Monday 19 december 2005.

Hello!

Time flies when you are having fun and there is much to be done before Christmas. Our stress is minimal though, there is a potluck on the beach on Christmas Eve and that will be our first Christmas in the Caribbean since we were on the ocean last year. We are back in Antigua since the end of November for another working season.

First we want to tell you about our inland trip in Venezuela which was fantastic! The bus from Puerto la Cruz to Merida in the Andes took 18 hours but it was very comfortable buses even though they were freezing cold due to the over-working A/C units.

Los Nevados in Venezuela's Ander.

We spent a few days in Merida, which is a town with more middleclass people than the places we have been before so the crime rate is much lower. We could walk around without being scared to get robbed or worse. There are several posadas (guest houses) to stay at, we choose Guamanchi who also made tours in the area and we can highly recommend them. The 3-day trip to Los Nevados attracted us with a jeep-ride, riding mules up to a pass at 4200 meters and then hiking back to the valley. We had beautiful views over villages, fields and mountains. We had a problem with being cold though... fleece sweaters, sleeping bag, double blankets and yet we were freezing one of the nights in the posada, "Pedros place". We agreed upon staying in the tropics for as long as we can! It was about 4 degrees Celcius outside but very raw inside. The trip there was worth being cold for though!

Once a preschool teacher, allways a preschool teacher.

After 10 days in the mountains we went back to Elvina again. She had gotten new inhabitants since we left, that is to say cockroaches, the hardest ones to get rid of. We have been very careful with everything we have taken onboard but in a marina they can easily crawl onboard and there is still a war going on onboard. Even if they aren't all gone it's more time between when we see them nowadays. We have found many poisoned and we say hurray every time! We flew to Trinidad while Elvina was in Puerto la Cruz and arranged American Visas which we need when arriving by boat. After that we started to get ready to go east again. We visited Cumana and bought a sewing machine there, it was the scruffiest town we have ever been to and we were glad to leave. The last money we spent shopping in Margarita and then we sailed to Los Testigos. There were dinghy- and outborder thefts every night in Margarita and we got up and shone a spotlight around us several times per night to scare off bandits. It drained all our energy from us and Los Testigos was a welcome oasis.

Los Testigos, Venezuela.

When we got a good weather forecast we sailed north and we aimed for Martinique. The water-pump on the engine started leaking and so we had to bail every hour and we decided to detour to St Lucia instead which was closer. We sailed as much as we could but between the squalls there was no wind and then we had to push with the engine. It took us 55 hours from Los Testigos to St Lucia. We found the spare parts we needed there and went to Martinique after less than 2 days since there was a low pressure on the way. Gunilla came up with the bright idea that it was a safer anchorage in Le Marin (Martinique) for a blow so we went there but that passage was the roughest we have had with 30-35 knots wind and 4-5 meter high waves. Luckily it went quick but next time she comes up with such crazy ideas she has asked Kris to stop her...

The sea water pump is being rebuilt.

Gunilla assists with the mooring.

A few daysails later we arrived in Antigua and it was great to meet up with all our friends again. The harbor filled rapidly with big boats for the annual charter boat show and it has meant lots of work for us. Kris is now working for Chippy who is the competing company to the workshop he worked for last season. Yesterday he bought a bike to get around to the jobs more easily. The bike is not going to have a home on Elvina in the future.. We will stay here for the season and who knows what's next?! To be continued...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

Gunilla och Krilla

Pedro's fancy kitchen.

Pedro's place.

Shopping bigtime in Margarite.