Bogota by foot

Bogota, Colombia

 

As promised, today we took on the city via a walking tour. We have utilized these type of walking tours in various cities that we have visited over the years and have always enjoyed them. This tour was no exception. We chose a morning tour because the forecast was for possible afternoon rain showers and that is indeed what is happening as I am writing this.

 

 

 

 

 

Our tour covered a lot of the old, historical part of town, which is also where our hotel is located. We got a lot of history about the country and the city, both modern and ancient. This is another of those Latin American countries that have only recently gone through periods of unrest - to see it now, you would never know. The area we are in is heavy on schools and universities and there are always a huge number of young people hurrying from one place to another, loaded with backpacks full of books and such. Almost every block has little eclectic restaurants and cafes. The buildings are colourful and decorated in lots of inventive graffiti, which is a legal art form here. Tomorrow we hope to take another tour specializing in the graffiti itself.

 

 

 

Casa Platypus - Our Hotel

 

After our walking tour, we spent the afternoon in the Museo del Oro (the Gold Museum), probably the biggest highlight for most tourists in Bogota. It is a spectacular display and really lives up to all the hype - the amount of gold on display is amazing. We left the museum around 3:30PM and walked back to our hotel to rest before heading out for supper. As soon as we got into our room, the skies opened up and we are in the middle of a load thunderstorm with a torrential amount of rain coming down. Our timing was perfect!

 

 

 

 

 

{GMST}4|36|N|74|4.128|W|Bogota, Colombia|Bogota, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Bogota bound

Bogota, Colombia

 

We spent a very quiet Sunday on San Andres island. Most of the stores were closed and there were less tourists and more locals about. Three days on this island is enough for us - the beaches are just a little too busy and we were really not in the mood to take any excursions to any of the nearby islands for snorkelling opportunities. We wanted to take a bus tour around the island but did not get up very early and then wasted too much time at the coffee shop. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

 

 

 

 

We did take a long walk along the perimeter of the island but after it got too hot without any sign of anything new and exciting, we hitched a ride back to town on a local bus. It is just possible that we are burnt out on the warm water and palm trees of paradise.

 

 

If so, Bogota promises to be something completely different. In fact, upon arrival here this afternoon, we find the weather to be a bit cool and rainy - we hope we brought enough warm clothes. Tomorrow we plan to join a walking tour of the city, just to see how adaptable we are.

 

{GMST}4|36|N|74|4.128|W|Bogota, Colombia|Bogota, Colombia{GEND}

 

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San Andres

San Andres, Colombia

 

We arrived on the island of San Andres yesterday afternoon, slightly behind schedule due to a small delay on the flight from San Jose. We really like these short haul flights on Avianva, a one hour flight from El Salvador to San Jose in Costa Rica (with a hot breakfast) followed by a 1 hour flight to San Andres (with a nice lunch).

 

Initial impressions of San Andres? Basically a very Caribbean vibe with great looking, very clean, very crowded, white sand beaches and lots of water toys like sea-doos and kiteboarding and such. Lots of shops selling your typical tourist fare and a surprisingly small number of cool beach bars. Very picturesque place with a bit of an older run-down set of hotels. There are a few of the predictable upscale condos and a bit of new construction gong on, so maybe it isn't finished yet.

 

 

We have walked quite a bit of the main town, visited some kind of cultural museum and sampled a couple of the more touristy eateries. Probably expensive by Colombian standards but seemed very reasonable to us. The Club Colombia brand beer is quite good! Our hotel is a bit of a disappointment but the location is great - everything is a compromise. The promised Wifi has never worked yet so I will have to post this from the local Juan Valdes coffee shop.

 

 

 

{GMST}12|34.956|N|81|41.4918|W|San Andres, Colombia|San Andres, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Exit (and return) strategy

Estero Jaltepeque, El Salvador

Life in the estuary continues to be very relaxing, with a lot of time spent solving the worlds problems in the company of friends, sometimes over meals at various locations, or just hanging around the pool at the Bahia del Sol resort. Just having a couple of cups of coffee in the cockpit in the mornings can easily eat up half the day.

 

 

 

 

After much deliberation, we have come up with a plan for extending our visas here in El Salvador. Basically it involves leaving the country and returning again. Of course, if we are going to leave the country anyway, we figure we should at least go somewhere we haven't been before.

The place we came up with is Colombia, a country that we have heard good things about and to which we don't seem likely to be visiting by boat in the near future. Since our visas run out on the 25th of the month, we are flying out on the 24th, which is just 4 days away.

Initially, we will be going to an island just off the coast of Nicaragua, San Andres (which belongs to Columbia), where we will spend a few nights before flying onward to Bogota. After a few days there, on March 2nd we will join a tour group for a 20-day exploration of much of Colombia, then return to El Salvador on the 22nd of March. Should be a bit of an adventure, just what we need to break up the too easy life here in the estuary.

Unfortunately, it seems as if almost all of the cruisers we have been hanging around with will be leaving the estuary in the next few days as well, heading various directions. We will have to make a whole new set of friends when we get back - such is typical of the cruising life.

{GMST}13|18|N|88|53.562|W|Bahia del Sol Resort, El Salvador|Bahia del Sol Resort, El Salvador{GEND}

 

 

All play and no work

Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador

We finally made it out of Paradise Marina. I never did figure out why the engine overheated on our first attempt, but everything seems fine now. I am never completely comfortable with problems that fix themselves as they have a way of showing up again when you least expect them, but for now I just have to accept that all is well.

 

 

 

We motored the 4 miles or so down the estuary, where we are currently tied to one of our friend Bill's moorings. From here we are now only a short dinghy ride to the marina at Bahia del Sol and several other restaurants. Sundowners on Bill and Jean's dock is a nightly affair. From their dock, Sine Timore is perfectly positioned to frame the sunset.

 

Now that most of the boat maintenance projects are done, and we are are able to participate in the social scene here in the estuary, Susanne is much happier. The nice breezes that blow through this part of the estuary most every day, make it just about perfect for lazing the mornings away in the cockpit. As Susanne points out, this is what cruising is supposed to be all about.

 

 

Our only issue right now is that our 90-day visas are going to run out in a couple of weeks. Originally we had intended to be out of El Salvador and headed to Mexico about now, but Sue is not eager to leave this perfect piece of paradise just yet. We will either have to try and extend our visas (which proved somewhat troublesome when we did that a few years ago), leave the C4 countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras share a common visa) and come back, or simply overstay our visas and pay a fine later. I am sure we will think of something.

Meanwhile, life is pretty much perfect right now!

{GMST}13|18.4|N|88|54.1362|W|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador|Jaltepeque Estuary, El Salvador{GEND}

All work and no play

Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador

In contrast to the incredibly busy month of December, the new year has ushered in a much more sedate pace of life. Part of the reason for this is that there are fewer cruisers around just now, especially here at the western end of the estuary where Paradise is located. The marina, which seemed quite full when we first arrived, is now all but deserted. We are the only people actually staying on a boat. We would also have left by now, if only going as far as taking a mooring closer to Bahia, except for a series of setbacks on the boat maintenance front.


The most serious of the boat issues has been the cockpit drains. Early in the month of January, while doing some reorganizing of the cockpit locker, I came across a badly worn hose. After removing everything from the locker and hiring a local guy to go in there and remove the old hoses (it is a very tight fit for me), it turned out that it was not only the hoses that were bad, but also the fittings on both ends were totally rusted out - the result of using steel fittings in a salt-water environment.

The thru-hulls themselves appear to be OK, made of bronze, but the attached bronze valves are completely unusable due to being effectively welded to the rusted remnants of the steel hose adapters. My guy was able to screw one of the valves off, but the other one was impossible due to its close proximity to the exhaust hose. Before I let him cut it off, I decided to make sure I had a replacement plan in place. I needed new hoses along with some sort of hose fittings for both ends.

Thru-hull with valve removed

Valve that came off easily
 

Valve that does not come off easily
 

Drain holes at the back of the cockpit

 

Nasty glued-in rusted-out drain pipe

 

Begging rides into San Salvador whenever they are offered and scouring the aisles at various hardware stores confirmed that there was no hope of locating 2" bronze fittings. So as a backup plan, I snagged some PVC fittings instead, and downsized the size of the hose slightly. Weeks later, with all of the materials at hand, I had the mechanic cut the old valve off. I then managed to squeeze myself into the locker and proceeded to install all the new pieces, with the help of copious amounts of epoxy, silicone and heavy-duty hose clamps. All in all it doesn't look half bad now!



PVC drain replacement - epoxied-in

 

New PVC fittings and drain hoses

 

Our poor weathered bowsprit is looking much better now as well. We found a carpenter who was able to repair a lot of the cracks in the wood, thoroughly sand it to smooth perfection, then cover it all with a couple of coats of epoxy. Hopefully this will extend its useful life a few years.

Before

After

 

Looking good!

 

We have a working VHF radio again. Against all odds, I was able to buy an in-stock sailboat VHF antenna at a marine supply store in San Salvador (the same store we were trying to find last month when I managed to half destroy our rental car while going the wrong way down a one-way street - the details of that adventure are just too complicated to go into here).

Two trips up the mast and I had the new antenna installed, working perfectly as far as I can tell.

Of course, the most anticipated project was the new sail cover and lazy jacks. Doyle sailmakers came through on time and it was shipped from Barbados on January 20th via FedEx, arriving at the El Salvador airport one week later. One trip into San Salvador and two trips to the airport, along with lots of pleading, begging, threatening, an incredible amount of paperwork and significant amounts of cash later, the sail cover was released from customs into my welcoming hands. According to everyone we talked to, including the agent we had to hire, getting something through customs in just over one day is some sort of "miracle".

Over the last week I have gradually installed the new cover. This necessitated a couple more trips up the mast to install some new pad-eyes and blocks, then removing the sad remnants of the old cover from the boom and finally persuading the new cover onto the boom with the new lazy jacks and all, and we are almost done. It looks pretty good but will need some final adjustments with the sail raised. We also have to modify the front cover piece a bit because when I measured the circumference of the mast, I did not take the protruding winches and mast-steps into account. Oh well - it is almost perfect...

 

 

We are finding that work, especially outside on the deck under the unrelenting sunshine, is a very slow process, requiring frequent breaks to cool off and rehydrate. As a result, it never seems as if we accomplish very much, given how long we have been here.

The weather here in fact has been a bit cooler in January than in December. Daily highs are still in the mid 30s during the day, with lots of humidity, but a lot of the nights have dropped into the low 20s, which actually feels cool to us now.

We have managed to do a little socializing with the few other cruisers around, Sunday gatherings at Casa L&L and a few lunches or dinners out, finding a couple of restaurants we had not known about before, but generally Susanne is complaining that she is not having enough fun.

To try and alleviate this "no fun" situation, we made plans to get out of the marina and head to one of our friend Bill's moorings this morning on the early high tide. Unfortunately, while idling, waiting for slack water to arrive, the engine overheating alarm went off.  The temperature gauge confirmed that all was not well and with tears in our eyes, we shut the engine off.

 

The good news is that the alarm works, something I have been sceptical about ever since our false alarms a few years ago which forced me to replace the temperature sensors and gauge several times. The bad news is that the engine is actually overheating, for reasons which are not yet known. Needless to say, we are once again firmly attached to the dock here at Paradise, until further notice.

 

 

{GMST}13|19.422|N|88|56.675|W|Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador|Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador{GEND}