Providencia ~ A Pearl in the Caribbean

Balvenie
Mark Farrell & Amanda Church
Fri 14 Dec 2012 03:20

08 – 14 Dec 2012:  Providencia, Colombia  13.22N 81.22W

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Day 10 and Loving It

There was a good weather window during the weekend to head off further north, a couple of the boats left but we just couldn't bring ourselves to move on yet.  The anchorage here is comfortable, the company great, the snorkelling good, the people amazingly friendly, the town clean and sort of cute, the coastal walks interesting and the island a thousand shades of green.  Just the perfect spot to chill out, relax in the sun and put those last few weeks of hard work in Panama behind us,  so that is precisely what we are doing!

Exploring the Island, by foot and mule 

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There is an excellent coastal walk from town over onto adjacent Santa Catalina Isla, along the boardwalk and onto the colourfully signposted “Morgans’  Head” walk.  History is rich here of English buccaneer Henry Morgan, he roamed the Western Caribbean waters attacking Spanish galleons laden with their booty of gold and silver that they in turn had stolen from the Incas and other South American indigenous people.  Pirate Morgan spent a significant amount of time here, and we have visited Pirates Cove, Fort Bay and Morgans Head.

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The standard of care and upkeep on this walk rivals anything our New Zealand Department of Conservation would do, we can only praise this little island for the effort the 5,000 or so locals are putting in to keep this lovely island in such a pristine and unspoilt state.

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Yesterday we shared a “mule” with fellow cruisers Phil and Nicky off British Catamaran Ajaya.  Luckily the mules here have 4 wheels instead of 4 legs so the 4 of us fitted in fine.  It’s quite a small island so it was a leisurely day with plenty of long stops.

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So we have seen all on offer on this sleepy island in the Western Caribbean.  There looks to be a favourable weather window developing early next week for us to travel the 180 miles north west, so we will take that and head for Honduras.

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Quite an interesting collection of Modern Art around the island