Onwards and westwards

All the work needed on the boat was eventually done by about the 12th of January and it was therefore most definitely time to leave Cartagena as after over two weeks there at anchor, the boat was absolutely filthy…..part of the problem with being close to a big city. The Colombian courtesy flag is almost black in places. I had forgotten just how polluted the air can be.

Our destination was the Rosarios, a collection of little holiday islands about 20 miles away from Cartagena with no internet or telephone connection possible. Most boats heading west stop here for a few days and so many of the boats which have “buddy sailed” with us over the past few months turned up. It was a lovely anchorage with very clear water, so clear in fact that you could see the anchor on the bottom. This all looked very inviting and so I went in for a cooling off swim…a fairly rare occurrence for me as I only like incredibly clean looking and calm water and this has been quite hard to find out here. So, I got in and swam a few yards around the boat when I was suddenly and painfully stung by “something” in the water. This was enough to get me out again to investigate what it was. I suspected a jellyfish but couldn’t see anything in the water. Dick said it was probably one of the little animals which had been scraped off the hull earlier so I bravely went in again…this time I was stung several times by something that had wrapped itself around my arm. That was it! No going back into the water for me as the sudden pain was akin to walking through stinging nettles. My arm and legs came up in red weals which luckily didn’t last more than a few hours. Further investigation revealed that these” things” are long thin hair like strings covered in golden droplets of something irritating which drift past and just sting as they go. Ouch!
Apart from this, I liked the island where we had anchored and the people were very nice and friendly although a little pushy with their offerings sold from boats. I have learnt to say “No thanks” quite firmly in Spanish.

Our last night there, Simon who is Pete’s new crew on Troutbridge, organized a BBQ ashore on some land owned by one of the locals. We gathered the necessary things together and got the dinghies onto the beach, found wood and got the fire going. I think this must have attracted the locals, mostly children, because they suddenly started to turn up looking hungry! So what could we do but share? We ended up eating about half a sausage each and a small piece of steak washed down by a small glass of wine and half a beer. Dessert and all the other things like crisps etc were eagerly demolished by the children!! Never mind. Pam said this always happened to them in poorer places and she still hadn’t learned to take about ten times more than they would need to eat.

We left the next morning for the last brief stop in Colombian territory before an overnight sail to the first of our chosen stops in the San Blas islands, Pinos, Kuna Yala, which is part of Panama although self governing. Pinos looked lovely, just like a real tropical desert island should be. We went ashore the following morning after our arrival and tied the dinghy to the pier at the village. What an amazing place….straight out of all the classic books. A whole village built from bamboo and palm fronds. The locals (Kuna Indians) were all wandering around, the older married women in the traditional dress which is quite visually stunning. They bind their arms and legs permanently with elaborate beadwork. I’ve no idea what happens if they put on weight but I saw a lot of older women with very saggy beads!! The children, young men and women and the older men were all wearing western dress however ie jeans/shorts and tee shirts. We wanted to take photos of course but the information in the pilot guide says it’s not OK to do this so we hung back until we found someone who spoke enough English. It still wasn’t OK just to take photos and we could only do so if we paid the subject a dollar! Hmm. We have since found out that doing anything at all in the San Blas requires payment in dollars first. We were pressed into buying the local flag which sports a swastika (!)…it’s OK, they adopted the symbol before the Nazis…..

Our English speaking Kuna was the delightful, resourceful and wonderfully named Horatio, 72 years old, a very friendly little man (they are all short, mostly less than five feet and quite bandy legged) He very quickly invited us all into his house where he lived with his extended family. The house was just like the sort of “den” we would build as children making use of any old bit of stuff we could find to make it more homelike!(See Pete’s blog if you follow it for a picture of his house) We agreed to do him all sorts of favours….I gave him some ziplock plastic bags and things for the children, Jim did lots of photocopying and Dick tried to charge an ancient old portable DVD player donated we think by an earlier visiting yacht……a little futile as there is no electricity in the village so even if it had worked, there would have been just enough power to watch one DVD before it needed a recharge!

Horatio agreed to take us on a tour, for a price, a circumnavigation of the whole island which is about 6 miles around. This was an unusual experience……along most of the trail across swamp, beach, coral, coconut groves etc were scattered literally thousands of discarded shoes (singles, not pairs). We surmised that these shoes which were by no means all useless were left beside the track for others to use as their shoes broke in turn? At the end of the trail, we chanced upon the funeral of one of the village chiefs or “sailas” who had died that morning. This was a rare event in a village of just 400 people. The Kuna have special sacred places for their dead and we were not even supposed to look at this site but as it was on the track, we had no choice. Most of the older village women were there performing rituals, chanting etc. Fascinating to see but very difficult to describe in words……and no photos of course.

Later on, back in the village, we stopped for a beer with Horatio at the shop which is run jointly by all the “female”villagers. (We met one of the famous transvestites there. The islands are famous for them and there is no stigma attached to them). Horatio was bought a soda which he accepted and then promptly returned to the shop to get the money instead! It was just so funny. We westerners must have taught him that money is more important than anything else. Oh dear!!

We left Pinos and headed north and west along the coast motorsailing inside the extensive coral reef system that makes up the chain of the San Blas islands. Some of the navigation was quite tricky and I’ve learnt to spot coral before we get too close! We stopped a couple of times at convenient anchorages and finally arrived at the other end of the chain in Porvenir. There are dozens of little villages along the chain and it would have been lovely to stop more often but yachts are not supposed to do this as the they have not officially checked in with Panama customs yet. This is available….for a price(!) in Porvenir. The details of checking in are usually boring and expensive in most of the places we’ve visited but here has been another experience entirely. Still, we are now officially allowed to cruise here and also allowed to leave!!

Several of the Blue Water Rally boats are here now so we have met some of our fellow cruisers for the first time. We all had a jolly and really quite cheap meal ashore last night washed down by some pretty good red! Next stop in a couple of days will be Shelter Bay where we will be very busy provisioning etc so I’m getting this writing done first.

Now in Shelter Bay as you will have realised since I can publish this rather long missive. More to come before we leave for our canal transit scheduled for the 12th Feb but subject to change….. Just waiting for the last of the laundry to dry…shopping tomorrow!!