We think we are checked into Peru. It is a long story that is not over yet so I will wait and put t in another blog entry.
For those of you who are interested in numbers, here are the numbers for the passage:
Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador to La Punta, Peru including 2 stops; Salinas, Ecuador for 6 hours to check the hot water heater and to see about getting fuel, which we did not, Islas Lobos de Afuera, Peru for 2 hours to change the fuel filter and move some fuel from Jerry cans to aft tank.
Total passage time: 9 days, 5 hours, 15 minutes or 221 hours, 15 minutes, from Nov. 7 to Nov 16.
Of that, we spent 142 hours sailing, 79 hours motor sailing or motoring. Total distance traveled was 1004 nautical miles. Maximum winds was 23 knots around Cabo Blanco.
For the last few days we have been catching up on sleep and exploring. We met Don and Rita of SV Limbo and they have been showing us around.
La Punta is a small bedroom community that is home to a naval school as well as the Yacht Club Peruano. It has many restaurants with in easy walking distance. There are two laundries, one by the kilo (s/5 per kilo) and the other by the piece (not sure of the price). The small business section a block from the yacht club includes a bank with ATM, 2 pharmacies, a vegetable market, a money exchange and a cafeteria with a bakery (over the top eclairs). La Punta is very clean and safe and the homes are well maintained. Some of the architecture is quite old, such as the yacht club but others are a modern mix of glass and wood.
One block farther you may catch a 'micro', pronounced 'mecro' or a small bus to La Marina and the shopping mall at Plaza San Miguel for s/1. The mall is in two parts and includes one combination store similar to a Walmart plus a Home Depot, a Starbucks, and a TGIFridays. Across the street is the other mall with another large hardware store called Maestro, plus upscale clothing stores like Levi's, Pierre Cardin, etc. We found a Claro shop so we now have Claro Peru sim cards in our iphones for internet. No joy for the ipad though. Next to this is Wong's a higher end grocery store that has many items you would find in the states.
Yesterday we walked with Don and Rita to the fish, produce and everything else market. We bought two 10 gallons Jerry cans to add to Windarra for s/40 or $14. The everything else market is full of small stalls that have any and everything from jewelry to tennis shoes to plastic good like our Jerry cans to clothing.
Today we moved to a mooring that has power so we may deep charge our batteries. We are tied to two buoys. The aft buoy has a power stand with an outlet for 110v and 220v. We are plugged into 110v and the electrician had to switch the polarity as it was reversed. Rich is wiring our connection to 220v and using a ProMariner charger we will be able to charge the batteries using 220v, which is more common in South America.
We are working through our boat chores what we need to do before leaving for Chile. I have been researching what food items we may not bring into Chile so we provision appropriately before we leave.
Gonzalo Ravago is the Seven Seas Cruising Association contact for Callao/Lima. We have been in contact with him since before we left Ecuador and he has been extremely helpful. He even assisted us getting an electronic part in from the US.
That is all for now. I will try to post some photos.
Cheers,
Elaine and Rich
Sent from Elaine's iPhone
