Rosario Islands
Simanderal
Michael Hughes and Ger White
Tue 5 Jan 2010 22:58
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Cartagena was a good choice for Christmas and New
Year. The old town is vibrant and well preserved--the taxi there from the marina
cost less than £2 and you could walk it in 15 minutes. Lots of good restaurants,
pavement cafe's etc. And reasonable price levels. Also a good place for
provisioning, though wine is expensive.
Regrettably we didn't get out of Cartagena to
travel inland--I guess there was just too much going on--and of course exploring
Cartagena, museums etc.
But after 2 weeks of city life, we were looking
forward to getting back to secluded bays, swimming etc. so today we sailed the
short 25 miles to the Rosario Islands--reef surrounded islands south-west of
Cartagena. It was a good, fast sail--a broad reach in moderate though rising
seas--10 knots of wind when we set off rising to over 20 knots as we rounded the
offshore reefs which provided nice calm water. We're anchored in a bay
with five other boats and already had a long swim. Plan to spend tomorrow
here--part of it cleaning off the bottom of the hull--there's something in the
water in Cartagena lagoon that apparently results in the world's fastest
barnacle growth!!--though actually it looked not too bad when I snorkeled round
it this afternoon--tomorrow I'll don the scuba. And then perhaps sail down
to the San Bernado islands about 25 miles further south the following
day.
Hey-ho. Thoroughly recommend Cartagena and Colombia
to visit. They've ended their civil war, sorted out the drug mafia, the people
are pleasant and industrious-- this place has a lot going for
it.
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