Sunrise on Wednesday, January 1
Christi woke up at 0500. Keith woke up at 0600. Both were grouchy and out of sorts all day from not getting a full night of sleep.
Here is a photo of the cute little birds that keep pooping all over Kosmos.
Monday December 30 continued from yesterday… We decided to head into the closest city, called Tapachula, which was about a half-hour away. We loaded into the car and headed inland towards the mountains.
Along the highway between Puerto Madero and Tapachula, we passed a lot of farmland and what looked like produce packing houses, the airport, a large sports complex that looked new, a university, and an assortment of commercial and industrial buildings. In the outskirts of the city were big strip malls with stores like Home Depot, Office Depot, and Walmart, along with some residential developments.
We hadn’t planned an itinerary in Tapachula, which was a mistake. Once we got into the city, we had no idea where to go. We drove around aimlessly for a few minutes. From what we could see, Tapachula was a typical Mexican city, consisting primarily of low, blocky buildings set close together.
We hadn’t had dessert after lunch, so Eric decided to find an ice cream shop. We are grateful for modern technology. 15-years ago, we wouldn’t have had any clue where to find an ice cream store. Thanks to our phones, we were at an ice cream shop in minutes.
The ice cream store was called MYTA. Inside, there was a play area for small children. Given that it was such a hot day, ice cream really hit the spot! Christi and Keith had both gotten cappuccino flavor, and the ice cream had real beans in it.
On Monday, December 30, Eric was feeling antsy to get out of the marina. The other cruisers had told us the public transit for the area were mini-vans called Collectivos that followed a route. The route had no set stops or scheduled times; people just waited for it somewhere along the route and waved it down when they saw it. And apparently you indicated when you wanted it to stop to let you off. We were told that the Collectivos can get quite crowded.
Eric wasn’t thrilled about trying the collectivo on a holiday week, so he called a taxi to take him to the airport (about a 15-minute drive) and rented a car. He went back to the marina to pick up Christi and Eric and they set out to do some exploring.
From the marina, we followed the main highway north for a few miles. The building belching smoke was indeed the closest one to the marina. We later found out it was an instant-coffee factory. We passed several industrial looking compounds, including an area that had big fuel storage tanks and an area under construction. We later found out they were building a train line.
We turned west onto the cross-road that led into Puerto Madero and followed it to the ocean. From what we could see, Puerto Madero was a typical small Mexican town.
Saturday, December 28 – This morning Christi went out to scrub the bird poop shortly after sunrise, wanting to get it done before it was too hot out. She was horrified to see that the entire boat was covered with a strange ash. We’d noticed yesterday that directly north of us, possibly the next building over, there had been a steady stream of smoke. Apparently, it burned all night. We also found that more birds had come along and added to the collection. The newly deposited gifts were red in color. While they washed off easily, we were going to need to treat the spots with special cleaner to completely remove the discoloration. The baked-on older gifts took a fair amount of scrubbing to remove.
Yesterday, Keith had wanted to order chilaquiles, but the restaurant was only serving lunch. This morning, Keith requested that we go back to the restaurant for breakfast today so he could get chilaquiles.
There was no salsa service at breakfast. Instead, they brought out a slice of banana bread for each of us. Eric ordered what is a traditional breakfast food for this region: chicken tacos with the local mole sauce, which was served with rice and fried plantains. Mole is a savory sauce made with chocolate and chilis. Every region in Mexico has its own special spin on ingredients are used in the sauce, so there are many kinds of moles across Mexico. The menu indicated that this one was mildly spicy and had nuts. This mole was dark brown. The sauce was complex; Eric could identify peanuts and cinnamon, but he couldn’t figure out the other ingredients
This week wasn’t very exciting, but a lot happened. Saturday we went to the pool, and then we went to dinner. The restaurant had just two things that weren’t fish, but dad ordered me breaded shrimp. It was ok, but I wanted chicken. When we were waiting for the food, a bird stared at me. It was creepy. After that we left for Chiapas.
Cette semaine n’a pas été très excitante, mais il s’est passé beaucoup de choses. Samedi on est allé à la piscine, et après on est allé dîner. Le restaurant avait juste deux choses qui n’étaient pas du poisson, mais papa m’a commandé des crevette au pain. C’était ok, me je voulais du poulet. Quand on attendait pour la nourriture, un oiseau m’a fixé du regard. C’était flippant. Après ça nous sommes partis pour Chiapas.
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