The path across the foot bridge led directly to the Club Nautico, which seems to be an all-round athletics club complete with tennis courts, swimming pool, large exercise room full weights and various exercise machines, and plenty of Lasers and other small sailing boats. The marina accommodated boats generally in the 25-30 ft range. Soon I found the shower and toilet facilities, which were adequate and very clean. Not long after that I met Martha (pronounced "Marta", but I think that it has an "h" in it) at the office who turned out to be extremely helpful and speaks English, too.
To start with, I had gotten some serious misinformation the previous day. Sure, there was no room at Club Argentino, but the man could not speak for Club Nautico which shared the same section of the harbor inside of the bridge, and he had no business telling me to go back outside of the bridge. It turned out that Club Nautico might have room. Martha went off to speak with someone. She had heard me hailing Club Argentino on the radio the previous day. Unfortunately when I finally did call her club just before entering the harbor she was not around.
Martha was surprised that I was looking for almost a year's accommodation in Argentina. She told me that the cost of a slip was 128 pesos a day (about $28 per day). I asked about services in the area and she told me that she knew who ran North Sails, who was a member of the club, and gave me his name. But she said that there were no facilities for having the boat lifted out of the water. I knew better an pressed her. She told me that I might find joy at the commercial side of the harbor.
Then the first potential show stopper came up. She told me that before I could be admitted the boat would have to be cleaned. I asked for clarification and she pointed out a boat whose hull was being cleaned at that moment - except that it was a 15 ft boat hanging off a couple of steel pipes with a hook off the end. 'Yes, but you don't mean lifting my boat out of the water' I replied. She said that Yes, my boat would be lifted out of the water. 'Not on that crane' I replied. I told her that my boat weighs 8.5 tons. She came back with Yes, well that crane can lift 10 tons. I responded that No, it's not going to happen. To lift my boat you need slings and people who know how to use them. I asked if I could speak with the yard manager and she replied that it would do no good because his answer would be the same. We were at an impasse.
Then Carlos the yard manager showed up and saved me. He walked up and asked "Pachuca?". I replied "Si" and he introduced himself with a firm handshake. Regarding the hull cleaning, "No hay problema." Of course they couldn't lift Pachuca. Instead they would get a diver to clean the hull in the water. End of Problem. I saw right away that if I had any problem clearing my salt water cooling inlet valve I could have the diver working below while I worked above. Then he took me on a walk across the foot bridge and showed me where my new slip would be. I hadn't known it, but the closest slip to Pachuca at her mooring, less than 50 meters away, was her future home. The slip is outside of the bridge and Very accessible. I could move in any time. The slip provides water and electricity. I told Carlos that I expected to move into the slip the next day. When I returned to the office I jokingly pointed my finger at Martha and said 'See, I told you so. You learned something today, didn't you?'
Then I set off to formalize my entry. I went straight to the Prefectura (Coast Guard) and they sent me straight back to Club Nautico to have some forms filled out. (The clubs are not just helpful in the entry process - they are essential!) Back at C.N. Martha filled in the forms and told me that I had to do it in the following order: (1) Health (Salud), (2) Immigration, (3) Coast Guard (Prefectura), (4) Customs (Aduana). I found my way to the Health office and was given a slip of paper and told to go to one of the banks and make a deposit of 50 pesos. I commented on what a trivial amount that 50 pesos was (less than $12) but the lady said that it was important to her. As I was about to leave her office a young couple came in. On the way to the bank the couple caught up with me and told me that they had been told to follow me.
It turned out to be Martin and Marianna, a pair of delightful young Dutch people from their boat "Pinto", slipped in the same line of boats where Pachuca will be. Soon it became obvious that Marianna was a dynamo with great people skills and who spoke fluent Spanish, and would in fact be leading me. Martin and Marianna were on their way to Ushuaia from where they would traverse the Beagle Channel and go up the Patagonian archipelago in winter. From there they planned to head for the Marquesas then Hawaii.
We got to the bank and I'd never seen anything like it, with maybe hundreds of people waiting for their turn for service. We were there for 2.5 hours which would have been longer had it not been for a terrific well traveled Argentinean who gave us slips saving us about 80 positions in the queue. During our wait M&M told me of an boating neighbor from Buenos Aires who is adamant that for serious boat work Buenos Aires was the place. They will introduce me to him and I'll discuss it with him. Given that I plan to spend some serious money not on a patch-up but on systems that I expect to last for years I am at present inclined (and resigned) to go to Buenos Aires to have the work done. The move will have the advantage of putting me next to both the airport and the city and all that it has to offer. Having said that, the final verdict is not in. I remarked to Martin "Marianna is very very good." He replied "Yes, I know." I told him that he was a very lucky man.
I had been told to return to the health office before 3 PM because the woman would be setting off somewhere by airplane. We got back to her office at 2.30 PM and the place was shut. M&M led me to the Immigration office and left me to it because they had done that part. I got good help at Immigration but was told that I had to then get processed by the Prefectura and then return. I did that, having great difficulty with the Prefectura because there was no evidence on my passport or elsewhere that I had left Mexico. I showed him my Zarpe, which was the clearance by the La Paz port captain, but he took little interest in it. We got through that and while he was processing my case I showed him a photocopy of my Mexican FM2 residency permit, pointing out the expiry date in July and explaining that because I was still a resident of Mexico I hadn't needed an exit statement. It didn't matter because by then he had decided to process me. However, he had fretted about Pachuca being an Australian boat while I was presenting a US passport. I explained my dual citizenship and presented my Australian passport. He was happy to work with that so from here to Australia I'll be traveling on the Aussie passport.
I returned to Immigration and got their final stamp then headed for the Aduana. At the Aduana the man asked me why I didn't have a stamp from the Health department. I explained that I had visited their office, been sent to the bank where I had spent 2.5 hours as I showed him the bank receipt (he nodded knowingly), then when I had returned to the Health office at 2.30 PM I found it ... he finished my sentence with "cerrado". 'Si, cerrado' (closed). He knew the score. He accepted my form and told me that I would have to wait until Miercoles (Wednesday, and this was Thursday) before returning to Health then back to the Aduana. They said that there as no problem legally.
All I'd had all day was 3 cups of coffee and a muesli bar that M&M kindly gave to me, so I was tired, hot, and hungry. Nevertheless I pushed on to find an ATM to try my Visa card and get some cash. The first bank rejected me for lack of funds. 'Great', I thought, 'the beginning of the next crisis.' But I decided to try another couple of banks before squealing to the ANZ bank in Australia and the next bank delivered me 600 pesos (about $130) with no problem.
Back at Club Nautico I had a chat with Martha. I told her about the delay with Health and she explained that Monday and Tuesday were holidays. What Holidays, I asked, expecting to hear something in the order of Indendence Day, but instead got a reply of "Carnival Time". OK, stop the entire economy for Carnival Time? Why Not? Our lady at Health had decided not only to extend her holiday by taking Friday off, but also by closing the office at 2.30 PM on Thursday and leaving her customer twisting in the wind. I replied to Martha "I'm starting to like this country."
I then went to the restaurant and purchased 2 1-liter bottles of cold Heineken beer. I got back to the dinghy landing, found my Zodiac still there, and soon was back on board. I restrained myself long enough to bring down the quarantine flag and my back pack which was nearly dry. Then I poured myself the first glass of beer and after 112 days at sea, more than 30 days of abstinence, a hard hot day with practically no food, I watch the amber fluid rising under a layer of pure white froth and told myself 'This is going to be very good.' And so it was. The first liter barely touched the sides. At the time of this writing I was half way through the second liter and life seemed very good indeed.
It had been a tough day but you know, I figure that I can do as much living in one day in this cruising life than I would do in 30 days of genteel suburban "living".
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1 comment:
Sounds like Pachuca will take quite a while to be fixed.
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