SV Gallant Fox

The Propane Chef Stays Busy

So, GB has not posted much of his exploits as The Propane Chef recently, but he wants all of cyberspace to know he has not given up The Good Work.  He surveys all the local markets for the freshest ingredients.  Here he is, exploring all the finest crustaceans the Mazatlan Fish Ladies offer.

Even when he's not actually buying provisions, he's closely examining the local merchants' wares and finding the best of all products - like this very hip butcher in the old market of Culiacan (a city a couple hours north of Mazatlan), who sells such good pork products (and is so photogenic) he insisted on having his photograph taken WITH them.

The Propane Chef has also taken out the Fox's B-Q to keep it in fine working form and review its propane output:

And even when he's just slapping together a quick lunch, he does a torta (sandwich) with half-frozen Mexican flank steak sliced across the grain in 1/8"-thick strips, marinated in lime juice, 1 tsp. Worchestershire sauce (called "salsa Inglesa" in these parts), and 1 tsp. soy sauce, sauteed with a few green onions and diced roasted pasilla chiles, then all chopped into small bits the way the Mexicans do for most tortas or tacos al pastor.  The Propane Chef tossed in some avocado slices and slapped it into the local white-bread rolls we love the most, and this was the result:

In short, The Propane Chef has kept busy but is having so much fun falling in love with the flavors of Mexico, he simply has no time yet to post thereof.  But some day soon he may regale you with tales of the tortas ahogadas of Guadalajara, or the best-tasting tacos that are almost always found at the lunch counters upstairs in the centuries-old markets in almost any Mexican city.  Stay linked, Gentle Readers.

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Five-O

Half a century.  The number of states in the USofA.  3.57 stone.  The square root of 2500.  The length of the Fox plus 10 feet.  The height of the Fox's mast minus 8 feet.

I'm feelin' it, but in a good way.  Left the dock at Shilshole exactly one year ago today.  Health could be better, but it will soon improve.  GB and good friends are taking care of me and treating me right.  Still amazes me, to have come this far.

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The Staysail Burrito

A full sail inventory for a 40-foot boat like the Fox is awkward to stow below decks, what with people actually living aboard 24/7/365.  What to do?  Most cruisers store at least some of the sails on deck, hopefully well covered.  We chose that route for the staysail that hanks-on to our inner Solent stay, so in late 2005 I put together a sail sausage that ties to the forward starboard lifelines.  Which ended somewhat suboptimally, in that the Sunbrella cover I made wraps around the staysail and the ends are sort of tucked in and made fast.  Thus creating a staysail burrito.

I can't even remember how much fabric I used, but it was a lot.  When laid on the salon floor, the almost-rectangular burrito fabric extended from inside the forward berth, through the salon, and into the galley area.  I wanted to be sure that none of the staysail was exposed to sunlight when stored on the deck, so the burrito overlapped the girth of the furled staysail by about 6 inches.  I cut the burrito's ends liberally so they, too, would overlap and cover the staysail ends completely.  To sum up:  I used a LOT o' Sunbrella for this project.

The only other ingredient in this burrito was webbing.  I sewed 4 long pieces of webbing to the back of the burrito, evenly spaced, to tie the burrito around the staysail and compress it to the extent possible.  On top of each of these 4 long webbing pieces, I sewed a second, short piece of webbing ("sail stop") to tie the staysail burrito to the boat's lifelines and stanchions.

Here are photos of the results, showing the partially-wrapped burrito, and how it rides on the foredeck, fully enclosing the staysail.  It's ridden there for over 2 years and a few thousand miles, without complaint.  Occasionally we need to re-wrap the burrito as it shifts during our travels, and we tied the tucked-in ends of the burrito with some spare sail ties to better prevent salt water penetration while underway.  I may need to re-sew the thread on the webbing at some point as the sun and salt deteriorate it, but otherwise the burrito seems to serve our purposes and is as low-maintenance as any other of our deck canvas.  Nice.

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Lake Chapala and Ajijic

After four days in Guadalajara we traveled a few miles south to Lake Chapala by rental car.  At the time it seemed logical to rent a car, not knowing the lay of the land and all, but the next time we make this trip (and it's likely there will be a next time) we'll study a little more and get all the way to Lake Chapala by bus or taxi - primarily because car rental prices are so breathtakingly expensive; but also because driving in Mexico - especially in urban areas like Guadalajara - can be very stressful.  The traffic is astonishingly heavy, and the drivers appear unencumbered by brakes or attention spans.  [Remember - traffic and speed signs in Mexico are only "advisory" - GB.] However, the biggest problem we experienced with Mexican freeways is that although they seem fairly well constructed they are very poorly designed.  For example, the road surface is nicely smooth but there are no shoulders and the on-ramps share the same 50-foot merge lane with exit ramps, making the transition from 70mph through-traffic to 30mph side traffic, errmmmm....tricky.  I have even seen - on a major 4-lane arterial in Guadalajara full of high-speed commercial traffic, mind you - a horse-drawn cart loaded with two guys hauling scrap metal.  The horse was moving as fast as it could in the right hand lane, bless it, but it was obviously very tense and distinctly unamused at its predicament.  Pity Mexican livestock - it is a short and harsh life for the likes o' them.

Anyway, due to the liberation of GB's wallet (including driver's license) by persons unknown, the burden of rental car pilotage fell on the narrow shoulders of Me - who, like the horse, was profoundly unthrilled.  Nevertheless I managed to actually drive a rental car all the 60-mile way from Guadalajara to Ajijic on the shores of the fabled Lake Chapala.  Truth be told, that stretch of highway is probably the most easily maneuvered road in all of Mexico.  Another plus is that the side roads to Lake Chapala have relatively few "topes" and "piedras" (high, usually-unmarked speed bumps that can ruin a vehicle's suspension), and no military checkpoints.  Thank freakin' gawd for all this, because by the end of the day I was so burned out from reading road signs, managing traffic, and speaking Spanish I had to go to bed early.  Oh, the humanity.

Here's why Mexicans and gringos alike flock to Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake.  Check out this view taken by Phil Wetmore* who climbed up to a mountainside shrine for the photo op:

Lake Chapala is the traditional weekend getaway for Guadalajarans (has been, for like about the past 150 years), and in recent decades has been totally discovered by the gringos.  In fact, Lake Chapala has grown into the largest concentrated population of Canadians and US citizens in all of Mexico.  Many norteamericanos reside in the Lake Chapala area either full time, or at least for the 6 months of every year that the weather is its worst up north.  We met some expatriates in the Chapala area who were all very nice to us and incredibly enthusiastic about having relocated to Mexico - some of them, as long as 30-odd years ago.  But some of us gringo visitors are ambivalent about the area because...well, there are just so MANY of us.  Many of whom speak little or no Spanish.  And bring their SUVs with them.  We also seem to have driven up the prices of everything - even relative to a resort town like Mazatlan.  Hard to know how the locals truly feel about this situation, because they're all so darn polite about the influx.  But for purposes of this post only, let's call the Chapala waterfront/lakeside area "Gringo Gulch," shall we?  To reflect both its appeal and the bit of awkwardness I feel.

Lake Chapala at its widest points is about 50 miles long and 15 miles wide.  And about 18 feet deep in the middle.  That is not a typo.  18 feet deep.  In a good year.  Not a lot of recreational boating thereabouts - but GB and I might bring our inflatable kayak with us next time for a bit of a shoreline paddle.  Many migratory bird species like white pelicans travel here to winter-over at the lake, which makes birding worthwhile, but the native whitefish population is long gone and although some locals still fish from the lake for subsistence it is not recommended to eat anything out of the lake due to the concentration of pesticides and heavy metals from the sewage and agricultural runoff.  So, ick.  The lake still looks beautiful from afar, though, set against the mountains as it is (take another good look at Phil's photo); and it hasn't gone all Cuyahoga River yet.  So they have that going for them.

The climate seems very good too, due to its elevation; and as I said there are birds to watch and other critters to see.  Plus the hot springs in the lakeside town of San Jose de Cosala are first-rate - especially their Gaping Maw of Hell (aka the natural underground steam grotto).  Many towns of varying ages surround Lake Chapala, and most are of the Spanish Colonial type of construction.  Ajijic and Cosala, for example, are full of cobblestone streets, lake and mountain views, and pretty little casitas with high walls, tile roofs and secret courtyards that are hard to resist.  And if you've ever wondered where your wintertime strawberries come from, they're probably grown in the fields of Jocotepec on the western shore of Lake Chapala.  The more you know....

We met some very nice people during our brief stay at Lake Chapala (Phil, Lee, Cordelia, Pete & Elaine), and we got to see some cool Colonial style homes while we were there that we could imagine settling right in to.  It's just that, for the two of us, although we were attracted to certain houses and certain neighborhoods, we had a hard time trying to imagine ourselves living in the general area long term without having first seen more of Mexico.   Lake Chapala as a whole felt very much like a warm-weather Lake Tahoe to us - especially because there is essentially only one road surrounding the lake, which undoubtedly gets gridlocked on weekends and holidays when the folks from Guadalajara come for a visit.  And how much relief is it to leave the Big City behind, when it comes to visit you 52 times or more each year?

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* Copyrighted, all rights reserved.  Remember, stealing is naughty.

Guadalajara

Guadalajara is too big to see in the few days we'd alloted.  But, when we took the bus there from Mazatlan we concentrated on the central Historic District for 4 days so got an idea of what the the city might have been like, from the pre-columbian era to the Spanish conquest to the Industrial Revolution and beyond (pick your poison).  Hotel Frances is located just off the central plaza between the cathedral and the Degollado Theatre, so staying there we were comfortably in the thick of things.  (Bring earplugs, though - the better to resist the lure of music from the Hotel Frances bar, the disco next door, and the plaza a block away - a city like Gudalajara never sleeps, but maybe you should.)

If you go to Guadalajara please take time to see the Regional Museum, the City Museum, and the museum(s) in the Cabanas Cultural Institute  in the Historic District.  Please spend one day for each museum - as otherwise you'll just get information overload.  The Regional Museum handles everything from fossils found in Jalisco state (including an almost-complete wooly mammoth skeleton, which - awesome), to pre-columbian artifacts found throughout Mexico, to the modern political and industrial development eras in Mexico.  Go to the Regional Museum.  Plus, a couple days later we got really lucky at the City Museum:  it was a slow Sunday morning, so the docent who had nothing better to do guided us personally through the whole museum, adding his own family's history to what the exhibits described.  Travel tip:  just a little bit of Spanish-speaking ability can provide a much richer experience than what you otherwise may have.  Study a little, mis amigos!

If you don't like museums, just groove to the public sculpture that's everywhere - either bronze sculptures traditional or modern; or fallen heroes (including female founders, thank you).  Here we have the Guadalajara coat of arms done in bronze 8 feet high; a nicely-maintained doorway; a Founding Mother; and o-so-much art:

If sculpture is not your cup of tea, go straight to the wall and ceiling murals in the main building of the Cabanas Cultural Institute - check out the industrialized conquistador's war-horse, for example:

Or perhaps the Cabanas showpiece, 'Man on Fire" - which, interpret it as you may because I'm still baffled as to significance:

Guadalajara - a Travel Destination.

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Guadalajara and Lake Chapala - an overview

When the Fox is in port for a while (like now), GB and I like to sniff around inland.  After all, the cruising lifestyle isn't only about what you see on the water.  We studied a little bit and decided to see Guadalajara - Mexico's second-largest city at between 5 and 7 million inhabitants, depending on who's counting - with a side trip to the gringo enclave at Lake Chapala.

The bus line we used was Primera Plus.  This is a first class bus trip from Mazatlan to Guadalajara (roughly 260 miles) that takes about 6-1/2 to 7-1/2 hours one way for $399 pesos per person.  Equals less than US$40 per person one way.  A pretty decent sack lunch, air conditioning, reclining seats and continuous movies are included, and heads and a coffee maker are in the rear of the bus.  The bus is BIG - passengers sit much higher than the guys driving semis.  Folks, this is the equivalent to business-class or first class on US airlines, without the paranoia, crowding or harassment.  Of course, one must tolerate the occasional military checkpoint for contraband drugs, but what the hey.  This is a sweet ride.  If you were driving by car, you'd (1) have to negotiate speed bumps and potholes; and (2) pay a fair amount of pesos in tolls - assuming you take the toll roads because you want to travel quickly and more safely than the free roads.

The road from Mazatlan to Guadalajara is interesting for its travel through various climate and geological zones.  But also because GB gets very sleepy  and is fun to take pictures of because he gets so docile.  The sandy estuaries and dry jungle lowlands give way to ancient volcanic lava flows and then to higher-elevation scrub areas interspersed with agricultural zones - including the blue agave fields that make the precious tequila we all love.  Critters:  on this trip I spotted zone-tailed hawks, black hawks, wood storks (possibly - they sure were far away for a definitive sighting), great egrets, snowy egrets and white pelicans.  There were others, like turkey vultures, hummingbirds of indeterminate species, and kiskadees.  Come south, and see where all the birds come when the weather gets bad further north.

We realized as we were planning the trip that Guadalajara is a big city, and it has all the big-city congestion and density you'd expect - but it also has a history going back to the 16th century so its downtown core has museums, public art and 400-year-old buildings you just don't find in a city like, say, Denver.  Heck; even our hotel dates back to 1610.  Check these pics out of the second-floor interior and second-floor courtyard:

We'd intended to travel further beyond Jalisco to the Patzcuaro region, but when GB's wallet was sacrificed to some pickpockets at a bus stop in Guadalajara (GB's fault entirely), we chose to cut the trip short and save MS all the driving on Mexican highways and byways.  She had enough trauma just getting the rental car from the far side of Gudalajara to Lake Chapala and back.  Heh.

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Whew.

The cruising life is challenging.  So many things demand one's time:  procuring fuel takes longer than simply sidling up to a fuel dock; doing laundry is more complicated*; getting groceries and seeing a doctor require negotiating buses and taxis and speaking in a foreign language in addition to just buying the groceries or walking into the MD's office; sending and collecting mail is laborious; and then there are all those cruisers' happy-hours and dinners that take up ever-so much time to enjoy (and recover from).  It's tough.

During the Christmas holidays and on in to the New Year we enjoyed a lot of what Mazatlan has to offer:  entertainment, a very good neurosurgeon and radiology center for MS, many dinners with many new friends we've made in the marina...and we even traveled inland by bus to Guadalajara shortly after the new year.  Not to mention the basic cleaning and maintenance work that always needs doing.  Oh yes - the days, they have been full.  As we catch up with this here blog, please do enjoy views of some of what's gone on with us in Sinaloa and Jalisco:

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* unless you have Norma do it for you at Marina El Cid...ahem.