Venezuela - exploring Los Roques islands.
Nov.7- Nov.15
Early evening on November 7th we left Grenada with tears in our eyes while saying "goodbyes" to our dearest friends from Del Max (Dariah and Oren, and their three adorable children). The passage from Grenada to Los Roques was a bit longer than we have done before - 60 hours (which is 3 nights and 2 days). We left together with our friends on Bendecida which made our trip more fun since it's always nice to know that there is somebody else sailing close to you in the ocean. The weather was some sort of vaforable for the trip, promissing just couple squals on the way.
We were warned that we might to encounter pirats on the way to Venezuela, but I guess, we got very lucky and did not see any ships except of the cruize ship on our way.
We also had couple new things installed on our boat and were eager to test them out on the way: the manual autopilot windvane and a whisker pole for our jib. The windvane did very well, and we did not have to use our electronic autopilot (saved us some amps!) and the whisker pole gave us possibility to sail in very light winds with a good speed 5-6 nm. The first night was a very nice a bit rolly sailing under a full moon, but we got a first casuality. During one of the sudden squals the whisker pole broke in a half and it took some time to take it down on the seriously rolling boat. By Kevin's assessment of the damage we could not use anymore our newly bought whisker pool, and that was very sad news... $750 served us only half of the night. Oh well, next time we should be much more quicker in reefing the sails and never give a second guess. The rest of the trip went very well, not counting continues rolling and high waves.
And, we did not encounter any problems with promissed venezuelan pirates either, I guess, we got lucky.
On early morning we pulled in the bay of Grande Roque, the main island of Los Roques, and anchored at night without any problems. After a short sleep we were ready on shore to report to Venezuelan autorities about our arrival. Many times we have done these procedures on different islands, and usually it takes visiting just one or two govermental places - customs and immigration, and in couple hours you are done.
Well, not so easy here... we spent all day checking in, while making 6 long walks along the island back and force in order to visit all necessary offices. We visited immigration, then only bank to deposit our fees, then back to immigration, then to customs, then to some little trailer with 3 overweight women and AC, who send us first to the park autorities on other end of the island, waited there for the siesta to finish, checked in, got the map, stopped on the way at national guard office, then back to the trailer with 3 overweight ladies (they were still talking), where we finally got our last stamp on the oficial document of arrival, and the flag to put on our boat. Uhhh, that was a very hot and humid day, but we managed to walk on all available streets on the island and get familiar with the local venezuelan life.
This place is much different than we got used in Grenada, and the landscape itself is totally opposite - the islands are corral reefs and not much vegetation (very similar to Bahamas). There are no any paved roads on the island, just sand. The houses are little and with courtyard, which is occupied usually by one or many dogs. The dogs! There are way too many dogs in town and in the wild on the hills, but seems that local autorities do not have time to deal with this problem. The island is very clean, and locals constantly cleanning the streets and around their houses. Trash cans are everywhere!!! There are no cars on the island except of two waste management tracks and one tractor. And, of course, people are speaking Spanish. As much as we thought we are ready to have some meanningful conversations with locals and autorities (while we took Spanish classes in Grenada), we did not perform well, and it seems we have to have way much more time to spend on learning Spanish. But, oh well, we managed everywhere, and there are couple people who spoke good English.
Next days we spent exploring other smaller and uninhabited islands around. We stopped overnight at Francisqui Isla where Kevin finally had chance to try Kiteboarding. We met Elias, the venezuelan who taught Kevin the basics on how to manage the kite in the wind. He lives alone with two huge dogs in only house on the whole island, using generator for electricity and bringing water from the main island.
Each little island in the Los Roques Archipelago is a "picture perfect" scenery - amazing clear water of all imaginable hues of blue and the white long sandy beaches. However, from 5 pm to 7 am a huge army of mosquitos tries to eat you alive, even DEET protection is not helping. But even so, we are really happy we visited beatiful Los Roques archipelago.
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Nov.16-Nov.28 - Bonaire
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Just a day sail from Los Roques to the first ABC island, Bonaire. Trip was very comfortable thought we had to use some engine to keep us going, and then we got amazing fun sail near the cost of Bonaire. There is no anchorage allowed, but when we arrived late afternoon there were still couple moorings available. We took one which is the closest to the dinhgy dock, huge cruiseships docking and waterfront restaurants. The checkin procedure was very easy and FREE! People are nice and happy, speaking at least four languages and, some even more: Dutch, Spanish, Papiamentu, English. This island is the mecca for divers and snorklers, because there are so much different sea life that it's hard to describe. Also, no need to take trips to special bays or reefs for diving - you can enjoy the same marine life right under the keel of your boat. The water is so clear that it's hard to estimate the depth. This island is truly a treasure of Caribbean. We enjoed snorkling every day and Kevin dived with our frinds, saw a lot of already familiar fish but of enormous size, squids, turtles and, our favorite discovery - octopus! At the Kiteboarding school on Kevin's birthday we bought another "useless" toy - kiteboard package, and so far, did not have chance yet to practice. Here, in Bonaire, we cought up with a lot of our friends from Grenada and other islands. We were so surprised to see again Songbird crew which we thought never would see again.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner on Mezaluna with Somewhere, the Katy's turkey was a nice surprise.
We loved Bonaire a lot - very clean little island with amazing marine life and dry land nature with cactuses jungle, great food in restaurants, the best food stores in Caribben after St.Marteen with delisious and fresh european food, great little cafes on waterfront, and of course, very friendly locals.
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Nov.28-Dec.19 Curacao
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Another day's sail and we made it to Curacao. Also one of the Dutch islands. We anchored in Spanish Waters - a huge lagoon with very calm waters and a lot of sailboats. Customs and immigration checkin was free, but not very easy, this procedure requires a lot of walking in the capital city Willemstad. This city is huge and very industrial, with endless crowds of tourists from the cruiseships. The old part of town is very beautiful, like a little Amsterdam, but without bicicles. We loved the Floating Market in downtown where venezuelians sell their fresh produce and live right on the boats. We noticed that more locals were speaking Spanish, however, pretty much everybody speaks English. After couple days after arrival I got infected with Chikungunya virus via mosqitoe bite. And, following two weeks I spent exclusiely on the boat fighting the acute phase of this nasty virus. Still not completely recovered, we decided to leave at the first weather opportunity.
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Dec.20-21 Los Monjes Sud Isla - Venezuela
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Dec.22 - Dec.31, Santa Marta, Colombia
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All the way from Los Monjes we had very enjoable sail with very low seas and just 8kt wind, but that was enough to move our boat with speed 4.5kt. With the boat not rocking at all we were able to sleep, cook food, take showers in the cockpit and read for all 30 hours sail. Just around Santa Marta area wind and seas got higher, but still very managable. All the trip we followed the boat Saphira which we saw in yet in Grenada, and finally at the marina we met with Saphira's crew, Katya and Andreas. The Santa Marta marina is not very big, but very nice and clean, great service and relatively cheap ($0.70 per foot, but in 2015 they increased the price for 30%). Setup is great - you can see the waterfront restaurants and beach nearby, very short walk to the downtown and all the shops, taxi is cheap - just 5000 COP ($2.5 per ride in the city). City busses can take you anywhere as well for just $0.70. We fell in love with Santa Marta with the first sight! A lot of our buddies from Grenada stayed here at the same time. And we had a lot of fun spending time together (Emmaluise, Bendecida, Mezaluna, NellyRose). It was so much fun to have Christmas celebration together with friends.
And finally, we got a chance to really practice our Spanish! Pretty much nobody speaks English, a bit challanging.
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Dec.31 - Jan.8 Colombia
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On Dec.30 we took an express bus (Berliner) to Cartagena. The ride was just 4.5 hours and we had a chance to see the life outside Santa Marta. Cartagena is a very old and beautiful city, with 600 years old colonial forts and buildings. We rented a huge room at Marco Polo Bed & Breakefast for 4 night for 4 people in just newly restored old house in San Diego area of city. Our daughters came to visit us for holidays and brought us a lot of stuff we needed for a boat: sunbrella and mosquito netting fabrics, new credit cards, some docs, buckwheat and walnuts! Yes, walnuts were on my special order - there are no walnuts are sold anywhere around here and we really love them! On New Years Eve we met with NellyRose and Capish crews for celebration at one of the downtown restaurant. The tickets for the evening were a bit pricy, but it worth it. Downtown most of the streets were closed and all restaurants took out tables outside on the streets, covered with white tablecloths and flower arrangments. Looked very festive! Following the old tradition most locals were dressed up in white, but we did not get a "message", so.. we dressed up as best as we could by the cruisers standards. At midnight we had a drink for 2015 and went out to the main plaza to see amazing fireworks and a lot of people dancing and celebrating. This was very fun New Years Eve! In couple next days we explored Cartagena while visiting museums, forts, and just wandering around the old beuatiful streets stopping at the cute restaurants and eating outstanding helados. We also managed to visit Cartagena's best beach - Blanco Playa, and the whole trip there and back was very memorable. Marco, our host, first took us to the water "bus" station where we got our tickets to the playa. After waiting for about 40 min 32 people loaded in the motorboat, citing very very tight together (by standards in our country that would on be allowed), and then we went... Since we did not research on the procedure of this trip, everything happening was unexpected. We stopped at some little island first, not sure why, then after short lecture from one of our drivers about this place, we drove a bit more, and then stopped at another very small island where Aquarium was located. There were already a lot of boats similar to ours and it was amazing how this little islands could hold hundreds of people. That was already a lunch time and we were happy to find plentiful snack and drink stands around. Ceciche and mojitos filled us a bit. In one hour our boat departed to the final destination - Blanco Playa. The drive there could be comapred with the Shilderban water rides, but in the real ocean water. Our guide made sure everybody wears a life jacket for such "entertaiment" - the waves were big and everything got wet. Couple times we found ourselves suspended in the air and then dropped hard to the benches - not a great feeling. And finally we made it to the Blanco Playa! Unfortunately, we got only one hour to stay on the beach, because it was getting late. The beach was full of people that we did not have a space to put our towel anywhere. The beach was ok, but very dirty, plenty of little restaurants and snack stands. We almost missed our "bus", and had to run along the beach to ask our boat to return, which he did. Happy and tired we embraced ourselves again in the "Shliderban" fun on the way back to Cartagena.
Back in Santa Marta we took a bus to Taganga - a nearby little beach town, but again, we were not impressed by that beach either. I guess, we are very spoiled by Caribbean islands.
