One of the best things about this crazy lifestyle that we lead is our ability to change plans fairly easily.  Actually, it takes a little work to keep ourselves free enough to do that: mostly through managing visits from friends and family.  So, I could also say that it is one of the worst things about this lifestyle, because we are always hedging our bets and hesitating to commit to one particular path.  But, like most things in life, everything has its good side and its bad side and our job is to make sure we are willing to take advantage of all the positive stuff and minimalize the negative and hopefully, in the end, it all works out for the best.  So far, our latest change of plans seems to be doing just that!

     When we first pulled into Puerto Aventuras about a month ago, it was an unplanned stop.  Despite our initial distaste for the overwhelmingly gringo tourist vibe here, we kept finding reasons to like it.  The number one reason is the wonderful, completely safe, cheap marina.  One of the first things Gerardo, the marina manager, mentioned after we recovered from the pleasant shock of the price, was the excellent bi-lingual school here.  Colegio Puerto Aventuras has 250 students, about 60% Mexican and the rest a mix of American, Canadian, French, German and others.  Tied up to the dock, we kept meeting "locals," Americans, Canadians and British who have vacation homes here, who, seeing our kids, also raved about the school.  We went by to check it out over the weekend and then again on Monday to talk to them.  Although a private school, the fees are exceedingly reasonable by American standards, less than $5,000 a year per child.  The kids took the entrance exam just for the heck of it.  They were worried because they couldn't do the Spanish part of the exam at all.  Both girls excelled on the English portion, however, and when we met with the principles of the primary school and secondary school, they both welcomed the prospect of having the kids there.

     Obviously, we had been thinking about alternatives to the Ecuador plan already.  Once we got to Mexico, we realized how much it meant to us to be able swim in the beautiful crystal clear waters of the Caribbean.  Our intended port in Ecuador, Bahia de Caraquez, is at the mouth of the Rio Chone river.  The water is murky and not healthy for swimming.  When we started looking at the pluses and minuses, it was clear that Mexico had many more pluses in its favor.  Chief among them was the enthusiasm of our kids.  I had been on the internet searching for school options here already and not finding anything that would accommodate our boat as well as our kids.  Then we stumbled in here.  With both the boat and the school issues resolved, it didn't take much for us to decide to stay and try it out. 

     One big point on the plus side of staying in the Yucatan, is the fact that it is easy and cheap to reach from the US.  This could not have been any better illustrated than when Lisa, Alison, and Holly arranged an impromptu visit.  Some of our closest friends in Annapolis got together just after the New Year.  While the men started talking about some ridiculous trip to the Outer Banks this spring for wind sports, the ladies decided to even the score with a visit to Zia in the Yucatan.  At that point we were still planning to head south, but were more than willing to wait until after their visit.  We started talking about the trip on January 8th and by the 11th tickets were purchased for the 29th.  Wahoo!  Who could ask for better friends than that?  The girls were over the moon.  They have both considered Holly their best friend since before we left cruising.  She is a constant source of joy in their lives and a visit on such short notice was almost more than they could handle, especially falling just four days after a visit from Gran and Gramps.  This was the kind of energy we needed on Zia!

     In retrospect, it seems our venture back to Annapolis last summer might not have been the best choice for our cruising plans.  Although it was wonderful to have so much time to visit with friends and family, when it came time to leave - again - life with the kids became very difficult.  Home-schooling was torture.  The girls would burst into tears at the slightest provocation.  Everyone was moody and tense.  We had our good days and our bad days, naturally, but clearly no one was very excited about our future plans.  The kids were especially reluctant to think of Ecuador as a good alternative to being back home.  I felt too much like the autocrat, imposing my will on the rest of the crew. 

     Back to basics.  Our goal has always been for the girls to be bi-lingual.  When they were infants, we had a wonderful nanny, Andrea, from Chile, who was with us for four and a half years and only spoke to them in Spanish.   Although our stint in school in Barcelona didn't exactly work out as planned, it was also conceived with the bi-lingual goal in mind.  When it came time to sail back to this side of the Atlantic, we agreed that a year of full immersion in a Spanish speaking school would be worth whatever sacrifice it required of us to give our girls the gift of fluency in another language.  We just needed to find someplace safe and comfortable for us on the boat.  The climate in Ecuador is perfect and it is relatively safe and comfortable, so we stopped looking.  It became the plan.  Luckily, Cassie and I had gone down to check it out so we knew exactly what to expect.  If we hadn't, I'm not sure we would have been so willing to abandon our plan for a better option.  We wouldn't have known which was really the better option.

       So, here we are in Puerto Aventuras.  The girls have completed their first full week at school.  It is amazing to see how well they both adjust to a new environment.  It's a little easier for Juliana, at ten.  Mr. Alberto, the principle of the primary school, told us when we picked her up after her first day last Thursday, "It seems as if Juliana was born here.  She was surrounded by children from the minute she arrived to the minute the day was over.  She is doing wonderfully."

     Everything is more difficult at twelve, but after her first three or four days, Cassie realized that she would actually make friends with the other students in her class.  Because of the way the Mexican educational system is organized, both she and Juliana are the youngest in their classes.  Cassie was sure that this was going to be a problem.  I talked to her Spanish tutor who agreed that this was a tough age for making friends among the girls, but who also assured me that she would keep an eye out for Cassie.  How wonderful to receive that kind of attention in Middle School!  She comes home every day with a huge smile on her face and a glowing report.  Certainly there will be issues, but, at least for today, it seems it will all work out for the best.   

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