There are sometimes reasons for good things to come to an end. The ending I now refer to is Sea Star’s stay in the beautiful and entertaining city of Cartagena. We arrived in Cartagena on November 28th 2009, enjoyed Christmas, New Years and now Semana Santa, or the week before the Easter holidays. The plan is to watch for a weather window and leave for Roncador Banks.
We’ll be exchanging email addresses and either visiting or radioing “ good bye” to our friends still in the anchorage in front of Club Nautico as well as visiting vendors of movies, fruits and vegetables who exchange pleasantries with the cruisers who are coming and going for the last time.
We will joyfully say good bye to the sea life that grows on the bottom of our and all boats -and when in the anchorage, on the anchor chain and the propeller.
I did one more tourist attraction. I hadn’t visited the San Felipe Castillo or Fort. One Tuesday morning, Suzi and John on Cabaret were looking for a tour for their visitors from the States. Oscar Quintana, our teacher was asked to narrate a tour and so I went along to the fort and a walking trip through the Walled City. The fort has miles of tunnels going under it and that had been used to hide the treasure of Cartagena from the invaders. The restoration of the Castillo and lighting at night were great to see.
Below I have included a few shots of the tour.
Dan and I attended a birthday celebration at a local restaurant for our friend on Cabaret, Suzi. See pictures of her riding the bull outside Quebracho.
Probably April 2nd we will say good bye to Club de Pesca; our rather expensive “peace of mind” concrete dock that allowed us to use our needed air conditioning and not worry about our own or Sea Star’s, or her dinghy’s security all the while we stayed at the club while meeting yet another group of friends on boats. Here we met two Island Packet crews among others, sail and power, who pass through and make Cartagena their home for awhile. Some, like IPer’s La Serena or Solange IV, with crew of Kevin, Melissa and their interesting teenage kids, who are leaving their boat to fly back to their land bases and re-enter their past lives for awhile, while others, like Judy and Dave on Fia, and some ex-pats simply remain, enjoying the country and the culture of Colombia, launching themselves into helpful fundraising for country projects and new cruisers to find what they need in Cartagena.
We said “Good bye” to our teacher and new friend, Oscar, already today. Some of the best times I can recall involve him setting the scene for us; New Year’s in his town of Turbaco, a great futbol game and a trip to Turbaco to some natural pools to get away from the city. Dan especially enjoyed political and cultural discussions from a Colombianos perspective. Both Dan and I improved our ability to communicate our basic needs in Spanish and found the challenge rewarding.
Below are some pics of the Matute natural water area for the town. We had a blast! The place was great for all ages.
So now we look forward to a rather long-320 nautical miles- passage to the Colombian reefs of Roncador, where we have previously visited, Serrana, and Isla Providencia to actually check out of Colombia.
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| Matute + suzi bd |
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