About 38 hours of sailing brought us 200 miles further north. We're anchored in an area where tourism is trying to grow slowly in Colombia. There are some small resorts here and a large park that is famous in Colombia, but it is remote and quiet here.

Although we've been traveling about 15-30 miles off the coast, there has been almost no boats anywhere. We saw for ships going into the big port of Buenaventura, but nothing else. At night we sometimes see the stars break through the clouds and Venus and Jupiter are usually the first to break through. Rain cools things down and it comes every night in some form or another, often as a gentle spray. The wind seems to never stop and there is a mysterious current from the Humbolt and the Equatoral Current that pushes us along and makes the sea a choppy confused mess. With the consistent wind we're able to sail fast and even when we try to slow down we find we can't.

The Colombians themselves have been very curious about us and our sailing machines and ask lots of questions. Sometimes I feel we must look like aliens to them as we bounce and roll along in our boats.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

So far we've seen two animals that only exist on this island: a frog that walks and a lizard that is bright blue. We've had a large whale shark feeding around our boat with its pup in circles at night. We had a great hike around the island and we've topped up our water tanks from the islands run off.

We're waiting for a good weather window to head further north, but it is going to be hard to leave such a beautiful place. I'd write more, but the whale shark is back.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Wow. This little tropical island is an undiscovered paradise with fresh water streams, dense jungles, and crystal clear water. We can't stop pinching ourselves, and not because we like pain, but because it's hard to believe how cool this place is. Everyone has been really friendly (as all the Colombians have been so far) and we are going to take a guided hike through the island tomorrow to see the animals.

In fact to give you an idea of just how cool this place is, when we came in to pickup the buoy, a pod of dolphins circled our boat and a huge 3 foot diameter turtle swam by. And something that is even more exciting is everyone who works here says the next place we plan to visit is even more incredible.

Anyway, if you have the means and you arrive here by boat, you have to pick up a buoy to help protect the coral from sailors and their anchors, but they charge a fair price of 10,000 pesos ($5).

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

I know that map isn't working right now. Apparently Google changed something in their API and I need to go in and reprogram it when I get to an internet cafe. It's too bad to because we're in a pretty interesting place.

We are about 10 miles behind an island estuary anchored off the military base. We went into the large town of Tumaco yesterday and everyone was really friendly. The town reminds me a bit of some of the places we've been to in the Philippines -- a bit lawless.

We're still catching up on our sleep! And we also moved outside of the channel after scouting out a good spot to anchor. They get so few private boats (they could only remember 2 boats coming here before) that they don't know quite what to do with us. So we're anchored on the outside of Green buoy 17 with an even better view of the jungle and beaches. It's very nice here.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

After a bumpy sail north we sailed into a different world. Tumaco, Colombia is a jungle estuary with lots of birds and plants. The people look very different from Ecuador and Peru. They have an African decent and they have all been very friendly and helpful.

We did have to use an agent to check in, which is the first time I've used someone to facilitate our entry/exit paperwork. It was a bit spendy, but not much more than Ecuador where we had no help and had to travel two hours to complete the process. Here we did everything right at the military dock.

And speaking of military, they are everywhere here. They even were tracking us on approach and called out our position and requested we identify ourselves and what our intentions were. Pretty impressive. We feel really safe here and the anchoring spot we are in is really calm. There is a bit of a discussion about where we should anchor because they aren't really setup for visiting yachts. We are trying to work out a deal with them so we won't have to move because this spot is pretty nice.

We're looking forward to several days of rest, relaxation and exploration.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

A nice 20 mile sail from the nice anchorage at Punta Ballena brought us to a rough and tumble spot called Pedernales. It's not the place that's rough, but the water. It isn't a very good spot to anchor with the swell sweeping right into the bay and the wind blows hard off the cliffs. The breeze is dying down now, but it's probably going to be a sleepless night. Our next spot is a bit of a haul tomorrow, so we're going to leave before sunrise anyway.

We sailed across the equator today. It's nice to be back on the other side of the world.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Finally free of Caraquez and out on the clear water. We sailed with Nakia up the coast with a good current push behind us for about 40 miles to Bahia Ballena. Apparently whales migrate through here, but our timing is a bit off for them. We did have a turtle swimming around our boat for the past two days, though.

This bay is pretty protected from the swell and the southerly winds. It's an active fishing village near the town of Jama. We're going to go in an do a quick tour of the town and see the beach a little. I think tomorrow we might head further up the coast, somewhere.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Finally we are setting sail again! Time for remote places, clean waters and nice beaches in Colombia and Panama.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

After 10 months of work, we finished it. And you my friend can now buy your own copy of Explore Central America Part 2 which covers Costa Rica and part of Western Panama. To make the job even bigger, I added a database that is integrated with Paypal to process orders and it also handles providing the update copies. It seemed like an endless task that would never be complete. But after about 165 pages of writing and lots of programming, the book and website are done!

These books are basically done as a hobby. There's no way in this small market to actually make money off them. In fact after 1 year of the first book, I could have made the same money working for about 10 days in the US. So checkout our labor of love and see what you think.

http://www.sailsarana.com/guide