From High Hills to High Rises

We spent a great Sunday in Bahia Guayraca. Snorkeling a reef along the north shore the of the bay was really great. Some new creatures were spotted along with more flamingo tongues than we'd ever seen. After snorkeling we went ashore to the beach and headed to Senor Cisco's bar and restaurant. Beers were also a buck here and were good and cold. It was an interesting spot on a Sunday afternoon - lots of families on the beach and groups of friends. We met some really interesting and nice folks. They were all very friendly and we enjoyed chatting with them and learning more about the area and what it had to offer. We heard that jaguar prints were spotted near Bahia Cinto in the national park. We met a lawyer who knew the lyrics to every song he was blasting through his car stereo/i-pod for all the beach to enjoy. It was great practical Spanish lessons and we are always impressed with the excellent English of many of these folks. The good news is we are communicating better and better with our growing vocabulary and language skills (though it is still very elementary).

Another night of willy waw winds through the anchorage - peaking at 0230. Some gusts had to be over 40. You could watch them come towards you on the water. We left the National Park area and headed west about 15 miles past the port city of Santa Marta and into the next bay called Gaira on the charts but it Colombians call it Rodadero. It is a tourist town filled with high rise apartments and hotels, t-shirt shops, and beachside restaurants. As Friedl said, "culture shock." After a week of remote and beautiful locations - this was a definite change of scenery. What's quite funny is that we feel a bit like we are in a zoo - but we are the animals! As we anchored around 1100, we were approached by lots of little paddle boats. Some would stare and circle the boat - all very friendly, waving and taking our picture. Others would chat you up and ask lots of questions. We had kayaks, power boats and paddle boats all coming by for a close look. No skinny dipping here!

We went to shore to do a bit of grocery shopping - a really nice store here quite close to the beach - and stopped for lunch. Then it was back to the boats on a very hot day with absolutely no wind. It was well over 100 degrees and sticky - a good time to get in the water and scrub the water line. We then went into town again later for a short walk.

We'll be leaving at 0300 to make it past the Rio Magdalena in daylight and early enough to avoid any big afternoon winds. It's about 40 miles away and this is an easy bay to get out of in the dark. Hopefully we'll get a few hours sleep before we get that 0230 alarm.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com