Category Archives: Mexico

Welcome to Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico

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Around 0100, the wind picked up some more. Instead of 20 26 knots, it became more like 21 27. We know that doesn’t sound like much of a difference on paper, but the gusts were now more frequently on the higher end of the spectrum than they had been before. After only an hour, it started to die down. By 0230, the wind was down to 15. Since the wind was on our side and we were so close to shore, the ride had never changed for us, so even in the worst of the winds the ride was smooth and pleasant.

In the early morning, we rolled up 29,000 nautical miles. Wow. We certainly have done a lot of miles, haven’t we? At 0800, we looked outside and noticed there were a zillion small jellyfish in the water. We made excellent time all morning. We must have a current with us for the speeds to be so good. The currents in this gulf are also notoriously strong.

Our destination was the town of Continue reading →

History of the Mexican Republic

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Mexico’s 1,972,550 square kilometers in size and has an estimated population of 111 million people. It is bordered on the north by the United States, on the South by Belize and Guatemala, on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the east by the Caribbean Sea. Mexico has an incredibly rich history, particularly in regards to the remarkably advanced indigenous people groups. It is believed that the original humans migrated from Siberia (it is believed there used to be a land formation that sank in what is now the Bering Strait) in migratory waves started in 60,000 BC. Somewhere between 7000 and 3000 BC, the people in central Mexico began cultivating agriculture. They went from being nomadic hunters and gatherers to settling into permanent villages. Throughout what is today Mexico, there were dozens and dozens of different ethnic tribes that influenced one another, and at various points in time sometimes conquered one another, too.

Mexico’s “mother culture” is considered to be the Continue reading →

Passage from San Juan del Sur to Huatulco – Days 4 and 5

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Day 4

In the very early morning, not too long before dawn, we encountered 7 pangas within a 10 mile range. Eric was on watch and had to do some evasive maneuvering to stay clear of them. Some had lights on and were easy to see, others didn’t bother to turn their lights on until we were almost on top of them. Thank goodness for radar!

This morning the seas are better. We are still bouncing up and down, but the rapidity of the swells has slowed down, which helps the ride immensely. Interestingly, the wind chop has picked up, going from 6 inches to 1 2 feet, yet the ride is still better. It is so true that wave intervals trumps wave height in the comfort meter.

When the sun came up, we peeked out and saw our bird was still in the cockpit. We started to worry that he may be dying. Yesterday, he would run away from us and try to hide by the little step leading to the starboard side walkway. Today he just sits sadly in the middle of the cockpit when we come out, making no effort to hide. Eric gave him Continue reading →

Where in the World Are We?

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We interrupt “blog time” to bring you a “real time” announcement”¦ Yesterday, April 21st, 2009, at 1730 Pacific time, we officially completed our world wide circumnavigation! No, we aren’t back in San Diego yet. We are in Ensenada, Mexico, but since we have been to Ensenada on Kosmos before, we technically “tied the knot” when we arrived here.

We plan to complete our San Diego to San Diego World Circumnavigation on Saturday, May 2. Several people have said they would like to see us physically pull into San Diego, so we are going to have a “Welcoming” at the public dock on Coronado Island, which is behind the restaurant named Peohe’s at 1210 First Street, Coronado, CA 92118. Our welcoming is not associated with Peohe’s, so don’t wander in there looking for us, come right out to the dock.

We should be arriving to the dock around 10:00 am, depending on how long it takes to clear customs. We plan to stay at the dock about two hours or so. This is not a party there won’t be food or drinks. It is not an open house, either we won’t be giving tours or rides on board Kosmos. But we will visit with everyone who comes out to welcome us home. We are excited to see our friends and family again on that day, and looking forward to meeting any blog readers who may decide to come out.

We know, we know”¦ you probably want to know why the blog says we are in Dominica when we are really in Ensenada. Think about it logically. We write a journal entry every day, but we only post 5 days a week. Over the 2 years, we have fallen progressively farther behind real time.

But wait”¦ now that you are done, will the blog postings stop? No, we’ll continue to post our daily journal in “blog time” through to the end of the trip, so you have several more months worth of posts to look forward to. And there are some good stories coming up! For example our trip through the Panama canal, white water rafting in Costa Rica, anchoring in 40 knot winds in Nicaragua, eating tacos pastor in Huatulco, our trip summary, and many more.

Los Coronados and Paravanes

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Departing October 7, 2006 from San Diego, CA arriving October 7, 2006 to Los Coronados, Mexico and returned October 8, 2006 to San Diego. The Los Coronados Islands are just east of Tijuana and are part of Mexico. They are the closest islands to San Diego. It takes about 4 hours for Kosmos to get there from her slip. We were joined by several friends and Eric’s cousin for a total of 6 on board. The islands are a nature preserves and you are not allowed to set foot on them. A decent anchorage is at 32°23’58.13″N 117°14’21.86″W, but watch out for the aqua culture nets just to the south at 32°23’35.36″N 117°14’4.57″W. In fact a boat got caught in some lines near that area. We heard them calling for help and altered course and went to full throttle to help them. Continue reading →