one of those days

good thing yesterday was relaxing because today was anything but.  before we left chamela i wanted to see the town of chamela.  we were actually anchored in perula but we didn't know that at the time.  okay it was my idea to do this and jim agreed to take a short walk because i bribed him with a breakfast in town.  HA.  we explored the small town and kept asking where's chamela and people kept pointing down the road.  i offered to hitchhike (grandkids, don't get any ideas here).  surely there would be taxis to bring us back.   a mary kay sales rep woman stopped for us.  jim and i had to wedge ourselves into her teeny backseat and her little boy wouldn't take his eyes off jim.  i should mention she drove like a wild race car driver and it took us 20 minutes by car to arrive at "chamela" which turned out to be nothing more than a taco stand.  and of course no taxis.  once again i hitched a ride from a pick up truck on it's last legs.  our first experience riding in the back with the wind in our faces.  he dropped us off a few miles later.  another ride from a guy who spoke no english and didn't understand our spanish - not to mention we didn't know the name of the town where we were anchored.  but we got to ride in the cab with him and he took us right back to the beach.  a brief refresco on the beach and we were really glad to get back on the boat.
we left chamela at 1pm.  fairly soon underway we saw a whale off our starboard and then boobies were flying eye level with us looking for fish.
then the autopilot went out.  jim discovered the oil reservoir came off its mount and lost some oil causing it to suck in air.  after a short time of hand steering he got it fixed.  then we discovered the electronic charts we had for careyes (our next anchorage) were way off.  we arrived in careyes about 3pm and tried to anchor 3 times but the anchor didn't hold.  tired and frustrated we headed back north a short distance to a sweet spot called rancho paraiso.  it's a private residence, a former coconut plantation nestled back in a small cove.  2 guys in kayaks came out to let us know it's private but we could stay the night.  we spent a very pleasant night with a power boat also anchored there.  thankfully a good ending to a frustrating day.
careyes, by the way, looked fabulous with the most amazing homes built on the hillsides.  there was tons of snorkling and kayaking opportunities but alas no room for us this time.