Monday, February 07, 2005..continued

I had assumed that carnival would be like other parts of the world, and I told Gary that he should be able to see lots of almost naked girls in g-string bikinis as they have in New Orleans and Brazil, but he reminded me that this was Mexico a very Catholic country. So he was right, and I was wrong… no naked girls just lots of pretty young girls in full glittery gowns and lots of dancing girls doing the cha cha! I think it must be every young girls dream to be in the parade when they grow up. The parade was very lively but the people were more fun to watch.

It is a national holiday here so entire families were down on the waterfront setting up tables with massive amounts of food. It was lots of fun for us just to people watch. We were the only gringos for miles. Where else in the world can you get lots of people together with lots of drinking happening and not one fight breaks out! We were quite surprised at how calm the crowds were and no really funny business going on, just lots of people enjoying and supporting the parade.

Over the past week, we finally got the Montezuma’s revenge! Not sure where or how we got it. It might have been from the shrimp tacos or a taste of octopus we had the other night. Although it seems to be going around, so maybe it was just the flu virus, but either way it was not fun. We were glad to be at dock and not have to worry about sailing while we were sick. Gary got the chills really bad and described it as like being in the Nordic snow. I got chills, fever and lots of stomach cramps among other things. We stayed on the boat and borrowed lots of DVD’s from the neighbor boaters. I read 2 books. I guess it was a good excuse to rest.

We feel much better now. We went surfing this morning and the waves were really big. The waves were too big for me on the long board. Gary rode his short board and I was on the boogie board with my fins on. The swells were good size and I was exhausted by the time I got out past the surf break. The Mexicans are really good on their boogie boards doing amazing flips and knee boarding. Anyway, we had lots of fun this morning and it was good to be back in the water again. We had to get back to the boat, because today we are pulling the outboard engines up to drain the oil and put in new oil filters. We have some friends helping us out with this, since we have never hoisted our engines up before.

The sunsets have been spectacular. Beautiful red sunset last night, red sunset at night…. Sailors delight! So of course, the skies were blue this morning and the air was crisp and clear. Great day!