
Once again we are off. Bouncing around in the large ocean swell, zooming after the whales. We get close and try again, but sadly, the whales din’t want to come play with us.
On our way back toward the anchorage, we check what appears to be a very secluded bay and a very private beach, and excitedly made plans to come spend a night here. Later that afternoon, Aaron and Nicole from s/v Bellastar, and Deidre and I, went on a hike through this crazy nice “subdivision”. At the end of the hike we, stopped at this restaurant and had drinks and some food. Aaron started with a coco con rum, I had a coco con ginebra, and the ladies had pina coladas.
Later that night Cat2Fold found itself hosting an informal round of drinks. The crews from s/v Convivia, Bellastar, and Anon all came over and we played some music and partied to within minutes of “cruisers midnight”…we were in bed by 9:30pm. Everyone was amazed at how smooth, flat, and stable Cat2Fold was.
The next morning, with many of the rocking and rolling mono-hulls pulling anchor early to head for some smoother pastures, Deidre and I casually lifted our stern anchor and our main anchor and pulled out of Chacala. I forgot to mention how Chacala has a lot of swell that finds its way into the bay. Therefore it is advised to use a stern anchor along with the main anchor to keep the bow of the boat facing into the incoming swell no matter which direction the wind is blowing.
As we were leaving, it appeared Keith from Anon was having difficulty removing his anchor and had to dive and get it with scuba gear. We later found out it had taken him 3 hours to retrieve it! Deidre and I traveled the 1-2 miles to get to this next bay. We entered carefully noting a large amount of dangerous, underwater rocks to the north. We again set a stern anchor, and then paddle boarded to shore for some beach/jungle exploration. As we returned to the beach we saw Anon had decided to also stay with us in this tight bay. The swell was larger and more confused in here making paddle boarding fairly difficult.
That evening we went over to Anon for drinks and a bit more guitar playing. 2-3 hours later, I got off of there feeling more sea sick than I’ve ever been…well, not exactly, but kind of! Cat2Fold, and catamarans in general, are really the most comfortable platforms out on the water bar none!
The next morning we plotted our course to Punta de Mita and after motoring for nearly 2 hours (with both sails up running 1 motor at half throttle) I started seeing whales. I quickly turned off the motor so we could listen better for the breathing of the large animals. Over the next hour we saw many whales, we were totally surrounded! I started to think about firing up the motor so we could make our 20+ miles before dark and the wind started picking up. No motoring necessary. We had a beautiful sail down the coast past Sayulita and into Punta de Mita anchorage dropping the anchor before 5pm.
