Dongled Up

Today I made a trip - two actually - to Telcel to get one of those laptop plugin dongles for wireless internet using the mobile telephone network. I found the Telcel building and patiently worked my way to the correct counter to learn something that Rod had not mentioned: I must present my passport. OK. No problems. This was just another character-building Zen experience of a tourist in a foreign country with no transport and a tenuous link to the language. I patiently walked the 6 or so kilometers back to the marina, took the Zodiac to the boat, got my passport, then went back. The price was a bit higher than Rod had said - about 900 pesos - but that still came out to less than $80 USD for the dongle and one month's service. There was good news and bad news. The bad news is that the dongle will not work in Costa Rica, though it does work in some other countries. The good news is that it will not be bound to one computer. We'll be able to plug it in to any of the 3 computers on board. I'll try it out from my boat tonight. (I am sending blog from the pub over a well-earned beer.)

Today is a stunning warm, sunny, clear day with no wind. From Pachuca I was able to see a school of fish swimming by in the clear water. The weather forecast is excellent for the next 5 days or so: light winds from the north for a few days with the prospect of southerly winds after that which would help us sail to the north. On that basis Arnold and I plan to leave La Paz tomorrow (Thursday 18 March). With luck one or two of the anchorages will put me within range of my new wireless internet tool.