HAWKEYE HAPPENINGS, June, 2004

HAWKEYE HAPPENINGS, June 2004

BAHIA DE CARÁQUEZ, ECUADOR.

Latitude 00 degrees 36 min. South, Longitude 080 degrees 25 min. West.

On March 26, HAWKEYE checked out of Panama bound for Ecuador. The plan was to sail only about 40 miles to the Perlas Islands, clean the bottom of the boat and wait for a good weather window. Finally, on Sunday, April 4 at 10:40 a.m. we departed Isla Cana with another boat, ÖRNEN. By 1700 hrs (5 p.m.) HAWEKEYE was double reefed in 20 knots of wind doing 7 knots. The winds held and in fact increased with 4 to 6 foot sometimes breaking waves that made it uncomfortable for the next two days as we flew along well reefed. April 6 the wind died, and we had to motor for 1 hr which was needed anyway to charge the batteries. At 4 p.m. that same day we heard from our buddy boat, ÖRNEN that they were heading back to Panama due to problems with their rigging. It seems their shrouds suddenly went slack and one of the chain plates pulled out of the boat! They arrived safely a few days later with major repair work needed.

The rhumbline to Ecuador is approximately 223 degrees from the Perlas. There is a restricted island that belongs to Colombia, Isla Malpelo (bad hair?), which must be dodged on the way. HAWKEYE was 20 miles away from the island, and well to the northwest of it, when we heard on the radio: “Vessel 4 miles north of Isla Malpelo, this is a restricted area. Change course immediately!” We checked our charts and GPS to assure ourselves we were not the vessel they were trying to reach. The final transmission we heard was, “If you do not leave this restricted area, we will open fire!” The Colombians don’t mess around with people being where they aren’t supposed to be and we were glad they weren’t talking to us!

At 8 a.m. on April 9, we had no wind and John had calculated we had enough fuel to motor all the way to Bahia Caraquez if we had to. We decided to motor for a while hoping the wind would fill in. Suddenly, the engine stopped. John checked everything out and ended up changing the fuel filter that must have gotten clogged due to the rough seas from the previous days. Crisis over. Within a few hours, the wind came up and we sailed under spinnaker with only 86 miles to go. At 5 p.m. that evening, the wind died again and this time when we turned on the engine, there was a heavy vibration. John thought the cause might have been loose zinc on the prop shaft. The vibration got worse over the next hour and by that time, it was dark. We decided it was not good seamanship for John to go into the water in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night to check it out. The next day he did go in during calm seas and indeed the two zincs on the shaft had vibrated loose and the cone zinc on the propeller had disappeared. No wonder it was so noisy! HAWKEYE ghosted along under a few knots of wind and at 1 a.m. on April 10, we crossed the equator. John was asleep but Linda watched the GPS hit 00 deg. 00.000 min. This was our second time across the equator and so were already “shellbacks”. We had whipped up some margaritas earlier but thought it might be better to wait until we were safely anchored before partaking of alcoholic beverages. The anchorage in the “waiting room” at Bahia Caraquez was reached at 5 p.m. on April 10. Shortly after, we drank those margaritas and got a good night’s sleep before our pilot arrived the next morning (Easter Sunday) and brought us into Bahia. All in all, we had a great sail of 684 miles to Ecuador where we are now on a mooring enjoying life in Bahia.
Other boats were behind us and came in the next day. We checked in with the Port Captain and then a few days later, we took a 3 hr bus ride to Manta to check in with Immigration. The bus ride to Manta provided us with our first glimpse of the beautiful Ecuadorian scenery as we went along the bay, up into the mountains and down again into a valley to Manta.

The next several weeks were spent getting the boat back into shape after the crossing and finding our way around Bahia. We joined the Bahia Yacht Club so that we could swim in the pool and shower there rather than on the boat. Linda does not do much cooking in Bahia as almuerzo (lunch, which is really the main meal of the day) costs $1. Almuerzo consists of a good sized bowl of some kind of wonderful soup followed by a plate of rice, with fish, chicken, or beef, cucumbers and tomatoes, or plantain (like a banana but not as sweet) and a glass of some kind of fresh fruit juice. It is cheaper to eat ashore rather than buy the groceries and use the propane and water for dishes.

With some other cruisers, we went on an overnight trip up the coast about 15 miles to a surf resort area. It was a village of palapa restaurants and small hostels built from bamboo with palm frond roofs and mosquito netting over the beds. As we sat at tables on the sand and watched the sun set, we marveled at the beauty of Ecuador and her friendly people. The next day we walked the beach at low tide and discovered, among the shells, shards of pottery. Later, after visiting the museum in town, we realized these shards were from Pre-Colombian pottery washed down from the mountains during the heavy rains of the last El Niño, presumably from an ancient Inca village. At low tide, the pieces wash up on the beach. Friends have a home there and they have found intact pieces that should be in museums but there is no more room in the museums!

One morning we got a call on the radio that 3 dolphins were on the beach and would the cruisers want to come help the locals get the dolphins back into deeper water. Of course! We headed over to the beach and over the next hour or so, helped keep one dolphin soothed as he rested on the sand. It was necessary to keep the skin moist so we kept pouring buckets of water over him until he was taken in a boat out into deeper water and released. It was a wonderful and unforgettable experience for us to actually touch and be close to a bottle-nosed dolphin.

In May, we took a three-week trip inland with some other cruisers (7 of us in all). The first day was an 8-hour bus ride through spectacular country to the capital city of Quito and another 2 hours to Otavalo, famous for it’s Saturday market. There are 3 markets going on at the same time. One is for the locals where they buy and sell animals, another is for fruits and vegetables and the third is for handicrafts. The handicraft market was the most popular where great bargains could be had. Wool, leather, and woodcrafts abound to the point that all the goods overwhelmed us. Prices were inexpensive but the problem was this was the beginning (day 2) of a three-week trip. We could not even think of purchasing things as we would have to carry them all over Ecuador and we were at an elevation of 8000 feet and did a lot of puffing just walking around. After a few days of acclimation, we decided to take a hike to a waterfall. Actually, we took a taxi to the end of the road and then walked about a mile to get to the waterfall. From there, we decided to climb to the top of the waterfall and through some caves. Everything was just great and we were heading down the path when it started to rain, and rain, and rain. By the time we walked back to town (no taxis around) and to our hotel, we were all soaked to the skin, including our shoes. As we were all traveling light, it took a few days of wearing wet shoes for them to finally dry out.

A guide was hired to take us in a van to 3 villages in the mountains. We visited weavers who showed us the process from raw wool to the finished product. Another visit was to the hat makers where they finished off the felt hats much beloved by Ecuadorians (the glue they use in the felt is not waterproof so, when it rains, they wear plastic bags over their hats.) We were able to walk through the small mountain villages and visit people in their homes. There were lots of children and some of them start to work at an early age taking care of babies and, at the age of 12, one young man was already an accomplished weaver.

From Otavala, we bused further up into the mountains and then finally rode in the back of a pickup truck to a hostel on the edge of a cliff overlooking Lago Cuicocha, a lake in the cone of a volcano. We shared a lunch of the local delicacy, Cuy or “Guinea Pig” as we know it. Quite chewy and tough with head and legs included on the plate. Only the fur and insides were missing! Well, at least we tried it but hope the grandkids don’t find out.

After a day of acclimation, we decided to hike the rim of the volcano. At first it was pretty easy; but then we started climbing and then down and then up and down, etc, for 9 ½ miles of which approximately 4 miles was in a downpour. You got the picture, wet shoes, again. It was a beautiful hike with spectacular views and lots of different wild flowers. We got lost several times having to scramble down under trees and in weeds. The highest we got was 10,500 feet and we were exhausted but happy when we finally arrived to the hostel and cups of hot coffee. Next, the ride back down in the back of the pickup truck but this time they put a tarp over the top so we had some protection from the rain although it didn’t matter much as we were soaked anyway. We finally managed to get a hotel with hot water-well, not cold water. Anyway it took quite a while to finally warm up in the little town of Cotacochi.

The next day we bussed back to Quito where 2 of our guys were pick pocketed on the train. Lucky for them they had only a few $ taken as everyone was wearing money belts and very little cash in their pockets. Old town Quito was thoroughly explored over the next day and we were ready to head to the smaller town of Baños further south in Ecuador and another bus ride through beautiful country. We all brought books to read on the buses but didn’t even open them for fear of missing a beautiful waterfall, snow capped mountains, green jungles, orchids along side the road, boulders in the roads, washed out roads, etc., etc.

Baños was beautiful. Waterfalls abound. Some of us hiked up what seemed like a 1000 steps but was more like 500 to a trail overlooking the town. Great views at about 1500 feet above the valley where the river winds through the mountains with waterfalls making it ever expanding. There was pan flute music in the square and good inexpensive restaurants. We had nice rooms for $7 per person with a beautiful garden and room where we could meet for coffee or to play games or watch a video about Ecuador. We visited the local zoo and hot springs where we rested our abused bodies after so much hiking but not for long! The next adventure was mountain biking down a winding road along the river viewing waterfalls and dodging motorized traffic through a tunnel in the mountains. In the tunnel, Nancy from SEA TERN couldn’t see and stopped. Linda was behind her and ran into the wall of the tunnel while Joe from MUSIC, behind her, ran into a ditch. Amazingly no one got hurt and we made it out of the tunnel where the next part of the road went UNDER a waterfall. After we sent the bikes with Nancy and Herman on a truck back to Baños, John, Joe and Linda decided to take a hike to get closer to El Pailon de Diablo (The Devil’s Caldron) where there was a great waterfall and suspension bridge over the river. Naturally it was a down, up, down, up, down, up, kind of hike.

As we all had different agendas and interests, our group of 7 split up. Nancy and Herman went back to SEA TERN to get ready to leave her for their trip back to the states. Joe and John decided to go to Cuenca, a Spanish colonial town in the south of the country. John reported that the bus ride over the Andes was hair-raising. As they climbed to an altitude of 13,600 feet, the weather became foggy and rainy and the road deteriorated to a narrow two-lane dirt surface unencumbered by any shoulders or guardrails. This did not stop the driver from wheeling his big vehicle around the hairpin bends at reckless speeds, seemingly oblivious to oncoming traffic or the thousand-foot drop-offs at the side.

Cuenca boasts many beautiful old buildings but is also a large, modern city with noisy rush-hour traffic that detracted from the colonial ambiance. John had an interesting encounter in the square with an elderly “gay caballero” who, no doubt encouraged by John’s announcement that he would be visiting San Francisco this summer, abruptly lost interest when John assured him that he preferred women!

Linda went to the Amazon jungle with Matt and Judy of ELSEWHERE. The road followed the river where there were more waterfalls than could be count. From volcanos 8000 feet high straight down to the river in the valley the sight was awe-inspiring. We rode on buses through the farmland and rainforest and up and down mountains and across rivers. On the news there had been talk of lots of rain in this area with roads washed out, landslides, flooding, etc. It was true! At one point, the bridge was washed out and the bus went through the rushing water of the swollen river. Even though our luggage was wrapped in plastic, everything was all wet by the time we arrived at our hostel that night. The gravel road followed the oil pipeline out past the mountains and into the jungle. The few towns we went through existed because of the oil industry. There was a large box of baby chicks on top of the bus and a guy got on the bus with a machete and 2 live roosters. Passengers got on with propane tanks which were left near the door to roll around, gas cans, buckets of stuff, kids going to school, women and lots of babies (going to the doctors?) At one point there was a deadly Sake snake in the road. We saw lots or orchids growing in the wild and llamas wandering the hills. We arrived in the frontier town of Lago Agua at 7:30 p.m. after a long, but interesting, day.

The room Linda had in the hostel was with a shared bath that meant that she shared the bath and shower with all the men there for the oil company. Judy stood guard while Linda showered that evening. Matt and Judy were lucky enough to have a bath in their room but early in the morning someone knocked very loudly on their door and got them up with a start. (Wrong room!)

After breakfast we boarded another bus (we had already spend 14 hours on buses the day before) that took us to the river. From there, we went down river through the jungle in a long skinny sort of modified dugout canoe with a 40 hp motor on the back. (Matt, Judy, Linda, the guide, the boat driver, our small backpacks with everything we needed for 5 days (usually just Linda’s camera and some small things fit in this little day pack), and the food we would be eating those 5 days. The boat was about 35 feet long but only about 4 feet wide at the widest part. This is the only means of transportation in the Cuyabeno Reserve of the Amazonas Jungle of Ecuador. We were right on the equator and yet the temperature was quite comfortable.

The trip down the river took about 2 ½ hours and we arrived at the camp around 4:30 in the afternoon. Along the way, we saw Red Howler, Equatorian Saki and Monk Saki monkeys. We saw a sloth, ringed neck kingfisher, greater annie, green kingfisher, aniga (a prehistoric looking bird), tropical cormorant, a spectacled owl and once we got in the lagoon, the pink dolphins. The special palm tree, from which the nuts are picked, boiled and the juice reduced to make the poison for the darts of the blowguns was pointed out to us. We also learned what plant is used for the darts and guns, and the cotton like material used to hold the poison. In the area we visited, the blowguns are prohibited as well as the killing of monkeys.

Our compound was very rustic with 4 cabins for sleeping set in a clearing and a eating covered porch. The dormitory rooms had beds and a bathroom but no doors. It did have a roof but the walls only went up ½ way that left them open for any intruders of every kind. We were not pleased with this arrangement but what could we do? Sleeping under mosquito netting was mandatory. After checking one’s bed thoroughly and crawling in, one would carefully tuck the netting tightly under the mattress. No one was inclined to get up in the middle of the night to use the facilities as this would require finding your flashlight (no electricity), coming out from under the protective mosquito netting (dangerous), checking ones shoes for critters (essential) and progressing to the bathroom checking for critters along the way on the floor, hanging from the rafters, etc. The first day Linda made the mistake of drying her hands on her towel that was hanging up in the bathroom before shaking it out and got a nasty sting on the thumb that itched and swelled and after about 10 days a stinger came out and quit itching.

Our first full day in the jungle was spent paddling a dugout canoe large enough for 6 people. It is a very tipsy vessel but we managed to keep it upright and keep our cameras dry although the boat leaked and we had to bail frequently. We saw squirrel monkeys, blue butterflies, orchids, toucans, green and yellow Macaws. Our guide was constantly telling us things about jungle plants and animals. In the swamps, we fished for our dinner. With those big teeth, piranhas are a bit tricky to get off the hook. Our guide has a unique way of killing them. He bites them in the back of the head breaking their backbone. The piranha were good tasting but had some small bones. That evening, we looked over the railing of our eating porch and watched the caimans feed. Caimans are fresh water crocodiles and they have big teeth and their jaws snap shut around whatever they catch to eat. It was hard not to keep thinking of them and the piranha as we swam in the middle of the lagoon. We were told that the caimans and piranhas always stay near shore or in the swamps. One hoped they would never get lost and end up in the middle by accident while we were swimming. The pink dolphins were out there each afternoon but never let us get close to them.

One evening after dinner we did a night hike in the jungle behind our accommodations. It was very eerie to see eyes staring like hot coals. The standard jungle attire is knee high rubber boots and rain ponchos and we were glad to have both as we walked down the narrow path ducking branches and leaves. The first critter we saw was a scorpion of commendable size (about 6 inches). Next, we saw scorpion spiders of about the same size. There were many webs of the sociable spiders which reminded us of scenes from “Romancing the Stone” and a few other movies with huge thick spider webs-it isn’t just in the movies! Other spiders were the golden orb and wolf. We also saw a small night monkey or owl monkey. Touching of plants with the hands was a no-no as some plants have poisonous leaves… Those ponchos were kept tightly wrapped around our bodies with just the tip of the flashlight sticking out; that is, until the darn bulb burned out on Linda’s light. She couldn’t see much of where she was stepping and just stayed close to the person in front. Needless to say, she didn’t get much sleep that night as just a few yards away there were a lot of very large spiders.

Our guide told us much about plants and animals; there are lots of plants used in medicine such as the sap from the leche guayo tree that is used in producing Milk of Magnesia and the sap from another tree is the source of menthol. When burned, the menthol smell keeps mosquitoes away. From one leaf an orange dye is extracted and from another plant comes purple dye. The guide split a certain palm frond and showed us its’ sharp edge used to make the darts for the blow guns. One tree produced quinine, which is used for malaria as well as gin and tonic. A tea is made from the bark as an anti-malaria drug. Squashed fire ants are used for insecticide and a certain palm nut extract reportedly restores hair. There is a certain tree trunk that can be banged on like a drum and we were instructed to do so only if lost in the jungle. We “dined” on live ants and larvae that tasted like lemons-you have to chew fast or they bite your tongue!

During a motorboat ride, we came across an anaconda about 6 feet long. The closest Linda hopes to get to an anaconda, let me tell you. There was lots more monkey and bird viewing as well as plant information before we arrived at the village. We were asked to dig up some yucca, which was then pealed, grated, the juice wrung out and the final product fried into flat bread that was part of our lunch. In all, a very interesting experience. These villagers eat mostly yucca, corn and fish. The government forbids hunting monkeys any more, which used to be a part of their diet. On the 2-hour boat ride back to our camp, we stopped to look at some wasp nests. Our guide said to shout “march” all together. We did and the wasps started making a sound like an army marching. During a night boat ride, we saw a 6-foot Fer-de-Lance, which is one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. He was on the move on a tree branch and got irritated with our shining our lights on him and got into strike position. We decided to back off and look for other things and were not disappointed as soon a small rainbow boa was spotted and then a couple of caimans.

Matt, Judy and I were the only people from the US staying in the camp. We had a man from Japan, 2 women from Germany and 2 women from Norway. They mostly accommodated us and spoke English, which we were grateful for. By the time our five days were over, we had no dry clothes and were covered with bites from unknown critters but had a wonderful time and will always remember this unique part of the world. I feel very privileged to have visited some of the 603,000 hectares of primary rainforest left as a protected area in Ecuador. I never thought several years ago when we had an abalone feed to raise money for this special place that I would have the privilege to visit.

It was another 2 days of riding in boats and on buses, in one instance over the top of a waterfall as the road and bridge has washed out, before we were back to civilization in Quito and then another 8 hour bus ride to Bahia, John and HAWKEYE.

Things were jumping in our small town of Bahia. The cruisers were planning a surprise birthday party for our Colombian cruising friend, Maye. It started as a potluck for about 20 people and soon it was a pig roast with 50 people including locals. That afternoon, we had a boat parade and the guests of honor were Miss Jamaica and Miss Ethiopia. They, along with their entourage were taken out on cruiser’s boats for a spin around the bay (the single handed sailors knocked themselves out to get the girls on their boats). The surprise party was that evening and we all got to meet Miss Jamaica and Miss Ethiopia and share a good time with them-body guards included.

At the present time, we await the arrival of friends, Jane and Dwight for a ten-day visit. We hope to visit some of the islands off the coast of Ecuador for some snorkeling, hiking and exploring.

As you may have guessed, we love Ecuador and plan on leaving HAWKEYE here in this safe place when we travel back to the states from mid July to mid September. We plan to do more traveling in South America upon our return. John and Linda de HAWKEYE