11/09/01 | More Margarita

I think if I go into one more grocery store I'll go screaming crazy. Windom is packed to the gills with everything we need to make it to Panama -- or in some cases, all the way back to the US. Six bottles of rum and three of gin, nine rolls of paper towels, box after box of fruit juice, bags of nuts and sugar and pasta and Doritos...all tucked away behind cushions and under seats, sucked into our seemingly infinite storage capacity. No matter how much we pack away, there always seems to be more room for another bottle of wine, another can of olives. At least we've gotten the boat balanced again; since most of our systems are installed on the port side, we have a slight list unless we've got a good supply of heavy groceries stored on the starboard side to compensate.

Plaza Bolivar

We also bought three gallons of motor oil for future oil changes. Funny how in a country where diesel is around 26 cents and gasoline 36 cents a gallon, the same amount of motor oil costs six bucks! Then Britt decided he wanted to make cockpit cushions, so off we went to Plaza Bolívar, where we'd spotted a small cluster of fabric stores, and came back with a huge roll of foam rubber, several yards of fabric, and some heavy-duty zippers. We bought a new pillow for our bed and a new sprayer end for our anchor washdown. In between, we washed down arepas (cornmeal bread stuffed with savory fillings) with batidas (fresh blenderized fruit and ice). We even went out to the movies once; since we'd just been to Los Testigos, we saw The Gift because its Spanish title was Testigo. (A lousy movie, as it turned out, but at least the theater was nice, and extremely well air-conditioned.)

On Sunday we decided to climb the highest peak on the island, Cerro San Juan. It's not much of a climb because there's a road all the way up, but the top section is a park and closed to traffic. The most challenging aspect of the outing was simply figuring out how to get there by public transportation. No buses stopped for us by the marina area, so we walked to town, then took a bus to Plaza Bolívar, which we'd read was a central stop for many buses. Two young policemen were on duty there, and we asked them where we'd find the bus to the park ("el parque con el pico allá", I said, waving my hand toward it). One knew how to get to the park, and the other knew a bit of English, so between them they explained that we needed two buses, changing in La Asunción, then insisted on walking us the three blocks to the bus stop and telling the driver where we needed to go. They were very sweet, about nineteen years old, and they blushed and shook our hands as I thanked them in Spanish for their kindness.

Porlamar

The La Asunción bus let us out on a back road somewhere, where a pickup truck with benches in the back sat waiting. This was the "bus" to La Sierra. Sitting in the open truck bed, looking over the switchbacks as the wind blew through our hair brought back to mind our pickup truck ride to Pico El Duarte in the Dominican Republic, although this truck was in much better shape. The park was at the end of the route, and was filled with picnickers, all Venezuelans except for us. Unfortunately the park was closing at 4:00, and we didn't have time to make it all the way to the summit. (The park guard sternly informed us we must be back before 4:00, and we don't argue with armed men!) But we were able to make it to some good views of Porlamar and the harbor, and since we had brought our binoculars we were even able to pick out Windom at anchor.

We had a great sail to Juangriego, a north coast town named after a Greek sailor named John who supposedly washed up there. The wind obliged us by staying under 10 knots during our windward motoring leg, increasing to 15 as we reached north, and getting close to 20 when we had it behind us and needed the push. Only a few cruising boats (including Kajsa, who had left the day before) sat at anchor among scores of fishing boats.

It's a smoother anchorage than Porlamar, and I'm happy to be away from the mega-shopping and the huge crowds of people. There are still plenty of small shops, and a few Venezuelan and European tourists. The town is cute, an obvious resort town, with lots of little restaurantes and bodegas along the beach. We're in a slightly different microclimate zone from Porlamar, as we have mountains to windward. It's rained a little bit each evening we've been here, while we had zero rain during our stay on the other side; our first day here it blew like stink all day, but new arrivals from Porlamar commented on how calm it had been there all morning.

We've mostly been lying low while Britt gets over a cold and the southern Caribbean gets over the lingering swell from Hurricane Michelle. But we'll take on fuel tomorrow (amazing to think we can fill our tanks for under $40!), so we'll be ready to continue on to Isla La Blanquilla when the weather looks good. Technically, we're checked out of Venezuela, and have 24 hours to leave the country; practically, as long as we are making westward progress and don't go to any major settlement, the Guarda are likely (we are told) to just wave us on. So from Blanquilla we'll take a zigzag course via Isla Tortuga to Los Roques (avoiding Grand Roque, where the Guarda post is) , then to Los Aves, and finally to Bonaire. With luck our "24 hours" will take us three or four weeks!