Next stop Bahia de Caráquez , Ecuador
Monday 16 May - We arrived at the river mouth of the Rio Chone in the Bahia de Caráquez late afternoon but we were at the bottom of the tide so had to wait for high water to get in and disembark and as it was getting dark, Geoff decided to wait for the morning.
Bahía de Caráquez, officially known as San Antonio de Caraquez and founded under the name of Villa de San Antonio de la Bahía de Caráquez is simply known today as Bahía, but was formerly called Bahía de los Caras during the period of the Spanish conquest. It’s a coastal city belonging to the Sucre county, in the Ecuadorean province of Manabi. The city is located on a sandy peninsula on the country's western coast at the mouth of the Río Chone.
Prior to Covid it was one of the main tourist centres in the province of Manabi, but its main economic activity now is the breeding and fattening of shrimp in captivity. In the estuary of the river there are about 6,000 hectares of cultivated pools of shrimp. It’s a new industry and there is only one processing plant and exporter of frozen shrimp.
Tuesday 17 May - Geoff got a pilot boat to guide us in safely and we anchored opposite Puerto Amistad Marina. Then we found out that we couldn’t disembark until we had had a Covid Test and the medical team weren’t available until Wednesday morning! So we were just anchored and drifting around not able to do a lot except a bit of tidying on the boat and relaxing.
The bamboo trunk that hit us the other day had cracked the starboard stem and we had to have it repaired before we could leave for Galapagos. This marina is not a proper marina - more of a ramshackle building with a bar and restaurant that are only open 3 days a week, an office and a grotty laundry room. Nowhere for us to pull the boat out to fix the bow damage. To get around this Geoff decided that we would get up early on Wednesday morning and beach the boat on a sandbank to allow access to the front of the boat.
The other problem we had was the freezer – once again it had conked out and this time it was more frustrating as we had done that huge shop last week stocking it up with all sorts of meats and supplies for our sail down to Tahiti. Everything defrosted, so we have been cooking it trying to preserve it for a bit longer – and eating a lot of it too! Fortunately, there is a guy who can fix it here so that’s a relief.
Wednesday 18 May - 6.30am and our experienced skipper carefully beached the boat and at 9.00am the Medical Team visited us in their longboat, a nurse and administrator, and we had our Covid tests in the middle of the river which caused a few laughs, especially as the nurse was terrified she was going to go overboard and kept squealing! All of us were negative so that meant we could all get on with our plans. The workmen promptly came on board to fix the bow and the freezer and Sheryl and I ventured into town.
Another poor little town, but it had a wonderful market with lovely fresh fruit and vegetables, so we stocked up and enjoyed a very tasty fresh fruit and vegetable juice whilst we were at it. Very friendly, non-threatening locals, and unbelievably cheap produce. Ecuador is the home of bananas, and we haven’t had any decent ones this trip so that was a treat.
Following that we walked down to the supermarket, which was almost opposite the boat, and we could watch it in the middle of the road sitting lopsidedly on the sand! I was unexpectedly delighted – one of the best supermarkets I have been to on this trip. One end was like Bunnings, the middle had the food and the other end had clothes and toys. I was in heaven, no time frame to worry about so I had a lovely browse around buying bits and pieces for my grandchildren and things I don’t need but had to have – like a sparkly purple saucepan scourer (to clean my purple saucepans of course)!!!!!!
We had a tasty dinner with our fresh supplies and invited Claude and Annabel over from their catamaran, who are also on their way to the Marquesas to deliver the boat they are sailing. They were one of the boats rafted to us going through the Canal and they were extremely helpful to us when we arrived here as they were a couple of days ahead of us and had sussed everything out!
Thursday 19 May – Another quick trip to the supermarket (couldn’t resist it!) and Mike to the hardware store to buy netting to fence off the cockpit from sealions when we get to the Galapagos – thinking ahead! The boat and freezer were repaired yesterday, the laundry is done, we have filled up with water. We will wait until around 5.30pm tonight when it is high tide and make our way out of the river and onwards to the Galapagos – a 3 day sail.