5/8/10 - Asuncion

It was a nice day sail down to Asuncion from Bahia Totuga.   This is the next little cove for hopping our way down the Baja.  It’s not as protected as Turtle Bay, but it’s listed in a few of the guides as a place worth stopping.  Along the way, we got our fishing lines tangled up around the prop (my fault, but since I write the blog, I reserve the right to edit as I choose).  It’s worth mentioning  because of what happened afterwards.  Andy cut the line and jumped in to get the remaining line out of the prop.  After piecing the line back together, he threw it back in the water and caught a huge Bonito.  We’re estimating 15 lbs or bigger.  At this rate, you guys are going to get tired of seeing pictures of Andy with a big fish.  I’m also thinking my brother is getting more jealous every time he reads this seeing as he loves fishing.

By the time we anchored and our friends Terri and Scott anchored, we had a nice feast all prepared to share.  It was a rocky ride into the actual anchorage so this was a perfect way to settle in and relax.

The town in Asuncion is similar to Turtle Bay.  It’s dusty and small with a bit more vegetation.  The opinions of the personalities of the locals  varied among our group but I didn’t see a big difference in the ones we met earlier in the week.  Very friendly, a little reserved, but helpful. 

We met another American, Shari who has settled down here and opened a camping ground complete with laundry services and wifi.  It’s named after her daughter, Serina.  She was very helpful in filling us in on some of the local places and directing us to a place called Juanita’s for lunch.   One of the cool things about the places we’ve been to is that we get to practice our Spanish for real now.  When we lived in Puerto Rico, there were always people who spoke English so we really never had to learn.  Even if we tried, we decided either their desire to practice their English was greater than our desire to practice Spanish or our pronunciation was so bad they couldn’t tell what language we were speaking.  But I can honestly say, we’re making progress!  In Juanita’s, not only did we get what we ordered but managed to find their bathroom and have a short conversation with our waitress about Jake.  I was able to practice a little more when we went into a pharmacy.  I didn’t know how to say “sea sick” in Spanish so I acted it out while explaining we were on a velero (sailboat).  They chuckled at me, but understood.  I still didn’t get the medicine I wanted but it boosted my confidence in being able to communicate.

After a very tricky dinghy exit at the beach (I’m going to dedicate a whole post to this soon) we got back to our boat, changed into warm, dry clothes and settled down for a lazy afternoon.  Tomorrow we’ll be heading off to Magdelena Bay.  It’s about a 2 day/night sail from here but is supposed to be very protected.  We think it might be a good place for some kayaking and pictures by the look of the charts.  Time to get a good night’s rest.