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.

October 2008 - Peru!

Brian and Marilyn left Victoria at the end of September and 6 planes and 2 days later we were in Lima, Peru.

We try to always find good things to say about a place but we are hard pressed to come up with too many superlatives about Lima. The Plaza de Armas, where the Presidential Palace and the Cathedral are located is a lovely square, as is Plaza San Martin but the rest of Lima is just large and noisy. Hostel Iquique, where we stayed, was also great and they are keeping two large bags for us full of boat parts destined for Icarian.

After 4 days in Lima we flew to Cuzco, a charming town at the elevation of 3326 meters in the Andes Mountains. The day we arrived was sunny and hot, a treat we were not expecting but it proved to be kind of a fluke as the temperatures are for the most part very chilly here. Cusco is beautiful with cobblestone streets, quaint restaurants and is nestled on a valley surrounded by steep mountains. The people here have been great.

Tomorrow we are heading to a small village in the Sacred Valley called Ollantaytamba. We wanted to experience the feel of a village where not too many tourists come and this Inca village has been continuously inhabited since the 13th century. This should prove to be a very interesting stop on our way to Machu Picchu.
bye for now
Pixs: Lima Central Square, 3 in Cusco

Back home for a summer holiday

September 2008 and Marilyn and Brian are all set to begin year 5 of their amazing adventure. Icarian has spent the summer on the hard in Cartagena, Columbia where she is well below the hurricane belt. Brian got the bottom ready for painting and then worked on the engine, doing some very important servicing. Back in B.C. we have had a great time catching up with family and friends and attended two lovely weddings.

We fly out of Victoria on September 30th to Lima, Peru where we plan six weeks of inland travel. Machu Pichu, Lake Titicaca are a couple of the highlights but we plan to see much more.
Over the summer we have changed our cruising itinerary. We plan to launch Icarian at the end of November and after provisioning, leave Cartagena around the 1st of December. We have decided to do another season in the Western Caribbean as there is still so much more to see. First landfall will be Providencia where we will enjoy the Christmas season. Our plans include exploring the Bay of Islands of Honduras, Belize and Guatemala and more.
We will keep you posted on what we discover this year.
Bye for now

Pix: Some other cruisers visiting home, Sidney waterfront,Buchart's Gardens, Sidney malecon

July in Cartagena

Icarian has spent the last month anchored off Club Nautico in Cartagena.
We have been very spoiled with excellent weather as the rainy season was really late getting started.
Mid June we watched a big celebration that sent the tall ship ‘Gloria’ on a lengthy voyage. The pomp and ceremony involved in her ‘bon voyage’ party was really impressive. Sailors lined all the yardarms dressed in the colours of their flag, the bay was full of many kinds of boats and a tug gave a water salute as the Gloria departed.
We have enjoyed many nights wandering around the lovely ‘old town’, watching street dancing and lots of other forms of entertainment. We visited the amazing fortress of San Felipe and let our imagination runaway with visions of life in the 1600’s. The fort is very well preserved and the history associated with it so very interesting.
Marilyn is heading home to Canada in a couple of days and Brian will begin Icarian’s haulout.

June in Cartagena

We are now in this season’s final destination ‘Cartagena’ and what a beautiful big city it is. Our first impression was how much it was like Vancouver but without the mountains in the background.
Our journey here took us southeast along the coast of Panama as far as a small Kuna village called ‘Achitupu’. The village occupies a small island and appears to be bursting at the seams. A steady stream of children ventured out to visit us. They came on board to see how we lived and were very taken with pictures of our family back home. With our limited Spanish we had a great time. We passed out the rest of the school supplies we had brought with us and lots of homemade cookies and the children all left with happy smiles. The San Blas Islands are now our favourite cruising experience.

Our first landfall in Columbia was Isla Tintipan where we found some lovely private haciendas but as it was the off season, they were pretty much deserted. We moved northeast to the Rosario’s, a grouping of small island’s only 20 miles from Cartagena. This is a very funky area that has lots of fishermen’s cottages and weekend homes for some wealthy people in Cartagena.

Lively music, clean warm water and a lovely atmosphere made this an area we hope to visit again soon. We visited an aquarium there and saw lots of sharks up close and a very good dolphin show.. The feeding frenzy of the sharks, I won’t soon forget! Yikes!!

The old city is just gorgeous. The architecture just amazing and makes me wish that in Canada we weren’t so quick to tear down the old and put up modern buildings with no character. Lovely narrow streets with over hanging balconies and flowers spilling down towards the street. Just lovely! Surrounding the old city, the walls of the fortress are massive and very well preserved. So much history here!!
It’s time to do some serious boat projects over the next couple of months as well as investigate the many sites and sounds of the city. Icarian is getting a new bimini and will be hauled out for some TLC. We’re heading back to Vancouver (Marilyn July 8 and Brian Aug 12) to visits the clan and friends
Hasta luego!!

Icarian's May update!!

San Blas May 1st, 2008

Hi again from Paradise!
Brian and I are still here in the San Blas and have just spent 3 weeks with good friends Larry and Julie on Komara.

We have snorkeled some amazing reefs as we have re-visited some of our favourite spots. We are now getting used to sharks but I prefer them sleeping on the sand which is often where we find them. Brian likes them swimming around of course and is always ready to spur them on. Yikes!
This last week we saw a 5` Barracuda just hovering in one spot no doubt waiting for some tasty morsel to swim by.
In the Western Holandes Islands we discovered a series of underwater passageways and arches and tunnels leading to a secluded beach. The water actually shimmered it was so warm, it had to be over 100 degrees. We think there must have been an underwater hot springs helping the sun and were surprised to see lots of fish still swimming in that heat.

We visited a typical Kuna village called Isla Maquina. It is a tiny island with over 300 inhabitants and there is not a square inch of land not in use. A young man named Ildefonso had invited us to his village and he took us to the Congresso to meet his chief and get the necessary permission to walk around.
The pathways between the thatched cottages are narrow and so neat and lovely colourful hibiscus grow everywhere. Ildefonso speaks pretty good English that he has picked up from making friends with the passing Cruisers.

Brian and Larry went for a sail on an ulu. Amazing the speed and manouverability they can achieve in a dug out log with craps of material sewn together for a sail. The Kuna are true sailors!!

Icarian is now starting the next leg of this year's journey and that is heading East to Cartagena.
We left Nargana yesterday and ran right into a huge rain squall which continued all day and evening. We calculated 4 inches had come down and we managed to just about fill our water tanks. Icarian is now squeaky clean too!
The rainy season is just starting and we hope that it eases in slowly.

We are now in Snug Harbor a beautiful little spot nestled between 4 small islands and the mountainous mainland is close by.
The anchorages and villages we are about to visit are very remote and very few cruisers come this way.
Our plan is to coastal hop down as far as the Columbian border and then shoot across to Cartagena by mid May.
Hasta luego!
Marilyn and Brian

April's update - San Blas Islands

Icarian is presently anchored in the Eastern Holandes Cays in a lagoon commonly referred to as the Hot Tub.
It is lovely here, truly a paradise.

We made a short trip down to Colon in the middle of March. We needed to reprovision after 2 months in the islands and haul the boat out of the water to straighten the strut that had become bent when our propeller encountered a stray line. Long story, but luckily it straightened with no trouble and we were back in the water again within an hour. In Colon we were able to do a good re-provisioning again and are now set for another couple of months.
While we were in Colon they were filming the upcoming new James Bond movie called 'Quantum of Solace'. In fact, the filming was happening all around and in the Shelter Bay Marina where we were staying. The film company had hired about 40 cruising boats to anchor off the marina and form the back drop for a lot of the action. We saw some amazing stunts being practiced again and again and then watched as they shot the actual footage. Daniel Craig is James Bond and his leading lady Olga was very pretty.
I was interested to see that most of the work is done by the stunt doubles and the main actors are just slotted in at the end. The stunt double for James was named Wade and he was so friendly and had all the girls fawning over him. Fun to watch.

Yesterday our cruising friends Larry and Julie on Komara arrived here in the San Blas. We cruised with them in the Sea of Cortez in 2005 and now find ourselves back together for a couple of weeks before we head in different directions again.
We have some awesome 'favourite spots' to show them!!
Hasta luego!!

San Blas March 1st, 2008

We have spent the month gunkholing around the Naguargandup Cays, finding many great anchorages where we are all by ourselves. The San Blas has many 'popular' anchorages where this year they are seeing record numbers of cruisers. There are sometimes as many as 15 boats enjoying the same spot. If you are a little adventuresome and just nose around you can find seclusion if that is what you want. We like to mix it up. Our friends Gary and Celeste on Sol Surfin arrived in the San Blas mid February and we have really enjoyed cruising with them again. We have cruised with them on and off on the Pacific side for the past two seasons.

A definite highlight of this month was visiting Isla Tigre and joining in the celebration of the Kuna nation's Independence Day. February 25th 1925 the Kuna taught the Panamanian police and the missionaries a lesson. They did not want to conform to the way of life they were preaching and just wanted to live their own peaceful life rich with tradition. The celebration included a re-enactment of their successful fight. They act out through skits the way the Revolution day unfolded showing the hardships

they had to endure leading up to that day. They keep this memory alive through the skits preformed once a year and through their dancing. The friendliness of the Kuna people was so wonderful to experience. We have some awesome pictures to show you but will have to wait till we are in a civilized area again that has access to the internet.

At present we are in the Coco Banderos Cays. Yesterday while snorkeling on an outer reef Brian dove down to see what was under an interesting looking ledge. Looking back at him was a very large shark. Beating a hasty retreat we tried another area with our friends and ran into a 12' nurse shark just taking a rest on the bottom. Brian swam right over him to have a closer look (he is crazy!) and the shark spun around to face him before swimming off around some rocks and headed right where I was
swimming. I have had a few wakeful moments reliving that experience. They say the nurse sharks are not aggressive but they are sure big and mean looking. Yikes!
We can't say enough about the wonderland under the water on these reefs. Truly amazing!

So that is it for now, we are just planning on hanging out here for another couple of weeks and then heading back towards Colon to do some more provisioning. Then we will return to this wonderful area till the beginning of May and then head for Cartegena.
Hasta Luego!

Pix: Brian goes for a sail in an ulu, Kuna villagers at Isla Tigre

San Blas Update

What is the definition of Paradise?
Well we think we have found it. Icarian is anchored off a little island called Morbedup in the San Blas Cays. It is truly lovely here. White sand beaches, palm trees, birds singing, turquoise water and very comfortable temperatures.
The snorkeling in the San Blas has been amazing too. The coral varieties here are so varied in colour and shapes and every reef is a new wonderful garden to discover. There are amazing 4 foot fan ferns in delicate purples and mounds of coral in bright oranges and maroons. The fish are the added bonus of course with all their different shapes and colours. Awesome!!

Island hopping is so easy. We just unfurl the jib and sail from one to the other. The northeast tradewinds have been blowing while we have been here but we have been able to find nice little knooks for protection. The reefs that surround the islands cut the waves just like there is a wall. Amazing to see.

Brian has been enjoying lobsters and crabs galore, he is so lucky!
So that is our update for now. We are just hanging out and having fun.
Sorry..pix will have to wait until we get to an internet cafe in a few months.

Pixs: Marilyn's birthday, the crabs are BIG, a cute girl at Isla Tigre

Icarian in the San Blas!

Icarian spent Christmas 2007 in the lovely harbour of Portobello. This very protected bay is just loaded with history having been discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502. The Spanish soon claimed it and sent their galleons to load up on gold and silver from Central and South America. These galleons and Portobello became the target of pirates like Henry Morgan and Sir Francis Drake who died in Portobello. Forts surround the bay and we found ourselves anchored with many rusty old canons pointed our way. The forts have not been restored so they are just as they were way back when. Very cool! :) We had our Christmas lights up and although the weather was a little wet we managed an excellent feast with friends off Second Nature and Quinuituk.

After a brief stop at Islas Linton and Grande we set off for the San Blas Islands on New Years Eve. We had a great sail in sunny skies and winds in the 15 to 20 knot range with seas averaging in the 6 to 8' . We arrived in the San Blas at a little Island called Chichime (chee-chee-may) late in the afternoon. It is the first time in many years we welcomed in the New Year sound asleep! :)

The San Blas is a huge area of coral reefs with the odd small island thrown in. In fact there are over 300 of these little islands and the reefs give protection from the 6-10ft swell rolling in from the Caribbean. The weather since we arrived here has been fairly windy which is keeping us cool. Water temperature is about 84'F and the skies have been mostly sunny!!
The beach here has very white soft sand and palm trees galore with few native huts nestled under them.

The Kuna Indians govern the San Blas as an independent state within Panama. We have begun to see and buy some of their crafts. They are famous for needlework called Molas which are very colorful pictures usually depicting their history and lifestyle. These pictures take a long time to complete and are very beautiful. We plan to investigate many of the islands in the San Blas in the next three months before heading to Cartegena.

Pixs: A typical island in San Blas and an ulu used by most of the Kuna for fishing/transportation.