Christmas came in Cartagena and the bangs and flashes were seen and heard all the way to Ano Neuvo and beyond- at 2:00AM and 3:00AM this morning, January 4, intensive fireworks were heard from the town near the anchorage yet again! I think the first fireworks to welcome Christmas were on December 7th.
Leading up to Christmas there were the fireworks, and beautiful light displays containing pouffy ribbons and bows and lighted blow-up characters that we walked and saw, especially in Old Town. The people were very friendly and jovial, (maybe a tad enubriated) everywhere-though liquor is expensive here.
Cruisers did their part to celebrate and uphold their home traditions. Some cruisers had family or friends visit over the holidays but most of us just got together and had fun.
On December 19th there was the Christmas Ball with DJ music and an attempt at Salsa dancing by Gringos in a converted hamburger haven-you'd be surprised what a little green cellophane can do for a place!
On December 24th Sea Star got together with friends on Cabaret, Foreiner and Endorfin for a Christmas buffet on Cabaret's upper deck.(they're a motor trawler) I made artichoke-cheese dip and a pork shoulder I thought was a ham to contribute. (Damn, I really have to learn more Spanish)
December 25th at 4:30PM we were on our way to the Christmas dinner planned and organized (kinda like hearding cats!)by again, Cabaret.
Since the Club Nautico did not have a space- or a place- remember my last set of photos of deconstruction? Suzi and John found a place at a backpacker hotel and the planning began.
The food cooked and brought by the cruisers was excellent. There were many kinds of salads and vegetables: my green lime jello salad, tossed salads, Waldorf Salads, tubuli salad, yams, sweet potato, squash, mixed brocalli and califlower. Dan and I served maybe 75 people. I served the mashed potatoes. Each cruiser was to bring food for 15 people, so all I had to do was shuffle pretty bowls. Dan and Bill had to serve turkey. They were told not to honor requests--but everyone got what they wanted and there was enough for seconds--then free for all!
After dinner part of our entertainment was a "treasure of the bildge" gift exchange. Cruisers grab something from the boat, wrap it and hope somebody takes it home, so it's not on your boat any more. People are given a number when a gift is put on the table. Numbers are drawn at random and when your number is called you can open a new gift from the gift pile or grab one someone else has opened (and maybe stashed away).
My first choice was some DVD's, then it was exchanged for vanilla body lotion, but finally I came away with two brass hooks to install on Sea Star and a darling little girl was thrilled to open my donation of a red dish towel and Christmas snowman pate' spreader! The gift everyone wanted was T49, a spray can of corrosion block, or a 12 volt clip on cabin fan. The last gift that noone wanted and so it caused lots of trading was cigars! A good time was had by all who understood the game or played fairly. Those EU sailors really didn't know what hit them!
The rest of the evening we tried a Christmas sing along and a pair of cruisers who play instruments and sing well, entertained us.
Others who did not sing so well but did have the urge to belt it out were passed the mike. Suzi from Cabaret and Kerry from Coconut teamed up on Proud Mary, Miguel who hadn't touched his guitar since the sixties tried to remember the chords to folk songs and Mark played bongos. Then we all grabbed out still unwashed dishes and hailed taxis to return to our boats.
As for Christmas morning when Santa should have come, well.. what he brought was lovely barnacles! Neither head (toilet) would hold its vaccuum charge. It required Dan going into the not so clean water with a screwdriver to push off the little devils, and cleaning the discharge where barnacles had grown and plugged the outlet.
Leading up to Christmas there were the fireworks, and beautiful light displays containing pouffy ribbons and bows and lighted blow-up characters that we walked and saw, especially in Old Town. The people were very friendly and jovial, (maybe a tad enubriated) everywhere-though liquor is expensive here.
Cruisers did their part to celebrate and uphold their home traditions. Some cruisers had family or friends visit over the holidays but most of us just got together and had fun.
On December 19th there was the Christmas Ball with DJ music and an attempt at Salsa dancing by Gringos in a converted hamburger haven-you'd be surprised what a little green cellophane can do for a place!
On December 24th Sea Star got together with friends on Cabaret, Foreiner and Endorfin for a Christmas buffet on Cabaret's upper deck.(they're a motor trawler) I made artichoke-cheese dip and a pork shoulder I thought was a ham to contribute. (Damn, I really have to learn more Spanish)
December 25th at 4:30PM we were on our way to the Christmas dinner planned and organized (kinda like hearding cats!)by again, Cabaret.
Since the Club Nautico did not have a space- or a place- remember my last set of photos of deconstruction? Suzi and John found a place at a backpacker hotel and the planning began.
The food cooked and brought by the cruisers was excellent. There were many kinds of salads and vegetables: my green lime jello salad, tossed salads, Waldorf Salads, tubuli salad, yams, sweet potato, squash, mixed brocalli and califlower. Dan and I served maybe 75 people. I served the mashed potatoes. Each cruiser was to bring food for 15 people, so all I had to do was shuffle pretty bowls. Dan and Bill had to serve turkey. They were told not to honor requests--but everyone got what they wanted and there was enough for seconds--then free for all!
After dinner part of our entertainment was a "treasure of the bildge" gift exchange. Cruisers grab something from the boat, wrap it and hope somebody takes it home, so it's not on your boat any more. People are given a number when a gift is put on the table. Numbers are drawn at random and when your number is called you can open a new gift from the gift pile or grab one someone else has opened (and maybe stashed away).
My first choice was some DVD's, then it was exchanged for vanilla body lotion, but finally I came away with two brass hooks to install on Sea Star and a darling little girl was thrilled to open my donation of a red dish towel and Christmas snowman pate' spreader! The gift everyone wanted was T49, a spray can of corrosion block, or a 12 volt clip on cabin fan. The last gift that noone wanted and so it caused lots of trading was cigars! A good time was had by all who understood the game or played fairly. Those EU sailors really didn't know what hit them!
The rest of the evening we tried a Christmas sing along and a pair of cruisers who play instruments and sing well, entertained us.
Others who did not sing so well but did have the urge to belt it out were passed the mike. Suzi from Cabaret and Kerry from Coconut teamed up on Proud Mary, Miguel who hadn't touched his guitar since the sixties tried to remember the chords to folk songs and Mark played bongos. Then we all grabbed out still unwashed dishes and hailed taxis to return to our boats.
As for Christmas morning when Santa should have come, well.. what he brought was lovely barnacles! Neither head (toilet) would hold its vaccuum charge. It required Dan going into the not so clean water with a screwdriver to push off the little devils, and cleaning the discharge where barnacles had grown and plugged the outlet.
So.. we had the boat apart anyway and started running the cables for the new digital radar and Clarion radio remote that had been damaged by lightning way back in July. The path the wires had to be fed through by a metal wire snake was from the pedistle outside, into the lazarette, down into the aft cabin and under two lockers, over the engine compartment, under the floor near the sink, through two totally stuffed compartments under the sink and under the generator and up through the shelf, into the electronics boards. This took two full days and the sorting of those lockers still isn't completed!
There are a few pics of the condition of our boat on Christmas day!
Ano Neuevo is as important a time in Colombia as in the US. We had looked into going out to a restaurant where there would be local music. There were many places advertised but the cost was as much as in the US probably $150.00 a couple or more for the evening. Our young twenty-five year old Spanish teacher suggested that we all visit his home town of Turbaco and go to a bullfight, have a wonderful dinner, listen to live music and attend the yearly fiesta on the Plaza and all this would be less money and more fun. We were certainly game especially when Oscar suggested he would meet us and get us on the correct bus. We decided to stay the night as there were hotels in this town of 100,000 people.
And that is what we did! The bullfight movie shows some short clips I took and meshed together using a program. I was entranced by the beautiful children. The parents seemed very indulgent and the kids were fed and bought anything they wanted. Of course there were charactors in the rickety and bouncy stands and men went by and up the stairs constantly hawking food, beer, bottles of rum, sodas, cowboy hats and woven blankets to shake and wave! The band played, the townspeople (men) went into the ring and all hell broke lose. Whose counting-but we saw at least one major goring and a few run-overs. Here the bulls do not die-they are run into the ring for about five minutes so we saw as many as 10 bulls. A few were stuck by the long lances of the horseman and they bled but we were assured they were all ok.
After the fight we spent the evening in the Plaza. It was a relatively early evening back to our wonderful hotel as the Columbians go home at 11:00PM so as to spend the midnight time with family, at least in this town.
The last set of pics is of the Casa de la Abuela- "Grandma's House" with it's wonderful view of the fireworks all the way from Cartagena to Turbaco. The Casa had its own zoo- so that's where the animal pics came from.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
There are a few pics of the condition of our boat on Christmas day!
Ano Neuevo is as important a time in Colombia as in the US. We had looked into going out to a restaurant where there would be local music. There were many places advertised but the cost was as much as in the US probably $150.00 a couple or more for the evening. Our young twenty-five year old Spanish teacher suggested that we all visit his home town of Turbaco and go to a bullfight, have a wonderful dinner, listen to live music and attend the yearly fiesta on the Plaza and all this would be less money and more fun. We were certainly game especially when Oscar suggested he would meet us and get us on the correct bus. We decided to stay the night as there were hotels in this town of 100,000 people.
And that is what we did! The bullfight movie shows some short clips I took and meshed together using a program. I was entranced by the beautiful children. The parents seemed very indulgent and the kids were fed and bought anything they wanted. Of course there were charactors in the rickety and bouncy stands and men went by and up the stairs constantly hawking food, beer, bottles of rum, sodas, cowboy hats and woven blankets to shake and wave! The band played, the townspeople (men) went into the ring and all hell broke lose. Whose counting-but we saw at least one major goring and a few run-overs. Here the bulls do not die-they are run into the ring for about five minutes so we saw as many as 10 bulls. A few were stuck by the long lances of the horseman and they bled but we were assured they were all ok.
After the fight we spent the evening in the Plaza. It was a relatively early evening back to our wonderful hotel as the Columbians go home at 11:00PM so as to spend the midnight time with family, at least in this town.
The last set of pics is of the Casa de la Abuela- "Grandma's House" with it's wonderful view of the fireworks all the way from Cartagena to Turbaco. The Casa had its own zoo- so that's where the animal pics came from.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
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| Christmas and New Years |
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