Tropical Fruits

View from Crows Nest with Cartagena in background

Time is coming to an end here in Cholon. It has been a very fast couple of months with all kind of exitment some more fun than others. For instant a couple of weeks ago the owner of the island next to where we are anchored drove by on his power boat and invited to join them for a sunset cruise and after the sun had set they invited us onto the island for a cocktail. They had many questions about cruising, where we check in and some about our friends in Crows Nest. Five days after that the Armada (Navy) arrived and boarded all our boats without permission. There were three officers, one from the Navy, the others I am not quite sure which department they were from just that the Navy guy was in charge and he was harassing us. He wanted to see our paper work which are all in order except our cruising permits were still in Bogota but a phone call to our agent proofed that we were all legal. The Lieutenant found another reason he insisted we needed a Zarpe for the park which we know doesn't exist, we cleared that up then another and another, he tried really hard to nail us for something. We realized that this was clearly harassment especially when he threatened to tow us to the Naval Station in Cartagena all 5 boats. He did tell us at the begin that he was told that there were 5 American boats here! It was a 5 hour ordeal including searching all 5 boats, with no permission and when they finally left they ordered us to be at the Port Captain's office at 8 sharp following morning. Non of us did as we know he only deals with our agents. It was clearly harasment and we figured out that it was the friendly neighbor who had us on his island a few days back,what a nice guy! He's tried to get all the cruising boats out of this bay a year ago. We all went into Cartagena and had a meeting with our agents and learned that the boarding was totally illegal and that they had no right to threaten us as they did. We learned that when at anchor nobody can board you without a warrant, you may let them on board but you can decline. If you are afraid if you say no that they would take over your boat that would fall into piracy and they know they can't do that without getting in trouble. Our agents advised us to go to the National Park Authorities and file paperwork. As we entered the office and were introduced to the Boss of the Park he looked at Roberto and said I always wanted to meet you, you are famous in Cholon. He then showed him a page with many photos and asked if that was his boat. It sure was but the other photos were of garbage tossed in the mangroves and whoever sent the photo to the park authority claimed it was from Robert's boat Manatee. We all assured him that it was not Roberto's nor our trash as he weekly collects our trash and he takes it to Baru to the garbage dump. After filing paperwork we were told that we all were welcome to stay in the park as long as we wanted (one year then paper work has to be renewed) and pay 3 dollars per person per day which is used for the park upkeep.

Life was good again and we returned back to Cholon. Sid was still helping Roberto on Manatee and last week I was involved in some sewing project. I also had to see a dermatologist for a sore I had on my lips and she ended up whacking a piece away, ouch.

Weather has been changing and we have our first tropical Low's, hurricane season has arrived. We have a very good weather window for the next few days before westerlies are starting to blow which means we would sail into the weather so we are leaving here today.

We love Colombia and will return soon for some more of all the good things here, tranquil anchorage, historical city, friendly people and wonderful food. I am still amazed how many tropical fruits we are able to enjoy, most of them I don't even know the name of but they all are just yummy tasting.

Carmelita spoils us daily with papaya's from her garden and believe me they are the sweetest we've ever had. Here are a few fruits we enjoy:

Guava Apple

Algaroba (tates just like honey)

Guama (cotton candy flavor)

Mamom (tart and sour with same texture as Guama)

Tomate de Arbol (Tree Tomatoes taste best in juices)

Caimito
 

 

Lunch