08/27/07 El Oculto in the Mochima National Park

The view from the anchorage at Medregal amazes me. The Peninsula side from here looks like the Hawaiian Islands, Kuai comes to my mind and the mainland side reminds me of Lake Geneva with the high mountains in the background. The other thing that amazes me is the air is always clear as it tends to get more hazy towards Puerto La Cruz. It's nice to be back in Medregal and of course the first night the cook had an off day as Sid spoiled me with dinner ashore. Jean Mark cooked us the most incredible
Argentinean New York Steak with a silky Roqueford sauce and an array of colorful vegetables cooked to the touch. The very next morning Linda and I were in the pool at 9 doing some noodeling aerobics. I discovered this type exercise in Redonda, it's really a good workout with pool noodles and no sweat so to say. The rest of the day we just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. This time a few more boats were anchored. Twice a week Jean Mark takes the cruisers shopping to either Cariaco or Corupano.
As the bus usually gets to crowded this time he only allowed 6 on the trip and so we were able to go. Sid staid behind to keep an eye on Paradise and Dreamtime, shopping is not his favorite. It is an almost two hour drive to Corupano which is located right between the Peninsula of Araya and Piraya along the water with high cliffs and occasional sandy beaches. The town is busy with lots of vendors on the streets and mucho traffic trying to go where they need to go. We did a few stops here and there
and I was amazed by especially one hardware store how much stuff he had for boaters that we could not even find in Puerto La Cruz. I think Sid would have enjoyed shopping here, well next time. The stores were the quality of Puerto La Cruz plus. You can find pretty much everything here, except for milk, el presidente put a cap on that to and I couldn't even find canned milk. Heard it's the same in Puerto La Cruz, guess we have to drink our coffee black from now on. CADA's meat section even had duck
breast, rabbit, turkey and goat. After all the shopping we all met at the St. Francis hotel for a wonderful lunch and on our drive home Jean Mark wanted to know if we were in a hurry. Of course not! So he took the mountain road back to Medregal. We were about 15 kilometers up the hill when the engine overheated. All of us got out and watched how Jean Mark and Dwight checked the engine. Dwight unscrewed the radiator lid which looked like a rocket taking off with a geyser following we all jumped back,
but most of as saw where the cap had landed, so we thought. Dwight filled the radiator full of water which still was spewing out for a while, then we looked for the cap, all of us, couldn't find it. Jean Mark got into the car drove a few feet and slammed the brakes, no cap fell out. He started driving up the hill trying to find potholes and bumps which really wasn't hard to do, with us following, but no cap. Walton had just finished his bear so he cut that one up and we used it as a cap which worked
as the hood pushed it down and held it in place. We all hopped back into the truck and off we took up the hill. About fife minutes later we had to fill more water into the radiator and Walton finished another beer for a new radiator cap, I think he enjoyed the drinking part as his wife couldn't deny him one. While we drove we all looked out of the back to eventually see the cap fall to the pavement but no such luck. One more fill of water just before we came to the top, a nicely painted Chevy stopped
and a guy staggering out of the car and swaggering towards us wanted to know if we needed help. Wow it was only 5 pm and he was drunk already driving the steep road with many dangerous curves, kind of scary. We started running out of water so Dwight used the melted ice water to refill the radiator but that ran out too, so now we were not looking to the rear anymore for the cap but rather to find more water. Then the back window of the camper shell fell out, I have no idea how Dwight did it but he
caught it before it landed on the pavement, he himself was amazed. As we finally started to descend we found an abandoned house with a water fountain and loaded up our ice chest full with water. The view up here was just spectacular and the smell of grass and flowers made it worth the car trouble we had. We all were impressed with the incredible view which now was playing with the setting sun. We all agreed that we have to come back some other day for a picnic on this very spot. We were overlooking
the tall mountains towering in the background, which by the way are the beginning of the Andes, between there a low lying flat valley was stretching to the foot of the hill we were on and beyond the valley we could see the Golfo the Cariaco twinkling like a diamond it was just breathtaking. After the engine was cooled again we started descending the hill but still had to stop now and then and fill some more water into the radiator. In Cariaco Jean Mark stopped at the liquor store and since the car
seemed to do fine and the beer cap was holding we filled the ice chest full of eyes. Twenty minutes down the road, just before Guacarapo the engine overheated again but now we had no water. No problem he pulled into the driveway of one of his employees who lived here. Way after 8 pm we finally arrived in Medregal, all glad to be back with a fun day behind us, well I think only Dwight and I did not stress over the ordeal we had too much fun with all that accrued. The funniest though was the following
day as his employee walked from his house, where we had stopped, he was about 500 yards from the Resort when he found the radiator cap.
The following day a tropical waves was underway and also right at noon the westerly started to blow again, which happens here every other day or so. When they blow waves up to three feet can roll through the anchorage and make it quite uncomfortable, this was one of the strong westerlies we received. Every boat started to rock and roll. Then we overheard a radio call of a boat dragging and Gabriel went for help. Jabulani who was asked to help were not able as they only had a 5 hrp dinghy engine so
Sid and I hopped in the dinghy and raced over to help the old English couple. With old I mean they were old they could not move as fast as they used to, not just that they had engine problems as well but managed to start it. The wife was on the bow bringing the anchor in while still dragging so we positioned the two dinghies on either side to aid them. Anchor was finally up but now dangerous dangling off the bow and starting to swing back and fourth. Now they wanted to go to the mooring they knew
was out there somewhere. Try to find a small white mooring ball in a seas full of white caps. Then came getting them onto the mooring, we yelled at them to throw us a line. Sid and I were astound by what kind of line he tossed us it was a rolled up discolored and rotten rusty looking dacron line of about 3/8 inch and handed it over to Gabriel who by now were holding the eye of the mooring line in their hand and gave a puzzled look too when they saw the line. The fiasco went on as Gabriel tried to
hand them the line which now was hooked on the mooring line but now were in harms way of the dangerously swinging anchor. Now the wife tried to pull the 3/8 inch line in while it took him about a minute to finally make it to the bow to aid her. The bow was dipping into the waves and then pulled way out of the water, impossible for the two to barely hold on to the line, while we pulled the boat forward to make it easyer. Finally Tim got on their boat to help them while we still pulled the boat forward
and finally they were hooked. Just as he got hold of the eye the little rope started parting. When we got back to our boat the poor little 30 foot boat behind us was just bouncing wildly and they finally tried to lift anchor but with the heavy pull against them every time the bow lifted they finally had to let go of the chain and give up as it was impossible to pull the chain in with just bare hands. Then the clouds of the wave started rolling in from the east and fought the winds out of the west.
For us that was good news as they would stop the high waves bouncing through the anchorage. Not just that the two huge thunderclouds approaching on either side of the Golfo started to fight with each other so the bows started to swing from one cloud to the other while the waves still were coming in from the west, it was a mess but interestingly to see what was going on. We turned the radar on to see where the rain was and started to notice that the rain was surrounding us but we still had not one
drop of rain. Eventually we got some and roaring thunder went along the Golfo on boat sides. A couple of hours later all was calm and quite again and most of us went ashore to have a sundowner.
The following day was our last day in Medregal, Linda and I enjoyed the pool again in the morning for our noodeling aerobics, then we relaxed for the rest of the day and went ashore around 6 pm for Jean Marks wonderful Saturday night dinner with appetizer, main dish and desert, paid up our bill and went home for a good night sleep. Early just as the sun blinked over the hills we pulled anchor and headed out of the Golfo. We had an easterly blowing and just as we arrived at the entrance to the Golf
the easterly gave up and within about thirty minutes the westerly started blowing again. It had paid off to leave early we were trying to prevent to be in the Golfo when the westerlies would start which they do around noon. From here it was only 18 miles to our destination El Oculto in the Mochima National Park. It was too funny as we neared the entrance to El Oculto a fishing boat filled with guys, having a fun Sunday mooned us all but did not expect to have Sid moon them back. You should have heard
the roar of laughter of the about 20 guys, it was too funny. We anchored just on time before another set of squalls rolled into our area with some rain. Dreamtime is anchored next to us and is just as amazed us we are how beautiful and quite this anchorage is. The water this time is 84 degrees two months back it was only 74 and is now crystal clear so we should get some good snorkeling in.