Iguana go home soon!

First iguana sighting of the year! This guy was perched on the top of a two-story palapa next to the Sands Hotel in Barra de Navidad

Yesterday we began making plans for returning home. We've been two months on the boat and apart from the occasional harrowing hour it's been great, but I have to admit I'm looking forward to being back in my house, cooking in a real kitchen, Spanish lessons and singing with Lolita, swimming in the hotel pool, seeing friends before they head back home to Canada and the Northwest... I also have three books to edit now with deadlines in early April, and a faster, more reliable Internet connection would make the work a lot easier.

Las Hadas, in Manzanillo Bay

We're considering either taking the boat back up to La Cruz marina or south to Las Hadas marina, about a half-day's sail. Then the Capt would retrieve the van and drive me and the dogs home to San Carlos, fly back to the boat and solo home. I'd like to see Las Hadas, as I've never been there and the rest of this trip has all been previously explored territory. It's the first marina established on the mainland west coast of Mexico and instead of slips it has Mediterranean-style dock, so you tie up at the pulpit and get off the boat at the stern. There's a hotel with a swimming pool where marina users have privileges, as long as you have a white towel to match the hotel guests (according to Charlie's Charts). I just hope the pool is cleaner than the one at the Sands.

Mr. Terrible

Today we filled our water tank at the fuel dock, and talked to the engineer of Mr. Terrible, a 160-foot motor yacht. We speculated that Mr. Terrible is owned by an oilman, from the look of the silver logo on his deck gates, a Yosemite Sam lookalike brandishing a gasoline nozzle. Perhaps he's Ivan the Terrible's ever-so-great-grandson. An even larger yacht resides in the Grande Hotel marina, with its own helicopter and a motor launch almost as big as our vessel. Such a rarified atmosphere for us humble boat bums.

Typical Barra panga motors past Itessa, biggest megayacht in the marina.

Oops, is my boat envy showing? No, I love our humble sloop, it's just that sometimes it seems to close in on me.