Weeks 38 to 40
Wednesday 9 April to Sunday 4 May
We went for dinner at a restaurant in the 5 bays area in Columbia, which had opened just for us and were joined by a German couple and a Dutch couple who had just arrived. We had a lovely meal of fresh bbq’d fish with coconut rice and plantain fritters. Up early the next day to set sail again. The sea was pretty rough and lumpy so Christine spent most of the time in bed. Arrived in Roderaro (Santa Marta) about lunchtime. According to a local information screen it was 42 degrees – so we jumped in the sea to cool off! We went ashore and found Roderaro to be a seaside resort with a nice little town and very friendly people. Next morning Darryl and Steve were up at 1.00am in order for us to arrive at our next destination in daylight hours due to there being a huge sandbar which we needed to avoid. Arrived safely in Punta Hermosa having crossed the mouth of the Magdalena River which can have tree trunks washing along which are best avoided in a yacht!! Odyssey arrived just after us and Kila called on the radio to ask if we would go over and play, so we did. Up at 6.30am to move on … again! Nice calm day and Christine felt ok (for a change). Spotted Cartagena from some distance due to the vast number of high rise blocks along the shoreline. Pulled into the harbour in the early evening and saw the lovely old town looking very pretty all lit up as the sun was going down. There were also lots of American naval boats and a submarine.
We spent the next week in Cartagena exploring all the lovely side streets and forts. Inside the old walls of the town are lots of little Mediterranean style streets with beautiful coloured terraced houses with overhanging balconies covered in bougainvillea. We visited the Gold Museum which you entered through a huge vaulted door and saw lots of gold jewellery of the kind that would have come from the graves we visited in Five Bays. We saw a film being made in one of the old streets with people wearing old fashion clothes and an old fashioned horse and carriage. We walked some of the 4 miles of the old fort wall that enclosed the “old town”. We tried lots of little local delicacies including a wonderful potato fritter filled with butter and cheese from a lovely lady who always smiled. We also visited the “new town” which was full of high rise blocks along the sea front. We had a wonderful lunch here from a street seller. All the locals were tucking in so we decided if it was good enough for them! They thought it was really funny for some reason?!
Club Nautica, the sailing club on the shore was a good social place. They had a bbq where you could all take along your own meat to bbq and everyone would take a bowl of something for the table to share. We met lots of lovely people there. Bob, Marj and Alex from Oregon and Laki and Hildegard and their beautiful little baby from Norway to name but a few. Whilst here Darryl gave Kila (aged 9) some lessons and also Alex (aged 10) some maths lessons. I gave Max some lessons which was good fun, he was very well behaved for a 5 year old. Departed Cartagena on 20 April in the evening and headed for the San Blas Islands. The next day Christine spotted some dolphins playing at the bow. Sadly the largest of the pod had a deformed dorsal fin which looked like a shark had taken a chunk out of it!
We arrived at the East Holandes Cays about 9.30 am. What a wonderful sight! Lots of little islands with white sandy beaches, palm trees and lovely little huts (only a few of the islands are inhabited by the local Kunas. Although the islands are owned by Panama the Kunas have managed to remain totally independent). On arrival we were immediately approached by a dug out canoe of local Kunas wanting to sell us fresh fruit and veg and Molas. Molas are beautiful pieces of material hand sewn by the local women with layers of material making up beautiful coloured pictures. We headed off to snorkel the beautiful, crystal clear waters and the reef. After a few minutes we spotted a shark about 4 feet long but we are not sure what type. We remained very still but it was very inquisitive and came within 2 feet of us and was eyeballing Darryl. By this time Christine had back off and was now clambering on Darryl’s back!! She decided this was enough for now and climbed back into the dinghy, rather scared! We also saw a nurse shark sleeping amongst the coral and later saw a stingray swim past and a turtle. We had a walk along the shore of the beautiful coconut palm island, this really is tropical paradise. We met the two families who live on one of the islands who were extremely friendly and watched one of the women making a Mola whilst the husband showed us a sailing boat he had carved out of balsa wood. After a couple of days we moved on to the next set of islands, Lemmon Cays, we are sure these were even more beautiful than the last ones, if that is possible. An English couple from a boat called Pillar II came over for a chat and a local Kuna came and sold Phillip a large barracuda and they invited us to join them for a bbq on the beach that evening. What a perfect setting for a bbq. The fish was great, a local Kuna and his dog joined us for some fish and we watched a beautiful sunset over the islands. We did some more snorkeling around these islands which had lots of beautiful coral. Thankfully (for Christine) we did not see any more sharks.
Happy 40th Birthday Joon!!
Sadly we had to leave the San Blas Islands on 26 as Steve and Di had heard that there was a 2 month wait to go through the Panama Canal and they had to book in as soon as possible so they could get across the Pacific before the hurricane season set in. We set sail early and then stopped the night in Portobello, a beautiful little cove surrounded by an old fort. We went for a wander round the town and saw the old Custom House where two third of world’s gold used to pass through on its way from Panama to Europe. Portobello is also famous for its black Christ. Set sail again for Colon, the pits of Panama, where you have to go to book your Canal passage. Colon has an extremely bad reputation, we were advised by many people and many guide books not to leave the marina on foot, to get a taxi to wherever we wanted to go and a taxi straight back. Not a good place to go sight seeing!!! We have decided that we will leave the boat here and go backpacking. Our current plans are to head down to South America for a few months before heading back to Central America. Subject to change any time of course!!!!
As we approached Colon we saw all the big ships waiting to transit the Panama Canal, we counted 32 ships waiting! Anchored in the flats, a pretty ugly place but with a nice yacht club. Had a couple of lazy days around the yacht club and put up an advert asking if anyone needed line handlers to pass through the canal. There is currently a 1 month wait so Steve and Di will not be passing through for some time yet. Within 24 hours we had heard from a lady from Argentina saying she needed line handlers for her transit on 1 May. Marissa is a lovely lady, traveling with her friend Christina from Brazil.
Joined Marissa on board her lovely 42 foot boat Huayra and off we set. We were joined by a pilot called Meza who was great and gave us instructions on how the canal system worked and what we would have to do. We headed off for the canal about 7.00pm and arrived at the first lock, Pedro Miguel, about 8.30pm along with a very large ship. We were transiting the canal with a British boat called Tuppence. We had to tie our boat to their’s and enter the lock together. We were then thrown 2 ropes from the canal side, as was Tuppence and this held the 2 boats in the centre of the canal. We passed through 2 locks and then entered the Gatun lake. Here we tied up for the night on a large buoy and Meza left us. Had a beer and some dinner and by this time it was midnight!! Up at 6.30am to the sound of howler monkeys on the shore, a very strange noise. We were joined by a new pilot called Jose who was also very nice. Crossed the Gatun lake which is absolutely beautiful, lots of lovely trees and lovely scenery. Darryl managed to spot a toucan but unfortunately no-one else saw it. Arrived at the Miraflores Lock about midday, this is a set of 3 locks. Again tied up to Tuppence and we went through together. Just as we entered the first lock it started to rain and it rained and rained and rained. We were all soaking wet but didn’t care, it was such a great experience. Eventually entered the Pacific about 2.00pm and immediately saw a crocodile swim past! We stopped and had lunch on the boat before leaving Marissa and Christina to start the next leg of our adventure, backpacking!
Arrived in Casa Veijo, the old part of Panama City and after looking at few very dodgy looking hotels settled on Luna’s Castle which is an old colonial style building which has been converted into a backpackers hostel. Went out to explore the local area and saw lots of beautiful old colonial style buildings, which have been renovated as the area is currently being restored to its former glory. There are also a lot of run down places which will look wonderful with a bit of TLC.
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