We are leaving…..

Hi
So January was busy with Charlie’s birthday stuff. It was difficult to decided what he will get as so close to Christmas…he is desperate for a bike but where do you pedal in San Blas eventually? So he got lots of little things and lunch in Mc Donalds followed by happiland. Where you pay for rides and games. Great fun. Cake and play outside minimarket with the usual crowd of people like Stewart and Natalie and her cousin Santiago. He is 5! Wow,
So Charlie’s time here in Santa Marta has been full of injuries, 3 with ambulance call out. The last time he was rock hopping and a very strong gust of wind blew him over and of course massive gash in his chin….it was actually really funny, I laughed and then waited to see him hobbling back to see how bad…well our lunch cancelled and a call for the nee – noo. He can also gets rid of the poison dots. Little white dots that sometimes pops up on legs or arms and he bravely gets a needle and pops them himself. Well proud of that!
He has also learnt to read. How amazing mainly thinking that it’s me who has taught him that and I’m not even English!!! He loves it. Insists to read every day and I love it. I want my children to love books.

James’s time here has been about football. He has gone from one who wasn’t interested one bit of it to football mad. He plays 3 times a week at Los Troncos football club. He has also been twice to proper matches at the weekend and the team are getting better. Went from 11-0 lost to a win of 2-0 last time. What an achivment. Well proud of him. His school is going fine with a bit of fighting about it every now and then. Where as Charlie who was hard work last year has gone to love school and just gets on with….watching James throwing his weight about….
James has also got a great skill of removing splinters, one in and James is there and removes it in a flash. And a good job he does as well.

Alice or Alicia as she now reacts to is funny and loveable. Always happy in the morning (unlike me) goes to Natalies every morning for 2 hours to play as the school did close down and it’s so much more fun there while we school the boys. She is learning lots of Spanish with Rosemary and goes in with a big “Buenos diaz, como estas” (good morning, how are you)
She scoots and can ride the balance bike and love when you read for her. Her hair is a tangled mass every morning and she loves playing in the water. She is also dropping the afternoon sleep most days so comes to the evening she looses her plot. Then she cries that she can’t find the plot….she watches dvd in the afternoon or ddd as she calls it.

They all can ride their scooters on the pavements here when we go into town which is a challenge with all the mad car drivers and plenty of pedestrians. They are used to see army men and police everywhere and they all have guns, even private security men. To them now an every day thing. Luckily we haven’t seen anything nasty.

Chris went back to States to finish off the private pilot exam and now he is a fully qualified pilot to work on private planes. He still needs to go back to do the commercial side of it. When, we don’t know as money short at the moment. It wasn’t a cheap thing to do!

And then there is Loca Breeza….we can hear her coming miles away, whistling down the mountains and slamming into the marina and boats….yes, the wind. The locals calls it crazy wind as she comes from Sierra Nevada in a nano second, blows up a massive storm and disappears as quickly again. Drives us mad!!! Sun shade up. Sun shade down, up, down, up….

I have also spent some money on the dentist. They are excellent here in Colombia. Changed few old fillings to nice white ones and she also did an super super job of tidying my front teeth up. Never been happy with them, funny shape and discoloured but she has done magic. Well pleased with it. Lucky that dentist trip seems to be more lucky then the haircuts!

So there we are.

Now we are planning to leave for the San Blas Islands that lies outside Panama. Over 300 islands and only about 50 or so with people on them. Home to the Kuna Indians so should be interesting. Some tricky navigation coming up so doing my homework and pouring over charts and reading up about it. Love doing it.
Looking to go end of march and then following the weather window to hopefully have a smooth couple of days of sailing. Just one little problem….still waiting for Charlie’s passport. Yes he is here with no passport. But it should come sooooooooon……..

xxx