Providencia

A very pleasant 2 day sail north from Bocas is the island of Providencia . It's just north of San Andreas which is the touristy/party island.They both belong to Colombia although they are off the coast of Nicaragua. We went straight to Providencia as we were seriously trying to make our way back to the USA....slowly.....there's no such thing as fast on a sailboat anyway.Not the lushness of the eastern Caribbean but pretty enough and the people ,I thought ,were the happiest, smileyest we'd come across in the islands.
We spent a few days there waiting 'til the wind and waves were more or less going in a helpful direction for our next leg up to the Caymans.
One day a few of us hired scooters and did a trip round the island. Providencia means Heaven so we called ourselves Heavens Angels.
                            And a more dangerous looking gang you never saw.

From the left..Bob..Dennis and Heidi on Centime... Dave and Gail on Wildest Dream and Gail on Jabiru who was with the photographer

We were checked out by the police.

Saw some folks crushing cane.

Could have been for sugar but most likely rum.

How about wake-boarding.....1 horsepower.

School kids under a giant stingray bus stop.

Another one. A local artist builds these things all over the island.

That's him with his shirt off.

They were still unloading this ship after we left.Huge bags of gravel for road building,loaded on to the fleet of local fishing and dive boats  as the bay is too shallow to get to the dock.

Then unloaded with a front end loader.Nice little earner for the local lads with a boat.

A big highlight though was meeting and getting a photo with the vice president of Colombia Angelino Garzon. We were standing around drinking rum and cokes at the market area when someone pointed him out to us and we said hello and asked if we could take photo and he was more than gracious....despite his worried looking security man!

 

Anyway a couple of days later we took off for the Caymans and during the first night it was getting so bumpy and waves getting bigger that we decided to head more east and get the wind and waves more behind us. So forget the Caymans and off we went to Isla Mujeres ...Mexico.

Short Cut

Here we are back in the present.From St Augustine we took the inside ( ICW ) run down to Fort Pierce where we ducked into the Municipal marina to see old buddies Jim and Sue-Aune ,who wander up and down the coast in their beautiful big trawler Palmetto Moon ,and also to hide in comfort from a cold front that was roaring through.From there we had a brisk sail down to Stuart ,which took us in a westerly direction where we had alterations done to our sail cover.Took 2 years to get round to that!

From there we had about 4 days before the damn Canadians threw down their next cold front so off we went " cross country " as it were.There's a route across the middle of Florida via the Okeechobee Waterway . It's a series of rivers and canals on each side of Lake Okeechobee which is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the USA. The only problem is that there's an old railway bridge that's only 49 feet tall just before crossing the lake which means that the maximum height mast that can be tipped under it is 55ft. We're only 51ft so still needed tipping. So here we go .

After cruising  west on the St Lucie river and canal with its large alligator community.

 

We got to THE BRIDGE.

 

Where Billy the Tipper and his mate loaded a few drums along the port deck and filled them with water.

 

When we were heeled over enough we started through.

 

They got Gail to sit on the port side too to make sure we had maximum heel.

 

And it worked.The only trouble is that my good 'friend' has decided that he/she is unable to show the picture the right way up so you'll have to lie down to look at it.

Anyway we got through to Fort Myers and up half way to St Petersburg (4 days ) before we hunkered down behind some mangroves to wait out another cold front before we carry on to visit our friends Bill and Gail who we hung out with from Puerto Rico to Antigua a couple of years ago. Bob's up this way too so after this front has gone should be plenty of socializing.

 Maybe it's not the Canadians fault.........could be Republicans!

 

"Wintering " in Bocas del Toro.

The Mouth of the Bull. That's where we arrived on the 20th December 2012 after a day of squalls and torrential rain after a day and night of almost nothing.The squalls ,for once ,were very welcome as they came in from the north and allowed us to point right at Bocas and we turned in and dropped the hook off the yacht club/marina a few hours after dark.Booked in to the marina in the morning and a good old American breakfast with Bob and friends from Texas , Tim and Lisa on Caribbean Souls, at the Cantina run by another couple of Texans (the place was crawlin' with 'em )Karl and Iris ,who also became good friends while we spent the next 3 months in this great little town in Panama. As far as medical stuff goes ,after a 'jolly' and 'merry ' Christmas we pangad a few miles up the bay to Almirante and mini-bussed to David over the mountains again. Pretty similar,but shorter, than the San Blas -Panama City run. It was a hospital mini bus in as much as there was us, Paul and Piper (from San Blas remember) and Roger and Lorraine from up Seattle way.Paul had got himself a hernia too and Roger had slipped on the dock and needed knee reconstruction. Anyway next morning at 9am I saw the surgeon and he stitched me up at 6pm that evening.Next day it was back on the bus and back to Bocas for a nice laid back recuperation..Pulled a good cripple act for a couple of weeks and then enjoyed the stay.Once again photos are few and far between but a googling will show the scenery if yer interested.Big thing for me/us was the music scene.The town is very young and lively as it is on the Central America backpacking route and also a big surfing spot.Anyway...a few pics.

One of the local coffee shops

Some kids fishing next to our marina slip

On 'Stralia Day we had a bit of a knees up and sang Still call Australia Home (?)and Land down Under and drank lots of beer.The Bundy rum flag was a gift from our friend and old super roadie John Sweeny who passed away this year.

The other Aussie, next to Gail is JB ,John Barker from Brisbane.Amazing man and extra good bloke.He's got no legs below the knees and just enough arms to hold a beer. Nevertheless he owned pubs in the bush and had a limousine business in Brissie and in general got on with living and didn't even get disability pension 'til he decided to go boating round the US and Central America in his 60's. He turned 65 at Bocas and the good old Aussie Gov insisted that he go back to Oz as one has to apply in person for the age pension.Too hard for some dumb ass to click a tick on the computer. Anyway the guy next to him ain't an Aussie but he's spent most of his life hunting treasure round the Caribbean. Don't know how much he found but he's got a nice boat.

Meanwhile...the music. The girl (can't remember her name)owns the resort/bar and has her own band. Very good too. This was Pauls band for the day. .Paul ,Ken a very funky bass player from California and some ol' sax player.

Cheto ,local fireman and amazing singer. Dennis,very nice jazzy/fusion player on the right (Chetos left ) and Andy, best bongo player I've heard although he is a traps drummer (when he can be bothered carting a kit !)

And last but not least the guys I did most gigs with the Island Time Drifters. Patrick, the singer guitarist,plays real tasty guitar and being a dedicated (Grateful ) Dead Head loves jammin'.

Andy on bongos,of course and Ken sitting in on this particular gig.

All these people made it hard not to hang around Bocas 'til..........whenever.

That pic is actually from a little music festival they had at one of the islands in this massive bay.  

Paul and Piper came out with us on Jabiru for the weekend.Very nice.

If you like tropical islands.

 

 

We took a trip up to Costa Rica for a few days. A panga to Almirante then bus up to the border then off the bus ,clear out of Panama,walk across the bridge and clear in to Costa Rica.

Cool.

 

 

Jungle to the beach

A sloth doing what sloths do

Hanging about

And another cool little backpacker/surfer town

Then it was back to Panama and Bocas and off north to the Colombian island of Providencia on 22nd of March

It was a tear but had to go sometime .

Bocas was great but it rained most days ....and that was the dry season!

 

 

Less Talk More Pics

Yep....got to get this over with. The San Blas islands are part of Panama but are self governing and inhabited by the Kuna people who in general are pretty traditional,some islands more than others. It's a matriarchal society and indeed the women ,as far as dress goes are more traditional which adds to the colour .They are the 2nd smallest people in the world after the African Pygmies. They get around in dugout canoes and live in mainly bamboo thatched 'huts'. There are about 300 islands and 40 of them are inhabited by the Kuna tribes with their Chiefs and  laws and gods etc.

 

A Kuna family

 

Typical island village

Besides visiting your boat to sell you lobsters and fish and anything else they might have aboard ,they always have 'molas' ,beautifully embroidered and layered pieces that were originally for their blouses and dresses but are their biggest sale item for us cruisers and touristas in general.

                     

 

Also drop in to an island and  buy more molas.

 

Or go to an uninhabited island for evening drinkies and singalong.

That's Jabiru behind my head

 

This here "matriarch " made sure I gave her a dollar for a photo of her on the cell phone with her traditionally made up sister behind her. When it looked like I was going to take another she shot her hand out for another buck too.!

Anyway,had to get on with the hernia fix so had to catch a panga in about 10 miles to the mainland to go over to the Pacific side at the great big beautiful Panama City.

We travelled with Paul and Piper who we'd met on one of the islands . They were on their way to Bocas del Toro ,Panama.More about them later

The panga/taxi took us to a muddy little dock.

Where we  got a 'taxi' to Panama City.

That took us over the mountains on a winding road through the jungle.

There were cows

 

Trucks that missed a bend

 

Or maybe swerved around a bit of road slip

 

But anyway....got us there.

No pics ....of course but a google of Panama City will show what a great city it is.

The surgeon I saw there told me I could get the operation at David (pronounced Dahveed) and that was closer to Bocas del Toro and we'd heard that 'Bocus' was a cool place to hang out and recuperate etc . ....so it was bye-bye to Paul and Piper and back over the mountains to the  muddy creek

And back out the 10 miles to Jabiru

And bye-bye San Blas.

Next stop Portobello.Sir Francis Drake was finally killed there after his "piratical" carryings on and the church there has a famous " Black Christ " Not really sure what the significance of that is but I guess Jesus was closer to black than white seeing as he was a Palestinian.

The local bus

 Lovely.....but we could only stay a day.....we had a plan.

So after seeing friends from 4 boats we had been bumping into along the way we took off  for a 2 day run to Bocas......next time.