Isla San Andreas, one hundred miles off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, is a Columbian resort and vacation area. High rise hotels overlook bright blue and turquoise water. The city (pop. 100,000) is vibrant and colorful, full of interesting sights. This place is set up for tourism and thrives upon visitors from Columbia, Costa Rica and Europe. As a result, the locals are friendly and proud of their little island paradise. The dollar will buy a lot here. Leigh finally bought some long wished for emeralds, which can be bought inexpensively. We took an around-the-island tour with our guide, Diego, who filled us in on the local history and culture. The big social event for the locals is the cock fight. Everyone dresses up for these Saturday night events. Part of the island is still under the influence of voodoo! Rastafarians are all over. Thousands of people ride small motorcycles. I don't think they bother with a driver's license and young teens compete with grandmothers for street position. Taxis are all vintage 1989 Chevys, Fords and Oldsmobiles, and most show their age but some are kept looking brand new. They are big and roomy to accomodate the Columbian tourists who take advantage of the duty free status of the whole island. After a week, we were ready to move on, but we really enjoyed San Andreas.
The sail from San Andreas to Providencia is 50 miles or so. We did it on my birthday/our anniversary and it was a perfect day. Trade winds pushed us along under sunny skies through deep blue water. We were buddy boating with a Cal 46 (Reliance) from San Francisco, and they made Providencia less that a half hour ahead of us. Dropping anchor, we called the agent to clear in, but it was Saturday evening, so we had to wait until Monday morning to officially check in. On Sunday Carl and Karen from Reliance treated us to a steak dinner and birthday cake on their boat. A real treat! The next day we took a colectivo taxi (pickup truck) ride around the island for 2000 pesos ( about 60 cents). After having lunch and hiking around for a couple of hours, we returned to town and tried to use the internet, but both internet cafes were closed. Part of the island is where pirate Henry Morgan set up a fort. We were going to inspect it, but only got as far as the canon implacement because it was too hot to go on. Since a storm was expected to move into the area in four days, and our next destination was three days away, we prepared First Star for the 380 mile sail to Guanaja, Honduras.
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