Road trip to Copper Canyon

While Pelagia is on the hard,  we are on a road/rail trip to/through Mexico's Copper Canyon.

Back to Mexico (Mazatlan)

After three wonderful weeks in our home at Whistler, we are now back in Mexico. At the Mazatlan airport, Michelle got the "green light" at Mexico Aduana (customs), so no issues there (wouldn't want them to discover all those Red Rose tea bags...).

Hauling Pelagia (at Fonatur) tomorrow morning (October 21st) for bottom-work and other miscellany, including some minor welding (to strengthen bimini/solar panels, and to better-secure the Rocna anchor), boot-stripe repainting, and new portlights (5 of 7). Unfortunately, we discovered that the new pilot house windows we had installed over the summer (while we were away) are totally inadequate. So, we will also have these redone with thicker, more-appropriate windows. More time (and money) required....

On the positive, the engine is all shiny with new or overhauled parts, the teak shiny, the boat clean, and there does not appear to be any mold/mildew. Oh, and the tacos and margaritas are pretty good.

Will likely be here for 2-3 weeks -- may take a road trip.

Haul out at Fonatur yard, Mazatlan

Haul out at Fonatur yard, Mazatlan

Provisions in Mexico: Hard-to-find items

Updated: October 22, 2014 & November 3, 2014

As boats congregate in San Diego,  preparing to head south to Mexico,  it seems timely to comment on provisioning in Mexico. 

By and large,  we were very pleasantly surprised at the variety and quality of food items available in places such as Cabo San Lucas,  San Jose del Cabo,  La Paz and Mazatlan.  Fruit and vegetables are better tasting and better priced than we see north of Mexico (although some vegetables/fruit often look a little "blemished", they are fine inside).  Meats are good (especially chicken!)  although cuts are smaller/thinner than up north (but,  you can always ask butchers behind counters for a thicker steak,  and many of the larger stores do put out thicker cuts). Liquor (especially tequilas and rums) is inexpensive and available everywhere. 

For the most part,  there is NO reason to stock months of provisions in San Diego -- Mexico is good for provisioning. 

HOWEVER,  some of our favourite food/drink items proved to be difficult (or impossible) to find in Mexico. We wished we had known before leaving San Diego.

Some items one can't really stock up on either due to practical (how much cheese can one store in one's boat fridge?) or legal (there are only so many bottles of wine/alcohol one is allowed to bring into Mexico -- though they don't really check boats) reasons. Still, some are easy to stock and even bringing a little extra would have been nice.

Here is a (very incomplete and subjective) list:

Orange Pekoe Tea (or other decent black tea): for many this may not be a big deal, but getting decent black tea (such as Dilmah, Tetley's, Red Rose) in Mexico was impossible. (We were always on the lookout, and occasionally found a couple of black tea brands, such as "McCormicks", but they were terrible.) So, for those tea lovers (listen up Canadians!) about to head south, stock up on decent tea.

[On the other hand, herbal teas (including Roibus -- "Rojo" -- tea) are plentiful and easy to find in Mexico.]

Aged cheddar cheese: One can find Joseph's Farms "suave" (mild, tasteless) cheddar cheese in many stores in Mexico. But good luck trying to find decent "old" or "aged" cheddar. There is one place we found this in Mexico: Costco. (But note: on the Pacific Coast, Costco is only in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta.)

Update October 22, 2014: Surprise, surprise, we found plenty of (small size) Tillamook Aged Cheddar (pretty decent cheese) at the Mazatlan Gran Plaza Mega store. 

Update: November 3: Unfortunately, no more Tillamook cheddar! And our hopes are dashed.... Aged Cheddar is very hard to find (even harder in La Paz)

 

Greek "Kalamata" olives: Stores in Mexico often have an amazing variety of olives, many of which we like very much. But Kalamata olives (for greek salad) were very rare.

Natural Peanut Butter:  We could only find hydrogenated "Skippy", "Jif", and "Alladino"  peanut butter.  

Bisquick: Great for making pancakes and quick biscuits,  we couldn't find Bisquick anywhere. UPDATE: We found Bisquick in La Paz!

Muffin mix: In Canada we have excellent brands of muffin mixes for many types of muffins.  These were hard to find in California and very rare in Mexico

Pine nuts: If you like to make your own pesto,  you'll search high-and-low for pine nuts,  to little avail (although we did find pine nuts in their shell -- seemed like a lot of work to use them). 

Beers other than lagers (e.g., Pale Ale): Lots of lagers,  and a very good dark lager (Negro Modelo)  are available,  but pale ales are hard to find.  (However,  San Jose del Cabo has a good micro-brewery producing great brews.  In La Paz,  go to "Harker Boards"  on the Malecon for great pizza and micro brews.) 

Wine: Leaving California,  you leave behind good inexpensive wines.  Decent wines ARE available in Mexico,  but at a higher price.  We became very fond of Ensenada wines: the L.A. Cetto Private Reserve Chardonnay ($14) is excellent; the L.A. Cetto basic Chardonnay quite drinkable ($7). Easy to find L.A. Cetto in La Paz -- not as easy in Mazatlan.

Maple syrup (the real stuff): (for Canadians) once you have real maple syrup, it is rather difficult to accept "Log Cabin" or "Aunt Jemina" "maple-flavoured" syrups. Only place we've found real syrup was at Costco.

Molasses: Still have not found molasses in Mexico.

Dental floss: OK,  this is an odd one,  but there only seems to be old-style thin and shredding dental floss available in Mexico. 

Update October 22, 2014: Another surprise, we see new varieties of dental floss  at the Mazatlan Gran Plaza Mega store. (Did they read our blog post?)

Back home in Whistler (B.C.)

Quick note to say we are now back home in wonderfully temperate (temperature-wise)  British Columbia. 

Bali (Lovina & Ubud) and Thailand (Hua Hin) provided a wonderful rest after Nepal.

Hurricane Odile hits Baja hard

Hurricane Odile hit Baja hard.  Lectronic Latitude had been posting updates:

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2014-09-19

The Cape area (including Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo)  was hard hit with significant damage.  Surprisingly,  little damage to cruising boats in the marinas.

La Paz and Puerto Escondido were also hit hard,  with many anchored or moored cruising boats aground or sunk (at least 25 in La Paz)  and the deaths of at least three cruisers (including the iconic Gunther on SV Princess). Boats in the La Paz marinas did fine. Numerous boats in the Atalanta boatyard were blown over.

The older marina up in Santa Rosalia was swept away and destroyed,  carrying boats with it (no information available yet).

Untold number of Mexicans with lost or damaged property.

Very, very, sad.

Although we are glad Pelagia is "safe" over in Mazatlan,  we realize that Odile (or some later hurricane) could easily have veered East and hit Mazatlan instead -- it is all a bit of a crapshoot.  (In the case of such an event,  we are glad we have removed everything from Pelagia's decks,  including all sails,  dodger,  bimini, and solar panels,  and have a boat management company looking after Pelagia.)

Watching the weather (in Mexico) while we travel...

We may be off trekking in Nepal or near the beaches in Bali (where we are at present), but our attention is never too far away from the weather in Pacific Mexico: it is hurricane season.

Just a week ago, Hurricane Norbert hit the Cabo area, and, especially, Magdalena Bay area. At the beginning of a tropical cyclone, it is often not clear the direction it will travel. For Norbert, it turns out Pelagia was safe in Mazatlan.

Norbert's track

Now we have Hurricane Odile heading up the coast, packing gusts up to 135 knot (250 km/h). Current projections suggest Odile will miss mainland Mexico (and Mazatlan) and again hit Baja California Sur.

Odile..

Odile's projected track

Marina Mazatlan is well inside of the estuary; Pelagia has all its sails and canvas off and is well tied down. Importantly, we are relying on Tony's Boat Management to keep Pelagia as safe as possible. 

Fingers crossed!

Pokhara and Kathmandu

Macchupuchare, from Mountain House Pokhara was, as usual, very relaxing. Our hotel (Mountain House) very comfortable.  Our favourite restaurant (Sweet Memories) still our favourite.  The monsoon seemed to be abating as there was not much rain. After 4 days rest, we took the Greenline bus to Kathmandu. A little more expensive than the other tourist busses, it was a comfortable ride with a quite good lunch provided.  Sure not like our recent ground transport experiences.... Kathmandu is, well, Kathmandu (noisy, dirty, crowded... or so it seemed to us after trekking and Pokhara). Our hotel there was very accommodating but continues to have problems with their showers (overwhelming ammonia fumes, due likely to some additive -- "medicine" -- which they have added to their water tanks). They had promised to fix it but they did not; much to our surprise, they became quite unfriendly to us. (After >10 stays there since 1990, we'll not stay there again.) Thamel is starting to fill up with tourists and the smog is getting worse. DEFINITELY time for us to leave! We fly to Bangkok tomorrow then Bali the next day.