colombia

Providencia (Colombie)

via Colon et les San Blas

It is time to leave Colon. The Pacific is not for now, will be back in the near future to transit too. We are off to sail up to Florida we have to reach before the Hurricane season. From Panama our way is to get to Providencia, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, the Florida Keys and Fort Lauderdale.

Eole is not our friend by now and we are stuck here on the flat in Colon waiting for a good window!!

At the Yacht Club we have a very good surprise in meeting Michel from sv/Bambino, an ex boat anchored in Little Key in Cul de Sac, close to Pinel Island at Saint-Martin (FWI). He just arrived from Panama city with his team and his new boat "No Way". They now have to sail the yacht back to France. We all spend a good time in sharing advice, charts, and ti-punch wishing them all a good sail. With such a name, No way can take any route to sail back home!

Bye Bye Colon, we have to get to the San Blas where from sailing to Providencia is a better route. We stop again in the Lovely Portobello where Buenas our kayuko man sells us more advocados and fruits, Isla Linton where the monkeys still have fun on the beach and where Contigo gives us more wheather forecast advice, as he is Mr Weather on the american SSB net.

Nuinudup- Western Salar - Cangombia - Coco bandero west - Ultime stop dans les San Blas - du 6 au 11 avril 2004

We could hardly avoid stopping in the san blas. Once again we enjoy some time in such pristine islands, having fun with a few more free dives in a cristal clear water. Nuinudup is just a short stop but we discover some other uninhabited islands like western Salar, Salar or Cangombia which looks recently abandoned as the drinking water is only salty by now. Once again we are transported into a postcard, right in the middle of a dream, true peaceful place where you can hardly pull yourself away. Nevertheless fishing is not too good and Jean luc catch a snapper with difficulty as they hide away deeper and deeper, and for myself I have to try to make 3 big sharks to stay away from the good sandwich they see in me!! Splashing at the surface definitely discourage them !

An island with no name is another good shelter for a day to enjoy again some wonderful blue, white and dark blue as we are never tired of admiring.

Back to Coco Bandero we are happy to meet Sorentila and our Italian friend Alfredo with whom we go fishing. As it is easter eve, the Italians are gathering onto another island for a giant barbecue and Alfredo leaves in the afternoon. We remain there and it is a wonderful idea as Jean-Luc manage after many free dives around 10 meters deep and 4 spears..., to catch a giant jew fish! This gentlemen was laughing at him under a rock, now we laugh at him with knife and forks! The Jew fish was around 25 kilos! We did quite a lot of preserve and nice cookings !

We are now ready to sail to Providencia, and as we are heading off the island we have to turn back as the engine is getting very slow. We suspect a palm tree leaf to be entangled in the propeller. Back to the anchorage we found it so and manage to free the propeller before heading out again. Our sailing route is 335° and straight to Providencia with a North East Wind. The sea is beautiful and we have 300 nautical miles to go. We cross two commercial routes but no big deal. The nights are very starry and it is an enchantment to share that unique lonely moment with the universe. The bow lightened with the phosphorescent plankton. On the last day of our sail we catch a mahi-mahi which brings us more and more fish, and less and less room in the fridge!

While getting close to Providencia we are surrounded by two dozens of wonderful dolphins jumping around the boat and swimming at an incredible speed. The wind reinforced and we are now taken into a squall while the dolphins run away as Providencia disappear totally, no more visibility!! Once the squall passed us to bother some other places, the island let us discover some pretty beaches with nice shores it looks like a nice invitation! But we have to clear in before enjoying that sort of thing... It is Colombia here! We drop the anchor at 6pm in a quiet little harbor, santa catalina

Yeah, man, this is Colombia! No we didn't get lost, probably the island is! Located close to Nicaragua, and far away from the country it belongs, Providencia is a nice little island where people speak more english than the official spanish language! and they do fight for english language as shown on some boards we found! Here it is more a rastafarian country than a spanish one with a kind of creole look! Colombia is pretty far away. This little volcanic island is just 7km long and 4 km wide and its highest pic, "el pico" is 320 meters!

No time to rush ashore to clear in, the authorities are faster than we are and incredible, fastest to do their job than we've ever seen before! As soon as they leave the boat we wonder if it was a dream or not, efficient team!!

It rains on Providencia, it sounds like a song! But a good way to refill our water tanks and also free laundry and shower! Anyway to wet to go ashore!!

Soon the sun chase the rain and we enjoy a little walk around the harbour. Santa Catalina this Little quiet village stands for the capital of Providencia, having a few administrative buildings, banks not offering any change!, supermarkets in great number, and a single cybercafé with two computers; The best of all is the Bakery! Santa Catalina is separated from Santa Isabel by the Aury channel where a walking bridge was built to link them both to avoid remoteness hamlets

We walk the 18 km of the unique road of the island! Every step brings a fascinating view all in blue contrasts and white from the reef, a nice invitation to drop our anchor there! More motorbikes than cars are met on the road, and all of them are taxis!!! 6000 citizens live scattered among quiet hamlets. Some resorts close to Aguadulce welcome tourists, but tourism is not the highest occupation of the Island where San Andres the neighbour island located only 90 km away and colombian too, and also bigger is having a better turnover due to a bigger airport.

People here are very friendly and helpful. The Rastafarian community is quite present here. Caribbean atmosphere, gingerbread houses give it a kind of Antillean look instead of Colombian! No crime here, we are told, and eventhough the island looks pretty safe, it is famous for drug traffic! This probably why we were told not to leave our anchorage and remain kindly right in front of the port captain office!!! An american sailboat was not clearly specified that point and moved to the pretty beaches and he faced a huge fine and unwelcomed greetings by the army-coastguards!! This is colombia, man!! never forget it.

Santa Isabel is covered with gingerbread houses where fischermen repair their lobsters traps. The mangrove is covering a good part of the island and is full of colorful crabs moving back to their holes as soon as there is a noise! The rastafarian community, where two guys lie into their hammocks,(this is the way to live, man!), is settled down the little path going to the top of the island, to the " paradise rock" where from you are sure to discover a pretty good view over Santa Catalina and of the bay where the boats are anchored waiting for a nice window to sail to Honduras, Belize or Mexico.

We managed to clear out in the same time as Jude and Linda sv Jubilee. Then after spending our last colombian pesos we sail away from the lovely Providencia where it would have been good to stay longer if sailing around the island had not been such a hassle....