Isabella - The Real Deal!
Serai
Jason and Emily Willis
Thu 26 Apr 2007 14:56
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00:57.91S 90:57.70W
We sailed overnight from Isla Cristobal to Isla
Isabella. Its only about 80 odd miles, so we left at lunchtime and planned on a
slow sail through the night. Of course, the sailing bit lasted about 3 hours
before the wind completely died, and we slow motored the rest of the way. It
seems that the wind always dies at around the same time that I am due to go off
watch and consequently to bed. I then have the deep rumble of a Perkins 4108 to
lull me to sleep. Aaah lovely.
As dawn broke the cry went out "land-ho". Actually
it didn't. The cry went out "Thank god we're finally here. Get kettle on
luv!" We did a victory lap of the harbour saying hello to all the boats and
faces we knew, whilst also looking for a good spot to anchor. Once the hook was
dropped at the very back of the anchorage, having found no space further in and
having backed away from some evil looks from some fellow captains, we headed
into town.
There are no roads, just sand and dirt tracks. Its
quite desolate (which I always seem to be attracted to) and the people are just
as friendly. The yacht club (Club Nautico de Isabella - which sounds so much
more impressive) is a wooden hut on the beach, with a couple of hammocks and
some faded international flags hanging off the ceiling. We walked into 'town'
which consisted of a couple of bars and a shop or two. We strolled passed one
bar and saw Darrel and Jo, a couple of Ozzies we have seen around. We sat with
them and chatted for a while over a beer or 4, and then some friends from a cat
called Barefeet (who had flown in from Wreck Bay) joined us, and then some
Norwegian friends dropped by. Before you could say 'its 5 o'clock somewehere' we
had a right old party in full swing. It was a lovely afternoon with a lot of
laughs; a great cruising moment.Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the last
taxi is at 6 pm, so we had to nip things in the bud and go home to our
respective boats.
The following day was an early start. We were off
to see the local volcano. Now when this particular volcano just happens to be
the second largest volcano in the world, this is a pretty big deal.We were
booked in to ride to the volcano by horseback. We hopped in the back of a
pick-up at 0800 and set off at hair-raising pace to the base of the volcano. Now
as I already said the roads are all dirt and sand, so by the time we got to the
base of the volcano we were covered in dirt with just a white outline where our
sunglasses had been! It was with some surprise that the truck only stopped
momentarily at the stables and then proceeded on...must be a different
stables,we thought. Probably the stables where they keep the race-horses! We
stopped about 10 minutes up the road and clambered out. The guide informed us
that this was where we started our treck to the volcano...on foot. No, No there
must be some mistake we cried. we cannot hear the gentle Neeeigh of a couple of
steedes. Things got a little heated as you can imagine. There was much
telephoning. None of the stables seemed to have any spare horses. We started to
ask for our money back, and then the guide said that if we paid another $5 we
could walk up to this volcano and then do a ride to another volcano in the
afternoon, when some horses would be available. This seemd a good solution and
so we all agreed. I should point out at this point that Isabella is a fiery old
girl with a total of 6 active volcanos. The biggest one exploded just 2 years
ago!
So off we went on a 2 hour hike. It was awesome and
just great to use our legs again. The views were amazing. It really is one big
volcano. Sierra negra is about 9km across and 900m deep and full of larva rock.
after this the horses were brought to us and off we went. They were a motley
bunch of horses, but for once were independent spirited. The guy was happy for
those that could ride to take off and get the horses cantering and on the
gallop. I have not been on a horse in a while, and certainly not gone fast, so
it was exhilerating to get my horse going. Having said that, my horse looked
more like a large donkey than a horse. It was a bit embarassing as everyone else
thought this too. It took a bit of persuading and a large whip to get it to do
anything more energetic thatn a slow plod, but I won through in the end. I think
it was happy to get rid of me at the end of the day!
Now Ems and horses don't really mix. She is always
a bit nervous around them for some unknown reason. this time though she got on
really well. She had confidence in her horse and it looked after her. She got
trotting and looked great. She laughed and smiled the entire time I think.The
second volcano was much smaller but slight more impressive as we were able to go
down into it and see some of the individual blow holes. The landscape was so
bleak, and yet a few cactus still manage to grow.
Today we went off to a little lagoon for some
snorkelling. The water is 'officially' freezing! It was a great morning though
as one friendly sealion insisted on playing with us. It was a small, young one.
I would dive down and it would race up to me and then barrel roll away at the
last minute. I would try to do the same, and it would look at me in amazement
with its huge cute eyes! I got out at the dock later on and it kept coming and
playing next to us. In the end it got up on the dock to sunbathe and let us get
really close. I was able to stroke it for ages. At first it looked up at me when
I did it and I thought it might get aggresive, but then it put its head back
down and just seemed to enjoy being stroked. It was an amazing moment. I have
wanted to do it for ages, and finally found a sealion that would trust me
enough. Now we can leave here!
And tomorrow we do. We plan to set sail about
midday for the next hop. Its just a short one of some few thousand miles. The
more we talk to others the less wind there seems to be out there. We will be
lucky to do it in 25 days it appears. Who knows. We are ready for it
though and actually looking forward to it. And now I can dream of my new friend
Serena the Sealion and the world is a better place!
So here's a crazy fact that we try not to dwelll on
too much! At one point we will be 1500 miles from the nearest land. This is the
furthest a person can be from land, anywhere in the world! Cool...I
think!
Tonight we are going to a BBQ at the yacht club.
There's Marlin and meat and chicken and all for $6 a head. Its our last meal out
for a while and there are a few of us going, so it should be fun.
We are leaving with another boat called Selene. She
is about the same size as us and has a Norwegian couple on board of a similar
age. Its nice to travel together. Yarn is a Submariner, but seems to prefer to
stay above the waves which is good news. Eli is a radiologist that can fix
broken bones, so hopefully we will not be neading her skills either. Still, both
are perhaps more useful to us than are my skills as an ad-man to them, I'm
sure!
Well thats it from us. The next one will be from
our blue world. take care one and all and KEEP THE EMAILS COMING!
Till the next time.
Lots of love
J and Ems xx
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