Travels on Salida: May 2010

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

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.