Monthly Archives: January 2012

Commuting

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Lower the dinghy, pack the laptop and wallet in a drybag, mosey over to the beach, get the dinghy wheels ready for a surf landing, haul the dinghy up the beach and tie it to a rock, shake the sand out of my sandals, wish the local fishermen a “buenos dias”, follow the dirt path along the cliff edge, stop to take a picture of Brio lying at anchor, walk on the hard packed sand to the bright yellow hotel, find a comfy chair with a quiet view, ask Karla for a “Coca Lite”, make sure Jon has his latest novel to read, and open the computer.

This was my morning commute today.

Sometimes life really is too good; good enough that it hits you in the face with a big gob-smack that says stop whining about damp cushions and repairing sails and whether the amp-hour meter should have a square or triangular box (the big argument this morning) or how good it is for us to be eating chips and salsa for dinner for the 4th time this week and just appreciate where you are, how freaking amazing this life really is, and how soon you’ll be missing it.

Photos of Chacala (where we’ve been for the last 5 days):

Brio at anchor in Chacala

The anchorage in Chacala, seen from high up a scrubby mountain we decided to scramble up

 

Commuter Leah

My commuter outfit -- the giveaway is a purse instead of a backpack 🙂

 

UCE shirt

We're not sure what "UCE" stands for -- they said something about a place for kids, but "not poor kids!". Doesn't really matter, Jon got the shirt for 10 pesos ($0.80)

 

Brio Leah Snorkelling

Our latest game is seeing how deep we can dive down, and then trying to snap a picture on the way back up 🙂

 

Brio Jon Snorkelling

...plus underwater pictures are always lots of fun!

 

Always gratefully,

Leah

 

 

Hitching & Hiking

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A short paragraph in a guidebook mentioned a waterfall inland of our anchorage — a goal worthy of pursuing!

We headed up to the highway to try for a bus; a friendly local informed us that the next bus was 1 hour away, so we hailed a truck instead. I’m not sure the guy had much choice but to stop, what with the 4 of us (Brio + Journey) hailing and waving from the side of the road.

I didn’t really know how far away this hike would be — so we hopped in to the back of this guy’s truck, and off we went.

Hitch-hiking

Riding in the back of the truck, swinging around corners and getting the best bird's-eye view of the countryside you can imagine!

 

After 45 minutes of driving, our driver made a questioning gesture (like, ‘hey gringos? you wanna get out now or what??’) so out we hopped. Our destination was a small dusty little town, mostly a few houses spread up and down the highway. We started walking.

Bitey bastards

"Oh what a pretty scene, I'll take a picture" ... but that little bitey bastard took a freaking chomp on my thigh only a few moments later. Here I thought it was only the mosquitoes that bite -- I forgot about the crazy freaking dogs. Left some brag-worthy bruises, but no real blood or guts.

 

As we were walking, Ruben, an awesome local guy who grows coffee beans in the winter and picks grapes in California in the summer, offered to show us how to get to the elusive waterfall.

Ruben shows us the way

Ruben, helping Jon through a particularly slippy tricky spot -- Jeff & Dori from Journey are in the background

 

Leah Brio Hiking Waterfall

Beautiful green and lush growth surrounded the whole hike

We weren’t really sure what Ruben wanted for being our guide; you don’t usually get a personalized tour to a waterfall for nothing! But, to our utter delight and joy, Senior Ruben actually turned down our offer of cigarettes or tip, and simply urged us to ‘come again!’. Kindness in its simplest form.

A perfect pool waterfall

The perfect pool at the base of the waterfall; it wasn't the biggest waterfall, but swimming in it was sheer delight!

 

Leah swimming in the waterfall

Swimming in the waterfall's pool

 

Jon in the pool

The water was the perfect cool down after our little jungle hike

 

Waterfall jump

Ruben told us that the brave ones jump from here in to the pool; clearly none of us were brave ones 🙂

 

Sometimes the best adventures are the unplanned ones; this day was certainly evidence of that! Our trip home was a little more complicated — we caught a bus part way, were given a taxi for another portion of the journey (the local passengers literally jumped out of the back for us), and then dinghied back to the boats.

A perfect day in so many ways!

(Oh and Jon says we’re bringing a machete for the dogs next time…;) )