Only about 28 miles from the anchorage at San Andres and out of the tourist fast lane is another lovely, unspoiled cay with an extensive reef system. Thanks to the Columbian government the reefs have been protected and are in fine shape. The four days Sea Star and Windsong stayed anchored at Albequerque with a trawler named Tothill with Glenn and his wife, Eddie, Melina and Wilson aboard, were very full and pleasant with many reef fish seen as well as many of the docile Nurse Sharks and a few scary(to me), sharks and rays seen, but not close enough to identify.
Upon our arrival some of the young men from the army base located there, swam out to our boats, asking to borrow our masks, fins and any spears we might have and they would take us out snorkeling. Tothill understood the message first and agreed, then told us. We agreed to meet the men at 9:00AM in our dinghies as they have no transport on Albuquerque available to them and therefore no real access to the bounty available near their island base. Sea Star gathered our gear and met at the appointed time near the base camp, where four young men joined us in our dinghy to ride out to the reef.
The young men tried hard. It just was not a day for good spear fishing but from the pictures you can see we had fun watching these young men trying very hard to procure enough fish to treat us to dinner on their island. When spear fishing failed-the “big one”, a Hog fish, got away- but many conch were located, cleaned and a cerviche of conch and lobster was served to us that night. The meal was yummy! To reciprocate, the cruisers provided the ingredients and the cook for a special chicken soup meal the next evening, and between the three boats we brought enough to feed the seventeen young men at the camp. The young men appreciated the recipricating gesture especially because a young couple from Tothill who are latinoamericanos and could communicate with them, Wilson and Melina, spent a day preparing the soup.
We felt very welcomed and we would have had a more relaxing time if we could have spoken more easily in Spanish. Oh well, we’re working on it.
underwater photos by Glenn on Tothill-thanks!
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| Drop Box |
After a few days Alison, who had just returned to San Andres from a side trip to visit a scientist friend at the Smithsonian Institute on Gatun Lake in Panama, and Randall on Tregoning rejoined us and we all prepared for an adventure suggested by Dan, to sail to Little Corn Island, Nicaragua where Dan and I and our boys, Steven and Tom visited by plane a few years ago.
The way over from Albequerque provided good sailing. I threw over a fishing line where the water depth came on soundings, and caught myself some kind of tuna. We arrived at the anchorage at Little Corn Island at about 2:00PM after 30 hours. I know it is said that you can’t go back, but sometimes things work out that way just fine. Little Corn has grown in amenities and services since our trip ther in February of 2004. The people are still very friendly and helpful. The resort, Casa Iguana, is still there, though under different management, Elsa’s on the beach restaurant was still there with reasonable prices for lobster and fish, and the number of island restaurants has grown dramatically. There were too many for us to explore in the short time we stayed. Little Corn Island had a number of backpacking and low key resorts and small hotels, and it appeared they were improved and newly discovered by tourists from Europe, China and the United States. Elsie treated me like an old friend when I showed up with pictures for her of our earlier visit at her restaurant. I couldn't resist having grilled lobster, again, and it was fantastic.
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| Elsa's at Little Corn Island |
We walked around the town and up a new concrete walk decorated with messages and pictures of fish and island scenes which made climbing the hill much more enjoyable, and visited the water tower look out from which a marvelous view of the island was available. Little Corn had a new ball park and seemed much cleaner than when we visited before. As cruisers, no one came to the boats to check on us or “officiate”. We decided not to press our luck about being sent to the Big Corn Island to check in officially, and after a visit of three days, which we all felt was too short, we moved on to our goal of Panama at Bocas del Toro.
Little Corn pics:
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| Little Corn Island |
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