Cartagena´s old walled city is a delightful place with curving balcony lined streets, leafy parks, and history preserved in stone. The city´s buildings are painted colors of creamy yellow plaster to terra cotta to sea blue. They are fronts which hide courtyards behind huge doors with brass lions, french doors opening on upper balconies, dressed in wrought iron and bouganvilla. Painting these buildings in watercolor becomes an obsession for me. I paint until I can´t stand the heat, usually as soon as 11:00 am, and then retreat to shop, study Spanish or find an air conditioned place--internet cafe, restaurant, museum. The museum of gold, housed behind the doors of a huge vault within a bank is one of the best museums in Cartagena. Gold artifacts from ancient Colombian groups are described in detail--how they were made and used by the people. A highlight in the museum is a room where a video (three language choices) details how these ancient people changed the land by making water channels that controlled flooding in the interior flat areas where huge rivers come down from the Andes. These earthen channels which are like a woven pattern are still visible from the air, and if modern peoples were to take care of the annual soil deposited within them, moving it up to the tops of the levees, then the system would still work for flood control.

From the 1500´s until the 1700´s Cartagena was a city protected by fortifications and was sacked more than once by various pirates and foreign countries. This facinating naval history is described in the Naval museum, and, nicely in James A. Michener´s Caribbean, a historical novel that Mike is re-reading. The walls of the old city hold in the heat, but walking along the tops, once can see the wind-swept sea beyond and soak in the breezes. At night, street performers dance to drums beside the huge Botero statue in front of the Santo Domingo Church and park. Last night we enjoyed dinner looking down on the scene from the balcony restaurant over that park. We shared fish and pasta with our friends Paul and Liz, English cruisers from the boat, Aphrodite. They return to England by June or July, stopping in Grand Cayman, Cuba, Florida, Intercoastal Waterway of the U.S., the Azores and England.

Cartagena is like a celebration, day or night. You turn a corner and a vendor walks down a narrow street pushing a cart full of red peppers, each fitting tight next to the other in a brilliant gleaming blast of color. The next one may be arromatic mangoes, or huge vibrant green avocados. Colombia and Cartagena is a place where you will still see carriages pulled by horses, horses and carts-- working, vendors using carts and bicycles. That is definitely because the roads are narrow and cars are a nuisance in the streets where people prefer to walk and sidewalks are crowded with vendors. If you slow down and rest in the Parque Bolivar, you can drink lime juice, the best thirst quencher ever, or munch on dripping chunks of red-pink watermelon. A thousand pesos, a pit more than $.50, and you are quenched and ready to explore further.

This period of time in March while we´re getting boatwork done has been a great time to write and get our photos onto the blog. You will find recent photos in the new catagory of San Blas Islands and also in the Cruising 07-08.

Any friends who would like additional access into the blog, please email and I can get you set up for notifications of new info that´s put into the blog and you will have access to files and will be able to write comments.

Watch for entries about Cartagena!

Here in Cartagena we researched three yards for having boatwork done and storing the boat for our time at home. The cost of much of what happens in Cartagena is more expensive than the U.S. --that includes groceries, travel and boatyard costs. We now understand why the average Colombian uses a motorcycle and frequents non-tableclothed restaurants--their average salary of around $15 a day doesn´t go very far. We had the impression before coming here that it would be different and more like Ecuador for costs. However, it seems that the cost of fuel has driven up prices for Colombians. As a result, we are going to be in and out of the yard as quickly as possible. The teak on the deck has been leaking for awhile and rather than face another season of leaks and back-breaking repairs, we decided to change the deck to fiberglass with a paint and non-skid covering. Other projects include fixing fiberglass bulge on the side of the boat (origin ?), adding a ladder to the back for swimming, cleaning the rigging of rust, getting the old dingy patched up and new paint on the bottom boards, plus many other small projects. All this fixing generates a boatload of fiberglass and wood dust that has now sifted through the hull covering the contents of the cupboards. So, before the splash, cleaning is on the agenda. Mike figured out that for every 5 months being on the boat, one month is devoted to maintenance. We have been very lucky as friends of ours have had their boats´electronics destroyed by lightening and far more urgent breakdowns like refridgerators, engines, etc.

Most of what`s written in our blog is about the magic carpet wonders of sailing to new lands and visiting different cultures so, the way we´ve grown to look philosophically at all the boat work projects, is just that you can´t do the one without the other!

The San Blas Islands are located in the Kuna Yala Comarca, a large area of coastal Panama east of Colon on the Caribbean side. This land is the homeland of the Kuna indigenous people who won the right to self govern within the country of Panama through a revolution in 1925. There are hundreds of islands, some very small with only a few coconut palms, others large enough for a village. The Kuna live on the islands near the coastline and farm the land up the rivers. They tend and sell their coconuts that grow on surrounding islands to the trade boats that come from Colombia. The Kuna are magnificient sailors, using specially designed ullus (dugout canoes) with lateen main and small jibs to sail along the coast and to their islands. Cruisers have been stopping here for many years and enjoying the lovely anchorages, trading with the Kuna and getting to understand their way of life. The Kuna have decided not to raise cattle and all their farming is of plants that fare well in the tropical climate. They bring water in pipes to their towns from the rivers which are clean because they do not raise livestock. The forest is largely free of man´s influence except for farming along the rivers, so animals and birds are abundant. The biggest environmental problem the Kunas have is plastic which floats to them and is a by-product of all packaged goods that they also use. Their lives are simple and you do not see lots of plastic toys and modern appliances. The towns that do not have block buildings look the cleanest and best cared for because the huts can be refirbished with new bamboo and thatch from coconut palms. One of the money-making efforts of the Kuna women is the sewing of Molas which are reverse embroidery pieces that can be made into pictures or pillows. The work is very fine and many molas are designs that are traditional and show the Kuna way of life in fabric. Others called ¨"tourist " molas are of birds, sea creatures, etc and are more pictoral.

At our first anchorage in Kuna Yala we enjoyed swimming and snorkeling--the coral reefs are magnificient throughout the area. We were able to buy a wonderful mola by Venecio, one of the most famous Kuna mola makers. Other crafts we collected were wood carvings of medicine men (for good luck travels in Finisterre), paddles and a model ullu. The Kuna women dress in lovely brilliantly colored tops made from molas on back and front and wrap skirts of darker colors. They wear beads sewn in patterns over legs and arms and gold jewlery at ears, neck and nose. During the time we were at Tigre Island we got to see a re-enactment of the Kuna revolution, during which they won rights to self govern within Panama. It was a well planned dramatic presentation, including traditional dance and music. During our time in the area we visited a number of wonderful anchorages at small islands and met many local people as well as cruisers. We gathered information about our trip to Cartagena from the San Blas and after two weeks headed East and North to Cartagena, Colombia.

watch for more photos, soon!

On Feb. 13th we did our Canal Crossing. It was uneventful and delightful until the last lock when we had to react quickly to the error of a line handler on the boat we were to tie to, this fellow attached our line and then promptly took it off and dropped it into the water! This made our boat head right toward the wall on the other side of the lock. The water is very turbulent in the lock, even though it may seem calm. Mike and our crew were fabulous, in getting us re-attached to the power boat we were to tie to, although we went through backwards! Mike also skillfully turned the boat around within the lock for us to leave. Happily, this was the last lock down into the bay at Colon and we gratefully dropped anchor for the night in the small boat anchorage. Our advisor was very complimentary at how we handled the boat, but it remains to be seen if we get charged any extra fee for delaying the operation of the locks. It actually was the fault of the other boat, so we hope it's vivid enough in our advisor's memory that he will speak for us.

The photos here were taken by Diana. She and Steve, our friends from Ukiah helped us through the canal, along with cruisers Jeff and Stephanie. We had a great time. Also, Steve and Diana were treated to a "howler" monkey symphony during a walk we took the next day near Shelter Bay Marina. Finisterre will head out of Shelter Bay in a few days for the San Blas Islands and Cartagena, Colombia.