Posts Tagged With: sailing

I may only see THE SAN BLAS ISLANDS once in my life, cause I CANNOT do this again!

Posted on June 8, 2014 by valarieivester

Okay….I SERIOUSLY, waited awhile to write about this cause I struggled with how I wanted to write it and whether or not I should.
SO HERE IT IS…MY WARNING:
I can’t help but tell you about MY experience doing something….it doesn’t in any way mean I hated this part or place or doesn’t even mean I wouldn’t recommend it. I will try and remain as fair as posible in my review of sailing the open sea to The San Blas Islands.

Now that that’s outta the way….OMGEEEEE…SAILING TO THE SAN BLAS ISLANDS WAS A 5 DAY NIGHTMARE THAT I COULDN’T FREE MYSELF FROM & THE ONLY CLEAR ESCAPE WAS TO FLING MY LIFELESS, SEA SICK BODY OVER THE EDGE, HOPING A DOLPHIN WOULD BEFRIEND & TAKE MERCY ON ME SWIMMING MY BODY TO SHORE!!! (*Panting…As I digress) No joke, I had to therapy talk myself from that ledge more times than you know.

I know I know…I have no real idea why I thought I was going to be able to handle a sailboat when a moving vehicle makes me nauseous other than I am a glutton for punishment and I think I’m Superwoman…turns out…this Superwoman’s kryptonite is sailboats.
Sailing just wasn’t for me…for US…for that matter! Jorgie didn’t care for it too much either.
Short version: We get on a sailboat named The Jaqueline….Day 1 of this 5 day sailing trip, we both are violently ill, AT THE SAME EXACT TIME, so there was no aiding the other one. We are stuck for the first 30+ hours, in a room thats made of all wood so not only are we feeling every movement we hear it as well. We rock so violently that the door slams open and closed (it has no lock). It also has no windows and ofcourse no A/C so its completely humid in there. The only consolidation is that our dungeon of a room is beside the only 2 bathrooms on board this boat for 17 people (wait…someone broke one of em night 1… GREAAAAAT we are down to 1 bathroom) which we frequently ran back and forth from. We didn’t know that we had boarded a boat that would serve us for the next 5 days a cuisine made up entirely of pork and onion combos (we dont eat either), so we pretty much survived on the most delicious mangos and piñas for 5 days. I’d never been so grateful and also begged for God’s mercy in one place!! I desperately hated our room but was completely grateful that I had a place that I could go and hide to. It was such a weird prisoner feeling….AH! THAT’S IT! It felt like the song Hotel California!!!! We were supposed to like everything about this then we had a quick realization…..We’re stuuuuuck! Enjoy the sea!?! I can’t enjoy the sea! I’m stuck in the bathroom sicker than I ever thought possible!
*All those parasites & brain eating amoebas that our moms feared we get sick with….Yeah..I was praying for an exchange for one of those.
HERE’S THE THING… once the boat stops, and you find a enough energy to muster your very sick, sweaty, sea salt covered body out of the room…..it’s like paradise! It doesn’t make any sense at all!
The travel & room= Hell
Outside (as long as the boat is anchored)= Pure Heaven
Crystal clear water, beautiful white sand, snorkeling that is amazing….so confused;) I’ll stop….here are the pictures and video of the worst I’ve ever felt or looked….Thanks Jorgie;)

Clearly…this was BEFORE the boat started to move;)

Beach bum life!!!

When u see a swing…u have to swing. It’s an obligation; )

We had dolphins lead our way and put on a show for us! Really great!!

Hundreds of small deserted islands;)

Trying to enjoy before the boat starts to move again;)

Our sailing crew for 5 days!

Early morning reading….

The world is so big…and I am so small.

AND FINALLY…FOR LAUGHS…(our final night of sailing)

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: beautiful, Cartagena, Central America, Colombia, islands, isolated, Panama, paradise, sailing, San Blas Islands, seasick, sick, south America, travel | 7 Comments

Colombia and the Cochinas!!

Posted on May 17, 2014 by valarieivester

Colombia was pretty high on my list to see (against my mother’s wishes….SORRY MOM!) A country that has so much history and elegance can’t just be what we see on TV… can it?? My hopes were high that Colombia would bring me much more than the cartel, drug trafficking, coffee drinking, murder business we see on the news.

AND IT DID;)

I’m happy to report that, though I did have some pretty delicious coffee, and couldn’t believe the amount of gorgeous women here (they are seriously pretty..like all of them) not too much scary business to report! Allthough Jorgie did get several whistles and hisses from the local “LADIES OF THE NIGHT” wanting to lure him into their nasty little web…. COCHINAS!

Val: “Waaaaait, OMG….Were those prostitutes propositioning you?!?”
Jorge: ” Yeah… Duh..Look at me!”
(INSERT SLAP) smh…

We saw no drug deals or murders……but there was a little cocaine smugglin…I’LL GET TO THAT LATER;)

Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas
Cartagena is surrounded by large walks that were designed to protect the city long ago. Its a beautiful fortress worth a view;)
The walled city of Cartagena was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

These canons are a lingering memory of the protection once needed for this beautiful place.

From the top of the fortress you get gorgeous views of the city!!!

Okay…I couldn’t pass this up. We have now seen multiple times people carry INSANE things on motorcycles…..YES…that is 2 people and a living room sized TV on ONE motorcycle!!! We couldn’t believe it!!

You get to see many women adorned in the colors of the country!!

In the square is the sculpture of Mujer Reclinada (“Reclining Woman”), by Colombian artist Fernando Botero

Church of Saint Peter Claver

The streets in Cartagena were so picturesque! I can DEFINITELY see why this place is a NOT MISS for anyone visiting Colombia. The colonial structures surround you and draw your eyes at every corner!!

Puerta del Reloj– The entrance to all that you see

Boca Grande in the background….

At the end of the street we were staying on, we catch a neighborhood baseball game! They played right in the middle of the street!!!

Ooookay…..I promised some cocaine smugglin! Lol
So we planned on leaving Cartagena by sailboat to Panama City, Panama to visit the San Blas Islands….we book our boat, then some dummy backpacker tried to smuggle a kilo of cocaine to Panamá on a boat and caused all kinds of trouble for this industry. All boats were docked and told that they couldn’t leave (How does this happen to us???) ……SOMEHOW we manage to find ourselves on the LAST boat allowed to leave Cartagena;)

With a fist full of dramamine in my belly and Cartagena literally behind us, Jorgie and I set sail to the San Blas Islands;)
Thank u Jesus!!!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: baseball, Cartagena, cocaine, Colombia, colonial, fortress, gorgeous, sailing, south America, walls | 4 Comments

Scuba diving & The BEST beach I’ve seen so far

Posted on May 7, 2014 by valarieivester

So we decided to get the full animal experience and become a
fish for a day;) This would be both of our first time to scuba dive and snorkel so we were excited!

We boarded this magnificent sailboat that would take us to North Seymore for our day of scuba and snorkeling.

I have no idea why, maybe it’s our faces, but we were chosen to be the first to scuba dive. (Whatever that is…I wish it would stop. I needed a moment to panic) But it was time to suit up. Squeeeeeeezing my body into this wetsuit was a task but eventually my ass cooperated and got in there;)

Scuba diving was sorta scary. Resisting the urge to breathe out of your nose was extremely difficult. It goes against everything I’d ever trained myself to do while running…not being a mouth breather in this scenario completely worked against me. Honestly, I had several sheer moments of panic. I mean, we did have an extensive WHOLE 15 minutes of training where we were supposed to learn hand signals that were imperative to my life but that all went to hell when I was underwater. Lol! On the second try to descend, I got nervous and wanted to go back up and gave the OKAY signal, rapidly started pointing up (that’s not even a signal he taught us) then for some reason gave him the SHARK signal (he’s super confused now) said “To hell with this!” and started flailing my body upwards. Once my head was above water the instructor comes up and looks at me soooo confused and was like “What was that!!!??? Why aren’t you doing the signs? I won’t understand you if you don’t do the signs!” Is he serious? He’s lucky I even tried to do ANY signs at all before I bailed! Not my finest moment I must admit, but I seriously was scared. Lol! It took me several attempts, but finally I just let go, and forced myself to continue on and when I did..

It was A Okay;)
I saw sharks, soooooo many fishes, and some super long fish that I can’t remember the name of. Wifi sucks here so I can’t upload to my YouTube channel to post the video so I’ll post to my Facebook instead. To see Scuba Diving Val check out my FB page at http://www.facebook.com/valarieivester.com

What was not okay was me not taking dramamine…. Meet SEA SICK VAL just moments after a rather embarrassing violent vomiting fit.
TAKE THE PILLS! Geeez.

NOOOOW…. on to (in my opinion) the prettiest beach we’ve seen so far. Tortuga Bay Beach😉 Be prepared….its a 30 minute walk to the beach and an additional 15 minute walk to the lagoon but it’s completely worth it.

We have gotten to visit many beaches but this one had immaculately white soft sand, turquoise crystal clear water, very little people, no vendors trying to sell you refreshments or whatever bracelet they made that day, all you could hear was the water rolling up on shore and beating against the rocks. It was so serene.

Tortuga Bay Selfie;)

Daaaaaaaaaaang;)

Our walk to the lagoon was great. Even though its super hot in the Galapagos, once you get here, the breeze coming off the ocean is so cool and smells of salt.

Once again we run into these gigantic land lizards!!

TONS of them…just keep walking….they won’t bother you;)

And the lagoon;) This shallow secluded part of the beach was refreshing and filled with little fishes! We were sitting half in the water and a tintorera (harmless small sharks native to this area) just swam right by us!!!! In shallow water!!! So cool!

As we walked back we soaked up as much sun as we could (as if either of us need it…we are getting super dark!)

Tortuga Bay on Santa Cruz Island is definitely high on my list for beach bummy days and #1 beach so far on my list.

And finally…..the most of any travelers budget is devoted to where you will be staying. We opted to save some real money by staying with a family in their home that they are converting to a hostel. This might of been the biggest saver for us in the Galapagos.

Meet Jimmy (we found his place on Airbnb) and his sweet family. Getting to stay in their home was a real treat! They treated us like family and even invited us to dine with the family at dinner cooked by Auxillidora. I would highly recommend Casa de Hospedaje and Jimmy for your visit to the Galapagos. Thank you Santiago family!!