Visitors from Canada

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Teresa

Our good friends Tim & Kathy from Calgary came to visit us in Panama on the way to a conference in Miami. We had a great time showing them the city and seeing a few of the sights.

out at the MiraFlores Lock

Our hotel had amazing views

Given our upcoming transit through the canal it was great visiting the MiraFlores Locks Panama Canal and watching the large ships come into the lock and slowly lower as the water empties from the lock for the boat to transit through to the Pacific Ocean.

Walking along Balboa Ave the tide was out so we looked down at a very muddy yacht club. Won’t be going to this Marina when we get to the Pacific. It definitely makes you think about how extreme the tides are in the Pacific.

Interesting color of water at this fountain

The seafood market on Balboa Ave is a great place to get fresh fish and have a cheap seafood meal in the various restaurants. A busy place. You name it there are booths selling it; octopus, fish, shrimp,crab, lobster etc.
Casco Antiguo is always good to wander around and see the old buildings that have been renovated and go inside some of the churches.

Panamá Viejo is the ruins from old Panama City built in the 16 century and is actually in reasonable shape with an old cathedral that you can climb to see the views.

Plenty of socializing and catching up of course in various places in the City as you do.

Beer tasting at La Rana Brewhouse

The dancers at Las Tinajas restaurant

Even took them out to see the boat at Shelter Bay, Colon via the Panama Canal Railway, which links the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean parallel to the Panama Canal.
Once out at the boat Brett had Tim working on a few jobs. It was hot and sticky so they got to experience the heat and need for a cool down via a swim.
So after a few big nights out, sore heads from mixing our drinks we bid them farewell until another time, hopefully in the Pacific somewhere. Thanks for coming to visit.

Road trip in Chiriquí Province

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Teresa

We took the double decker air conditioned bus from Panama City for $15pp (6 hours) to the city of David, the capital of the province of Chiriquí. David was a good base to hire a car and see the area. It’s also low season so discounts on places to stay.

Boca Chica
Heading East from David to Bahia de Muertos on the map above we found Boca Chica, a small fishing village on the Pacific coast. There are a number of hotels and expat homes that overlook the Gulf of Chiriqui Marine National Park.

Looking out to the National Park

It’s humpback whale season so off we went on an excursion into the park and were not disappointed following a mother and her calf. Mum swam right beside the boat her tail was huge! Amazing, 😀.

The driver surprised us by stopping at an island where we met a Ngöbe-Buglé family who look after the island and the caiman alligators that live in the lake out back; 10 of them! The island is apparently for sale at a cool US$3m.

Caiman alligators love crabs see the orange crab legs at front that he has his eyes on

The Ngöbe-Buglé women and girls wear traditional brightly colored dresses with hand sewn appliqué to make each dress different. As you can see they are not tall people.

There are 25 islands in the park and we stopped at Isla Gomez with a small white sand beach with clear water so we could have a swim in the Pacific. A lot of the beaches in this area have a brown sand/ dirt.
The view from Boca Chica area back towards David and Volcan, you could clearly see the Volcanoes in the distance.

Volcan
The scenic road up to Volcan, North from David, via Dolega was a great road and very pretty, winding its way through little country villages past waterfalls and many citrus & dairy cattle farms. We found an old walking bridge across one of the many rivers we crossed.

The trees were in full bloom with beautiful flowers so when we got into the town of Volcan there were lots of decorations scattered throughout town made from the flowers from a flower parade.
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In Volcan we went to the Jansen Family Coffee Farm to learn about the process of making good coffee from arabica and geisha plants and are now a lot more knowledgable about something we drink every day. Emily, a family member, gave us the tour explaining their planting, harvesting, processing, roasting and packaging techniques for their award winning coffee, which is distributed throughout the world.

Jansen coffee farm set in a valley with views to the Volcano when not cloudy

Arabica cherries, which produce better coffee, are in bunches along a stem.The cherries turn red when ready to pick typically in December.

This whole region has very fertile soil because of the volcano. Most of Panama’s vegetables are grown in the area between Volcan and Cerro Punta, which is on the West side of Volcan Baru.

Volcan Baru

We saw hundreds of different fields of crops, trucks piled with vegetables and processing & distribution plants for fruit & vegetables. Would have been great to buy lots of fresh veg and fruit. Every inch of space is used for growing veg and this is just one small valley.

Even stopped for a walk into Cañon Macho de Monte an area that has a number of hydroelectric stations.

Guadalupe
Guadalupe is North of Volcan and Cerro Punta in the centre of the Veg growing area and close to La Amistad National Park where we hiked into the forest and ended up seeing three small waterfalls. We looked just charming in our gum boots and borrowed jackets because it was freezing up there! It’s not meant to be cold in Panama.

Puerto Armuelles
Puerto Armuelles is on a peninsular shared with Costa Rica and we’d heard there were a number of expats living there so wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Highways of course are not our style so off we went on the back roads. We stopped at a beach area called Barqueta on the coast past David that had a black “very HOT” sand beach, but alas we weren’t that impressed with it. No one was around but it did look like it got very busy given the restaurant seating around.

Our road trip to Puerto Armuelles continued through some agricultural lands until we were crossing through huge fincas (farms) that used to be owned by the Chiquita Banana Co and crossed railroad tie bridges. Very different passing by banana fields, oil palms, sugar cane and rice fields. I think one of the police guards after the bridge in the next picture was shocked to see tourists as he did a double take and then stopped us to see passports etc asking where we were going.

Puerto Armuelles is a town that was actually built by the Chiquita Banana Co for its workers, from executives to dock workers but when they left 25 yrs ago the population declined considerably and homes have seen better days. Expats have been buying the old Chiquita houses to fix up, life is cheap, there are English schools and the locals are friendly. A real country feel where horses share the roads even around town.

We made a trip down the peninsular and ended up going through a secure area where the Petro Terminal of Panama port is. Here oil supertankers come in to load oil via pipelines through Panama from the Atlantic side.

Sunday is baseball day so typically there are games on at one of the two stadiums in town so we stopped by. They have shaded bleachers and there are beer and food vendors and locals betting on teams; who are very passionate supporters, even rubbishing the umpire.

On leaving the peninsula we decided to take the highway this time, as its goes past the Costa Rican border. There is a town right on the border where Costa Rican’s and Panamanian’s shop duty free. The actual boarder is a busy place with lots of trucks lined up to go thru the agricultural spray sheds, people walking, duty free shops and cars going every which way.

Boquete
Our trip to Chiriqui ended in Boquete on the Eastern side of Volcan Baru. Boquete is a cute town set in the valley near Volcan Baru, which has lots of clouds around it in my photo.

We’ve been here before and had been on a number of hikes in the area. Decided we wanted to do the hike to The Lost Waterfalls, which is in a range that just keeps going up a trail on the side of the hill and you end up seeing 3 waterfalls. Decent hike that’s for sure and very beautiful terrain.

Waterfall 1, the best, which you actually see on your way back down

Waterfall 2, where they say you can swim in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall but the temp was a little refreshing for us.

Waterfall 3 the most difficult to get to as its slippery and quite steep heading up to it.

There are even golf courses in Boquete for our golfing family and friends, you just need to choose your mode of transport around the course.

The bike maybe on not such a hilly course, but as you can see this golf course is set in the hills.

Time to head back to the boat to do some jobs and catch up with friends.

Cruising around Bocas del Toro

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Teresa

After an overnight sail from Portobello against the current(!) we made our way West into the Bocas del Toro archipelago in the NW corner of Panama, near Costa Rica. We had been here back in 2014 by land so knew the area but had never cruised the waters.

We are sure you have heard of and tasted Chiquita bananas, well guess where they are from; yes here in Bocas del Toro. Back in 1890, 2 brothers planted banana trees along the shores of Chiquiri on the mainland near Bocas. Their company was eventually taken over by United Fruit and became part of Chiquita Brands Intl and now this area grows and exports 3/4 of a million tons of bananas annually.

These didn’t get exported – yummy!

This area does get a lot of rain but what we found interesting was that August / Sept when we are here is lower than the rest of Panama. It’s wettest here during Panamas dry season (Dec. – April) and drier during Panama’s rainy season. May have got something right! 😉 Had a couple of thunder storms rumble the boat but all up it was reasonably dry so we could get out and do things.

Isla Colon
Isla Colon is the most developed of all the islands in the area. The town of Bocas has a real relaxed pace of life with lots of backpackers, surfers, expats and locals mingling in the many bars and restaurants around town. We couldn’t believe the number of Chinese owned hardware stores in town, with lots of marine parts to help cruisers and expats working on their boats and homes. Of course there are also lots of tour operators on the waterfronts ready to take you out in water taxis to see and enjoy the islands.

Arriving in Bocas town

We hired bicycles to go out to Bluff beach on the windward side of the island. The ride was about 40 min starting on a road and went along the coast eventually ending on a sand trail that was a tad difficult to cycle. We passed plenty of restaurants so knew we had options to stop at on our way home. Yes it was HOT! The beaches here have golden soft sand and the water is lovely, a real treat after a hot cycle.

hired bikes $5 for 4 hours and they were perfect beach cruisers

Golden sand at Bluff beach and no ones here.

We couldn’t resist stopping for a cold one at Scully’s on the waterfront on the way home to meet Steve the owner / pirate with one leg and Milton the parrot.

We took the boat around to Starfish beach (or Playa Estrella) on the leeward side of the island for quite a few days. Lots of tourists get brought here to laze on the beach, listen to music and eat at the beachside restaurants set in amongst the coconut trees. Even we went ashore for some beach time. Lots of starfish about hence the name.

Looking over to starfish beach

Bastimentos Island
This island is the largest island here and is really lush green (perhaps thanks to rain all year long) with some nice protected anchorages amongst the mangroves. No mosquitos too, which was a treat.

Red Frog Marina in the background

the kayaks were once again great for getting out investigating the bay

We even managed to see a brightly colored poison dart frog, thanks to someone pointing it out.
Walking through the lush forests of the Red Frog Resort & Marina grounds you pass this sign, “Monkey Crossing” and sure enough we saw a family of monkeys using it and lots of sloths lazing in the trees high above us. Very cool!

There are some beaches on the windward side of the island, which we liked walking along. The tourist boats love taking tourists to Red Frog and take them to a special dock where they have to pay $5pp to walk across some trail to the beach. We’d kayak into the resort dock daily and ask to walk thru to the beach and it was free. Bonus.

sun setting at Red Frog Beach

Cayo Solarte
After making our way thru a small channel between Bastimentos and Solarte called The Gap, which has some pretty large American style homes being built, we anchored on the south side of Cayo Solarte.

The mangroves are low lying and actually are very picturesque when you look across to the mainland. We had heard the snorkeling was good on the reefs in the area so went searching. We found more jelly fish than anything.

Zapidilla Cays
After cruising to some of the other areas like Dolphin Bay, Johnson Cay and Crawl Cay we made our way out to the Zapidilla Cays; 2 cays that are part of a National park. Very pretty and busy with tourist boats during the day. We kayaked ashore (cost$10pp) and ending up meeting Ben who is stationed on one of the Cays to research turtles. He was in need of a cord to charge his cell phone so we helped him out and in return he invited us back that evening to watch for turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. Alas we didn’t see one come ashore but did see tracks. Interesting experience.

Ben was keen for a kayak so off the boys went

We’ve arrived in the busy Colon area.

Back in Panama City

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Teresa

Back in Panama City and we stayed in the area of El Congrego as its very safe, has lots of restaurants to go to and is central to most of the things we want to do, including visiting dentists and specialists.

The walk down to and along Avenida Boulevard, which is right on the water front is always a treat as there are lots of families out enjoying the pathways exercising and there’s lots to see.

Arriving at Casco Viejo we were surprised how much it had changed since we had last been here in July 2014. It just keeps getting better. The streets look much cleaner as they have now all been tiled, the parks are clean and tidy, the facades of the buildings have been painted and construction is way down. We were impressed as we thought it was going to take a long time to sort this area out.

The old and the new still exist, amazing the difference

We caught the metro out to Allbrook Mall, which is a bargain at 0.35 each. Allbrook is also the main hub for the bus station and domestic air flights. We visited the hardware stores getting ready for our return to the boat, one of the only places in a mall Brett doesn’t mind going and boy oh boy he can shop when he wants to…..

You don’t see bus stations this busy in Canada.

We hired Rogelio, recommended by lots of cruisers, to take us to Pricemart for food provisions and various other stores for things we couldn’t find at the hardware stores at Allbrook. We filled Rogelio’s van to the top and will call him again for help later. Rogelio – phone 507-6717-6745 or maago50@yahoo.com

It was back to the boat, which we had left at Panamarina to dump all our stuff off and deal with it. Eeeek!

I came across this sloth at the marina walking across the road.

Lots of familiar faces and boats that we know from the Rio Dulce so that’s nice.

Catching up in Calgary, Canada

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Teresa

Decided to return to Calgary, Canada to see family and friends for the month of July. It was great to catch up with everyone that we could see so sorry if we weren’t able to touch base.

Started in Calgary at Audrey & Grant’s and were fortunate to see most of Brett’s Mums side of the family. Yes I even made them gather for a family photo.

Made a trip down to Whitefish, Montana with Larry, Brett’s Dad via East Glacier Park, which has amazing views of the rocky mountains. West Glacier and the “Going to the Sun Road ” was too busy for us this time given it’s summer, but is absolutely spectacular if you are ever in Montana.

In Whitefish the big event was Scott & Erin’s wedding where we were able to see all of Larry & Carey’s side of the family. The wedding was on the lakefront and they couldn’t have asked for a better day.

The trip back to Calgary via the Crowsnest Pass and highway 22 shows the beauty of Alberta, so different to where the boat is at the moment.

The Rocky Mountains are amazing

Frank Slide was a rockslide that buried the mining town of Frank in 1903

The canola fields along the foothills are pretty

We saw lots of our really good friends and old work colleagues while in Calgary, which was great to socialize and catch up. I think everyone thinks we don’t eat well on the boat as they sure fattened us up with good food and plenty of alcohol. Good times as usual but we need to go on a diet now. Thanks!

The Calgary Stampede was on so we caught up for chicken wings with Doug, Todd, Dave & Bob just like old times

Alberta beef (yummy) with Tim & Kathy 1 of the many good meals we were treated to

Party at Jen & Dave’s to see lots of friends

Dave, Jen, Megan & Tyler took a trip to Ontario so we were fortunate that they asked us to house /dog sit for 2 weeks. Max, a generally pretty relaxed lab who likes to rough house with Brett made sure we got our fair share of exercise every day walking up and down Nose Hill, even after a few big nights out catching up with friends. Going for hikes is something we miss so we will have to do some road trips when we return south.

looking after a home means yard work again

forgot about the yard work that needs to be done….No rest for the wicked….

Max even came with a house in Fernie so we made a trip west to enjoy the outdoors golfing, walking and of course to have a break from all the good food & wine in Calgary.

27 degree weather had Max laying down in the river to cool off and admire the views

Well it’s time to head back to our floating apartment (with 2 extra big bags of shopping!) and we’ll see where the winds take us. For all those that said they want to come and visit we hope to see you soon.

San Blas Islands, Panama

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Teresa

The San Blas Islands or Guna Yala (meaning “land of the Guna”) are made up of 370 odd islands, of which approx. 50 are inhabited and are East of the Panama Canal on the Caribbean side. While part of Panama the local Guna Yala Indians have their own rules and regulations and while we were here were in disagreement with the Central Panama Govt. so Govt. offices were closed indefinitely. In the map below The San Blas Islands or Guna Yala is North East of Panama City.

The Guna people

The Guna are a matriarchal society where the men move into the brides home and where the women pass down their names and basically rule the roost. The Guna’s total about 50-60 thousand and are one of the most peaceful nations on earth, where crime is extremely rare, homosexuality is accepted as something perfectly normal, and albinism has one of the planet’s highest rate.

On many of the smaller islands a caretaker moves onto the island for the Guna Yala community for 3 months to take care of the island, gather the coconuts etc.

Every day men are out at the reefs fishing or snorkeling for lobster, conch and crab. They also collect the coconuts, which is the Gunas main source of income and is used to trade for products with the Columbian trading boats that come to the San Blas regularly loaded with various goods like gas, clothes, plastic bins, food products, beer and coca-cola.

Fishermen heading home in their sailboat

3 Fishermen in an Ulu

The Guna people we met were all friendly mainly coming via ulu to sell fish, lobster, fruit & vege and molas.

the vege boat which also sells eggs & beer; no grocery stores out here

the vege boat is well stocked and also sells chicken, eggs & beer; no grocery stores out here!

this family asked for a couple of jugs of fresh water

fisherman picking out some nice sized lobsters for us

On some of the islands the Guna have set up restaurant facilities to cater for the tourists & cruisers and in some cases charge you to go on the island or at a few places to anchor out front.

Thatched home/ restaurant on Isla Tortuga or BBQ Island

Molas
Molas are the most important part of the Guna women’s traditional clothing, and since cruisers and tourists started visiting the islands, molas became an important source of income too. They are made by sewing and cutting different layers of colorful cloth and are usually shown in the form of abstract birds, animals or marine fish on both the front and back of the women’s blouse. They are normally made by the women but Venacio, a well known master mola maker, who I’d heard about, came with buckets of molas with his signature finely stitched at the top. He speaks English and held each mola up proudly telling me the story of it. I did end up buying a few, as you do and glad I did as his were the best I saw.

Venacio with some molas I bought

Anchoring

At Coco Bandero anchored between two islands

How can you not go wrong here finding great anchoring places when there’s 300+ islands. In reality the area is not well chartered and a lot of the electronic charts are incorrect but with the help of the Eric Bauhaus guide with charts we were able to find some beautiful islands to stay and enjoy the palm trees, white sand beaches and turquoise waters.

Ogoppiriadup, East Holandes

Most of the cruiser boats are gone and charter boats are about, but not as many as usual, so anchorages are not busy, perfect! In busy season Nov – Apr we were told some anchorages can have about 30 boats! We spent time at:
The East Lemons: this seems to be a hang out for cruisers and charter boats waiting for their next guests as its close to Carti where it’s easy to collect guests and get to Panama City. We met Denny from Kokomo (http://www.kokomosailing.com) who took us to some great snorkeling in the area.

East Lemmons; Volleyball on the beach anyone?

all sorts of coral formations near the East Lemmons

Holandes: from the west thru to the east with lots of great spots along the way to stop and anchor. Brett liked the reef off East Holandes for spear fishing opportunities and so we spent a lot of time here.

Swimming Pool, East Holandes apparently very popular between November & April

fish for dinner, yummy

Coco Bandero: lots of fish life and good snorkeling out at the reef and around the islands. We had spotted rays & turtles right off the boat.
Green Island: beautiful protected anchorage behind a reef and a good island to walk around.
Naguargandup Cays: snorkeling on the outer reef had a 20m wall with beautiful bright colored coral. The no-see-ums were a problem here though, as we had no wind so they came along for someone new to munch on. These guys can even get thru your bug screens they are so small!

Snorkeling
The coral on the reefs in the San Blas was a lot more alive than we have seen for some time and very different at each island. There were some beautiful colors with all sorts of different fish about, even the odd nurse shark lurking. Brett made sure we didn’t starve by hunting for fish for dinner on the outer reefs.

1 of a few different reef fish we sampled

Finding great spots with the Kayak and snorkeling from the kayak in the area around Green Island.

At Dog Island the wreck of a cargo ship sunk in the 1950s is now home to lots of fish and coral.

Weather
Well we arrived in the San Blas in May and stayed through to end of June so technically it’s rainy season. We had days of beautiful clear blue sky and no wind but when systems did come in, typically in the morning, the thunder and lightening was intense. On the whole we were lucky and had great weather for the 6 weeks.

looking at a system with a water spout out near the East Holandes

looking at a system with a water spout out past the East Holandes

We really enjoyed cruising the islands and having a huge crystal clear pool to swim in every day.

Portobello, Panama

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Teresa

In order to clear into Panama we had to take the local chicken bus to Portobello, a 30 minute ride, which cost us US$1:25, bargain.

the Chicken buss are all decked out and a great way to get around this area

Portobello is a small town with a pretty laid back feeling to it. Someone is a great artist so there are all sorts of murals on buildings, a few restaurants and bakeries and 2 supermarkets to get SIM cards and groceries, perfect.

Looking back to Portobello from one of the forts on the waters edge

Good old Christopher Columbus discovered Portobello back in 1502 and the bay actually ended up being a a huge transshipment Centre because of its harbor and location in the Caribbean. Customs house stands in the Centre of town, on the waterfront and was used as a warehouse for trade and the office for the Governor back in the 1600s. It’s actually restored and while we were there they were working on the brickwork.

Customs house

There are also a couple of well maintained forts from the 1700s to wander around and look out to the harbor. There were an amazing number of canons in good condition but still they couldn’t hold the pirate Henry Morgan who took the town.

lots of boats in the anchorage here

It was back on the bus to Linton to catch up with friends who were in the area and about to head out. Got a surprise when we spotted a sloth climbing into a tree near the Marina. it was a lot smaller than we expected.

Off to the San Blas Islands.

Albuquerque Cays, Columbia

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Teresa

The Albequere atoll was a lot bigger than we thought it would be with two beautiful cays with crystal white sand that you can spot from miles away.

Just two Islands out in the middle of nowhere

The larger island is used as a navy base to apparently protect and safeguard the Columbian waters from Nicaraguan fishermen. Alas after checking in with the commander of the Navy stationed on the island and his 10 or so onlookers we were told we were not allowed to walk on either island. Shame they were so beautiful looking.

The second island is occupied by transient Columbian fishermen who are licensed to fish here. We saw 10 Fishermen who live in little huts on this little piece of paradise.

Nicely protected from weather between the twos cays we sat out a late Northerly and enjoyed getting out for some snorkeling to see some reasonable coral and fish life. The highlight was seeing two dolphins and a spotted ray.

Sorry not real clear

The brain corals were a good size and in good shape

Had a beam reach sail to Panama catching a couple of fish or at least I think you could call one a fish. Also had a passenger 100m from land who settled in for a rest and then continued his trip later.

Poor little hog fish

We have arrived at Isla Linton near Portobelo the new office for checking in to Panama and the San Blas area. There has been a disagreement between the Gunas of the San Blas and the Panama central govt so the office in Porvenir, San Blas is closed and an office has opened at Linton Marina. You still have to take a bus to Portobelo to see immigration and there’s a Port captain there too so all a bit confusing. We are cleared in and ready to continue onto the San Blas Archipelago.

Touristy San Andres, Columbia

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Teresa

Had a great day sail from Providencia to San Andres skirting the reef, which is scattered with wrecks into a very busy harbor. San Andres is a holiday destination for Columbians from the mainland and other South American countries. Most people speak Spanish so we are back to speaking Spanglish again.

One of many wrecks on the reefs around the island

San Andres definitely caters to the tourist with boat tours to the nearby cayos, diving trips, lots of duty free shops & name brand stores like polo, quicksilver, Hurley etc and a good selection of restaurants to choose from. During the day the harbor is busy with boats and jet skis going in every direction, all of which seem to have two speeds; Fast or ridiculously fast.

packed full, spot the huge ship wrecked out on the reef

Johnny Cay is popular as a day trip via a water taxi

We took the kayaks around to the Spray Bight beaches passing lots of big hotels. The nice white sandy beaches weren’t very busy as main tourist season is October to December and Easter so it was perfect.
A stop for Ceviche and Spanish lessons at Danny’s place on the beach was in order.

The island is only 24kms around and so we decided to hire a golf cart with Stu & Steph from S/V Matador, which cost us 90,000 pesos (US$30). We thought it was a bargain given other prices we’d been quoted and I guess you get what you pay for. It was dog slow, would not make it up a hill and not even half way around we ended up with a flat tire. We limped our way to Big Mamas reggae bar for a cold one and some snorkeling off the rocky shore, while the rental guy came to our rescue. There were a few statues placed in the water off Big Mamas so it ended up being a good stop.

Once the tire was changed we continued along the road to an area where we found a small fun park and enjoyed swimming with the fish, diving off the dive board and coming down a water slide. This place was one of the busiest attractions along the road and only cost US$1:25 to enter, bargain.

loved the wood structure holding the slide up

Reggae bars seemed to be popular as they were scattered around the island on the road sides to temp you and yes we were tempted as it was hot.

We took the local bus up the hill to the Baptist Church, which was built in 1844, to climb the stairs up to the steeple to see the 360 views and amazing water colors out to the reef.

Down to the anchorage

Out to a Cay at the entrance

The locals here are all friendly and helpful. Miss Kelly from Nenes Marina was always interested in what we did and offered other suggestions to keep us occupied in the heat! Yes its hot and humid here. She even offered to do my laundry as I couldn’t find a laundromat.

Miss Kelly

On our last day we managed to get out to the reef to snorkel thru the reef to the outside and saw some good coral and lots of fish life. Hope there’s more of that where we are going.

Has been a great stop with good reasonably priced restaurants and good supermarkets to provision for the next few months. Had enough of people and shops and as the winds are pretty much non existent have decided to stop at Albuquerque Cay 30nm southwest of here for some snorkeling and fishing before continuing south to the San Blas Islands in Panama.

Tranquil Providencia, Columbia

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Teresa

After choosing a weather window with relatively calm seas and Easterly winds for sailing we set off from Grand Cayman and arrived in Providencia 355 miles or 3 days later. Your first sight of Providencia is the glistening palm trees and rocky cliffs and as you enter the channel you pass Morgan’s Head on Santa Catalina Island and in front of you is Morgan’s Crack on the main island Providencia.

Morgan’s Head

View of anchorage from Fort Warwick, Santa Catalina to Morgan's Crack

View of anchorage from Fort Warwick, Santa Catalina with Morgan’s Crack on the right

You have to use an agent to check in to Columbia so we contacted Mr Bush the only agent here. After providing him with all our documentation we then found we had to negotiate his fees down as what he quoted was higher than what friends had paid 2 weeks previously. Must be end of season, hmmmm.

I then went in search of a Columbian courtesy flag but no such luck here. Luc and Aline on S/V Oceana1 who we knew from the Rio Dulce came to our rescue with a flag Aline had made us. Thanks Aline!

Aline delivering us a Columbia flag

Providencia is a small natural colorful island with no large resorts, a few small communities scattered around the island and this impressive rocky volcanic landscape, with its highest point being 360m; the Peak. The locals here are very friendly waving out as you wander by their homes and most people here speak English, which is a bonus.

Square in the Centre of Main Street Santa Isabel which always seems busy

The boardwalks are all painted bright colors; someone has a job for life

A small place where you come across the local Nun walking along the main road to church

Santa Catalina, the smaller island is a national park accessed via the 100m floating Lovers Lane bridge. The channel here was dredged by pirates to protect the islands from invasion. We climbed up the stairs to Fort Warwick and then walked the trail out to Morgan’s Head past pirate beach. Henry Morgan, an English admiral and privateer (sanctioned pirate) in the 17th Century terrorized the Spanish fleets from this area and set their headquarters at the Fort. We enjoyed snorkeling the coast here and came across an old Cannon under the Fort.

Lovers Lane Bridge

Sitting out at Morgan’s Head

Together with Luc and Ailene we hired scooters (40,000 pesos/ US$13 day) to see the main island and its sights.

Scooters are definitely the main transportation here and we’re fun to see the island

The bus stops scattered around the island are unique

One of the many bays – Southwest Bay, shame we could not anchor here…

Nice beaches with lots of shade for us people that burn

You can see the reefs crystal clear water; such a beautiful color

Lots of beach bars; we stopped at Roland’s on Manchineel Bay for a cold one

Lunch and a swim at Divino Niño, a huge seafood plate for two was good value

Then it was time to relax after a big meal!

We took our dinghies for the day out to Crab Cay and into the national park to the Three Brothers and the surrounding reefs to get some snorkeling in. (16000 pesos entry fee each to park incl Crab Cay). The views from Crab Cay were amazing looking out at the reefs and color changes of the water on this side of the island.

View from the top of Crab Cay

Yes the water was crystal blue out towards the reef

Yes the water was this crystal blue color

Unfortunately the coral here is covered in a brown green film as we have seen in many places in the Caribbean. The far reef out from Crab Cay was amazing as you felt like you were in a city as there were lots of huge coral structures coming up out of the sand.

There were lots of these coral pinnacles that towered around you

I organized a cruiser group hike up to El Pico ( The Peak) where Russell & Laura from S/V Lutana decided to join us as our guides, as they had already done the hike. It starts at the community of Bottom House an area which was where the freed slaves settled and was named this since the plantation owners were high above in the mountains.

The start of a 1.5hr hike to the top mainly in the shade of trees thank goodness

Along the hike Laura who is Columbian showed us lots of different plants and explained their uses.

Cotton Tree here is used to make pillow stuffing

a very small fruit similar to an apple that can be eaten

The blue iguana, which turns brown to blend with the landscape when it feels threatened

hot but happy to make it to the very top S/Vs Matador, Sojourner, Oceana1 , Lutana and Seismic Wave

hot after 1.5hrs to get here but happy to make it to the very top S/Vs Matador, Sojourner, Oceana1 , Lutana and Seismic Wave

down to Bottom House where we started & out to the reef

down to the anchorage and Santa Catalina island in the distance

We had heard that there are bareback Horse races on the beach at Southwest bay Saturdays so together with Stu & Steph from S/V Matador we headed down there. After being told there was going to be a race it was cancelled as the sand was too soft. It’s meant to be a fun day with betting and brings lots of people out to watch it. Oh well lunch and a day out isn’t such a bad thing.

After getting permission from the Port Captain to go to Low Cay we sailed the 10nm north, for a change of scene for a few days. Crystal clear water and just a lighthouse on the reef.