Providencia, Colombia

13 20.32N 81 22.37W

With a population of 4500 Providencia is only 7km long and 4 km wide. It is made up of two small islands joined together by a bridge. The highest peak on Providencia is El Pico at 320m.

The sail to Providencia was once again a bumpy and fast 3 day sail.– Don kept trying to slow White Rose down, we were running a pocket handkerchief size staysail and main with 2 reefs and still doing 8 knots.

Providencia is a beautiful tiny island belonging to Colombia, its neighbour San Andres (90 km to the South) also belongs to Colombia and is the tourist island. Providencia does not encourage nor get many tourists. Most residents are Providencia born – even though the island belongs to Colombia the only people allowed to purchase land and live on the island must be born or married into a Providenica family. The people speak English – a wonderful bonus for me – the island was originally owned by the British and that language is taught in schools. The locals can speak Spanish and their own version of Creole. This is one of the few places that we have visited where I have felt very welcome – all places welcome yachties but mainly for their dollars – the locals did not offer water taxis, dinghy minding services, rubbish collection, guide services (all for a fee) ; they simply wanted to help in any way they could without any form of payment or gratuity – everyone was very friendly. This island could become a popular spot for yachties but the cost of a visit is a little high – once again an agent must be used and Mr Bush is well known on the yachting grapevine – he charges an exorbitant fee for his service of organising all authorities to be in the same place at the same time. The boat Captain still has to deal with the authorities belonging to each department with Mr Bush standing tall and looking important. Apparently his fee also covers many lectures on his importance, the islands history and little else. He is a very important figure on the island – at least that is what he will tell you. Every second person seems to have the “Bush” surname. Mr Bush is very friendly and helpful but there is a price to be paid – you must be a captive audience to his lectures. In addition to the Port Captain, Immigration and Mr Bush's fees there is also a visitors visa at a cost of $22 per person – if you visit the neighbouring San Andres you have to purchase yet another visitors visa for that island – it all adds up to a very expensive stop over if only staying a week or so. Such a pity as yachties always boost the economy of any place they visit and usually have gifts on board for the locals.

When we arrived in the sheltered small bay there were approximately 8 other boats at anchor, we quickly became friends with most of the other boats, caught up with a few friends from the Pacific which was nice with pot lucks – an american version of a “bring a plate” shared dinners - it was very social.

Pam and Dennis from “Glide” and ourselves hired motor scooters and spent a day checking out the island. We stopped at a well known palapa on the beach that serves platters of seafood. Both couples shared a platter – they were huge and contained a crayfish, whole fish, several crabs, prawns and small lobster thingies with salad and rice. We didn't eat again for almost 24 hours.

Pam had heard about a family that sell coconut oil, it is good for cooking but more importantly to keep the no-see-ums and mosquitoes at bay. We found the supplier – a tiny little house where we met a grandmother, her daughter and granddaughter – Rose is a 6 month old baby – Pam told the mum that our boat was named White Rose so she decided her baby girl should be called Black Rose – she was very cute. The coconut oil was quite an industry – the grandfather goes out to collect all the coconuts he can find and puts them in hessian sacks. They are transported back to his home where he husks them (a very difficult and tiring task) then splits the coconuts and removes the white flesh. The flesh is then grated, put into a huge metal container similar to a wok about 1 metre across. This is placed on a fire on the ground outside the house. It is cooked for many hours and skimmed then recooked. The oil floats to the top. It takes 300 coconuts to make a few litres of oil – a back breaking job.

We have snorkelled until we have web feet, climbed up to the highest point on the island and tasted fine food - this island is tiny and we have checked out every last inch. 

We stayed in Providencia for approx 1 week when we heard that the job in Papua New Guinea was running late but they still wanted Don - probably mid to late February so off we went again to find a suitable marina/anchorage to leave the boat.  Also Stan aboard the boat Homers Odyssey was single handing after his wife had an accident aboard and had to be flown back to Canada for treatment.  We decided to sail with him just to make sure he was safe along the way.  Our route took us across Nicaragua fishing grounds which is known as a dangerous area for cruisers - we ended up with 4 boats travelling together and all at similar speeds which was good.  We sailed for a few hours to reach Low Cay - supposedly excellent for snorkelling.  The water was so clear that we could see the dinner plate size orange starfish on the bottom. Our anchor chain tipped a few over on their backs so once settled Don went for a snorkel and holding his breath he dove down and righted each starfish – I was proud of him. When telling our story to the other boats Pam and Dennis on “Glide” said they have bets and races – they turn several starfish upside down then make bets on which will right itself first – Don's big starfish rescue had not been necessary and he was totally deflated. Well we did not find the good snorkelling but enjoyed the pristine clear aqua water - a fishing panga came up and requested water - they had been out fishing for 4 days and wanted to stay out for another 24 hours but were out of water (they were a looong way from home) anyway we gave them water and they later delivered a very large fish later that day in thanks.  These are very poor people and they had only caught 4 fish for their 4 days fishing in very rough waters - the gift of the fish humbled us.

We spent the night then pulled anchor early the next morning to sail to Vivarillos - a very low sand / coral cay in the middle of nowhere - once again beautiful spot and rumoured to be good snorkelling.     The main draw card for Vivarillos was the shrimp boats (prawn trawlers for Aussies) - they go out at night and trawl for their catch then anchor and sleep during the day.  The hunter gatherers from each boat traded with the shrimpers for a large bucket of shrimp which was divied up between the boats.  The 4 boats all came over to our boat, each bringing a dish made with shrimp - it was a wonderful night with great food.  Everyone had steamed their shrimp, then shelled it and made creole or whatever - Don fried ours in garlic and butter with shells on - our platter was the least eaten because it was too messy with plates on knees - they certainly tasted great.  Anyway we ate shrimp for the next 3 days and I am now totally sick of the sight of them - I spent the first 1 hour of our sail shelling the remaining stupid little things - not good for seasickness !!  There are still remnants of shells and heads along the bump strip where we had thrown them over - no wonder we were followed by a flock of birds.  This was my first experience with shrimp and maybe the last for a while.

After hearing that a "Norther" was coming (bad weather) we left the Vivarillos at 5am the next day for Guanaja, an overnight sail. Guanaja is a small island in the group "The Bay Islands" owned by Honduras.