We are curently in San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua after a few overnighters and a landfall at Isla tigres in Honduras.
Had a mishap with iPhoto and almost a hundred pictures was lost from these latest landfalls. I am curently rdoing a ´clean´installation of all software on my computer and then we´ll see what´s lett of those pics.
All the best to everyone!
It is difficult to leave Mexico after more than a year and a half of intimacy with its coasts, its islands, its land and history and its people, not to forget its food. Chiapas and Tapachula seem to keep us in its web weaving around us a net of acquaintances, friends and contacts, showing us some of its treasures, promising more…
But it is time to follow our route south before the rainy season and before our visas expire. The marina which has been free of charge got the permits they waited for to charge the slips and next week, it won’t be free anymore. Fair enough. We enjoyed it while it lasted and thanks to that we were able to enjoy the area, made some trips inland and prolonged our stay. We wish the team of Marina Chiapas a great success because they deserve it.
Yes the departure is charged with emotions. It is like saying good bye to an old friend not knowing if we will find an another one as good. We definitely made great connections here and we will come back one day, on another life cycle….
Talking about cycles… let me have a word or two about this famous Maya calendar. It is said to have its origins close to here, in Izapa, so probably Olmec.
As the calendar shows, it ends in 2012, or to satisfy everyone in December 21. A bunch of ignoramus, of New Age theories fanatics or others, claim it is the end of the word. There is so much absurdity about that…
It is the end of a cycle. One of the calendar (they had 3), the long term count permitted to see the past as well as the future. It starts in 3114 BC and was meant to last 5126 years, date of astronomical conjunctions etc.. (I pass on that). So the end is in 2012. end of a cycle. The Mayas were advanced astronomers keeping records on every aspect of the night skies. They knew everything about eclipse, moon phases, Venus course etc.. Venus being extremely important for the Mayas and their calendar.
All those records allowed them to predict the futures cycles with great accuracy. To be noted that the Aztecs among others grabbed the idea from the Mayas as they did a lot of other things…
So : Batan che’e, Maya land !!(Totzil for good bye one of the Mayan language)
Isa
We travelled by bus, the long distance buses are excellent here in Mexico. We already knew this from our previous experience. All are fairly new Scania or Volvo (no. I’ve got NO shares in those to companies, the fact they are Swedish is just a coinsidence ;.D ) with seats, indefinetely more comfy than or airplanes and they recline so much further too. This trip ws long though 17-18 hours but we slept reasonably well during the darker hours and arrived in good shape. Off course the tickets are a lot cheaper than flying, how about 500 pesos ( 43 USD or 28 EUR)? Not bad huh?, The trick to this was my good old friend Per, who lives in Tapachula since before I was born! Because this bus travel company would not be found by the average tourist. No webpage, and no presence in the big fancy terminals where the larger bus companies dwell. Esp. the latter comes at a substantial expense and at least to some degree explains almost double ticket prices….. or does it really?
Anyway another example of how essential it is with local knowledge in Mexico or anywhere else for that matter. Another of Per’s suggestions that pleased us on this trip was a fairly simple, but modern and CLEAN hotel 3 minutes walk from a Metro(subway) station pretty close to the ‘Bosque de Chapultépec‘ where many museums are to be found, and the ‘Museo de Antropologia‘ being the one we felt mot attracted too. How much the room was? 150 pesos a night, but we upgraded to a recently refurbished room for 30 pesos more! (1,5 EUR or 2,5 USD) It even came with a big flat screen TV so the Football (soccer for you who are not initiated in the biggest port on the planet) game, ‘El Clasico’ between America and Chivas made me, (geek me? .No!) happy one evening after walking some 12 hours.
As for the sites seen: The Museum of Antroplogy was even more fantastic and spectacular than we could have imagined, and our expectations were quite hyped in advance. The most interesting and mind-boggling experience anyone could ever imagine together with the other Mayan sites we already visited (Palenque, Izapa etc.)
Google it and you’ll see…. it’s simply too much to explain on a blog.
Just one example: – Did you know that the Mayans were so skilled not only in Astronomy but also Mathematics, that they had a knowledge of the concept of Zero (the digit/number) some 300 years BEFORE the Europeans got enlightened by Arabian mathematicians! When? check Wikipedia or similar 
Oh, one thing was a great dissapointment in Mexico City. We forgot the camera on the boat! And the ‘backup’ being my iPod, were already low in charge so hardly any pics this time.
One day we did a 40 km trip to another site, Teutiuacan, where the largest pyramids next to the ones in Egypt are to be seen. I visited Ghiza, Egypt many years ago, but Teutiuacan is much more impressive in total. To a great extent because here, there are 20-30 temples, about as many palaces and other buildings to add to the mighty impression this place makes once you stand here in awe. 175 000 inhabitants is what the scientists are calculating that this town – over 2 miles long- once had. Centuries before any city in the western hemisphere even were larger than say 5000 people. 
What’s next? – well, we are going to hang out another week or so, with our land-based friends here and there might be some business opportunities in this region so rich in Agricultural Products. Soconusco, where Tapachula is, is the origen of the Cocoa tree for instance. The indigenous peoples have been using cocoa for thousands o years. Add some very good coffee, vanilla (just to mention some stuff that particularly interests me) and it is a very interesting region.
Our favourite fruit these days is Mango. They grow tremendous amounts of Mango here and the main harvest season is about to end. ‘Super-saborosos’ ripe Mangos are sold for 3 USD a crate with 5-6 kg’s. They cannot take care of all of it, and once the Mangos fall from the tree, with their thin skin, they start to ferment almost instantly. It’s true, while your walking under the huge trees the smell of fermenting fruit reminds me of vineyards or breweries. For a Northern Guy like me it’s an interesting experience for sure.
The Tehuántepec crossing was an uneventful trip a little over 2 days. 30 odd hours of motoring and 20-some under sail. Our weather window got longer while we were out there so all 8 boats that left Huatulco in a convoy of sorts – though spread out sonn enough – chose to do the unthinkable, to steer a straght course instead of keeping one foot on the shore.
I have a friend here in Tapachula; Chiapas, who lhas benn living here for more than 40 years so we had a flying start into the local community. Today a bit shy of two weeks here in the brand new marina (they do not yet charge due to some permits to be obtained)
we have just spent the occasional night or two on the boat.
We did a 4 day bus trip to the specacular archeological site of Pelanque with Maya temples from 600-800 A.D. It’s enormous and yet a mere 5% or so is escavated (!) so imagine how much more there is to be discovered. We also spent a night in the town of San Cristóbal de las Casas, aqpprox. 2000 m altitude where the Mayan culture is very much alive and also the Zapatista movement which under it’s legendary leader, Subcommandante Marcos, has made a big impact inimproving the situation for the indigenous people of the state of Chiapas. Over 2 million indigenous are still speaking there languages, and dress tradtionally etcetera.
A couple of coffe plantations in the Sierra Madres de Chiapas, theaa region of Soconusco also got our attention. In fact, arguably one of the best coffee growing areas on the planet is right here. Together with one of the best Cocoa growing region. Chiapas is very rich in everythiing agricultural, and all cocoa are not even harvested around here. Cocoa has a very long history here from pre-hispanic times and cocoa is an important part of cooking and medicine. Chocolate as we know it in Europe/US is hard to come by but we found some 98% (!) dark chocolate that was just heavenly ‘saboroso’ as it’s said in spanish. This chocolate is used for hot chocolate, the beverage, and not as candy or deserts.
A wonderfully tasty sauce – mole – is made from cocoa, chilefruits and about 15 other ingrediants and it has become my favourite Mexican dish with Chicken.
A thick, dark brown, heavy sauce with a flavour of pure cocoa and a spicy, hot sidenote. Mmmmmmm!
By know I guess you have understood that we’re bound to stay here for a while longer….. so be it.
Puerto Chiapas, the official name of the port we are moored in, 27 km from Tapachula is a great place to leave the boat and do land travel. Just 10 km from Tapachula is the archeological site of Izapa, the very birth-place of the Mayan culture. This mind-boggling site is since 1500 BC (!) and the Mayan Calendar introduced here was 5000 y long(!) from 3000 something BC to December 31st 2012.
You might have heard that since the Mayan calendar ends, so will the World htis next New Years Eve. Reassuring enough, our guide told us that this date simply makes the beginning of a new 5000 year calendar period.
As a curiosity, the Mayan calendar also had a cycling line, which pointed out ‘good’ and ‘bad’ periods in the World. The good news is that next New Years Eve, we will go from 400 bad years to 400 good ones!
My personal interpretation of that – tongue in cheek- is that we’ll see no more Hitlers or Idi Amins or the likes in the next four centuriest then! Wouldn’t that be something to wish for?
OK, a couple more curiosities….with the Mayan calendar and the inscriptions on the stones here in Izapa.
500 BC ore thereabout, bearded men came over the Pacific Ocean and introduced nes knowledge to the Mayans and exchanged knowledge. One theory favours the Chinese, another Babylonians. Food for thought.
Oh, did I mention that this site is also only escavated to some 5% due to lack of funds AND the fact that the land is privately owned and the owners quite reluctant to sell and move. We saw more than one farm house here built on a mound, on top of a smaller pyramid construction. More food for thought, huh?
A last one, then you can do your own web-search for more…
1500 BC, these people built a big stone construction – think along the lines of Stonehenge, or the megalitic sites in Bretagne(Brittany) that alignes exactly with the rising sun on Dec 31 2012 !
That gives me goose bumps at least.
Back soon….
Force 8 (=gale) winds from the North 140 days/year – about the same rate as the waters round Cape Horn (Cabo de Hornos) is explanation enough for the reputation….
So, what causes these local gale-force winds then?
Let’s look at a topographic map of the Ithmus. This is where Mexico is narrow, and we’ve got a gap in the mountain range making a veritable funnel for enforced Trade winds in the Gulf of Mexico to ‘scoot’ through
As a matter of fact, the Isthmus of Tehuántepec was a location where the Canal (later dug out in Panama as we ll know) was planned.
Needless to say, we are waiting here, together with a bunch of other boats for a good wx window to cross the Gulf, and make next landfall in Puerto Chiapas 255 miles away.
In the meantime, we are enjoying the Bahía de Santa Cruz in the Huatulco area, hanging out with the crews on the other boats.
*The archeological site Petatlán and the ´cigar-maker/tortilla baker´couple.
When in Zihuatanejo, where the former Swedish prime minister Olof Palme is honoured by a big plate on a concrete foundation,
we just happened to be in the main Plaza one night when a meeting informing of the pre-Hispanic temple site discovered a few years ago was taking place. One of the guides at this site was standing just beside me and he din’t have much difficulty persuading us to go there the morning after.
http://www.travelixtapazihuatanejo.com/petatlan
A very interesting side trip, where another guide showed us around in the museum and round the excavation area. But arguably the most fascinating part was when he invited us to his parents house in a tiny village a mile or two from the museum. Materially, they appeared quite underprivileged, but such proud, amiable people are not often met. While she made tortillas on her wood-burning adobe stove (the house is over 100 years old) he showed us his hand-made masks in burnt adobe together with his also hand-made cigars! Since adobe masks are not wht could be easily kept onboard a sailing boat my interest was caught by the cigars. Though I do not regularly smoke, an occassional good cigar is a tempting proposition, especially since buying them at the source made the price very reasonable even for frugal sailor. He grow the tobacco himself and treats it, completely organic like everything else they grow, he is also a herb doctor (or medicine man). I found the taste very similar to the Cuban cigars which he explained with ´the spanish brought the tobacco from here to Cuba´. I do not know if this is historiclly correct, but my nose found no objections to this version. He also showed me how to roll cigars, which I found to be not quite as easy as it looked and then he gave me some tobacco to ‘practice with’. Then we enjoyed a full lunch meal, traditional and simple, consisting of vegetable soup, frijoles (beans) and tasty newly made tortillas.
An unforgettable day for sure, we were´nt back on the boat until after dark.
* Fishing with Antonio
While enjoying an afternoon beer under the shade at a beach ´Palapa´restaurant in Puerto Angel we got engaged in talking with a bunch of local fishermen, Pangueros, at the table next to ours. One of them spoke some French, after living 6 months in Nice, France some time go, and enjoyed the opportunity to practise it with us and then another one asked if I wanted to join him going out fishing the morning after.
I couldn’t pass on such an opportunity, since I’ve been wanting to do just that for long time. I’ve always marveled at the courage of these fishermen, in their open boats (Pangas) with outboard motors, going 20-30 miles out on the ocean to catch big game fish like shark, marlin, tuna, sailfish, dorado etcetera.
He first talked bout going out on a 12 hour trip, but then agreed to pick me up just before dawn, around 6 AM for ´couple hours’ of fishing just a mile or two outside the Bay. First we tried fishing off the bottom with hand-lines without catching anything then we moved to a spot just outside the rocky point where the swells were breaking with a Thunderous groan, to try and exploit the currents and tidal rips in this area.
All of a sudden he calls me to haul in the line quick….and I do so without really knowing why at first. Then, when he took off, full speed on his 60 hp Yamaha, it dawned on me what was brewing. Another Panguero was busy hauling in fish on 2-3 handlines simultaneously and at that very moment the whole fleet was scooting towards them while rigging lines for trolling. Most of them handled 1-2 lines, not so Antonio, he had 3 in the water pretty much before I had rewound the one I was using before. Like a virtuos, a true expert, he manoevered the boat in a hectic chase back and forth in close quarters with 15 other Pangas, at every turn he handled the 3 lines while avoiding getting tangled with the other’s, and told me to haul in a fish even before I noticed the bite! Well, he’s father was also fisherman and after studying agriculture at the university and then working in that field a few years, the beuaty of his home village, and the freedom of going to sea for a living, brought him back home and back into commercial fishing again. He complained a bit that there are too many fishermen in the village, but all in all I think it’s good life, the waters are so rich in fish, and the local, small boat fishing, probably doesn’t contribute too much to the world-wide overfishing (but I am by no means an expert). Another unforgettable Day!
What we caught? About 10 Bonito-looking approx. 3 kg heavy fishes belonging to the Tuna family. I forgot the Spanish name, but something like ´white-meat Bonito´. Delicious! I got to keep one of them plus the single little Dorado (AKA mahi-mahi & Dolphin) and volunteered to pay for the fuel we used during the trip.
I am looking forward to going out on another trip with you, Antonio, when we’ll return to Mexican waters in a few years!
Muchas Gracias! – thanks so much for the experience.
Oh, …why didn’t Isabelle come along on the fishing trip? -She loves to snorkel, but never want to kill anything. She loves eating fish though. Me, I love all of it!
consists of the Pacific mainland coast between Manzanillo and Huatulco. I thought that the reason for the ‘Gold Coast’ name was because of fancy hotels, condominiums and other ‘developments’ in accordance with several other ‘gold coasts in various parts of the world. Not so. In fact, long parts of this coast is completely undeveloped with seemingly endless pristine beaches along the shoreline.
The true reason for it’s Golden label is that this part of Mexico is where the Spanish Conquistadores shipped the gold and silver they had stolen from the indigenous people(read; Aztecas y Mayas). The Gold mostly went back to the Spanish Crown, but the silver – much valued for it’s purity) was mostly used for trading in Asia. At this time in history, the Spniards had conquered the Phillipines and there they tred the silver for silk, spices and other oriental goodies.
Their main port in Mexico -and HQ for the Pacific operations- was and still is the best natural harbour in the country; Acapulco. Nowadays best known as a resort/hotel city with about a million inhabitants, the Bay 3 miles wide and a mile indented in the shoreline gave shelter for their tall ships and the trade winds could be picked up quite shortly after turning west on the ocean. Or south to round the Cape Horn and back to Spain. On their return from the Phillipines they discovered the northern route that took them via Hawaii to the San Fransisco Bay area which is still done by cruising sailors in hundreds each year. These days Acapulco do receive a few cruise ships, but the commercial shipping goes to/from Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas both major ports with huge container terminals etcetera.
For us, voyaging under sail, the gold coast provides a few sweet spots but they are quite far between, so a number of 2-4 day passages have been made the last month. from La Cruz(in Bahía Banderas) to the little cove at Chamela where e made our first aquaintenance with the surf while bech-landing our dinghy. (the first day was just fine, the second day we pitch-poled in the surf (i.e. somersaulted stern over stem) and ended up in the water. No on got hurt and the dinghy survived as well so just another experience gained. From Chamela we sailed to Manzanillo where we spent 2 weeks trying to have our life raft inspected without much success neither with finding a place that could regalvanize our anchor chain.
Here we also picked up a crew, Karl from Sweden, who spent 3 weeks onboard Nanna down to Puerto Angel. Next we went to Zihuatanejo, a charming smaller town in a by well protected from the ocean swell. 
One 3 day passage later and we dropped our anchor in Acapulco, quite a shock with it’s bustling city life and exhaust-fume saturated air. The marina here wanted 200 pesos (about 17 USD)just to tie the dinghy up at their dock. The worst steal we heard bout so far. Day to, while walking along the beach from the centre back to the marina, we came upon a smaller local marina where we got to talk to the guys hanging out there. One of them, volunteered to keep an eye on our dink for little tip, since he spent all day there anyway doing all kinds of odd jobs on the boats. One problem solved! Always take time to talk to locals and enquire for alternative solutions, or end up in tourist trap and pay for it.
From Acapulco the net leg was 3,5 days to Puerto Angel, a beutifully situated little fishing village where the gold coast turns northeast into the infamous ´Golfo de Tehuántepec´where gale force winds are encountered 140 days a year! We spent 4 days in Puerto Angel and really enjoyed it,
and this moment we are sitting at anchor at the little tourist-oriented town of Santa Cruz (in an area marketed as Bahías de Huatulco). We will wait for a weather window here to make the 250 miles crossing of the ´T-pec´.
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