Author Archives: Mark
Christmas Greetings From Santa (Marta)
Santa Marta is one of the few cities to which we have traveled and found the restaurants haven’t yet been destroyed by Coca-Cola and their desire to monopolize the restaurant industry with their exclusivity agreements and strong arm tactics. I guess I need to explain this a little bit. Coca-Cola has convinced restaurant owners to […]
Going Walkabout In Santa Marta
People in Santa Marta seem to be willing to work for any amount of money. The hustle and bustle on the crowded streets of Santa Marta is amazing. No matter which way you turn there are people trying to make a buck. The city is colorful and noisy. Drivers here love their horns. They honk […]
We Venture into Santa Marta, Colombia
The island mindset is gone. Over the past couple of years, we have hopped from one Caribbean island to another. Each has their own traits but there are a lot of similarities. One of the similarities is the lack of availability regarding boat parts, specialty foods, or essentially anything that is not a basic necessity. […]
We made it to Colombia
Yea!!! We made it to Colombia. The passage was as expected. I would like to say it was boring but it turned out to be lively. Winds were forecasted at 20 knots most of the way but as usual the forecast was a little underestimated. We plan for this. For the most part, winds were […]
Hanging Out in Aruba
I am sitting on a bench outside of the Ling and Sons grocery store in Oranjestad, Aruba. It is on the shady side, thank goodness. There is a nice breeze today since the trade winds have picked up a little. The trade winds, besides having a cooling effect, keep the mosquitoes at bay. Sometimes the […]
Loving it on Aruba
Before I get started on all things Aruba, I would like to bring your attention to an article about Bahamian swimming pigs I recently read on CNN Travel. It feels awesome to read an article about a travel place and rather than add it to a bucket list of places to go someday, we can […]
One Happy Island – Aruba
We haven’t purchased a watch and we decide to visit the health department. Let me explain. Let’s start with the visit to the health department. Our future sailing plans include visits to Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica in the upcoming year. These countries highly recommend, if not require, Yellow Fever vaccinations. I don’t know about […]
San Nicolas – Aruba
Cindy is the Entertainment Director aboard Cream Puff. When we arrive at a new location she will gather all the tourist information from the internet and local kiosks or offices. She will then put together a plan of places we should visit and tourist traps to skip. This task is often much harder to do […]
It’s all Dushi
We are in Aruba where everything is dushi. I just love the word dushi. Papiamento is the local language spoken in Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, the ABC islands. They also speak Creole, Dutch and sometimes Spanish. Papiamento is sort of a combination of all the languages. We are so happy we have found most […]
Hacked!
Our credit card was hacked and shut down by our bank. Not a big deal, you say. Just have the bank send you another card and credit any fraudulent charges. If only it were this easy. Being a boat nomad makes some of the simple things in life become very complicated. Receiving a single piece […]
Birthdays and Boats on Bonaire
Every morning when I wake up I set a new personal record for most consecutive days alive. This last week I celebrated a birthday. Cindy and I have been cruising full-time now for about four years and it has taken us this long to get away from Hallmark. Like most people living on land, we […]
Bonaire Washington Slagbaai National Park
We decided to take a tour of the Bonaire Washington Slagbaai National Park. Based on what we read about the park, it is highly recommended to have a truck or utility vehicle to explore as the roads are unpaved. When businesses, national parks or tourist boards outside of the USA make recommendations such as this, […]
Making Bubbles in Bonaire
I recently read something very interesting about parrot fish. They create most of the sand on the beaches around the world. A single parrot fish creates about 200 pounds or 90 kilograms of sand per year. How? Parrot fish munch on rocks as they feed on the algae attached to the rocks. When underwater, we […]
Bumming About Bonaire
Have you noticed yet every post from Bonaire contains a picture of a flamingo? This post is not different. Here you go. Your random flamingo picture from the beautiful little island of Bonaire. We spent a little bit of time exploring the east side of the island by car. This is the windy side and […]
The Ultimate Trade Deficit
Lately in the USA, trade deficits are in the headlines. It is impossible to read anything in the news without articles on tariffs and trade wars. It seems to be the consensus of the American people having a trade deficit with economic partners is a bad influence on the US economy. The focus of the […]
