Strawberry, raspberry, blueberry? An adventurous Canadian who left the frozen north to explore places in the sun, I am on a taste test of the world, out to sample everything I can find. Right now I am first mate on the sailboat "Diva" and alongside Captain Phil, we will be sailing throughout the Caribbean. Come on, hop aboard for the ride!
We are on solid ground. Someone has written a song about this, I'm sure. On Tuesday we drove Diva around to the Manzanillo Marina Club and had her hauled out of the water. I filmed most of it for your viewing pleasure. Be sure to stand in bright sunlight or turn your heat waaaaaay up for an authentic experience.
Diva in a travel lift, moving towards her parking spot.
The surface of the moon? Actually, just some of the barnacles growing on the bottom of the boat. Cartagena is notorious for its questionably murky harbour and the rapid rate in which boat bottoms become mini-reefs!
We are staying in a small apartment on the top floor of the marina offices. It is pretty spartan, but we are totally appreciative of unlimited running water and air conditioning. Neither the Captain nor I have been fans of air conditioning in the past, but right now we are relishing it. (Shhhhh, don't tell anyone I actually said that.)
The Captain has been busy yesterday and today with boat jobs, but I have been out and about doing fun things like buying a hammock and getting a yellow fever vaccination. (My previous vaccination expires this year. Neither Colombia or Panama require it, but I am reading a book called "1497" which details the historical impacts after Columbus came back from the New World and it includes a LOT of people dying from diseases like malaria and yellow fever. So I am prepared.)
Below are some pictures of around Cartagena from our wanderings this weekend. We expect to be on the hard for the rest of this week and then back in the water and ready to go. But, like all things boat-wise, plans may change!
We walked around the old city walls, all the time wondering if it was going to storm again. The roof of the cathedral is at the centre of the photo.
Looking out over the other side of the wall. You can see the Caribbean Sea, the condo towers of Bocagrande and the flag of the city of Cartagena
Just a little bit of the intriguing architecture in this place.
There is lots of public art in the old town. Find the Captain's head between them for a perspective on the size of this statue.
Yellow walls, blue walls, red walls, orange walls, I've seen 'em all here.
The flower market!
The Captain was sadly lamenting the fact that he couldn't get his birth-right fix of the BBC world news. Then we found this in the supermarket - Bogata Beer Company. That 'el do, as he'd say!
Even though we are no longer on anchor at Club Nautico, the main marina for visitors, I thought I'd show you what our view was like for the last week.
On one side, we had a container ship terminal. We had lots of fun watching the ships come and go and each crane is lit up with zillions of lights at night. Every once in a while I'd hear a rumbling and I'd have to decide if they had just dropped a container or if it was actual thunder.
A tug family, moored not too far from us. I saw as many as 5 all rafted up together. They often came out to play with the big ships.
Looking towards shore - Manga island, a lovely neighborhood that has a nice grocery store and an excellent pizzeria that we enjoyed.
Looking across to the far side of the harbour - condo and hotel towers, plus neighboring cruisers anchored all around us.
