Bay of Cholon

Colombia

The anchorage here is very protected, so when the storms blow in during the rainy season, it makes it more benign.

We are busy working on boat projects and maintenance on Valentina, and just the normal day to day living of cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and sitting on the foredeck watching the sunset.

After our walk, Jaime and Maria gave us some anons and a strange looking cucumber.  We are teaching each other English/Spanish words.  So far, weed eater - guadona, and sweat - sudar.

They also cut some coconuts so we could drink the coco juice.

Sonny spent the morning working on our Hella fans.  They are great when they are working, but then they start making noises and slowly quit.   So, he got them back in good working order.  Fans are a necessity for us.   We have six on board and use them constantly.

Our time in Cartagena is always very rushed, busy, and expensive.  We run around for one day, buying whatever supplies we need for the total month.  That includes boat supplies, groceries, enough cash for the rest of the month from the ATM machine, and the most important....ice cream.

Here are some of the sights in the Old Town that we enjoy:
After our medical check-up, we went to our favorite place:  Crepes and Waffles for ice cream.  We each had the salad bar, ice tea, and an ice cream (double dip) cone.  We were stuffed, but our bill with the tax and tip was $32,400 ml (or around  $16.10 US).

We are staying at Oscar and Diana's hotel in Gethsemane area of Cartagena.   They have a daughter named, "Valentina", which we are most partial to.   It is near the beautiful "Old Town" area.  The room is $40 a night, and very comfortable.  It has a/c and a TV.  Two things we do not use on Valentina.  By the time we get back to our room after running all day, it is a much welcome relief.

We woke up early and went to the Mega Tienda grocery store this morning to purchase our groceries.  We spent $150 for the month's supply.    Then, we walked a couple of blocks back to the water taxi and loaded our valuables under our feet for the ride home.  The water taxi is totally full of people and overly full of everyone's goods to haul back to Baru.

We arrived back at Valentina at 10:30 a.m.   A storm had blown in the previous evening with high wind and a lot of rain, but, Valentina behaved nicely.  Our friends were keeping a close eye on her while we were away.

Time to start putting the 10 bags of goodies away.

We made a quick trip into Baru in the dinghy to get phone cards for the internet and some cokes (Pepsi here).

Sonny put the starter on the generator and it was still hard to start.  Finally, we got it started, then it totally died.

Back to the drawing board.   After inspection, he found a wire that was broken, so he repaired it and right now....it is running.  ☺

 

Watching another colorful sunset in Cholon

We were completely out of water, when it started raining.   We collected 100 gallons of water and our tank was overflowing.

Our friends from Cartagena, Gilberto and Martha came down and brought her father, Efrain.   They will be spending some time at their house here constructing a building.

When we returned to Valentina, Glen and Eddie (M/V Tothill) called us on Skype.   It was good to talk to them, as they have taken the boat back to Florida recently.

While we were talking to them, Stacie, our daughter, called on the phone.   One of our great-nieces got married today and after the wedding, a large group of our family members came to Stacie's house to talk to us on Skype.   It was so good to see everyone.  It was a family reunion...via Skype.

Skype is one reason we like the Bay of Cholon so much.  It is wonderful being able to stay in touch with family and friends.

We went over to Gilberto and Martha's house to swim and take pictures of their three nieces skiing.

Gilberto and Efrain made their famous paella tonight.   That is such a treat for us!

The three beautiful nieces, Carolina, Lena, and Laura, were leaving today, so we went over to tell them goodbye.  Such good girls.

We went over to the Manatee to see Robert and Carmen and sit around and talk with other cruisers.  It was a very nice, relaxing evening.

Sonny was going to simply install our new automatic bilge switch, when we decided to go ahead and clean our bilge.  Sounds easy, but it is 5' deep...and located underneath our engine.

It was a dirty job, but needed to be done.   It took us most of the day, taking out all of the bilge pumps, cleaning them, then cleaning the bottom of the bilge.  Yuck...

But, there are rewards after working so hard....the deck at sunset.

We have fun...... Life is simple.....but very good!

We play a lot of Baja Rummy cards on board.  

Sometimes I win....but most of the time....Sonny beats me.   My strategy is to wait for the runs and get more points while Sonny goes out quickly, with less points, but more often.

We had our 'six month review' with Louie, our financial advisor today via Skype.   We expected him to say he has located Sonny a job at WalMart as a greeter, and me at McDonald's.  (So I  could eat all the French fries).  But, he implied that we possibly could survive.

It rained....and rained....and rained during the night.  Thankfully, our water tank runneth over.

Today we made a quick trip to the village of Baru to use the ATM.  We prefer to go the 20 mile trip via water taxi to Cartagena, because the Baru ATM likes to double charge your account.

We bought some pineapples ($1 each) and mandarins ($.15 each) from our friend at his house.

We went to the Manatee for a few hours to see our friends then went to the Caballero's house to visit with them.

A good day in paradise.

It is a very sad day today.   My little laptop has given me the black screen and will not come on.   All of our programs, website, and information are on that laptop.....so it is a real bummer.

I have backed up most everything.....but the website was not updated since June.  So, I have tried to replace the information and will try to publish on this laptop, our old spare.   I will need to work out the kinks, like the thumbnails being so small.

Think it is time for a new one...

Oatmeal cookie day.....I doubled the recipe and made oatmeal cookies all morning.   We took some over to Martha, Gilberto, and Efrain this morning.   Then, we took some to the four guys building their little house, some to Alfredo and then called Julio, a local fisherman paddling by in his ulu, and gave him some.

It is the small things in life that brings real pleasure.   The guys were so appreciative and the smiles were worth it all.

In Colombia, you cannot buy shortening.  So, I substituted butter instead.  They were not the same, but delicious, none the less.

We did swim for a while and I got stung by a jellyfish or some sea creature.   On my wrist, I have a spot about 1 1/2" that started out red, then blistered.

Children playing in the water before school as Lenny and Sue walk to "The Restaurant".

We had pork chops, soup, plantains, rice, and beet salad for $3.50.  And, it was very tasty.

Then, we went over to Lenny and Sue's to play Rummicube.   It was a really fun game, and challenging. 

Then, it was time to go to Manatee to see everyone.   It was a nice night on the boat after a very full day.

Good news.....we just got an email from our son, Gentry, that he was offered a job at the Athens Fire Department.....so glad for him and Jennifer.

My sting now has blisters on it and is itching, so I took a Benedryl pill.  I could not hold my head up,  I was out....and slept like a baby.

Early this morning, Sonny announced on the VHF that we were going to go for a walk on the new road towards Baru and asked if anyone wanted to join us.

We had eight walkers.   We took our dinghies to a local dock and started our adventure.

We all walked along the road, until the road came to an end.  It was dug out about 30' above where they had stopped excavating.   So, we climbed to the top and continued walking on.

Several miles later, we passed a local, and asked him how much further it was to Baru.   He said "only 5 minutes".  So we went on.

A while later through the path, we passed another local.  We asked him how much further to Baru.  He sail, "only 5 minutes".  So, we went on.

Another while later, when we reached the marshy area, we passed another local.  We asked him how much further to Baru.  He said, "only 30 minutes further".   So......we turned around.

We all returned to our boats, tired, thirsty, and covered with mud on our feet and shoes.

I worked most of the day, trying to download our website.  When we had to switch back to our old laptop, we had to download the complete website, all over again.

Many times today, I tried and tried.  I would either lose the connection or an error occurred.  It was a very frustrating day.

I decided to wait until later, when there are less users on the network and try to download it, since our website is quite large.

We began downloading at 12:38 a.m.  Sonny and I would take turns sleeping while the other one 'babysat' the progress.  It continued all night, then at 7:30 a.m. we lost the connection to the server.  All in vain.....start over again?   After researching the problem, our website it too large to download at one time, so I had to do partial downloads.

Finally, at 2:30 p.m. we have it completely downloaded and ready to go again.   It is just too much work to lose it at this point.

Very thankful it worked......and very tired.

Sonny and Robert on the Manatee thankful for Robert's good results from a medical test earlier this week.

We went to the Manatee to see everyone then we went over to Windancer.  Lenny and Sue had invited us over for pumpkin soup.  It was better than delicious.  I had to get the recipe for that one.

This time of year, the pumpkins are plentiful so I wanted to share Sue's recipe for:

 Cream of Pumpkin Curry Soup

4 servings

1 tbsp butter	Melt butter in a pot that has a lid, then add onion and garlic.   Cook 3-5 minutes until tender.
1 cup finely chopped onion
3 closes garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. curry powder	Mix together and add to above.  Stir and cook for one minute.
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups water	Add this to the onions.  Bring to a boil, cover, cook on low 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Blend to smooth or mash it all up as potatoes.
2 small or 1 large chicken or veggie bouilllon cubes
2 cups fresh cooked, drained pumpkin (or squash) or one 15 oz. can of pumpkin
At this point, it can be stored for later use or use now by adding two cups milk and heat to serve.  Can be garnished with sour cream and chives.

Enjoy....and if you make it, let us know what you think.

Our head (commode) is not flushing.  So, we plunged in to tackle that yucky job.  It was not fun at all.   The hoses had to be cleaned out.....but, we got it done, thankfully.   And, got us and Valentina back together and cleaned up again.

We did not even get our dinghy down today.   It rained most of the day, a nice slow rain.   It filled our water tank again.

We went to Windancer around noon today for lunch with Lenny and Sue.  I  made a Texas sheet cake and we all overdosed on chocolate.  It is so good though....ready for another dose tomorrow.

Then, we dinghied into Baru to see if the ATM machine was working.  (not....) so we ate lunch.  David from Bruadair went with us and Chuck from Changing Tides went in with Lenny and Sue.

The only fast food restaurant around........

But the sunsets are still beautiful, even when the laptop is not.