Home Sweet Home

My room was nice before, but now it's even better. I have almost an entire hull to myself. I've got a desk, a small playroom and a bunk to sleep in.

My current design plan is to paint copper coloured cats on my bedroom ceiling and turquoise swirls too. I've also got dark forest green curtains with multi-coloured straps to hold them in place.

Boats

Boats come in many shapes and sizes, I should know because I'm currently sailing on one and doing a circumnavigation, I've had tons of fun and made loads of new friends. I wish everyone could have the wonderful experience I am having. Sailing is so fun! (Except for when it's all lumpy and bumpy!)

We're seeing lots of sea turtles and dolphins here in Mexico. And for me, the sea can always substitute for a friend.

We get our water by using a watermaker (it turns seawater into good tasting water!). We get our electricity from the sun, using solar panels. Grocery shopping is much like shopping and living on land, except sometimes you have to shop in little tiny stores that only have rotten bananas and rice.

Garbage Clean-up on El Magote

Wednesday was the day of the bonfire and the garbage clean-up on a beach across from La Paz. The garbage clean-up started as walking around looking for garbage, then it turned into a race and finally it was just plain fun. Seven kids collected seven big bags of garbage. The bags were stuffed to bursting.

After that we built up a huge bonfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. My friend, Holly and I went swimming in our clothes but nobody else did. We were on a peninsula so we got to swim in the ocean. Soon the bonfire died down so all the kids had to rake it and collect dry wood.

After that we motored home in our dingy.

Things are Different On a Boat

Lots of things are different on a boat like...

Making toast, Laundry,  You can Climb on the Roof, and Your Backyard.

Making toast on a boat is more complicated than making toast on land.  We don't have an electric toaster so we have to use a camp toaster on which you have to turn the toast regularly.  Making a piece of toast takes about 15 to 20 minutes.

Laundry on a boat takes a plunger, a wringer and a bucket and a bit of soap thrown in for good measure.  It's a lot more compliicated than just throwing the clothes in a washing machine and taking them out and throwing them in a dryer and then carting them off to where ever you live.

On a boat you can climb on the roof.  There are steps affixed into the wall of the cabin.  Climbing up two or three stair like steps means you are on the roof.

My backyard is ever changing.  One day I might see a city behind me and then the next I might see a jungle.  Sometimes I'll have two backyards at once. 

Easter Eggs in Mexico

In Mexico there isn't any Easter Egg dye. So you have to make your own natural dye. We used things we found in the kitchen such as turmeric, hibiscus and beets.

We put the raw eggs in with the colour, then brought it to a boil until the eggs were hard cooked. We thought the hibiscus would turn purple-ish red, the turmeric would be orange and the beets would be red.

We were wrong! The greyish one was the hibiscus (I thought it looked like a dinosaur egg), the tan one was beet and the yellow one was turmeric. Who knew??

They still tasted good, even if they looked strange.

Later we finished off with a book we read every Easter, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes.

Moments with friends

How do you shimmy up a coconut palm with only two people?

Scooters are the most typical transportation for cruising kids. You always know which boat has kids judging by the scooters parked out front.

Here we are in front of the local paleta (ice cream) shop having agua frescas (fruit drinks).

Supper with friends.

Sewing quilts with friends.

 Heaven! Dessert at a potluck!

Building a fairy home.

By the way keep an eye out for a future copy of Latitudes and Attitudes. You might find a story written by Mairen, Siobhan and I. We just learned that the magazine is buying the story we submitted!

Life in Mexico

  

Clumsy blue-footed Boobie Bird

Charlie is sitting in the boat chattering at some birds right now. Just like him I'm really liking all the animals in Mexico. Like this cat for instance. Her name is Lala. We saw her at a restaurant and she came to us and let me pick her up.

She's as light as a feather.

This is our faithful boat cat Charlie. He's been through some pretty rough weather and some pretty bad storms, but he's a good side kick.

Here is a Gray Whale spouting. We saw more than 50 whales when we came out of Bahia Magdalena. They migrate from to Mag Bay to give birth to their calves.

Ceilydh the Wash House

I was just sitting around on an ordinary day when mum announced that it was laundry day. Now, we don't have the typical washing and drying machine. But we do have some pretty awesome tools.

Yeah, I know it looks like a toilet plunger but it works pretty good for washing clothes.

This is dad working the ringer. You have to be careful not to get your fingers caught.

This is a pretty old-fashioned technique for drying clothes - it's called a clothes line. It works better in Mexico than in Vancouver.

But I don't always work hard, you know.

The San Diego Zoo

Hi, I’m in San Diego this is about the San Diego Zoo. 

 We saw some koalas (very cute!) sleeping. 

A spectacular polar bear wrestling match (amazing!) and two panda bears . The Zoo is huge! My feet felt ready to drop off at the end.     

Christmas in Newport Beach

The Christmas Decorations on Balboa Island are completely over the top. Like this one for instance. It blew fake snow off the roof and did a computerized light show every 7-minutes. It took three weeks to decorate.

Another one had fake penguins, fake snow and a fake ice pond in their front garden. This house belongs to a Teddy Bear collector gone crazy. If you look in the windows you will see mountains of bears and stuffies.

 

Dolphins - Woo Hoo!

Happy Hollow Zoo - before it reopens after reconstruction

Hi everybody who reads my blog. This is a blog post about a zoo I've been going to since I was little. My friend is the Zoo Curator so I get to go behind the scenes and learn about the animals.
This is a Foosa. It's from Madagascar and it's endangered. It eats lemurs, which are also from Madagascar. I helped to excercise her by waving a scrub brush back and forth around her cage. She also likes playing with Elk-flavoured bubbles. She got really excited when we took the bubbles out and looked sort of sad when we put them away. She'll be getting a beautiful new habitat as soon as the zoo is finished.

 This is Sophia the Jaguar I first met her when she was a baby.

This is a little porcupine I got to pat. I also got a few of her quills and one of her whiskers. This is the play ground that is under construction and that I got to play on.

Exploring the Exploratorium!

An impromptu cleanup

After San Francisco got some heavy rain this week, the estuary behind our boat filled with all manner of floating debris.  Maia was giving me one of her spa treatments on the forward nets, when the garbarge floating below caught my eye.  We grabbed the fishing net and did our little part for the environment. 

My favorite quote from Maia "The smart people have a responsibility to clean up after the stupid people."  Words to live by...

- Evan

San Francisco Fantastic

When we finally reached San Francisco - my immediate reaction was 'wow!" The Golden Gate Bridge sparkelled in the sun, the city was huge, the houses were beautiful.

After years of planning and a month of sailing we finally got here. I wish everybody who reads this blog could see what the city is like for real.

oof this is heavy

California Dreams Come True

Gym class!