The trip to the San Blas is pretty uneventful. Most of the time we have light SW winds, yup right on the bow. Everyone swears this is unusual for this area, but I'm starting to think its just me. We did get about 6 hours of really fun sailing in about 15-20 knots winds on a close reach (I'm sure that term means something to someone) Of course all of this happens while I'm not on watch and am trying to sleep on the left side of the boat while its heeled over on its right side...(read, I keep falling out [View Full Entry]

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Ok some last thoughts on Cartagena and Colombia and the rest of what happened in Colombia. Upon return to Cartagena from Santa Marta it was time to get ready to set sail for Panama. We had about 2 days of doing work: shopping, getting stuff cleaned, laundry, and other sundry things. We did take to time to see the Inquisition museum. ("Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition") This museum has a good history of Cartegena. We also found the time to go and tour San Felipe. Its a huge fort that overlooks the city and was built to defend the city from [View Full Entry]

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So as a side excursion from the trek to Cuidad Perdida you can go and visit a cocaine factory. Now I'm thinking ok its an old and busted factory no longer working. Wrong!!! Its a real, live operational place they make cocaine. Well but its not much of a factory, its really just a 15x20' hut in the jungle. Every three months they make 3 kilos of coke. What is really interesting is that Cocaine is a natural substance in the coco plant leaves but its a chemists wet dream to get it into your nose. The coco leaves grow back [View Full Entry]

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Ok where to start this. I´m actually back in Cartegena now but I just got back from a 6 day trek into the Colombian Jungle to see Ciudad Perdida (Lost City). It´s a pre-Colombian Tayrona Indian city. Its a pretty impressive set of ruins, well what is left. Its up on top of this mountain that you hike up about 3000 stairs from the river to get to. The ruins that are left are walls and terraces with steps. Sorry since this trip is so short I'll do pics when I get home. Anyway it was quite the adventure to get [View Full Entry]

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Wow, I didn´t realize that today was the 11th until I started typing this blog. I barely know its Tuesday and I guess I´ve been out a week. We arrived into Cartagena on Sunday AM after almost 4 days of sailing. I spent a total of 4 hours in Aruba, arrive 12:30 and leave at 4:30. Oh well. The only real exciting thing that happened on the trip is that I got a contract on my house, yeah!!!!! Other than that, last two days have been spent trying to figure out what we are going to do now that we are [View Full Entry]

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I think that is the official title of the paddling trip. Of course it was really only 4 rivers, we did one river 3 times. So last Friday was my last day of work, then I immediately left for NC, MD, and WV to go kayaking for the week. There were 4 of us this year: Todd Lasher, Tonya Chaffin, James Proctor and myself. I'm currently working on the full length trip report for that epic voyage. Not sure if it will get posted here or not. Probably just to the paddling websites. So here is the summary. Day 1 -- [View Full Entry]

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Well my ticket is purchased. 1st Stop Aruba for some sailing from Aruba to Cartegana to San Blas, the fun starts Oct 5th [View Full Entry]

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Cliff Notes Let's see highlights of the Thailand, really in no particular order. *They have awesome food, tastes just like the Thai food here. You can get it spicy or not spicy depending on what you order. - We have really good Thai here, but since I have gotten back, I have decided it was much better there. *Bad beer though, I switched to Mekong (rice rum) and coke or sprite about halfway through the trip. *Eating food from the street vendors and market vendors was a fun and safe experience. *Good weather sort of. Very hot, 90-95 and very humid [View Full Entry]

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Ok, random trivia. The Galapagos Islands are officially named the Archipelago de Colon; they are part of Ecuador and sit 960km off the Ecuadorian coast. They are also about 90% national park. The only way to walk on the islands is with a Park Naturalist/guide. These islands were the inspiration for Darwin’s Origin of Species. The islands are famed for their vast array of wildlife, much of it endemic. (Pick word I learned). The islands are most famous for the Giant Tortoises that are found there, but I think the birds provided a more spectacular show. But I get ahead of [View Full Entry]

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This is the trip report from my trip to Chile back in 2004, before I started blogging everything. Cliff Notes Chile is a country of spectacular scenery, friendly people and excellent food. My three weeks there were quite amazing, and I hope to go back. I will try to describe in words and pictures the adventure, but it really can’t be done. I expected Patagonia to look a lot like Alaska. Simply stated, I was correct. However, when I was taking in my surroundings I never thought: “yeah this looks like Alaska”. One main difference is the number of fjords in [View Full Entry]

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