Trip to Islas Rosario

We are planning a trip to Isla Rosario the next day on our partner's boat and make plans to meet at one of the piers in El Laguito. We confirm 9:00AM sharp (American Time) and are told to bring some beer, water and sunscreen.

M greets me at the Hilton in a Taxi at 8:30 and we drive around El Laguito to the designated meeting place. M has forgotten to get the beer and water and takes a walk to a local store. I am standing there waiting and watching two other groups also waiting for boats to pick them up. One group is a family of about 8 people and the other group is two young couples. One of the girls is very striking and wearing a very small string bikini. She is falling out of the top (and I am watching her through my sunglass covered eyes) and her beach wrap leaves little to the imagination about her shapely ass. She is sitting on a wall and leaning over with her arms wrapped around her knees. I believe she realizes I am watching and she makes a very alluring move of her arms over and behind her head that accentuates her very shapely breasts. She steps down off the wall and leans on it on her elbows. One breast is nearly fully out of the bikini top and over half of the nipple is exposed. She starts smiling at me and even makes a kissing motion. I follow suit. Her boyfriend is oblivious to this entire exchange and is more taken in a conversation with his other friend. She starts walking toward me and asks me where I am from. We exchange a few comments, how long in CTG...the usual. I ask her if the guy is her Novio (boyfriend). She says yes, but she dates other people as well. Now her boyfriend takes notice and begins to walk in our direction. I begin to envision getting into a fight with a young jealous Colombian hothead and winding up in a CTG jail. The boyfriend walks up to us and I introduce myself. We shake hands and he asks me where I am from. We chat for a few minutes about where they are going for the day, how nice and calm the water is and what kind of boat they are going out on for the day Etc. About that time, their boat, a Well Craft Scarab, arrives at the dock and they say goodbye to get on board. M has just arrived with the beer and water. As she is getting on the boat and putting her things away, she reaches up in what looks like a move to adjust her bikini top and flashes me her tits. M doesn't see the flash. I relay the story to him and he just laughs. Only in CTG!

Our boat, a 24 open fisherman finally arrives around 9:45. I laugh about "American Time" and they just said, "the marina was very busy." The owner of the boat (I) and his wife (P), her friend N, D-2, M and I head out for Rosario. (I) speaks very good English and his wife (P) speaks pretty good English as well. (N) does OK. M is obviously fluent and D-2 struggles but gets by OK. (P) is a knockout and has on a black bikini to die for. N is rather large and not at all pretty. (I) and I (that s a difficult transition) stand by the helm while the others are in the front of the boat. (I) is a lifelong resident of CTG. He was educated in the US at City College of NY and went to Grad School at Cornell. His family is very heavily involved in politics in CTG and the owner of the company he works for is the number one man in politics in CTG. (I won't mention his name because I want to go back). (I) begins to tell me about Rosario, where we are going and what we will see.

I am immediately educated on an important fact. In other reports, I was led to believe that Isla Rosario was a single island. It is actually Islas Rosarios, a series of 48 islands, called Rosarios because they look like rosary beads on a map.

There is a single island called Rosario with a very small private beach where many people go topless and we are planning a visit. The winds are out of the south so our headway is good. If the winds are out of the north, look for a bumpy, choppy ride. We pass Playa Blanco which is the island you see across the bay from the beach at Boca Grande. Mostly small fishing villages and wooden shacks. You will see a lot of very small dugout wooden canoes with fishermen paddling in the ocean. They live in these areas.

The next island we pass is called Isla Baru. It is the largest island in Colombia and is half privately owned and half owned by the Colombian navy. There did not appear to be any dwellings and only a few radio towers and weather types of structures could be seen. While underway, (P) and her friend (N) were sitting on the bench seat in front of the console. Every wave we hit caused her ample boobs to bounce and her top to lower ever so slightly. After about 15 minutes, I was getting a very clear and excellent view of her nipples. (N) brought it to (P)s attention and she put on a cover-up (damn it). As we neared the first small group of islands it became evident that there was very different water here than in Boca Grande. Boca Grande is muddy and largely proclaimed to be polluted. The waters here were crystal clear, like in the Bahamas, with beautiful reefs and rock formations. You could easily see 20-30 feet to the bottom. The first little cay we entered had some beautiful private homes and was anchored by the Hotel Santa Clara. A large establishment with thatched roofs, beach chairs and hammocks swaying under palm trees and white sandy beaches. It literally looked like someplace out of a travel magazine in Tahiti or Bali. What a place to bring a girlfriend type to for a long weekend of amour. Definitely on a future itinerary with the right girl.

We rounded the outer side of the island to see private homes, other small resorts and hotels. (I) began to explain that with some of these places, you can only own the home. The land is owned by the Govt. and you must lease it from them. Some of the other small islands, both the land and the homes can be owned. I was asking about prices, do you know of any Americans who own places here, do you have to form a corporation in order to get title etc. He told me it is possible, as an American, to own property and get a clear title to the land. Other that Costa Rica, I am not aware of any other Latin American country where you can get title as an American. Normally, you have to form a local corporation, have it own the land and the corporation has to have at least two other country nationals named as officers. We continued on our sojourn, weaving in and out of little islands and rock formations. Since (I) had been coming here with his father since he was a child, he knew his way around pretty well. TIP: I would not recommend trying it in a boat by yourself. There are many small boats with captains around El Laguito that will take you around for a small price.

We passed a huge home of a known drug lord from Cali, a home owned by an Arab oil Sheik (and it was very Middle Eastern in architecture) small homes built entirely on tiny lava rock outcroppings (so much so, you couldn't put a foot on the land. The house covered everything) and other large homes with private beaches on private islands. (I) told me many of the places were for sale due to the Colombian economy. People just couldn't afford to keep up with the maintenance. In contrast, we saw one house with it s own KU band satellite dish, direct TV dish, and wireless RF antenna. This guy had it all, including docks for 3-4 large boats, and an expansive house with it s own generator for electricity. I d like to party with this guy! There were also a number of dive boats filled with scuba enthusiasts.

Finally, we head into a small lagoon where two other boats are anchored. (I) tells me this is Rosario Island. It is a protected rookery island and nobody is supposed to be here, but the Govt. doesn't have enough people and boats to patrol it. The island itself is about 75 yards long. Big rocks jutting out of one end and thick mangrove bushes filled with sea birds on the other end. The beach part itself is only about 125 feet long. And, yes, there was one girl of about 15 who was topless. We swam for a few minutes and cooled off. Neither P nor N were inclined to take off their tops (damn it). D-2 went in the mangroves to take a leak. When he returned in a few minutes, he had been eaten alive by huge saltwater marsh mosquitoes. He had welts the size of quarters and the thickness of a pancake on his forehead, arms, back and legs. TIP: Pee in the water! After about 30 minutes, we headed out to go get some lunch. We passed a very old looking Choy Lee tri-masted sailing vessel (kind of looked like a big Chinese junk) and (I) told me the guy who owned it was the owner of the Aguila Beer company and the local TV station. (Aguila, by the way, is the most common type of beer served locally in CTG.)

We approached a small island called Isla Cholon. There were wooden shacks, tables and plastic chairs in the water, lot s of boats at anchor and a lot of women in string bikinis. This was our place to have lunch. We anchored, the waiters seemed to know (I) and set up a table in knee deep water, brought us plastic chairs and a round of beers. M asked me to follow him up on land. At waters edge, they had traps filled with live spider crabs, spinney lobster and other shell fish. Farther down the way, they had nets filled with fresh live fish; Pargo (snapper), Mero (grouper) and a plethora of other types of fish.

There are also stalls with vendors selling the usual hats, jewelry and other assorted odd items. M is looking for a hat to cover his head when I see her. She comes strolling by in a bright green neon string bikini, boobs sticking out above and below her bikini top, miss awesome body has just passed by. I am struck by a lightning bolt! She appears to be with a group of people, possibly even her family. If ever there was a 10, she was a 13. I could not take my eyes off of her.

We returned to our table and she graced us with a quick visit to the water to cool off. She actually dunked herself up to her neck right next to our table. I nearly fell out of my chair when she rose because she was having to do all kinds of adjustments on her bikini. Looked like a couple of firm grapefruits up top. No sag, tight firm body, small hips, maybe 20-21. I looked at M and D-2 and whispered I would pay them $50 US if they would introduce me to her and help me get her to meet me that night. M, seeing an easy money opportunity and D-2 enjoying the challenge, approached her telling her a very good American friend would like to meet her. They chatted for a while and she actually appeared to be taking them up on the offer. My heart was pounding. (as were other parts of me). She told them she was just getting ready to have lunch with her family and that she would come over later. I was fully prepared to date her, meet her family or whatever was necessary to be with this gorgeous woman.

We finished our lunch and it was quite good. Four of us chose the Pargo. They literally prepare it as follows; Scale it; gut it; flour it; drop it in hot grease and serve it. Bones, fins, head, eyes and all. Lunch for 6, several rounds of beers, Kola Ramons and dessert for two was around 50K including tip ($25US). Fun experience

As we were preparing to leave, I had to take one more shot at the 13. As we were walking towards her little pavilion, we passed another stunner that was posing for pictures for her boyfriend. She too was a 9 but had the most incredible smile and bore a striking resemblance to Christy Brinkley (before kids). She started posing like a model, doing jumps in the air (which provided a priceless view of her gorgeous bouncing tits). He saw us leering and quickly ceased the modeling session.

Anyway, we continued on toward the 13. She was still eating but M tried to call her out to meet me. No such luck today and it was time to leave.

On the way home, M and D-2 are laughing their asses off at me. P and N are getting a pretty good chuckle out of the whole deal as well. (I) just calmly says, you will see girls like her all over Colombia and they would all love to meet and marry a rich American man.

We arrived at the dock, helped to defray the cost of gas for the boat and I went back to my hotel...alone! The only misgiving I have about the trip is that I was reluctant to take my camera on an open fishing boat not knowing if it would be protected from the elements. And, my 35MM was still on the blink. I will take it with me on Friday. Will I stop by the Santa Clara and see Yolanda? Possibly. I have to think on this one.

I tell D-2 of my plight with my Camera. Martin heads home, and D-2 meets me at the hotel. We go to a couple of Camera shops. None have a technician but one recommends a store in the old city. If you are ever in CTG and have camera problems, I can recommend this place. It is called Foto Cali and is run by a guy named Donald Almario. It is located on Calle 2a, De Badillo in the old city. It is located upstairs over a photo shop. Don't expect anything fancy. In fact, his business is operated in a 10X12 room and there are cameras and parts everywhere. He looks at my camera, diagnoses the problem and tells me it will cost 160K to repair. Thank god D-2 was there because we got him down to 60K if we could have it in 2 hours.

D-2 and I ran some errands and at two hours on the dot, returned for the camera. It was probably something real simple but it was ready and working. I paid the 60K and went back to the hotel...back in business. I decided to take a shower and a nap. Being out in the sun all day, on the water and drinking beer kind of takes it out of me. It was only 6:00 PM so a few hours nap sounded like a great idea. I woke up and looked at my watch and it was 7:45. Perfect I thought. Two hour nap and it was time to get ready to go out for the night. But, something was wrong. It was still daylight outside. You guessed it. It was 7:45 AM. I had slept all night without moving a muscle. Third night in CTG and I hadn't gotten laid. Oh well, guess I needed the sleep. I went down and had a nice breakfast then went back up to my room to plan out the days activities.