Bocas del Toro, Panama

Well - it has been quite a while since we have updated this blog - we have been having way too much fun - we will get some pictures together and post them soon.

Weather forecast in Bocas Del Toro : Panama

Weather forecast in Bocas Del Toro : Panama: "Fah"

San Blas

The No Mas band performing in the West Lemmons

St. Patricks day on Povenir - this island has a restaurant. The pavement behind

Liz is the runway!

A nice way to cool down at the end of the day

The guys at the "tequila bar"

Craig and his harem - every afternoon we would meet at this shallow spot and have

happy hour - usually very short and mellow - this day turned out to be an epic happy hour

and then the party continued until the wee hours on Salida.

happy hour and hang out in the water.

We scored - most of the islands are isolated - no stores - so everyone gets very

excited when the vege boat comes - they come once a week-weather permitting. Rueban the fisherman comes almost everyday - if he caught fish. It is a very healthy way to eat.

The vegetable boat

Kuna ladies selling molas - they really dress like this

A dinghy trip up the river

Craig cleaning the fish - from the water straight to the grill -they are delicious -

Rueben, great fisherman in the West Lemmons.

Craig surfing in Chichimi, San Blas, Panama

more snorkeling

San Blas Islands, Panama

Snorkeling in beautiful water

Salida anchored at another beautiful island

An occupied beautiful island

A different beautiful island

Beautiful San Blas islands

Flying fish lands on boat on the way from Columbia to San Blas, Panama

Cartagena

It has been several months since we have had internet - so I will try to catch up.

We loved Cartagena - it is a beautiful city and old town is really something. Old town is walled off from the rest of the city with towering stone walls. Inside there are several plazas, all with different statues. The buildings are very old and the streets are narrow. If you have been to New Orleans, it is a whole town similar to Bourbon Street only many many streets and huge squares and plazas. The people are very friendly - and there is a huge cruiser community there. The water in the anchorage is "interesting" one would not swim there. The rest of Cartagena is like any big city - there is a waterfront area with big hotels and the inner city with lots of traffic - there is a huge airconditioned mall with a very modern movie theater - it was so hot in the late afternoon and we could not swim so several times we went to see a movie and then go for drinks and dinner in old town. We planned to stay in Cartagena for 4 or 5 days and ended up there for about 4 weeks. Then on to the San Blas Islands.

Cartagena - What a great City

Beautiful Cartagena

Toucan in the tree - your dining companion at the Santa Clara

The restaurant Santa Clara - beautiful elegant dining - great food

Within 30 minutes or so all of these chairs will be full and the street performers will be out

more town square

Part of the old city





Courtyard in Cartagena

mimes on a street corner

The "horse man" he was a crackup

A different square with more statues

In the evening the town square comes alive

Statues on the way into old town

Sunset over Cartagena

Sailing along the coast near Cartagena

Some of the people at our welcome party. Liquid Courage

brought over a bottle of Don Julio tequila

We really enjoyed Bonaire. We met a lot of nice people, celebrated Thanksgiving, Liz's birthday, Christmas and New Years. It is a great place and the water is clear and warm.







We left Bonaire the week after New Years and headed back to Curacao to provision for the San Blas Islands. There is not much in the way of grocery stores in the San Blas. We rented a car and provisioned like mad - food, wine and booze.







After waiting for a good weather window we headed for Aruba. Aruba is a great place if you are staying in a big hotel. It is not so fun if you are staying on a small boat. The ride in our little dinghy from the anchorage to the dinghy dock was death defying and wet. nuff said. We did enjoy Aruba tho.







We were in Aruba for about 10 days when we got the all important weather window to make the dreaded passage to Cartagena, Columbia. This is listed as one of the 5 worst passages in the world - the waves and wind can be huge. So, with butterflies, our convoy including Makai and Liquid Courage headed into the big blue sea. It is around 400 and some odd miles to Cartagena. We had 25 to 30 knots of breeze and 8' seas when we left Aruba. By nightfall the wind and seas had died way down and we actually had to motor sail. We had such a benign trip, we motor sailed at least half of the way. Oh well! We passed the also dreaded Rio Magdalena which can be quite nasty with logs and debris floating down the river from inland. We only knew we were there because the water turned brown. Ho Hum! We stopped in a bay called Punta Hermosa and anchored for the night so we would sail into Cartagena in daylight. We did indeed sail into Cartagena in day light and what a beautiful city. There is just an energy in the air - we could feel it in the anchorage. Several boats that we had met along the way were here and High Five and Solange came over to welcome us and we ended up feeling very welcomed!

More about Bonaire

New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve in Bonaire - we went out to dinner with several other cruisers at Paradise Moon - one of our favorite places. We dinghied back to the boat around 10:30 pm and hung out. At midnight there was a fireworks display that was unreal. We have never seen anything like it. The islands is like a wide horseshoe and from one end to the other there were about 10 different displays of fireworks that were even better than Disneyland's. We did not know where to look - of course, there was lots of music coming from shore. We took the bean bag pillows and went up to the trampoline and just watched in awe. It was really something.