The First Week Back on Tsamaya in Carthagena, Spain - January 2 - January 10, 2024

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A New Year and we are back on Tsamaya! This is definitely earlier than normal, but we decided to try escaping the winter of upstate NY and spend the time in southern Spain instead where our other home, Tsamaya is located. We left on January 2^nd and arrived about 4PM local time on January 3^rd. It was a little bit of a round robin of a journey but after hopping first to Washington, DC, then to Zurich, Switzerland, we made it to Cartagena, Spain. When we landed the pilot told us that the temperature was 69 degrees F – think we will be able to take this for the 3^rd of January! Everything went smoothly and our luggage even came up quickly in baggage claim so all in all a good trip. It was also a plus to get back to Tsamaya during daylight hours as that was not the case when we were in Turkey.

With Cartagena being 6 time zones different from where we left in the US, it does take us a few days to get our bodies to match up with the time zone here. It sure means that we sleep at odd hours for a couple of days so we try to get a few things done when awake no matter the time. First of course was emptying the suitcases and soon after we crashed – luckily our bed on Tsamaya is comfortable.

The boat is definitely dirty with a very thick covering of sand over ever inch of her. We had to turn in our water meter when we left so until we get that we can’t do a complete washing, but at least did some scrubbing in the cockpit. We have been having quite a bit of wind numerous days this week so Bob hasn’t been able to power wash the boat yet as don’t want to spray any of the surrounding boats due to the wind. We also have been trying to concentrate on getting things straightened up, sorted and cleaned up down below as that is where we are doing our living these days.

First full day here we wandered into town to get oriented again. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the streets were still decorated for the holidays as we had forgotten that they celebrate Christmas, but also more importantly they celebrate the Three Kings. We were fortunate as found out that they were having a parade on Friday, January 5^th so we were back in time. Fortunately, our memory isn’t too bad as it came back to us where a couple of the grocery stores were and how to get around the town; most importantly also - how to get back to the marina!

Friday our friends, Dawn and Joe, on SV Pixie Dust invited us to their boat for a drink and to catch up as we haven’t seen them since we both left Cartagena last August. Always nice to have friends that we already know to welcome us back. After leaving them we went into town to catch the parade that was to start at 6:30PM. We had a map of the route, but it really wasn’t necessary as the crowds told us very easily where it would be going. We found a good spot to watch from (as Bob said it was great as there were only short people in front of us!) It took a while for the parade to get to where we were, but gave us a little time to try a little of our Spanish as well as pick up a few words from people we were standing near.

We were definitely impressed with the parade – it had numerous bands, lots of dance groups, floats and even a Santa Clause before the last three floats carrying the Three Kings. One of the bands that surprised us was the one that played the bagpipes. That was somewhat surprising to hear bagpipes in Spain, but what really struck us was that they were all dressed up like American Indians and Cowboys! We found that Barbie is big here too as she had a float to herself and behind was a very large group of Barbie’s dancing like crazy! Two other groups reminded us of ones we had seen when in the Caribbean with very elaborate headdresses either with feathers or “creatures” such as a variety of birds or lions on top. Amazing that with the size of the headdresses they could dance, but they definitely did a great job of it.

We had heard that candy and stuffed animals would be thrown out to the crowds, but didn’t realize that the kids would actually be given free paper cones designed to catch the candy – what a great idea. We did find that many of these were missed however, so there were plenty of wrapped candies to be picked up around everyone’s feet – even some of the dancers would stop and pick up the candy in the street and put in some of the kids candy cones. We did find that even though the people in front of us were short (i.e. – kids), with them raising up their paper scoops to catch the candy, it did make it a little more of challenge to take some of the photos of the entertainment, but tried the best we could. Bob took the phone to do some of the taller shots and videos, while I did what I could with the camera from my height. The crowd was large, but we were very impressed with how well behaved everyone was and when it broke up, the people all left in a very orderly way. Always nice to see when this happens. They did have 2 machines shooting confetti all over the crowd so am sure the clean up crews will have plenty to do between the confetti and candy on the ground. Oh well, everyone seemed to have lots of fun!

We hadn’t eaten dinner before the parade so stopped at a small place that served drinks and tapas. Nothing was in English but fortunately we have picked up quite a few of the words already so placed an order and were pleased with what we got. Always nice when it works out that way! It definitely was a wonderful way to start our time back on the boat.

Every Sunday at the marina there is a barbeque which I had heard about from the FB group for people living aboard in Cartagena so we definitely wanted to join in. You only pay 1 euro each, bring a dish to pass and whatever you’d like to grill yourself. It was very nice to be able to sit out in the sun and meet a few of the others that are here in the marina at this time. A few of the other marinas we have been in had cruiser organized barbeques such as this one, we always found it to be a nice social event to participate in. Fun finding out where others have been and where they are headed. Will definitely put this on our calendar for every Sunday that we are here.

We have been here since Wednesday evening and haven’t made it to the fresh fruit and vegetable market yet so think that will be the plan for Monday. We still have plenty to do on the boat, but taking our time getting into the routine of things – nice that we aren’t in a rush to go anywhere and we can just enjoy each day at a time. Think that the rest of the week we will start to try to knock some of those things off our list of what we want to accomplish or at least make a plan for doing so!

We made it to the market on Monday as we had been told it was only open from Monday through Friday. It wasn’t too bad of a walk, but unfortunately there were very few vendors open. We were able to get some fruit and vegetables and more importantly for Bob was he waited in line to get some olives – he has been looking forward to that! The market is inside a very large building and we could see numerous closed stalls. When I asked one of the vendors, I was told that all the vendors are open on Saturday! Too bad we didn’t know they were open as would have loved to have come then. Will put it on our calendar for next Saturday. No harm as it again got us to a new part of the city we hadn’t been to. We also got to another grocery store we had heard about near there. We were very pleasantly pleased with the Mercadona store, found lots of great offerings with good prices – we will definitely be giving them more of our business.

Tuesday, we decided it was time to tackle cleaning out our quarter berth (more commonly known by us as “the garage”). We wanted to sort it out to see if there were any things, we could get rid of as well as get our suitcases put away as that is where they are stored when not traveling. Just think of those things that you may store in your attic or garage that we have to find room for on our 40-foot boat! We bought a new suitcase and of course it was a different size than the last which always adds to the challenge. It took a good part of the day to complete, but it turned out well and we have been able to update our inventory of things stored in there as well as found some space to fill again! After getting that job done it was time to get off the boat and take a walk. With so many places we haven’t seen, it is easy to find new streets to explore. This time we walked over closer to the Spanish Navy base that is located here in Cartagena, but when we made a turn to start on the way back to the boat, we surprised ourselves by finding ourselves not that far from the supermarket we found yesterday. We are getting a better lay of the land each time we foray into town.

Our bodies still haven’t completely made it to being on Spanish time, but it is getting better each day. They say it typically takes 1 day for each hour of difference in time. If that is the case as we are 6 hours different from upstate NY, we should be “on Spanish time” tomorrow as it will be one week tomorrow afternoon – we will see. As it is about 1AM now, think it is time to get to bed and see if it will work out tomorrow.

Well, it is Wednesday, August 10^th and as of 4PM local time tonight we have been here for one full week. Made some headway on cleaning out an area today that isn’t the easiest to get to and will finish it up tomorrow, at least we got it started. We have been making up some more lists of things we need to tackle as well as items we want to get prices on at the local boatyard. Unfortunately, we still aren’t completely on Spanish time – Bob slept for a few hours last night, got up about 3AM, went back to bed about 5:50AM and didn’t wake up til about 11:30AM! Fortunately, I’m doing a little better but didn’t get to bed til 2AM and woke up about 5AM, fortunately went back to sleep and got up about 8:30AM so I am definitely farther ahead than Bob!

Hard to believe a week has gone by already – as Bob says so many times, “time flies when you are having fun!” Next week we will start taking in some of the historic sites that are right here in Cartagena as didn’t get to them in the heat and humidity last August. Looking forward to interspersing some fun with our “chores”. Figured I’d be good at getting this blog up timely – no promises for the future as we start to see more!

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Photos

Waiting in Albany Airport for the 1st Flight,
enjoying the view, then sunrise from the Zurich airport

Lunch in Zurich As Have 4 Hours There,
the Spanish coast & mountains, Alicante airport-last one

This is Only A Very Small Amount of the Dirt on Tsamaya
we know what we will be doing - lots of cleaning!

A Good Crowd To Watch the Parade
and lots of paper "cones" to catch the candy

Guess Barbie Is Big Here Too
had to laugh at the Barbie's with beards!

Bands of All Kinds Made Up of Old, Young, Male,Female
a wonderful cross section of the community