From Providencia

Let's see. Where am I with this blog, other than behind? We've spent the past week in Providencia and have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It is a beautiful island with interesting scenery that reminds me of parts of the US western states, the people are so warm and friendly, there's great walking and it is so peaceful here. Despite the fact that we've had high winds for all but 1 day, the anchorage is calm and protected. There are 9 cruising boats here and we've gotten to know a few of them. But we've mostly been hanging out with a couple named Heather & Steve on the boat Last Resort. Heather is a few months younger than me- well this doesn't happen too often! She won't admit it, but she's pretty crafty too. She's made mobile's out of shells that she's found on the beach which makes me want to try making one too. They are both firefighters for the US Forest and are based in the Utah area. It was interesting to listen to their stories over a few happy hours that we shared together. They really like to cook and we competed for who could put out the best appetizers. We also took a hike together up to the highest point of the island one day. We hired a guide named Harlis so we could find the trail. Even though we're a ways from Jamaica, and he's lived all his life on Providencia, you would swear he was Jamaican. Along the way, he pointed out various plants that locals use for tea and medicinal purposes and we got to know a little bit more about what it's like to live here. At the top, he sat with us for a while and we joked around, then he stepped away for a few minutes to smoke some of his "natural herbs". When he came back, he was very mellow! The view from the top was very beautiful with Providencia's colorful reef barrier in full view. The colors of the water here are especially vibrant and the contrasting blues are stunning. Because of the wind, we haven't done nearly the amount of snorkeling we wanted to do but this is the time of year when it just blows like crazy down here. Toward the end of the hike, we stopped at a cute little restaurant of sorts owned by a couple from Switzerland and had bush iced tea and hamburguesas together. It was a really fun day! We've had so many fun and interesting experiences with the people we've met down here and Harlis was no exception.

On another day we took out our bikes for a change and biked the 18 km around the island. A couple of days before, we walked it. Since most people here have mopeds, there are few cars on the island so the main road that circles the island is pleasant to be on. It is commonplace to see up to 4 people on a moped- some will be kids but still! One day, we saw 5 people on one moped- 2 adults and 3 kids. And the women in Central America are nearly always very well dressed which makes it harder to ride a moped. It just makes us laugh but also consider where we come from and what so many other people in the world don't have and by the looks of it, they are no less happy than we are. The day we biked, I felt sort of self conscious about all of our American stuff We make everything so complicated. Here we are setting up these fancy bikes (our folding Dahon touring bikes) which always gets a lot of attention, then we've got our special running shirts on with the breathable material, got the fanny pack with camera and snacks, the water bottles for when we're thirsty, don't forget the helmets for safety, sunglasses to protect our eyes, sunscreen- oh brother! But, everyone was nice as could be to us just the same. A couple of guys who were cutting a sugar cane field and boiling the cane, stopped Jon because they really wanted him to taste the cane juice. They gave it to him in an old soda bottle with the top cut off and were so excited to share it. What was he to do but try it? It tasted like sugar water, but the two guys were so glad to share some and explain what they were doing with it. They use the liquor as they call it, to sweeten tea, cook with etc. We stopped at a little restaurant on the beach to get a cold drink and met Julia, the owner. There was no one else there. So we got to talk with her the whole time. The language here is a mix of english, spanish and Caribbean english so it is pretty hard to understand unless you really concentrate. We tried one of the Columbian beer brands but don't think we'll get hooked on it since it comes in an 8 ounce bottle! Like Ann says... that just won't take me where I want to go! Funny thing here, almost all of the beer is either Miller or Old Milwaulkee- you pick. The locals drink a lot of it and it appears Old Milwaulkee is the favorite. It comes from the US and there are cases of it available everywhere. Fortunately, I really like the Columbian rum and decent gin & tequila are cheap here too. I never thought I'd see the day when Beefeater was cheaper than Gordon's but that's the case here and since we're on a budget, we went for the Beefeater!

So, we feel like we've pretty much "done" Providencia and are ready to move on. We're going to make a run for San Andres now. Along with Roatan, this is our favorite island down here. And, for any of our friends who were in the Rio with us and enjoyed visiting the "oil store", you'll love it here since you can go to Roland's "restaurant" and get the same thing!!

Update 3/10: We left on yesterday morning for San Andres and after a little bit of a stressful day, we're now settled in. Big seas seem to be the name of the game down here in the Southwest Caribbean so we finally left Providencia when the winds had lightened to 20-25 but the seas were still pretty big. It was a fast, downhill run to San Andres. There was a 10 foot swell running and this is the first time actually that we've had big swell with the regular wind waves going too- we'd get to the top of the swell and then there would be 2 waves on top of that. Made for lots of motion. Then, the harbor for San Andres is on the windward side, not in the lee of the island and there is a barrier reef that runs halfway down the island so you have to sail past the harbor along the raging barrier reef to where it ends and then do a 180 to head into the harbor. This would be fine on a day without big seas but it was unnerving yesterday. Along the way, you can see the wrecks of ships along the barrier reef and this is a constant reminder that it is there. One great thing about Columbia though is that they have buoys! So, once we got around the reef, we could make our way in through the buoys and relax a little. But, I hope to never have to come into this harbor again under those conditions.

Neither of us are crazy about this anchorage- it isn't very pretty. There are some sunken wrecked boats here, jet skis, tourist boats, etc. We have to get fuel here, propane, hopefully some good produce and dairy provisions (supposedly good grocery stores here) and also try to buy a couple of repair parts for the boat. We're gathering a long list of broken stuff lately. Must be our turn to have everything break since all had been going so smoothly. Yesterday we found a piece of bent metal on the deck and spent a few minutes trying to figure out where it came from. I was looking aloft thinking oh no, on the next passage the rig is going to come tumbling down because of this missing part! But, Jon found that it was from one of the cars in our mainsail track system that holds the main onto the mast. We'll have to fix that here since we need the mainsail for the 2 day trip to the San Blas. But we do have a spare!

Anyway, all is well. We've got a lot of stuff to do while we're here but the weather window to leave is soon too. We don't want to get stuck here waiting for weather. We're going to be busy!