SV SUNDANCE
Doesn't seem like much distance to have traveled in four years, but it has something to do with there being a lot of roses to smell in this neck of the woods and me having the time and inclination to do so. In my prior life, I think by now I would have circumnavigated by now, maybe twice even.
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Fred and Sara
Remained in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela for a total of nine months. Was an attractive country to be in with its warm climate, friendly people, great cruiser community, and ridiculously low prices, which two weeks ago became 40% lower in US $ terms after Chavez announced he was planning to nationalize the telecommunications and power industries.
Our last trip in Venezuela was to the Orinoco delta located in the far eastern part of the country. Drove by car to a small decaying town 80 miles upriver from the mouth. There the road ended, and we took a boat two hours downstream to a camp in the jungle. The indians in this area are called the Warao, and their entire lifestyle revolves around the river. Warao means "the boat people" and they mainly get around in single log canoes. They are a fishing society, and about 30% of them starved to death when the Venezuelan government built a dam upstream, and changed the water from fresh to brackish thus killing off the indigenous fish population. With new species now established their food supply has been somewhat renewed, and they seem to be doing well at this point. The Warao usually live in small extended family groups in thatched roof houses with a round sticks for a floor and no walls. The houses are build on stills at the edge of the water, and the women are skilled in weaving and make hammocks and straw baskets and jewelry. The men are very skilled at weaving also, but their efforts are directed towards thatched roofs and the like. They've adopted western dress and some of the canoes sport outboard motors, but otherwise their lives are very basic.
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Canoed in one of those for a bit, and found it to be serviceable, but the tipiest craft I've ever been in due to its round bottom. Needed to continually concentrate on my balance to keep from capsizing.
Departed Puerto la Cruz on October 1st, and traveled west through Venezuela's offshore islands, Isla Tortuga, Cayo Herredia, the Los Roques archipelago, and Los Aves, all approximately 50 miles off the coast. They were very beautiful with many secure anchorages a short day's sail apart and crystal clear water. Stayed in the Los Roques archipelago about a week snorkeling, hiking, searching the nooks and crannies of the reefs for lobsters, and enjoying the place, and the others a day or two.
The sunsets have been pretty spectacular. This one is at Cayo Herredia, a popular place for Venezuelans to day trip from the mainland. We were there Saturday night, and there were an unusual number of boats in evidence. Generally the anchorages were empty or with only a couple of other boats, most of which were from the French Islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Arrived in Bonaire in late October and tied up at a small marina near the center of Kralendijk, the principle town. The island is Dutch, as are Curacao and Aruba, and English is widely spoken. It's a diver's paradise as the waters are unusually clear and spectacular wall dives are everywhere along the coast. Rented a car and drove around the island, to the north one day and to the south the next. The ABC's are very dry islands as they are flat and don't have big enough mountains to produce rainfall. The rain that does fall comes from weather systems off the South American coast or from squalls embedded in the tradewinds. The north end of Bonaire is a federal park and thus undeveloped, and we were surprised to see cactus everywhere. Looked like the American southwest rather than an island in the tropics.
Had a rough day sail to Curacao getting hit by three squalls in a string of thunderstorms and having too much sail up in the second one....could see no wind on the water before it struck. With the roller furling sails and the autopilot, it's relatively easy to shorten sail, however once the wind picks up much above 30, it's a little marginal to do so. Tied up at the Curacao Yacht Club in Spanish Waters, a very protected body of water about 10 miles south of the capitol of the ABC's, Willemstad. Curacao is much more highly populated than Bonaire and is far more industrialized with a large oil refinery and other industries on the island. The old part of Willemstad has wonderful Dutch architecture from the 17th and 18th centuries, which is well preserved, and is a wonderfully civilized place to be after Trinidad and Venezuela.
Departed Curacao after a month of exploring the place and performing boat upgrades and repairs, and made a 10 day passage to Cartagena by doing day sails to Aruba, another Venezuelan island Los Monjes, and along Columbia's north coast with one really neat overnight sail during a full moon. The north coast is varied, flat in some spots, hilly in others, and 15,000 foot mountains with snow at the peaks near Santa Marta. Read where this is the only place in the Caribbean where one can see snow from the water, but unfortunately the peaks were obscured by cloud as we passed. Highlight of the trip was a three day stop in Five Bays. The bay is surrounded by small mountains of the Santa Marta Range and is quite scenic and remote. These same mountains often produce catabatic offshore winds, and one night at 2 a.m. we experienced gusty 50 knot winds for an hour, first from one direction and then from another. Was rather like sailing on Irondequoit Bay in a strong west wind. Our anchor held beautifully much to my surprise. Still have trouble accepting that a 33 pound anchor can hold a 44,000 pound boat in place. Intellectually I got it, but emotionally not even close. Found a couple of boats that we had met in Venezuela and Curacao anchored at the bottom of the bay, and we sailed the rest of the way to Cartagena in their company.
Arrived in Cartagena on November 11th. It's one of Columbia's principle ports with large container ships constantly arriving and departing, and the main naval base is here too so along with the visitor traffic from the cruise ships, it's a busy place. Cartagena is an old Spanish city founded around 1520, and was used as a collection point for gold and silver from Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, et el. prior to shipment to Spain. Consequently it was a prosperous, well fortified place, and fortunately most of the fortifications including a wall around the city and most of the old buildings are intact. Willemstad was like that too, only with Dutch architecture. Pretty interesting after culture starved and architecturally deficient Venezuela.
Cartegena was a great place to be for the holidays. Thanksgiving all the Americans in the harbor got together and enjoyed a turkey dinner with all the fixin's at the marina restaurant. Seems to be a tradition wherever Americans congregate in the Caribbean, however the Brits and Canadians generally participate fully too and fit in very nicely. (The Brits and Canadians also celebrate another of our holidays with us here, the 4th of July, only they call it the British Thanksgiving as they give thanks that they got rid of "that lot"!) Christmas was enjoyable too.....lots of festive lights, religious processions, and choral performances in the old cathedrals and another feast prepared by the cruisers which put the Thanksgiving one prepared by the marina to shame. Attended a ballet, Swan Lake, by the Cuban Ballet Company of Eastern Cuba. Was the best executed ballet performance that I have ever seen. The dancers were skilled, energetic, artistic, well trained, loved what they were doing, numerous, well costumed, and were synchronized like a Marine Corps drill team. Thrilling to watch such artistry. An International Music Festival was held in mid January and was likewise a great success. Went to three events spaced out over the six days, and found the performances to be absolutely world class. The I Musica de Montreal and the St Lawrence String Quartet were the featured groups and performed as expected, but the soloists from Brazil, China, France, and Argentina stole the show. Very enjoyable. Hadn't had the opportunity to attend any first class cultural events since Miami 2 years ago, so these were real treats. Passed up the bullfights in early January, as they seem to be cruel and unusual punishment to the poor bull. Here the bull is not killed, just stuck full of spears and hassled to the point of insanity by the matador and his helpers. Plan to do a few trips into the interior, and then depart for Panama the first or second week of February via the San Blas Islands where we expect to linger for awhile. Looking forward to getting away from the dock for a bit.