Arriving at the San Blas islands

We left Cartagena a week ago already. We had a 2 day stop in the Rosarios islands where we appreciated being surrounded by clear blue water and listening to all kind of birds songs. Strong winds were coming that way so we couldn’t stay longer, as we wanted to reach the San Blas islands before the seas would become uncomfortable.

We arrived in Isla de Pinos (8deg 59.984N, 77deg 45.619W), one of the 365 islands of the San Blas, which should be called una Yala, the land of the Kunas. We had a very relaxed first day, trying to catch up with some sleep as we both stayed up all night...watching a TV series while on dual watch. The kids did some school and enjoyed some time on the beach again. The next morning, feeling stronger, we went ashore to visit the village and meet our first Kuna Indians. We were welcomed by the chief of the village, had a very short chat with him. Our more than very limited Spanish doesn’t help the conversation. However, his secretary, Horazio, speaks English and showed us the village. The Kuna villages are very simple. The houses don’t have any decoration and are plain bamboo walls and palm roof. There is a house to sleep and a separate house to cook. We won’t explain here the Kuna culture, but it is worth having a look at some web site as it is really different and can open our eyes regarding our consumption society. The afternoon, we met with Horazio’s grandson to walk around the islands. Two girls (about 7 and 10) also joined us, holding Clea’s hand for more than an hour. Clea was really happy to have some extra friends, laughing at everything she was saying or doing. The walk was a good way to move our legs again, to explore the island periphery, discover all their coconut trees and watch the big waves breaking on the reef. Three little boys were enjoying them the right way as they were doing some body surf, one even had a plank of wood as a surf board. The kids did really great and walked 3 hours without much complaining. We then met David, a 22 year old Kuna with an entrepreneurship attitude (he speaks English, and some French). He invited us for tea in his house. We tasted some “yucca” roots fried which were great, then he gave us some and showed us how to prepare them. Clea had a ball with Emily their 5 y old daughter. Language is not a problem at that age. David explained that he would be very happy to open his doors and make some Kuna food for all our “friends” at the anchorage, for a small price. We accepted as we were curious and it is always a good experience to share this kind of meal. So, the next day we were there with other yachties, tasting some coco rice, lentils (or beans for Greg who had a special plate) and wild boar with a tasty sauce.  Mixed feeling about the meal, but the experience was a good one. The boys made friends with other boys and ran around the village chasing each other.

Everybody at the anchorage was watching the weather carefully as some big swell and waves were rolling most of the boats who were stuck there. However, on Saturday the sea calmed down and most of the boats left. We just followed. We motored for 3 hours as we had the wind in the nose and didn’t want to tack between the reef on each side of our route. We arrived early the afternoon in Mamiputu (9deg 11.142N, 77deg 58.464W), a small island with about 2000 inhabitants, 500 being kids! Lots of Kunas paddled with their dugout to Merlin and trying to sell few things. We are trying to swap food (bananas) for kids clothes. It works quite well.

We went to discover that island this morning. We entered the village and kids were just running out from everywhere and soon we had a procession of 20-30 kids around us, all smiling, laughing and checking all our moves. We thought we were the curious ones, but they were even more curious. Having three kids makes a difference as people are very friendly towards kids and the kids can play easily with each others. However, after 2 hours of being carried, held, asked their name and age, the kids had enough.

Greg, Clea and Victor went for a paddle on the kayaks. One Kuna tried the big kayak as he was curious to see how it was going compared to his wooden one.

This is it for now!  The photos will be posted in few weeks when we’ll have connection again. 

Treasures of the bilge!

Mon velo a ete vole le 25 decembre dernier a Bonaire : quel cadeau! Alors ce matin lorsqu'un plaisancier a passe l'annonce de velos pliables a vendre vraiment pas chers sur le "net" (=infos/trucs a vendre/troc/...sur la VHF) nous avons repondu tres vite. Nous voici donc avec 2 nouveaux velos "speciaux bateau" (c'est-a-dire qu'ils devraient rouiller un peu moins que les autres). En plus ils sont rouges! Deux, car en fait les enfants grandissent et Felix passe donc le sien a Clea ... qui n'a plus qu'a apprendre a pedaler.

De notre cote, ce sejour nous a aussi permis de vendre notre vieille annexe qui prenait l'eau (nous attendons avec une impatience croissante de recuperer la nouvelle a Panama city) et des cartes marines de la cote Sud Africaine et du Bresil. L'un dans l'autre, nous en ressortons meme gagnants.

...mais avec tout cela, il semblerait tout de meme que la ligne de flottaison ne remonte pas vraiment!

Demain depart pour les iles Rosarios (a 3h de Cartagene). Nous avons un grand besoin de retrouver des eaux claires et surtout d'avoir la possibilite d'y plonger. Merlin va avoir une bonne douche et des gratouilles a la brosse tout partout car il est dans un triste etat, tout recouvert de poussiere. Puis ce sera les iles San Blas qui semblent magnifiques et des rencontres avec les Indiens Kunas. Pas de connection pour pres d'un mois.

Les prochaines nouvelles risquent d'etre sans photo mais on se rattrapera des que l'on pourra...

Social time in Cartagena

We were busy trying to sort out few things. Greg went to buy a sewing machine so we should (we?he?) be able to do some canvas work ourselves. Greg was also trying to fix the fridge and  freezer wiring which had a big voltage drop. He bought some wood for our new outboard motor. Our papers were finally processed 2 days ago, after 10 days ...and we are going through an official agent as there is no choice here. It takes only 4 lines to write that but it took a week to do it. Updates on the new inflatable? The one we wanted to buy wasn't as we originally planed in Curacao and our dinghy was heavier and didn't have some of the features we wanted. So today, we decided to buy the one we wanted but it is waiting for us in Panama (Marinewarehouse).

Emmanuelle worked hard with the boys and finished another set of evaluations (60% of their work is now done). Clea also did some schooling but was very motivated this week to do some beads work and she is now offering some bracelets to her friends.

Cartagena, cultural but also social spot. We met few other boats and had enjoyable evenings drinking the local beer...which is from SA brewery!

Yesterday we went to the gold museum. Some of the craft was amazing.

      

We are now in the process of clearing out (hoping it won't take another 10 days) as we are missing clear blue water and want to get going. We did some provisioning today, so we should be fine for 1 month of exploring around before reaching Colon (Panama) and getting ready for the transit of the canal. We are going to stop for few days in the Rosarios (Colombia) then in the San Blas (Panama).

We will be off line for a little while...

Encore un peu de culture

Nous sommes alles ecoutes des cantiques dans une superbe eglise hier (fin de festival de musique de Cartagene). Les enfants nous ont surpris a rester sages et a apprecier la musique. Aujourd'hui, nous avons decide d'affronter la chaleur pour aller decouvrir le fort San Felipe.

Cette forteresse a ete construite entre 1639 et 1659 pour proteger la ville de tous ses envahisseurs. Les enfants ont adore les longs tunnels sombres et les canons.

Puis reballade dans la vieille ville, vraiment on ne s'en lasse pas. Petit gouter au cafe du coin et courses dans les differences petits squares rencontres au detour des rues. Les enfants ont besoin de se defouler!

Cartagene est belle et il nous reste encore tellement a voir. Toutefois, le mouillage est l'un moins agreable ou l'on soit depuis notre depart...et pour une fois, cela n'a rien a voir avec la houle ou le vent. La baie est vraiment tres sale. Il n'est pas rare a 3h du matin d'etre reveille par une odeur intempestive d'egout. Le pont de Merlin est noir de poussiere et le manque d'eau (nous ne pouvons faire marcher le dessalinisateur dans une eau aussi immonde) nous empeche de nous en occuper comme il faut. Les eaux bleues et claires nous manquent... Nous attendons toujour d'avoir nos papiers d'entree regularises puis nous esperons receptionner rapidement notre nouvelle annexe.

Visit to the maritime museum

We are trying to visit at least one monument/museum a day. Today we went to the maritime museum which is in the walled city. Due to strategic position, Cartagena has a strong naval history and the museum gives lots of information. The city was Spanish, but the British and French wanted it and faught for it (classical in the Caribbean). For example, in XVII the British came with 186 ships (23 000men) to try to conquere Cartagena ...and lost. The French were more successful but looted the city.