Category Archives: hiking

The Cruiser’s Beach, Staniel Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas

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Sunrise on Friday, May 2

Keith does not do well when his schedule is thrown off its normal routine. As a result of going to bed so late last night, he was a super grumpy pants all day today.

This morning, while the generator was running, Eric filled up the two air tanks he’d used yesterday. We were pleased to report that Eric did fix the dive compressor while we were in San Diego. It turned out to be an issue with the drive belt, but putting a new belt in was difficult because the frame had corroded. He also replaced a lot of other parts on it, and it seems to be working fine now. All the effort to fix it has finally paid off.

After we finished with morning chores and school, Eric and Christi both worked on cleaning the bottom and waterline. Christi agreed it was the worst that Kosmos’s bottom had ever been — and Eric had already cleaned a lot of it! Between the two of them, they went through two tanks of air. They managed to get the entire bottom and waterline mostly done, but they would need to go back in one last time to finish it completely.

After showering, we went over to the Cruisers Beach. Apparently, the cruisers regularly get together at this beach for social activities, but we haven’t seen anything happening there since we’ve arrived. The shoreline looking south.

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Going to Shopping Centers and The Secret Beach

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The sunrise on Sunday February 9 almost looked like there was a fire in the sky that was giving off a lot of smoke. 

Sunday was another quiet day. In the morning, Eric got dinghy down. He went for a ride around the marina, looking for crocodiles, but didn’t see any. He wanted to go out to the anchorage, but it was too windy. With the dinghy down, he turned on the wind generator to make sure it was still working properly. He ran it all day on Sunday and Monday and was pleased that it was working fine.

Some of the cruisers had talked about a secret beach behind the boat yard. On Sunday, Christi decided to look for it. She saw a trail along one of the fences. 

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The Vallarta Botanical Garden, Part 2

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Continued from yesterday…. We were shocked to see that there was even an area with a cemetery! This is one of dozens of headstones

There were more walkways that explored the outer areas of the gardens. We were warned that these outer trails were long and could be arduous.  

First, we did the Vanilla Trail, which was a loop that had several offshoots from the main trail. We may have missed one or two of the offshoots, but we did most of them. There weren’t signs with plant names, so we weren’t sure if this was natural rainforest or if non-native species had been planted. It was hilly, with many sets of staircases and a suspension bridge.

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Keith’s Perspective on Joshua Tree/Le point de vue de Keith sur Joshua Tree

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Joshua Tree national park was amazing! The first day we drove there. We stopped to get food at a place called Farmer Boys. We went to my friend Heath’s campsite.

Le parc national de Joshua Tree était incroyable! Le premier jour nous avons conduit jusqu’à Joshua Tree. Nous nous sommes arrêtés pour manger à un restaurant qui s’appelle Farmer Boys. Après ça nous avons conduit jusqu’à l’emplacement de camping de mon ami Heath. 

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Joshua Tree National Park

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The family that we went camping with in Yosemite last year invited us to go to Joshua Tree National Park with them and several others for spring break. Joshua Trees are the largest species of the yucca genus (evergreens with sword shaped, tough leaves and white flowers). In addition to a large collection of Joshua Trees, the park is also famous for giant piles of rocks dotting the desert landscape, and people come from all over to climb these rocks. The park is also popular for stargazing. It has many hiking trails, too. Christi adores Joshua Tree. Eric and Keith had never been.

On Tuesday, the weather was clear and sunny. The three-hour drive northeast from San Diego to the high desert was beautiful. Southern California has had an unusually wet and cold winter, so the landscape was greener than normal and full of flowers, with snow capped mountains in the distance.

The campsite was located in Indian Cove, a small alcove on the outskirts of the park, conveniently located right off the main highway. While the temperatures were balmy during the day, it was cold at night. We’d decided it would be too cold for tent camping, and renting an RV was more expensive than renting a cabin/house. What was great about Indian Cove was that it was next to a residential area, so we were able to find a place that was only a 5-minute drive. With many national parks, such as Yosemite, it can be quite a long drive between the park and the closest amenities outside the park.

We arrived at the campsite at around 1400 (2:00 pm). Here’s a photo taken from atop one of the surrounding rock formations.

The boys spent the afternoon climbing rocks and playing a game called “Joe’s Gas Station.” Christi and Eric did a little bit of rock climbing, too.

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