Emeralds and Barracuda's.

Tuesday 21^st December

We arrived at Cartagena 5 days ago, and I absolutely love it here, most of all because the temperature is perfect, well not exactly perfect, it’s bloody hot during the day, but there are wonderfully consistently cool breezes which make it very comfortable, and the nights are lovely and cool, so no more hot sweats throughout the night like I’m used to in the rest of the Caribbean.  Also, there are absolutely NO mosquitoes, what absolute bliss.

Having my children and Scoop here with us, I am in Heaven, all the work is behind me (for now) its just vacation time. 

Heather, Bob, Niki, Scoop, Edi & Danni

We arrived last Friday following another very windless rolly crossing, we managed to avoid all the floating debris from the river Magdalena, and arrived unscathed.

The water in the bay was pretty bad, but I honestly don’t think it’s any worse than Simpson Bay, St.Martin, or the bay at Curacao marina, anyway we didn’t want to sit in it for too long having just had Daisy’s bottom painted and all the through hole’s cleaned.  We spent a day exploring the old city of Cartagena, which was really lovely; unfortunately a cruise ship had arrived in the port that morning so the city’s narrow little streets were bursting with people.  Danni, Niki and Scoop had spent the day there yesterday and Danni said it had been very quiet, I wished the cruise ship had come in a day later.  We browsed the emerald stores, Scoop’s fluent Spanish really helped as we bartered for the precious stones.  One of the storeowners offered to close his store for us to stay and have lunch, and drink whisky with him, the atmosphere was very friendly and warm, and I was really enjoying myself trying on all the jewelry. But I couldn’t help but picture the very friendly store owner closing his store and getting his customer’s legless on whisky while selling them thousands of dollars worth of emeralds… hmmmm !  It possibly works well with cruise ship guests but not Bob.

We had a deliciously decadent lunch at the restaurant “Juan del Mar”, a lovely little restaurant set in a quiet street in the old city opposite one of the small piazza’s.

I would have quite happily spent another day exploring the old city, but everyone was keen to get to the islands, and Bob didn’t want to spend any longer than necessary in the bay growing nasty stuff on Daisy’s hull.

 So we left on my birthday Monday 20^th and headed over to the islands Rosaria, off the coast where the water was clean and clear and we could all swim.

We had quite a few boat vendors approach us with lobster and fish for sale, and one boat came over with jewelry.  The boat vendors name was Nixon, and his jewelry was made from local materials, such as mother of pearl, red coral, brightly colored stones, pearls and beads.  We each chose a couple of necklaces, which weren’t expensive; I think the 8 items we bought cost around $120.  It was lots of fun sitting on board trying on all the jewelry, and letting Scoop haggle over the prices for us.

posing for a picture with Nixon,  wearing some of our purchases.

Later as we were getting ready to go snorkeling, we were approached by a family who invited us to join them for lunch, at their house on the island.  We declined and thanked them, explaining that we were going snorkeling.  A couple of hours later as we were returning to Daisy they came back with food for us.  They had prepared a whole barracuda, coconut rice and the most delicious dish of sauteed onions. 

The delicious baracuda

 They told us that they had caught the fish that morning but had too much.  Along with the food they also brought a bag of coffee and a bottle of a local drink called “Aguardiente” which tasted like Pernod.  I was amazed by these people’s kindness, it’s rare today to find people who will do something for you, especially if they don’t know you, and expect nothing in return.

Two of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of meeting, and the providers of the fabulous food we all enjoyed