my birthday!

Feb. `13^th,2012 la paz

I awoke to light winds and calm conditions. It’s supposed to be another sweet day.  I need to get regular gasoline for my generator today. I want to make sure I have enough on the boat that I don’t have to go get it during carnaval. I have two 2.5 gallon jugs that I use for gas. I tie a strap around them and wear them around my neck. That helps me carry them back when they are full. If my hands get tired, I can let the strap hold the weight on my neck, and when my neck gets sore, I can hold the cans a little higher and take the pressure off my neck. It works very well. The gas station is about a mile away, so having the weight on different areas of my body for the walk back makes it a lot easier.

You may be wondering what gas cost down here? Both jugs together are 5 gallons, and that costs 180 pesos to fill. There is 13 pesos to the dollar so ….$13.85 OR 2.77 per gallon. yes it is cheaper down here. The govt. of Mexico pays the additional price on gas and diesel to keep the costs down.

After that project I did some work on the boat. And just kind of took it easy.

Feb. 14^th, 2012 la paz

Happy valentines day!! Since Kris is back in the states, my goal is to stay busy today. I started by going to coffee at club cruceros this morning. Talked to a few people and just hung out. After that I walked up into town for a much needed haircut. You may wonder what a haircut costs down here, it was $3.48 U.S. yes somethings are a lot cheaper down here. I picked up my laundry and Ed from sea moore volunteered to take it back to my boat in his dinghy, because the last time I picked up my laundry, there were swells and I made it to my boat in the kayak, but when I tried to lift the bags onto the boat, I lost one and it went into the ocean. Thank goodness it was the bag with mostly Kris’s clothes in it. I was on the boat, the kayak was tied to the boat, and this bag of laundry was floating away. I got back into the kayak as fast as I could, which isn’t very fast, for fear I would fall out, and started rowing to the bag. It was about twenty feet away by the time I got to it and was starting to fill with water. I reached out to lift it and it weighed too much with all of the water in the bag, and between the wind and the waves, I was getting a lot farther from the boat then I wanted too. I lay on the kayak so it wouldn’t tip as easy, and lifted and pulled the bag of now dirty laundry onto the kayak. Then I started rowing back to the boat. It was not an easy row into the wind. I got back to the boat and then had to stand on the kayak to give myself the leverage to lift the wet laundry. I did and frankly, I’m not sure how I stayed standing, but I did. The rest of the story is I got it on board, minus some wash clothes that fell out of the top of the bag, and then got the kayak tied back up and I laid down in the cockpit to catch my breath. I had noticed two guys standing at the dock watching this whole ordeal. I looked over after I caught my breath and saw seven guys all watching from the dock. I’m glad I could entertain the locals. 

Anyway, back to valentines. Ed brought me my laundry, I took a shower and then went to sea moore for dinner. We had steaks and roasted veggies and some great local artisan bread.

I rowed back to the boat and watched a movie, then went to bed around ten.

Feb. 15^th 2012 la paz

Today is my birthday. So to celebrate, I made a French toast bake with cream and blueberry compote. I also had bought a bottle of fresh squeezed mango juice, it was delicious.

Today is the day before carnaval, and they have set up a carnival next to the dock. It looks like I’m at ground zero. Sea moore invited me over for dinner. Terry is making pizza using Kris’s pizza dough recipe. They invited Russ from kashmere to come as well.

taken the night before from my boat

The pizza was awesome. They even got me a present. I sling shot, a Hand line, and some imported black licorice. Oh yea!

What do I need sling shot for, and what is a hand line you ask?

The sling shot is for birds that decide your mast is the best place to hang out. I wouldn’t mind a bird or two using my mast, if they didn’t crap all over the place. So the sling shot is to scare them away. I have not had this situation happen yet, but I have seen it, and my belief is a bird craps his body size, every hour of every day. They truly are amazing animals.

The hand line is a fishing line that is made for trolling off the back of the boat. It is made with thicker twine so you can reel it in hand over hand.

After dinner, we went to a club to hear a local band play, they were Mexican but played lots of English old time rock and roll. They were pretty good. Then Terry from sea moore wanted to go to karaoke. There is a club downtown called Sinatra Karaoke that she wanted to go to. We walked down the malicone and it was very quiet. Hardly anyone is out tonight. I think people are getting one last night of sleep before carnaval.

The karaoke club opened at nine, and we got there at nine thirty. There was one other couple in the place signing a duet as we walked in. nobody else was there. We stayed till eleven and were the only ones there by the time we left. I’m not sure if that was a coincidence or not.

But it was a great night. On the way back to the boat, I was again reminded of how quiet it is tonight. I think this will be my last good night sleep for the week. Tomorrow I will post about my first experience with carnaval.