winter in tropical latitudes

In Santa Cruz, I can always tell winter has arrived by the shadows.  They seem longer, at steeper angles than the rest of the year.  Then there's the obvious colder weather, rain and early darkness.  I keep forgetting it's winter down here!  The weather is comfortably warm.  There is no rain, only some clouds many afternoons.  The day is dark by 6pm but that has crept up on us slowly.  Today, however, I noticed the shadows.  Even though it's not cold, the winter shadows are here.  Long and stretched out at acute angles, winterizing even the palm trees.

cooler weather and starting a business

Huatulco is enjoyable this time of year!  the breezes are cool, and there's plenty of them.  Bright yellow butterflies and monarch butterflies swirl around and the humidity has dropped considerably.  As an added bonus, there's good swell around for Brian when he isn't working too hard.  Last week, Brian mentioned to a captain on a sailboat that I was getting ready to repair our mainsail.  Within an hour, I was hired! His sail had ripped and he needed to leave town right away.  So, I spent 3 days sewing his sail and earned a nice bit of cash and, in so doing, I've accidentally started a sail shop.  I've received more work than I could have drummed up than if I'd advertised!  People walk by, see me sewing, and bring me my next piece to repair.  I am using an empty room at the marina so I'm quite visible.  This work, and selling a few things we don't need, is just what we needed to bolster the bank account.  Brian is re-doing our cockpit with sanding, puddying, and painting.  Despite all the work, we're taking time to meet and visit with people in the mornings and evenings.  Tomorrow, we're going bird-watching (Carol, I'll tell you all about it) with a couple that is quite knowledgeable about birds.  We are also reading and quizzing people about El Salvador and Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.  We're headed to those places pretty soon.  Take care, Friends! Megan

Megan's Sail Loft

A week ago, Brian and I were starting to wonder how to supplement our bank account without having to fly home. After some brainstorming I decided, well, I'll pull out our mainsail to start repairing it. Might as well start on the list of chores.

Brian off-handedly mentioned my impending project to a sailboat captain that had just pulled in to the marina. Within 24 hours, I had a room (loaned free of charge from the marina manager), a large ripped mainsail in front of me with my tools and machine arranged around. I had a job. ... I have a job. Even though I finished that sail on Friday, just sitting in front of a machine sewing, has attracted a lot more work.

Lucky me.

Alban

Here's a couple of my favorite views from Monte Alban.

Oaxaca - Monte Alban

Monte Alban in the center of a large valley which is surrounded by mountains. The valley is filled with the city of Oaxaca on the East of Alban and small villages interspersed on the West and to the South. But to be on the mountain is to be separate, above and refreshed from city and commerce. The quietness and calm of walking among the ruins or sitting under a tree between temples is accentuated by the knowledge that many years past, the place now peaceful was buzzing with construction noises, sounds of animals being sacrifice, ritual incantations, and the hum of commerce. There was a contrast between what my imagination filled in on the main plaza and what was not there on our sunny, cool breezy day. This allowed me to enjoy even more the emptiness of many years. Vacant temples, green on one or two sides with grasses and flowers; tumbled columns; carved cornerstones boasting of conquests, almost imperceptible after years of weather to clean them. All this reminded me of the temporariness of our "authorities" we humans have set up. What a relief to see one major power of old, swept clean and impotent. That is the way of Time and Creation, constantly, slowly, re-making human objects of pride.

boat work and more

Hi friends, It's been a while since I sent out an update but here I am sitting under some shade on the roof of the marina Chahue office catching some breeze and the wi-fi signal.  I arrived about a week ago to reunite with Brian who flew down earlier to have a surf trip on the boat with some friends.  We've spent my first week here working and sweating with some fun social stuff hanging out with new friends Chris and Gerry in the evenings.  Due to an electrical fire  on board Brian has had to remove engine parts take them to town for repair and do a lot of rewiring and cleaning in the engine room.  I've had my share of cleaning because we have had an infestation of cockroaches (the small ones, thankfully).  All food and cooking utensils have been removed from cupboards, bagged up and put outside on the deck.  I usually pull the food out with one hand and with the other I hold the end of the shop-vac hose to suck up nasty bugs which scurry away as I remove their hiding places.  Very exciting. On the more pleasant side, Brian has wired in 5 new cabin fans which  make the boat pretty bearable during the day.  Other highlights have been a one day trip to Barra de Navidad which is a 1/2 hour taxi ride from here.  We relaxed, Brian surfed, and we both spoke a lot of Spanish with the locals.  Tonight we're off on the night bus to the city of Oaxaca.  It's located in the mountains. I'm looking forward to being cold, not working on the boat, seeing some very old ruins, and exploring a city with a lot of Indian culture.  We'll be there during the Dia de Los Muertes festivities.  Should be interesting! Hope you are all well.  Megan

The Journey Resumes

Brian is returning to Mexico today. Dropped him off at the San Jose Airport with a 100 +pound surf bag containing only one surfboard and lots of gear for the boat. I'm grateful the airport personnel didn't blink an eye, even though it took 3 guys to roll the thing away.

Even though this feels like the resumption of a journey interrupted by a 4 month visit home for us to work, I realize that those four months are as much a part of the journey as our time on Nomad in Mexico. When we got home in June we had about a thousand bucks in our accounts, were both pretty depressed from the isolation and some unresolved conflict, exhausted from working on the boat and ready, very ready to be surrounded by friends, family, and have time away from boat projects. All of this and more we have enjoyed.

Although we've both been working, we feel rested, restored and ready to head back to the journey. The Marriage Encounter weekend we attended on Sept. 27, 28 was the last piece of the preparation. All summer we've been ordering safety gadgets, supplies, charts, and guides to navigation to bring back to the boat. These will be good and we'll be glad we invested the money but I believe our number one investment has been in our marriage and communication skills. We are a better team than any other time in our 6 years of marriage. (If you want to be able to say the same about your marriage, think about attending a Marriage Encounter-they're all over the world: www.wwme.org)

I'll join Brian in a couple of weeks. I have some more trip preparation and will work a little longer before I head down.