15 December 2004
La Paz, BCN, Mexico

What’s next?
The debate continues as more and more information is gathered and as we weigh all opinions and options. At the end of the day, worn from our daily chores, we look forward to our dinnertimes when we often spend time dreaming and deliberating our future plans.

Sami is excited as she hopes to go to the Galapagos Islands (Ecuadorian authority) to see for herself, the Galapagos tortoise and other endangered species.  If we go south, Gaby will get her wish to go on a long Pacific Ocean passage as we are considering bypassing Latin America and jumping from the Mexican Tehuantepec to Panama and then to Ecuador. Judy is enthusiastic, as she will get to go inland into the Ecuadorian villages, markets and Inca ruins, travel by train to visit Peru for a trek to Machu Pichu and maybe, if the weather and anchorage permits, visit Easter Island (Chilean authority). And the Captain, well, he’s interested in getting to the remote Gambier Islands in the South Pacific and to go to all the other places mentioned above.  Most of them are on his “list” of lifetime places to visit.  He remains an advocate of going to Tahiti, Bora Bora and the French Islands of the Marquesas, whether we have enough time to do this, will be yet to be determined.

One perspective is the cultural experience gained by these routes. Perhaps a disadvantage, but, by bypassing Latin American, we will postpone experiencing the culture of the Mayans. This could be gained on a return visit on the eastern seaboard of Latin America in the far future, at the end of the circumnavigation (assuming we ever do a circumnavigation. Circumnavigation is not a goal of ours, but it maybe an outcome of the years.  Venturing to many ancient places and exposure and immersion to diverse cultures is our goal.)  We will not miss the Polynesian Islander’s culture; we will just delay that experience until the next year.  Fortunately, this current plan anticipates visiting the places influenced by the culture of the Incas, the Aztecs and some of the indigenous native Indians.  Are we missing a perspective? Write us if you have a personal travel experience or knowledge of this part of the world and its culture or environment.  Some cruisers travel for the best dive sites.  We travel to meet the people, listen to their beliefs, inhale their land and seas’ natural features, connect their history with the arts & architecture, and of course, smell and taste the foods they prepare.

Consensus remains that we are all happy with this lifestyle.  We are still cruising and content to travel together as a family.  The attitude is right and that is the most important aspect for proceeding with next step planning.

Much of this planning remains tentative and dependent on the weather winds of opportunity and conditions.  We will be consulting Jimmy Cornell’s book World Cruising Routes, gathering charts, and talking with others about the options over the next several weeks to define the preferred routes and schedules.

We will be in Puerto Vallarta in mid-February for our “annual” visit with the Goldstein family and then we will need to “boggy” on south.  

Future planning is as much fun as the actual experience.  The inclusive process of making dreams come true remains a big part of our experience. And for us, the real adventure of our days can be all about the experience, whether it is full of woe or delight.  

Living in the present is essential too.  “Going with the flow” and “getting with the groove”, seem to be phrases that work for us and aren’t just trite. We do feel like we control our future, if only modified by the weather, cranky cruisers, or the needs of our steady and reliant vessel.

Back