Island we Anchored off in Rosarios


We continued from Isla Fuerte to the San Bernardo islands. We stayed several days here enjoying the tranquil anchorage. There were several large resorts that seemed to be closed either for the season or permanently.
There is a boating saying that "It's not if you are going to go aground but When" Well when happened as we approached Islas del Rosarios. We lost our lighting and before we knew it we kissed the ground. Nothing happened. We were going extremely slow and just had to back out.
The Rosario Islands were declared a Colombia National Park in 1977 for the purpose of study, protection, and preservation. The Park's coral reefs, sea flora and fauna, mangroves and lagoons contain more than 1300 species of plants and animals, native to the islands. All the islands are surrounded by coral reefs.
the Natural Park Regulations protect the sea floor and its ecosystem, the islands, wildlife and preserve the overall ecology. Tourists from around the world come to learn, admire and enjoy the underwater Natural Park.
Park visitors are encouraged to protect the delicate environment by not littering, not buying any animals or plants (dead or alive) and respecting the flora and fauna. This was pleasant as there was no garbage in the water. Something we haven't seen since Mexico.
We hired a couple of locals for a day to tour us around instead of using our own dinghy. This turned out to be a great thing to do as I believe we saw more than we would have had we tried to explore ourselves. Unfortunately I was not vigilant enough and burnt. I am paying for it still 4 days later.
I know we have said we have fallen in love with all the countries we have visited but I truly believe the media has done an injustice to many countries. It's not scary, the PEOPLE here are WONDERFUL and helpful.
The promise had been made by President; Alvaro Uribe that he would be tough on crime and he is keeping to his word. The mafia is being dismantled; the prostitution has been legalized with strict rules thus keeping people more safe. US currency is kept to a minimum and the businesses dealing with the currency must be able to show the paper work trail. This explains why the fishermen trying to sell their catch wanted pesos only. It seems to be working for them and crime is way down.



We continued our track into Cartagena. WOW WOW WOW.
Cartagena is an old Walled City. It was the fortification Spanish town that was so important to the Spanish Empire.
Ken and I will be taking a tour tomorrow with a guide and will have lots to write about next week.
Just a few facts:
Colombia is bordered on the northwest by Panama, on the east by Venezuela and Brazil and on the southwest by Peru and Ecuador. Through the western half of the country, three Andean ranges run north and south. The eastern half is a low, jungle covered plain, fringed by tributaries of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers, inhabited mostly by isolated tropical forest Indian tribes. The fertile plateau and valley of the eastern range are the most densely populated parts of the country. The capital Bogota has 12 million people. Cartagena 2.5 million.
We are looking forward to learning all about this city and passing it on. It appears to be one of the nicest cities we have yet to visit. I posted a video of Ken being attack by Lucy the monkey on a previous blog. So go check it out. I have to organize my 1000 pictures so it might take a while to post some of the pictures. Have patience. It will happen. We haven't had Internet for almost 5 weeks.

We entered Panama on Feb. 17th and departed Apr. 16th. Our arrival in Panama began in a wonderful bay whereby a family invited us to their home and came to our boat with gifts. (Not to mention we raised our waterline quite a bit.) The final anchorage had us entertaining a total of 20 people on our boat from the time the anchor hit the water until just before sunset. People brought us gifts of fruit and vegetables. We gave away towels, books, rope, fishing hooks and lots of cold juice. We were invited to go into the village but with people coming and going we didn't make it. This last harbour was Puerto Perma. It is a two year old traditional village on the mainland with plenty of space to have garden plots. At the moment they are cutting down trees, selling them and cultivating the land to be able to grow corn and various vegetables. There is no electricity so at night the sounds consist of jungle noises along with the lightning and thunder show.
Colombian ships bring them the basics from canned and paper goods to different types of vegetables.
Our memories of Panama will again be the wonderful people we met in the villages, cities and the other boaters that are headed north as we head south, that gave us so much useful information. Panama allowed us to see jungle close up; transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic, take in a culture that is rapidly changing and in my view will probably not be nearly as traditional in 10 years. We were privileged to share with family and friends the Panama Canal crossing and some of the Panamanian anchorages.
Our weather window arrived and on Friday we headed out on more firsts. We are now in our 10th country counting Canada. We have gone from Pacific to Atlantic, North America to Central America and now enter a New Continent; South America.
The most important first was Ken finally caught his Wahoo. It was 40lbs and 48" long. He no longer can fish for awhile as this gives us 24 meals alone. I know how to make breakfast sausage with it, lunch tacos, and of course many different dinner meals. Do you think we will get sick of seafood? Never. This is the land of lobster that we can try to capture.
Our first night we stayed at Puerto Escondido which is just an open roadstead. The houses ashore were banana plantations and it appeared to be cattle ranching. The anchorage proved to be very rolly. More things creaked all night on the boat than I could imagine. The following morning we headed out and arrived at Isla Fuerte, which is an island surrounded by reefs and sand. This island has great contrasts. It has 2000 inhabitants. There is a large contingency of holiday homes. The pueblo has a real mixture of thatched houses with dirt floors, wooden houses, cement houses and let's not forget the ones that probably have Italian marble throughout. There are resorts, bread and breakfasts and several restaurants, several tiendas, a police station and a fairly large school. No internet however. If there is internet they are receiving it over their phones.
The people here are very West Indies looking and are very friendly. There is a large population of Europeans which own the larger homes.
Donkeys are used as beasts of burden. The men ride them down to the beach, bag up sand and put the sandbags onto the donkeys. They are then led through the streets to the construction site where the sand is made into cement. (It doesn't last long due to the salt content)I hope the houses were not made with this cement. While this action was unfolding in front of us a panga filled with at least 50 large bags of top soil was being brought in to help with a garden. This island is volcanic rock and sand. It is very tropical and all types of fruit trees grow. Right now mangos and papaya are very much in season. There are breadfruit trees, banana trees, coconut trees, limon trees and other fruit that I do not know their names. Let's just say they won't get scurvy.
The money used here is the Colombian Peso. 2000 pesos is about $1.00 American. They do not like taking American money on the island as they have a hard time dealing with it and explaining why they have so much American money. Can we say Drugs! The Colombian Marines have a detachment on the island.
One of the very valuable pieces of information given to us by fellow boaters is that Colombia is SAFE. So for all those concerned, don't be; at least not while we are on the water. In land may be different. We have both the Colombian Coast Guard and the US Navy. They both monitor VHF 16 24/7 and the Colombian government has set up an email address to send the coast guard your float plan so that they can follow your progress. Should you see or have anything happen that makes you uncomfortable they have a place to contact them. It does add to the feeling of being safe.
We will be out for about a week before we finally will have internet, so once again this is being transmitted through SSB Radio and pictures and editing will occur once we have internet.

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Heading Out

We are edging ourselves further south towards the Colombian border. The weather has been tricky with very sloppy seas. At times we have had waves in the 12' range fairly close together. The weather patterns do not follow what we are use to. Nights have LOTS of wind. We have had our noses buried in Caribbean weather books to get a handle on what we should be looking for and what to expect. On the Pacific side a rising barometer means good weather on the Atlantic side it means that stronger winds and larger seas are likely. Another factor that is affecting us is that the (ITCZ) Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is lying on the Panama/Colombian border. Normally this time of year it should be closer to the Equator. The reason this is important is that the ITCZ brings rainfall and convection activity. (Thunder and lightning). THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE however is the low pressure systems that lay in the Venezuela/Colombia border that cause Large, Steep waves and strong winds. Luckily these begin to diminish approximately mid April. It looks like our weather window is to enter Colombia on Tuesday and Wednesday with 2 - 4' waves. 5 -10 knots of wind. Perfect.
Another learning experience has been the reefs and reading the water. The charts are bad and the reefs plentiful. Polarized sunglasses have been a God send. It is these reefs that keep the nasty waves out of most anchorages. I have a problem judging the water depth and we generally have way more water than I think we have.
Kids are kids no matter what country you are in. They love pop, candy and playing in the water. Today it was interesting to watch a tropical version of a snowball fight. The six boys picked up wet beach mud formed a ball and started to pitch them at each other. Laughter filled the anchorage. I couldn't help think of the snow version we have all participated in as children.
Currently there are 7 boats anchored here at Isla Pinos, as the weather has put breaks on movements. We are the only boat going south the rest are heading north to the Rio Dulce, Guatemala for the hurricane season. We do know that there are others planning on heading south in a few weeks.
As you can tell we are still have no internet connection therefore this is coming again through the SSB radio.

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Kuna Woman in traditional clothing selling Molas

Happy Easter to everyone.
This week had us implicated with organized get togethers. We have not been involved much with other boaters on the Pacific side as they were far and few between as we headed south by ourselves. Now we find ourselves amongst 150 other boaters that come from all around the world; the majority coming from France or the United States. There is a contingency from Canada and surprisingly mostly from BC.
We finally met up with fellow boaters from Calgary, Stan and Lynn Holmer who have been traveling the world since 2004. We knew of them but had never met them over the years. As it would be they remembered us from the days we attended St Peter's in Calgary. It is truly a small world.
We have now ventured further south in the Kuna Yala and the people are more traditional. The boaters fewer. The Kunas are accepting of visitors and have tried very hard to learn English. These people are physically small, very healthy and live long lives. They are peaceful, non aggressive and crime is rare.
The Kuna number around 55,000. They are a very determined nation and are united within a strict hierarchy of tribal leaders. Each village has 3 chiefs who hold the highest authority at village level. 3 high chiefs rule the nation as a whole, with one being elected supreme leader to deal with the Panamanian government.
These chiefs also hold the spiritualism, medicinal knowledge and history of the people. (We visited a village that has chosen not to be traditional, the western world shows in the tv sets, clothing. The chief here holds no power and in fact has proclaimed Mormon as his faith.)
The mainstay of the Kuna economy is coconuts, lobster, crab and octopus sales caught by the Kuna skin-divers.
The women make money selling molas. These beautiful appliqués are intricately made by sewing and cutting different layers of colourful cloth. Each Mola is unique and they usually show abstracted forms of birds, animals, or marine life.
Kuna Yala is a matrilineal society. The women control the money and the husbands move into the women's family compound.
Traditional Kuna villages are picturesque, clean and blend into the landscape. The huts are made from fast growing materials like bamboo. The floors are slightly elevated with compacted sand while the walls are bamboo cane. The roof is artistically fabricated from a special palm leaf found in the jungle. There are no nails; everything is fastened by jungle creepers. The roofs have a least 15 year expectancy. We observed a man making many trips into the jungle to obtain the palms needed for the palapa he was building.
Hut interiors are sparse with no furniture. Hammocks are hung to be used for lounging or sleeping in.
There are two oversize huts that are used as the "congress" or town hall. The other hut is the "chichi" A ritual intoxicating brew is made here for spiritual events. The spiritual event happens but twice a year but takes several months to prepare.
The dress of the women is very unique. They wear colourful molas, glass beads around their arms and legs, black face paint and gold nose rings, earrings and breastplates. We have seen a rare man wearing the traditional loin cloth and beads. When we have seen them it has been while they were fishing. They tend to be dressed in shorts and t-shirts, even in the traditional villages.
There are transvestites in Kuna Yala. They dress like the women with beads on the arm and legs. We were told there is no stigma they process both spirits.
Cayucos are the most common form of transportation in the San Blas. These are narrow dugout canoes with sails attached. Every morning at sunrise fleets of dugouts head to the mainland to do some farming. Most cultivate yucca, plantains, breadfruit and bananas. They return around 1300hr. We were told that there was an explosion of motors until the price of gas went up and they are going back to their traditional boats. There are no cars, buses the waterway is the only way with the exception of planes that will take them inland to Panama City.
We are currently anchored in Snug Harbor where a traditional cemetery exists. I can see it from where we are but I am looking forward to visiting this unique site still do not have internet so the many pictures showing the culture of these wonderful people will be added in the future. Please go back to see if there are any additions. Currently it looks like we could be 2 weeks before we are in Cartenegna with internet.

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