welcome to our blog!

This blog tells the story of our 22-month sailing journey from Oakland, California, to Bristol, Rhode Island, aboard our beloved Bristol 32 sailboat, Ute. Please feel free to browse through the archives (partway down the sidebar to your left) to see pics and read stories of our adventures in North America and Central America . (Sorry the first 3 months of the trip are missing - they vanished somewhere in an internet cafe in Mexico - but all you're missing is CA, Baja and Western Mex).

If you're trying to track us down now that we're landlubbers, try us at uteatlarge at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The officials we dealt with checking in to Colombia were some of the nicest we've met on this trip.....when we dropped anchor in the harbor, a yacht's agent, a guy from the Port Captain's office, and a guy from Migracion came out to the boat to do our paperwork...not only were they insanely polite, but they invited us to come to the Port Captain's for coffee the next day so he could get to know us and talk to us about Providencia. Since it was the first time in Colombia for both of us, and we weren't quite sure what to expect as gringos, we accepted and speculated about the nature of the invitation.

When we reported to the Capitania we were invited in for a very strong cup of Colombian coffee with Capitan Guzman, who proceeded to give us an hour-long lesson in Colombian maritime history which then led to refreshingly candid discussion of global politics, border wars, Simon Bolivar, land use, drug trafficking, and more. It was really a neat experience. The captain makes point of getting to know every sailboat that comes though his port, and for the rest of our stay he kept popping up just when we needed help with something. Thanks Captain Guzman! Good luck at your new post in Cartagena! Posted by Picasa

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