There is no way to write a single blog about the Guna Yala land and waters (also known as the San Blas), and the Guna people, and do them justice. So we will break this up into three parts starting with the most important: the people. A large portion of the Caribbean coastline of Panama […]
Posts with the Sailing tag
Roller Coaster to Panamá
The infamous Santa Marta winds were starting to kick up with nightly gales. If we did not leave soon, we would be stuck for a month or more at the marina with no chance of a safe departure. The seas were big, over 20 feet (7 meters), but they always are around the northeastern tip […]
Game Changer
Two doctors, a firefighter, three tanks of pure oxygen, a defibrillator, and a team of fellow cruisers doing non-stop CPR couldn’t save him. What happened in our anchorage recently, in the San Blas islands off the Panamanian coast, only a few boat lengths away from ¡Pura Vida!, was a sadly enlightening experience for us. One […]
Mountain High
We love our aquatic lifestyle, but when you’re in a country as diverse as Colombia, you have to explore inland. We knew we wanted to travel by air from Santa Marta to Bogota to meet up with local friends, but we wanted to explore more than just the big city. One night, while planning our […]
A New Continent
We arrived in South America! After three years of island hopping, we made landfall in Colombia. Our first reaction was “Woah, this place is huge!” The city of Santa Marta, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, was founded in 1525 by the Spanish, and is the second oldest non-indigenous city in South America. It is a contrast of […]
One Happy Island
Seven years ago, we visited Aruba for the first time on a brief dive vacation. We would look out at the beautiful, calm anchorages and proclaim that one day we would arrive on our own boat. After more than 7,000 sea miles, we made good on that promise to ourselves. Unlike the other islands of […]
Not Blue in Curaçao
Why did we listen to other cruisers? Some who were in Curaçao before us described it as a utilitarian place to shop and get boat parts. They also said the anchorage was not very pretty and there were few attractions. They were dead wrong! Curaçao is charming, and the people welcoming. Yes, the provisioning is […]
So Dushi
The three day journey from Martinique to Bonaire took us just as long as expected, but smooth sailing it was not. With the wind almost directly behind us, we were moving fast; but also rolling from side to side with every wave. For three days and nights, we rolled every 6-8 seconds. We did not […]
A (Not Final) Farewell
That dreaded time for cruising sailors was fast approaching – haulout time. A necessary evil of the cruising life is that you periodically must have your home lifted out of the water and placed on stilts. While in this unnatural state for a boat, all types of bottom maintenance can be performed, and ¡Pura Vida! […]
Chasing Waterfalls, Again!
There are some islands that are worth visiting, and then there are islands that are worth visiting over and over again. On our way south this year, we could not skip Guadeloupe and Dominica. These two gems of nature take our breath away every time we are there. For this blog, I will let the […]