March Update!

March 8th, 2010
One of the beauties of the San Blas Islands is that there are lots of them and they are not too far apart so moving from one anchorage to another is only a short sail away. This past month we have been doing lots of moving around and when I look at our log we have actually moved 15 times.
Just naming a few highlights:
-The Western Coco Banderos where we were the only boat and the snorkeling was amazing. Lots of brightly coloured fish living in wonderful gardens of coral. The shell collecting on the islands was good too!
-Green Island where we welcomed friends on 'Slip Away' back to the San Blas with a pot luck dinner hosted by ourselves and 'Fortuitous'.
-Ogoppukibdup (you got to love these names), a tiny anchorage between two small islands where we were the only boat once again. Great snorkeling!
-Eastern Holandes where the two anchorages we frequent are known to us cruisers as the 'Hot Tub' and the 'Swimming Pool'. We like to come here every couple of weeks on Mondays as they have a great pot luck get together where we meet cruisers from all over the world.
-Esnesdup, a big favourite of ours! The snorkeling is amazing. This year we celebrated Marilyn's birthday here and our good friends on Fortuitous and Homer's Odyssey produced a fantastic dinner complete with cake!
-Isla Tigre where we took part in their yearly celebration of their independence. They re-enact the whole dramatic day that they took back control over their own lives from the Panama Government and the Church. It is very well done and a lesson they want their young people to never forget. The village is so welcoming to the cruisers and this year about 20 cruising boats attended.

The weather this last month has not been normal for this time of year. February is supposed to be the windiest month but part of it was absolutely calm with flat seas. Then the wind returned with high seas again and lots of clouds mixed in with the sun and also quite a bit of rain. It is always lovely and warm here with the temperatures steady in the high 80's. Unusual conditions seem to be happening in many parts of the world this year. It is all good though, no complaints here!!

February Update!

February 4, 2010
Icarian is situated in Esnesdup in the Naguargandup Cays in Kuna Yala, Panama! In other words 'Paradise'! We arrived back in Kuna Yala on January 10th after a 35 hour passage from Cartagena, Columbia. The passage was relatively good with winds from the NE varying from 15 to 20 knots. Our seas were in the 8 to 10 foot range and on our stern quarter so kind of rolly. We arrived in the Eastern Hollandes at 10:30 p.m. and with the previous tracking on our GPS and radar we were able to anchor right where we wanted to be.
Brian has been in project mode having now replaced a lower rigging wire and checked out all the rest of our rigging. He installed a new 'Tacktick' wind speed and direction instrument on our masthead. This unit is wireless so no wires to slap in the mast. He has also replaced two turning blocks with ones twice the size and was not too surprised to see some of the bolts on the old ones just break off. Now no worries!
He had to trouble shoot a problem with our generator as it spewed oil all over the engine compartment. It had blown a tiny ¼" plug which he then had to find in all the muck under the engine. He did find it and now the generator is working like a charm.
Marilyn learned a lesson on packing the freezer. She thought that because we had all our meats pre-frozen that packing them tightly together would be just fine. Well freezers only work well when the cold air can circulate around the food otherwise it thaws. Luckily the lesson was learned and only a quarter of our supplies had thawed.
We are into the windy month here in Kuna Yala and those people with wind generators are very happy. Icarian tends to anchor behind lovely islands out of the breeze where the waters are very tranquil. We have done some snorkeling and swimming and Marilyn has been into water aerobics around the boat.
At the moment there are about 180 boats enjoying the San Blas. About 100 of those are just passing through en-route to the Panama Canal from Europe.
There have been two, "around the world rally's" pass through the area with many boats enjoying a 15 month round the world tour together. They seem to be having a great time and have lots of interesting boat names to amuse us.
So that is it from Paradise for now. Happy Sailing everyone!

Jan 2010 Is Here!

Backing up briefly to December our ‘non cruising’ season is coming to an end and Brian is heading back to Cartagena Columbia at the beginning of December. He has some maintenance to take care of and hopes to have Icarian launched just before Christmas. Marilyn arrives then and after a Christmas celebration in Cartagena, we will leave for the San Blas once more.
Marilyn got a new knee this summer and is ready to take on the world. The surgery was very successful and totally worth the pain and therapy it took.
We had a great time with family and friends and welcomed a new Granddaughter Emily Ann. The weather this summer in British Columbia was amazing but now it is getting cold and wet and definitely time to head south.

January 7th, 2010 and Icarian is anchored just off Club Nautico in Cartagena, Columbia. It is amazing weather here in the high 80’s and we are just finishing a major provisioning. Two months of staples are now on board, the freezer is full and we are all set to head for the San Blas in Panama.
We spent Christmas here in Cartagena on Marlene and Roy’s catamaran Damiana with 7 other cruisers we had met on the Pacific side. There were Tammy formally of Secret of Life, Jan and Rich from Slip Away, Rob and Linda from Cat-n-about and Lillianna and John from Gloria Maris. We started out with Roy’s famous Kringle for breakfast and later in the day a delicious turkey dinner with all the fixings. Yum!
We headed out of the city to celebrate New Years Eve in Chalon, just south of Cartagena. This lovely, secluded spot is the vacation destination for many of Columbia’s wealthiest citizens and a former cruiser, Robert, has built a beautiful home there. Robert also has a converted shrimp boat named ‘Manatee’ which has become the party spot of Chalon. As many cruisers find midnight way too late, our New Year’s celebration was at 7p.m. with all the folks in the British Isles. Bring on 2010!
Icarian is now headed back to Chalon to wait for a good weather window for our passage back to the San Blas!!

pixs: Icarian with her new bimini, a typical San Blas island, a private islet in Cholon Columbia.

San Blas - April 2009

Icarian and crew are having a wonderful time in Paradise.The San Blas Islands have everything that we are looking for, lovely weather, amazing warm turquoise blue water, beautiful white sand beaches and reefs alive with coral and fish. Perfect!!
There are very few stores but we get vegetables and fruits delivered weekly by some enterprising Kuna's who provide this service. They load up their panga's with produce from Panama City and make the rounds of all the anchorages.
No lobster or crab though. It is April at the moment and taking seafood except for fish is not allowed. The ban runs March through May every year during mating season. We arrived just after it was in place and will leave before it is lifted so Brian is out of luck this year.

We had our friends Stan and Lynn (Homer's Odyssey) on board for a week. They left their boat in Panama City and flew into Nargana to see what life is like on the Caribbean side. It was great to show them some of our best spots and they are considering coming through the Canal next year.

The Kuna's main mode of transportation is a log dugout called an ulu. They can be sailed or paddled and we attended some fun races where any method of getting them to go was allowed. Cruisers were invited along to be ballast or bailers, whatever was needed and the course was around 3 small islands. Afterwards the Kuna ladies provided us with a typical meal of fish, rice and salad, delicious!
We have so far been staying in the western San Blas moving from island to island as the mood strikes us. At the beginning of May, we will likely start heading east before crossing to Columbia once again.
Hasta Luego!
Marilyn and Brian

Back in the San Blas

Icarian is back in cruising mode and it truly is wonderful.
Since we got such a late start to this cruising season we decided to retrace our steps back to the San Blas in Panama and enjoy the sights that so enchanted us last year. We spent most of February doing the final maintenance jobs on the boat and she is now in great shape.

The weather in Cartagena was sunny and very blustery and that seems to be what is normal this year. We set sail for the Rosario's, a group of Islands very close to Cartagena, on February 22nd and spent a week there enjoying the laid back atmosphere and waiting for a good weather window to cross back to the San Blas Islands. Each day the afternoon winds got up to 20 knots and the weather faxes told us that was as good as we were going to get.

We left 7 a.m. March 4th for the 176 mile crossing in building winds that sustained 20 to 25 knots all the way across. We had wind waves to 8 feet on our beam making it a very wet and rolly ride. We averaged 7 knots of speed and were in the San Blas 26 hours later. There has been a gale blowing ever since so we were very lucky to get here when we did.
Our passage was not without mishap, the captain suffered a stubbed toe, a sore head due to a flapping block and a perfectly good pair of glasses now in Davey Jones' locker and the first mate with her usual queasy 'first day at sea' stomach. Leaving the Rosario's we had a dolphin escort for about an hour. They could be seen rising in the waves right up to our eye level and looking like they were having lots of fun!!

We are now anchored in the Eastern Hollandes Cays in a bay locally known as the Hot Tub. We love it here and will likely spend a few days getting into relaxing mode. The weather is still blustery with short rain showers followed by glorious sunshine moments later. The waters are 83'F. and crystal clear turquoise in color. With palm trees, white sand and many reefs to explore, I think we should be able to fill a couple of months just fine.
Hasta Luego!
Marilyn and Brian

Nazca and Arequipa

We didn’t get to Puna and Lake Titicaca so maybe we will have to go back again some day. The local farmers blockaded the road to Puna in protest against a government’s decision to sell their properties to commercial companies for the mineral rights and thus moving the farmers off lands they have worked for decades. This is a sad situation we support the farmer’s right to do this. We waited 4 days for it to clear but then ran out of time.
We took an overnight bus through the mountains towards the pacific coast to Nazca and then another late bus to Arequipa. This was about 16 hours of bus travel but the buses were lovely with sleeper seats so we weren’t exactly suffering. Arequipa is the second largest city in Lima and is distinctive as many buildings are built with a white porous type stone. It is nestled at the base of a large mountain and an active volcano named Misti. The weather here is dry and sunny. We stayed in a lovely old hostel called ‘El Tumi del Oro’. Huge rooms with so much character and a roof top patio with swings, tables and umbrellas.

We visited the beautiful old convent of Santa Catalina that has been continuously operating for 400 years. It is like a city unto itself and very well preserved. We visited the museum where ‘Juanita’ the Inca Ice Princess is housed. The Inca on the Volcano Ampato sacrificed her to the gods and her grave was discovered in 1995. Because she was frozen, she was very well preserved and her DNA has been used to uncover many mysteries of that era. This museum was extremely well done and the treasures found in the graves beautifully displayed.
From Arequipa we took an overnight tour to the Colca Canyon. One of the 7 wonders of the world, this canyon is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Colca is home to Giant Condors, which are reported to be quite a sight as they soar in the updrafts. The day we were there however was lovely and still and the Condors don’t fly unless there is a breeze. We did see many Llamas, and Alpacas and even the rare and wild Vicuna’s.

Next stop was Nazca where we visited the legendary Nazca Lines. They are pictures etched in the desert sand that have been there since 200 BC. Nobody knows who put them there or why but they have inspired many fantastic explanations. We flew over the lines in a Cesna airplane and circled many of most famous pictures. There is a spider and a monkey, a parrot, a dog, hummingbird and astronaut and many others. They cover a 400 square miles of desert. Nobody can explain why sand has not covered them up over time; it is a total mystery. We had a wonderful holiday in Peru. The sights are truly spectacular and more than lived up to all the expectations.

We then flew back to Cartagena and Icarian and it was lovely to be back. We had 4 days in Columbia before an emergency at home called us back to Canada. Unfortunately Marilyn’s Dad passed away 4 hours after we got home. Our plans for this year are now under ‘re-write’. We will stay home in Canada till mid January and then see where our journey goes from there.

Pix:

1 Main plaza in Arequipa

2 Vicunas which are a relative of the llama

3 Farmers trucks

4 Colca Canyon

5 Colca Canyon

6 Peruvian farmer

7 Colca Canyon

8 The hummingbird at Nazca from 5000 ft.

The Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

The Sacred Valley of Peru is amazingly beautiful. Majestic mountains that rise out of the valley floor so sharply with no foothills - just straight up! The mountains are quite baron with cactus and mostly scrub land and lately Eucalyptus trees from Australia have been planted. These trees grow quickly and provide beams for house construction and many other things.
Our first stop in the Sacred Valley was Ollantaytambo, one of the few intact Inca villages. The village is surrounded by lush farms and a rushing Urubamba River. Corn is the crop mostly grown here and since it is Spring in this part of the world the healthy young crop was well underway.

We climbed the ruins at Ollantaytambo, which has steep stairs rising through terraces once farmed by the Inca. It is so mind boggling to imagine just how this site was built. Huge stones were moved from a quarry 6 kms away and when the river got in the way, they just diverted it around the rocks.

Another Inca site we visited was called ‘Salinas’ where water from a hot spring fills huge stone pans and evaporated to produce salt . This is still in operation today.


Not far from Salinas, ‘Moray’ an Inca agricultural site that was built like a huge amphitheater. Each level of the theater was planted with different crops and they were then able to see which crops grew best at each elevation. The Inca’s were masters in engineering and these sites had built in irrigation and drainage. One of the trademarks we have seen in all the sites we have visited is very precise craftsmanship. The huge rocks fit together perfectly with no need for any filler. All corners and edges are perfectly straight. Amazing!

October 15th we took the Perurail Vistadome train to Machu Picchu.
This trip was totally mind boggling with the steep mountains so close to the train that you had to look through the roof to see the tops. When we got to Aqua Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu, it was raining so we waited till the afternoon and luckily the sun came out. The bus trip to the top of the mountain is about ½ hour on switch back roads with scenery that just no words will support. The site was so much more than we expected and I think it was the incredible setting of Machu Picchu with the huge surrounding mountains that make it so. We hiked the whole site and just knew that it would be an experience neither of us would ever forget.

Back in Cusco, we took a day trip to another small valley town called Pisac.
This town is also at the base of another incredible Inca ruin and on Sundays they have a huge market with goods from all over the valley. We hiked the amazing ruins first and then took in the market.