We reluctantly sailed away from Cartagena on Tuesday the 11th.  What an excellent stop that turned out to be.  We made a lot of new friends, met up with some old and had a lot of good times.  One boat, Astor, we hadn't seen since Fiji in 2005!  Lani and Richard sailed east to the U.S. west coast, down through Mexico and transited the Panama Canal while we kept sailing west.  We finally crossed paths and now we'll continue west as they head east with plans to be in the Mediterranean some time next year.

It was so great just to hang out on board, with the skyline of Cartagena surrounding the bay it was an awesome view.  Mornings we might share coffee on board with friends and evenings cocktails or casual dinners.  Often during the day we puttered around taking care of the many projects that never end on the Spanish Stroll.  The super market up the street, Carulla, had a deli where we could buy typical, ready to eat, Columbian foods.  Like arepas con huevos, a corn cake about six inches in diameter, slit open and stuffed with chorizo and eggs or empanadas, a deep fried pastry stuffed with chicken and potatoes.  Also favorites like broiled chicken, sausage skewers and a fresh salad bar.  It was tempting to eat all our meals there, the cost was usually less than $5 U.S. for both of us including delicious, fresh fruit juices; mango, mura and more.  A short walk in the other direction and we were in Centro, the old, walled part of the city with more expensive restaurants, but one of Jim's favorites, barbecued beef and potatoes on a skewer being sold by a street vendor at less than $1 each!  There was Danna's Pizza right up the street; delicious $3 pizzas and ice cold beers.  We may, possibly, have gained some weight but we were still dwarfed by the bronze, nude statue of La Gorda, a "heavy" sculpture by the artist, Fernando Botero that stands (or rather reclines) in the Plaza de Santo Domingo.  She's well known for her highly polished boobs!  Of course, once we send our next set of pictures home, you'll see that Jim was not immune to her charms.

Forcing ourselves off the boats and away from the restaurants, armed with our cameras and walking shoes we took off with our friends H and Bronte on S/V Cooee Too and toured San Felipe Castillo and the Naval Museum.  We took a taxi up to the castle and seeing as we were acting like "real" tourists we decided to pay for an English speaking guide.  H and Barb could not keep a straight face as they listened to Alberto tell the stories and explain the castle rooms and tunnels. Jim and Bronte nodded their heads and acted like they were with him; spurning him on to even more details and humorous stories.  We had no idea what he was saying, with only a word here and there possibly identified.  We laughed at all his jokes, it was delightful! After he was done with his tour we spent a bit more time exploring on our own.  The castle is just riddled with tunnels and we had fun following them into the bowels of the castle until someone, usually Barb, got spooked.  We should have brought a flashlight, as it was we used our camera flash and now have about 50 pictures of the inside of the tunnel walls. The Museo Naval was a walk down the hill and one beer stop away.  Not exactly fascinating, but the dioramas of the harbor showing the changes made during the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire during the 15th and 16th centuries was interesting. We ended up at Danna's for pizza to complete our day.  With so much walking that one didn't count!

After motoring out of Bahia de Cartagena we sailed about 20 miles down the coast to Cienaga de Cholon.  A huge, calm bay with clear water and only one other boat at anchor.  We had noticed our engine running a bit warm as we left, so we spent the next morning checking and cleaning out all the water and air passages.  Then we jumped in and gave the boat bottom a good scrubbing to remove all the growth we'd picked up after sitting for almost three weeks in Cartagena.  With plans to leave the next morning, we surfaced to find our friends Linda and Doug on S/V Que Linda cruising into the bay.  We decided to stay an extra day.  We had broken down our dingy and stored it on the deck for our passage so they graciously picked us up and took us to a little beach close by for a nice swim the following morning.  They have a cute little dog, Pip, who is on a schedule.  We helped them scrub the bottom of the dingy and then it was back to their boat for beers and a nice visit.  Wanting to prolong the pasarlo bien, they dropped us off at our boat to finish a few more chores then it was back to Que Linda to share a fish dinner that evening.  Linda and Doug are also on their way to transit the canal and then will sail up the coast as far as the Sea of Cortez.  We really enjoy their company and look forward to seeing them again in the canal area.

We said our final adioses and sailed away from Columbia on Friday the 14th.  The winds are fluky, so we are both sailing and motoring along.  The engine is running nice and cool.   We are about half way to the San Blas Islands and should arrive sometime early tomorrow.  The islands are part of Panama but east of Colon and remote.  Most of the islands are not inhabited and those that are have sparse populations of Kuna Indians, the indigenous people.  It should be an interesting stop and if all goes well, we plan to spend a week or so exploring some of the hundreds of islands while we relax and take it easy.  Kind of like a vacation before we head for our next exciting adventure.  "The Spanish Stroll Transits the Panama Canal!!"

Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,

Jim and Barb

S/V SpanishStroll