Sunday, April 11, 2010

0603, Sun, 041110. We didn't get out of here yesterday. That's the problem when you have to rely on other people. Ivan never showed until the evening. When he did show, it was on his way out to go fishing with his buddy. He got back just after dark and it was obvious he'd had a few drinks. My guess is, he doesn't know how to swim, so he wears a float like we used to wear in the 60s. It is a belt type of float that only goes around the waist, they were outlawed because too many people ended up floating head down. It's not so bad he wears the thing in the boat, but he never took it off the entire evening, in and out of the truck, while at the fuel station, maybe wore it to bed, ha. He said he would help with fuel, so we had no choice but to wait for him. He picked us up at Neos, jugs in hand, and off we went to shore. He gladly handed his keys to me while the four of us got in his truck, Sue, Ivan, his buddy, and myself. The station was only about a mile down the road where we found no problem with them taking a mix of US money as well as Nicaraguan bills. Reverse of the process and we were back to Neos.
Sue asked about costs and the prices were a little higher than we thought. The running around and getting the authorities and all ran $25 US and the anchorage was $10 US per night. Still not bad, I guess, when compared to other places. And we did get a free T-shirt! All in all, Ivan was a most gracious host and did everything he could to make our stay comfortable. Although this put us off a day from what we would have liked (better wind conditions yesterday) we should have a calm overnighter to our next stop.
Sue had asked if they were burning the sugar cane fields, and Ivan said it was that time of the year. I remember, not too long ago, the burning of the rice fields in the Sacramento Valley every year. He said that this, coupled with the ash from the volcano would leave a a grit in the air.
Last night was very comfortable without a ripple all night and I woke up to a brilliant rainbow this morning. Of course we were able to get in a couple of rounds of cards, I was gracious enough to allow Sue to win both rounds, and our nightly fix of "24"…..more later..

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