But wow what a horny place. You can not even imagine how horny everybody is here. It happens anywhere and at any time. The minute we leave the marina gate, crossing the street, further up the street, around the corner from there, in town, it’s everywhere the same and there is no escape from it. But see for yourself:
We haven’t figured out yet who are the horniest, the taxi drivers or the motorcycle riders, most of the time they honk for no reason. And I tell you they don’t slow down for pedestrians either, on the contrary it seems like that’s when they speed up. We truly believe that they buy the car by the sound of the horn! Everybody is super friendly though even the horny taxi drivers and best yet they do not cheat us on the fair because we are tourists, there is a flat rate of 4000 pesos about US$ 2 in town and to Rodadero or Taganga neighboring villages 8000.
Comparing Colombia now to ten years ago it is a much, much safer place, before we could not leave the city of Cartagena and travel in the country. Thanks to President Álvaro Uribe and President Bush fighting the drug war in Colombia they changed it into a safe place again. Current President Juan Manuel Santos is following Uribes steps and is especially going after corruption and the FARC.
We’ve been walking pretty much anywhere in town. One day we hit the local market, although not very organized looking, it is a fun market to explore and watch people. The fruit and veggie stands are colorful and the meat tables ah, well, hmm, maybe a little gross, I definitely would not buy meat here. The fish section is better with a variety of fresh fish to choose from (although I prefer to get the fish from the local fishermen on the beach). One very friendly market girl approached me and showed me a string with some kind of orange/white balls encouraging me to buy the string. Of course I was curious what it was and when she told me they were “Huevos de Iguanas” Iguana eggs! No thanks not today. Not that I wouldn’t try them but how the heck will I find a recipe on how to cook Iguana eggs! (at a later date I broke down and did try them and oh yummy, they are delicious and very rich in flavor!!)
In one corner of the market is one hairdresser after another and since Sid was in need of a haircut he braved it to get one here. The cute hairdresser, ready to pop her baby at any time, was very profession in buzzing his hair short, she even trimmed his eye brows and sprayed some stinky stuff all over him for a shocking price of 5000 Pesos = US$ 2.50. Right next to her stall was a beer joint with 60 cents beer, now that’s what I call a great hair cutting day!
You haven’t seen Santa Marta if you haven’t visited Rodadero which is the Palm Springs of Colombia. And since it was still Christmas Holiday I thought it would be interesting to see the last of the festivities “Three Kings Day”. Every where in the world Three Kings Day is celebrated on the 6th of January, not here, here they figured out a clever way to extend the Holidays for a few extra days. It is celebrated on the first Monday after the 6th of January, after that everybody goes back to work. That makes for a one month long holiday.
Remembering my visit to Rodadero 10 years ago it was a busy place then but didn’t quite expect it this busy. The beach was packed, three rows deep with yellow sunshades and not one was vacant. Between the shades and the water you could barely see any sand it was packed with people and the water was filled with bobbing heads. The sidewalk was the same picture packed to the rim with visitors and the air was filled with all the delicious smells of food vendors sold and the laughter and chit chatter of happy families. We had fun mingling and watching everybody. One vendor was of interest to us “Cocos Frio” chilled coconuts with or without rum. The girl wanted 1 dollar without and 7 US dollar with rum. So we went across the street and purchased an 8 dollar bottle of rum and bought 4 coconuts and poured our own rum, yummy. It was a fun day and we had our fill of being in a crowd and decided it was Margarita time, which turned out to be the worst and most expensive Margarita ever! We don’t always have good luck, that’s when we decided it was time to go home and make a real Margarita.
The winds were still piping and after weeks of nerve wrecking wind finally a break for a couple of days, just enough time to shovel some sand out of our boats. Yes like some of you still shoveled snow we shoveled sand (although we use the hose as the shovel and have a bathing suit on).
The quiet didn’t last long as three days later the wind picked up again for another 4 days. After shoveling some more sand we finally could relax for about a week and we finally braved it to put our sunshade up as without a breeze it can get a little hot. Same night at midnight we scrambled on deck to take the awning down as the wind blew over 30 knots again. We had a heck of a time to roll it up and when done our teeth were gritty with sand.
At last it seemed that the winds were back to normal, normal means there is a breeze starting around four in the afternoon and around 9 it peaks to about 25/30 knots for a couple of hours and by morning it’s calm again. Although we still had occasional gales out in the bay bringing up to 30+ knots of wind and we had to the shovel out again and again.
Sid’s was busy with all kinds of boat projects (climbing up the mast, cleaning the rigging and polishing the mast), replacing the new membrane, while I was sewing up a storm again, this time cloths and new mosquito netting. Bamboo’s spinnaker exploded on their trip to Santa Marta so one afternoon we all met at the parking lot with a drink in one hand and scissors in the other and cut the spinnaker apart and exchanged some stories.
The aluminum boom of the main looked pretty corroded it was time to paint it. Sid sanded it down to a smooth finish then we took off into town to find the right paint. Thanks to Tim and Elena from Tim’s Café we found an area in town which has nothing but hardware stores and were able to find a store that had the type paint we needed and they even matched the color perfectly. The customer standing next to us a painter offered to paint it for us. A couple of hours later he came to pick up our 10 foot boom on his motorcycle. Yeah, that’s what we thought, so we ended up walking it to his shop which is behind a car wash on the sidewalk in front of his house. Two hours later it was finished and Sid was so impressed the next morning he brought the staysail boom to him which he again painted the same day, cost including paint 120 dollars. You should have seen us walking the streets with these 10 foot long things especially crossing intersection. As I said the horny drivers speed up when they see pedestrians.
Tim (Canadian) and Elane (Colombiana) have a Café just around the corner from the marina and started their business 2 months before we arrived. They are wonderful people and very accommodating to us. Friday nights they invite us for Happy Hours, Beer and their wonderful Crepes at half price and Tim always brings a box or two of Colombian cigars out for us to enjoy. I tell you for 15 cent cigars they are a good competition to any cut Havana. Elena overheard us girls talking about doing yoga on the dock and offered the use of an upstairs room and so began our twice a week yoga lessons at 7Am at Tim’s. After yoga Elena taught us Colombian dances which was always a lot of fun. We gringos just can’t wiggle our butts as the Latinos can, that’s for sure.(In the mean time we found out that they moved to Bogota theCafé does not exist anymore, bummer ).
It was time to get out of the marina and visit a new place and Taganga sounded good. It turned into a girls-out as all the boys had projects on the boat they didn’t want to drop. Susan (Maggie May), Debi (Wind Shear), Mariah (Sandial) and I took a taxi to Taganga which is just around the corner from the marina about a 5 minute dinghy ride or 20 minute taxi drive on curvy roads over a hill. The view from the top of the hill down to Taganga is breathtaking. Fernando the taxi driver told us that this bay used to be THE marihuana trafficking place in Colombia. Boats were lined up to wait for a shipment. The town is a hippy town now and filled with European backpackers. Without the tourism Taganga is a small fishing village, the beach is lined with colorful fishing boats and it is fun to watch the little town boys play with the fishing nets pretending they are fishermen.
There is a beautiful hike up the north side of the bay which goes over to the next beach Playa Grande with an even more so breathtaking view. The water there is crystal clear. Although tempted to walk down to this beautiful beach the thought of having to climb that hill back made us decided to return to Taganga instead. There we found a nice restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful meal with many beers and in no time it was time to head home as Fernando our Taxi driver returned to pick us up. We all had a wonderful time.
Wind Shear, Maggie May and Paradise planned an overnight trip to Minca. Unfortunately Debi had a family emergency and flew home immediately so only Susanne and Andy joined us.
Minca is a small town of about 500 hundred people 660 meters (about 2000 feet) above sea level, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and hidden in lush vegetation. Guides say the 14 mile winding road is traveled in 25 minutes. I guess that was when the road still was free of potholes; it took us an hour on a very bumpy road, a beautiful drive though. The Sierra Nevada, in the shape of a pyramid, rises from the sunny coasts of the Caribbean tropics to the chilly, snow-capped peaks that reach a height of 17,000 (5775 m) feet above sea level, which makes it the highest tropical mountain in the world. Within just 30 miles/fifty kilometers the northern slopes descend from the snow capped peaks to the turquoise waters, tropical jungle shores and coral reefs of the Caribbean ocean.
Here you find trees of up to 40 meter (130 feet) heights. The Fauna supposedly they say is full of bears, deer and smaller species like armadillos, hedgehogs, ocelots and monkeys. Didn’t see any but we did hear the roar of howler monkeys. Thousands of birds, insects and butterflies are at home in this tropical forest, we saw many colorful hummingbirds. Minca is an ecological paradise with uncountable rivers, waterfalls and immense green vegetation which hides the archaeological remains of its ancestors the Tayrona Indians. Today in the highlands you can still find indigenous people belonging to Kággaba (Kogi), Ijka (Arhuaco), Wiwa (Arzario) and Kankuamo tribes, direct descendants of the Tayrona Indians keeping up with all the traditions.
We stayed at a cute Finka (Ranch) “Sierra Sound” which is located right next to a river with a stairway down to the river bed for bathing, a very, very beautiful place. You can stay at least a week here and hike each day a different path and find a different river or waterfall. We decided to visit the Arimaka Fall an hour hike up the mountain (years ago it was used by the Indians for religious ceremonies). On the way up the hill we ran into two local women chatting along the path, one was on her way home with her son and his donkey and motioned to follow her after I asked if this was the right way to the fall. She even offered us to ride the donkey which we declined. It was a fun walk up the hill and finally she pointed us into the direction of the waterfall while she headed another 25 minutes up the mountain to her home. It was about another 10 minutes before we arrived at the entrance to the waterfall. A friendly farmer chopping down some weeds greeted us and stopped what his was doing and nodded for us to go ahead that he will catch up with us at the waterfalls as this was his coffee plantation. We followed the narrow path and found the waterfall or falls in a hidden valley surrounded with lush vegetation. We climbed the many stairs down and were in awe as we finally stood under the waterfall. Since it was almost noon I brought a bottle of wine and snacks out and we sat there enjoying it. There came Juaquin the plantation owner down the steep steps balancing a tray in his hand with 4 cups of his freshly brewed coffee, wow what a treat. I offered him some wine and cheese and Andy gave his 4 year old son a breakfast bar he really enjoyed. Juaquin invited us to go swim in the waterfall and told us that the better bathing is in the fall above the Arimaka. Sid and Susan braved it into the water, brrrr it was cold. On the upper fall “Marinka” I dared going into the water as well but oh boy was it cold but fun sitting under the water fall with water pounding on your head and shoulder but not for too long. After the refreshing shower we headed back to a thatched roof overhanging the hill with view of both waterfalls where Juaquin served us ice cold beer. We had all kinds of questions for him and his coffee plantation and so he invited us to his Finka. He showed us step by step all the processes of coffee making, all a lot of manual labor, including roasting the coffee, which each one of us was taking part, then he took a hand cranked grinder out, ground the coffee we just had roasted and made us some more coffee, wow what a wonderful flavor especially sweetened by panela (raw cane sugar).
This area is known for its wonderful coffee and has supposedly the best coffee world wide. I think this is also the only place where they roast coffee over charcoal.
On any hike here you will be able to find a coffee plantation, each with different methods. I always thought that coffee grows on bushes not on trees, here they are all wild old trees and one has to climb the tree on steep hills to harvest the beans, tough work.
Rob was mentioning to us that he wanted to find some coca leaves so I asked the guy if they grow it in this are. Juaqin then started to tell us about coca and the Indians and invited us on a walk to visit Samuel one of the Arhuaco Indians who lives in the rain forest not far from him. It was a good 30 minutes walk when we arrived at the Finka. Joaquin told us also that the “Mamas” spiritual leaders of the Kogi were getting together here a few days later for rituals. Koqui/Kogi Mamas are chosen from birth and spend the first nine years of childhood in a cave in total darkness learning the ancient secrets of the spiritual world or Aluna. They are the priests and judges who control Kogi society. Their culture it’s fascinating
Samuel was quite excited to meet us and showed off his Indian outfit that he put on especially for us to see and allowed us to take pictures for a donation of course. He is really proud of his ancestry and we felt pretty honored to be able to visit him and get such an insight. He brought us over to a coca bush and explained what they do with it. He took off his Lime container which is a small slightly pear-shaped gourd and perforated along the top. While all lime gourds consist of the same raw material, the wood of the stick which is inserted into it and is chosen by each owner for his own personality and identification. Samuel then explained that while slowly chewing some twenty or thirty toasted leaves, the man will wet the lower and slightly pointed end of the stick with saliva and will insert it into the gourd and he rotated it for us to see how it works. Withdrawing the stick again he will put the adhering lime into his mouth. Immediately he will rub the stick around the top of the gourd in a circular motion. Eventually, this daily repeated action of rubbing the stick on the gourd surface begins to form a thin layered crust of yellowish-white lime that covers the upper part of the container.
He gave us each a leaf to chew on. Of course our anticipation was enormous to find out what will happen as we had no idea what to expect……………… Absolutely nothing!!!
I think in general we are so miss informed about coca chewing. The coca plant was domesticated in Peru 7000 years ago and was traditionally used for initiations of marriages and to strengthen kinship and mainly medicinal purposes. It is also a common-practice for the Kogi Indians in the Andes, who, after puberty under go an initiation in which they are given coca leaves in small gourds. Within it, coca leaves are mixed with an alkali “Lime” produced from crushing seashells. When combined with saliva the alkaline will unleash the powers of the coca leaves which combats hunger, high altitude sickness and fatigue.
A Peruvian Study sh0ws that coca can help with asthma and depression or can be used as substitute for coffee to increase alertness (although coca does not have any caffeine). Further the study revealed an aid to metabolism of carbohydrates, combat diarrhea, increase sexual powers and also relieves muscle aches and inflammation. (Wow, I guess we came to the right place, I might be able to shed some weight!) They also make tea from coca leaves. A tea bag containing 1 gram of coca-leaf contains roughly 0.8 mg of Calcium, 3. 84 mg of Phosphorous, 1.26 mg of Magnesium and 30 mg of Potassium, as well as small percentage of Iron, including alkaloids, fiber, ash and vitamin A, B, C and E. Although the coca-leaf is grown in large amounts for cocaine production, it is also cultivated for tea-export from Peru. (I need to find me some of that).
After Samuel’s gourd demonstration we follow him into the ceremonial clay hut which took him 8 years to build; the same hut the ceremony took place a couple of days after our visit, wow. During the ceremony the Kogi produce Lime by burning sea shells on a small pyre carefully constructed with chosen splints. The fine white powder is then sifted into a ritual gourd which is carried by all men. In a special double-handed pottery vessel they then roast the coca leaves inside the temple (clay hut).
Small plantations of coca shrubs are found near all Kogi settlements, Coca shrubs are planted and tended by the men but the leaves are gathered by women. It is a part of the Kogi way of life, deeply involved with their traditions, religion, work and medicine
The tribe known as 'Los Kogui' are today's custodians of the Tayrona culture. They have a population of approximately 12,000 people. The Kogi plant crops and live off the land. They prefer not to mix with outsiders. Few Colombians, or those from the outside worlds, are allowed to enter their mountains. They marry in their culture. The Kogi constantly move about from place to place, between their different abodes spread among the different levels of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. This is looked upon as taking care of their nutritional needs without abusing the environment.
In 1990 the Kogi noticed a change in their environment and decided they must speak out to the rest of the world. The snows had stopped falling and the rivers were not full, so if their mountain was ill then the whole world was in trouble. The Mamas sent one of the Kogi who spoke Spanish to contact a British film maker who was in Colombia at that time. They asked BBC to make a film to tell the Younger Brother about their concern. It was called 'The Elder Brother's Warning 'or' The Message from the Heart of the World'. Alan Ereira, the producer, has also written a book about the Kogi called The Heart of the World. The film had a major impact on the Colombian Government and also on the grave robbers and things changed. The grave robbers felt that they should stop because they felt bad about disturbing their ancestors. There are now two Kogi members in parliament. To read more about the Kogi go to: http://www.crystalinks.com/kogi.html
On our hike back to Sierra Sound we relived the whole incredible day again, we all were just taken by what we all learned this day. We were so tired from all the walking we sank into the patio chairs and didn’t get out of them for hours. Partly because our legs were sore and the beer just tasted too good. All the fresh air gave us a good appetite and since they only had one order of the four cheese ravioli left we decided to share that for an appetizer. Ohmygosh was it good, not just were they home made and cooked to perfection but it was smothered in the creamiest sauce with flavor of cheeses and caramelized onions.
After a well deserved hot shower we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner overlooking the river with the acoustics of the water rushing over the river bed rocks. We retreated back into the sun chairs and enjoyed an after dinner drink. What a tranquil relaxing place!
Sid and I were up early on the terrace the following morning enjoying many cups of the wonderful local grown and brewed coffee and just enjoying this beautiful scenery. After a hardy breakfast we ventured off to the Pozo Azul Waterfall, an hour hike. Since I had some bites on my legs from the previous day we all sprayed extra Deep Wood Off on us. Arriving at the beautiful waterfall I noticed right away more of these red blood spots on my legs and sprayed even more juice on us. That should do. (When we arrived at Sierra Sound we met an English lady just leaving who’s legs were bitten up and told us that she got the bites at the waterfall and that the bug spray did not work. I thought to myself that she must have one without deet, well I was wrong, these little teeth with wings critters don’t care about deet).
We waded in the water and oh man was it cold, we were just in ankle deep water that was so cold that we got an ice-cream headache in our ankles, no swimming here that’s for sure. Those little wings with teeth called sancudos or jejenes (blackflies) you don’t even feel them when they bite, my legs were covered with red dots. Susan had a few bites but they left the guys alone. Hmmm I think they don’t like hairy legs, maybe we ladies need to stop shaving our legs?!!! The bites didn’t itch, well not immediately but 24 hours later oh man did they itch.
We hiked a bit further up the mountain but realized that it was time to head back we had one more waterfall on the agenda before heading back to Santa Marta.
Las Piedras, which means, “rocks “,are just about a 5 minute walk from the Sierra Sound Finka. Las Piedras are two rivers coming together forming one, with the water passing quite rapidly over the rock formations. The unique thing about it is the temperature of the water in each of these rivers. One is very cold and the other is quite warm. It is a real beautiful area people visiting like to relax in the water, letting the water massage the body. This time of the year it’s a bit too chilly but we sat in it anyway enjoyed the water rushing by.
After another beautiful day in Minca it was time to say goodbye and head down the mountain again to Santa Marta. This was truly a wonderful experience we will treasure for years to come and we hope to some day to return. Minca is a MUST visit. The ride back was fun too as we all had a rum and coke in our hands holding out side the window so that we would not spill them with all the bumps. I didn’t help that the suspension of out taxi was shot. Sid in the front seat whenever he saw and opportunity to drink he yelled: “Drink! NOW!
Thanks to Sandial’s satellite TV we were all able to sit on the Dock and watch Super Bowl. It was a fun party with a wonderful spread of food. We also finally managed to get Tim and Elena over for dinner. These two have just been wonderful to us and helpful in any way. We heard in the mean time they expanded the menu and have a little disco action at night.
The winds have returned and for many more days we endured getting sand blasted. For a couple of nights we had a steady 30 to 35 knots of wind and gust up to 50.
Orestes on Milacura, we had met in Bonaire, sailed in from Cartagena. He had a miserable trip, lost his mainsail and one of the trampolines was trashed on his catamaran by the heavy seas. He was on his way to the Dominican Republic but decided to leave Milacura behind until the weather calms down some time in April. We had him and his crew Tito over for dinner and had a great time catching up. Orestes is the reason us cruisers found out that there is a marina in Santa Marta, thank you Orestes!
The same day an English single hander limped into the marina. He was on his way from Curacao to Jamaica when he was tossed around so much that one of the high waves smashed him so violently that the house between the pontoons on his small cat had a whole smashed into it. Of course every time he smashed down a wave again more water came in. The poor guy didn’t think he was going to make it and is just so thankful to be here.
We’re definitely are not going to stick our noses into this kind of weather and were looking for a weather window to sail further south to Cartagena in the following couple of days or three or four…….
When the alarm sounded at midnight the wind was howling again. Not good! We were going to leave the marina but with gusts up to 28 knots and healing in the slip we decided to wait and see. It was frustrating as this was not predicted in the weather forecast. One our later the wind calmed down a bit an occasional 28 knot gust. At 2 AM it slowed down long enough to sneak out of the slip and breakwater of the marina, pulled the sail up and headed towards Baranquilla. We came to the conclusion that the winds in Santa Marta are mainly a local condition as we now had a 10 to 15 knots the sea was relatively calm it was a good day to be sailing. After the sun blinked over the Sierra Nevada we actually could see the snow capped mountain peaks, well the snow we did not really see but we saw the silhouette of the majestic Sierra Nevada, it was very pretty. The view was only for about 5 minutes before it got lost in the haze. Our first leg was 20 miles to the point where the Magdalena River meets the sea. We had a feeling that towards that corner we would have some higher seas and eventual more wind as well and sure enough about 10 miles from the point the winds started escalating and the waves started to get higher and much, much closer together and one wave managed to broach us filling the cockpit with about 50 gallons of water. It wasn’t really that rough, the waves were just too darn close together and pretty much on the beam. Approaching the Magdalena River is quite intimidating, on the far horizon you see some brown stuff almost looks like some sand piles, very unnerving but than I remember from other cruisers description that it is not patches of sandy beaches but where the cappuccino colored dirty water of the river meets the ocean. It’s amazing the change from blue to brown water and the waves at that point are very high, steep and inconsistent, it gives you the willies and white knuckles holding the wheel. We knew to stay off shore for at least 2 miles and seeing this mess I tried to follow the outflow as far as I could before we finally got into the mucky wild water about 3 miles off shore. As soon as we hit it we changed course and had the unsettled sea coming from behind us which was no problem. We now had a 2.5 knot current pushing us through the muddy water we did speeds up to 8.9 knots, nice. For about 2 miles we had this ugly mess then it gradually became calmer and after about 5 miles the water slowly changed color but stayed murky for the rest of the trip. Even though it was now pretty calm one wave still managed to slap us in the butt and dumped another 20 gallon of water into the cockpit. Sid got pretty good in shoveling the water over board, I think the shoveling sand in Santa Marta helped! About 5 miles out from Punta Hermosa the wind started to pick up as it does every afternoon and with it we sailed into Puerto Velero (Punta Hermosa) with 25 knots of wind. After a 58 mile fast trip we dropped the hook in a very calm setting. This is a big bay with plenty of room for hundreds of boats but amazingly we were the only cruising boat anchored. Wind Shear didn’t leave with us as they had to wait for fuel delivery at 5.30 in the morning. They didn’t leave Santa Marta until 10.30 and had a fairly rough ride with 25 knots of wind. Just before the muddy river they caught a fish trap and fouled the prop so they had to sail. Before they turned into Punta Hermosa or what the locals call Puerto Velero, they were able to run the engine again.
I didn’t take long for the Coastguard to tie up to us. Again I have to say we were treated with the outmost respect, they greeted us and told us that we were in a safe place to anchor and could stay for days. They wanted to know if we had a phone and gave us their phone number to call them if we had any problem and asked us that when we leave to contact them so that they could contact Cartagena to let the Coastguard there know that we were underway and make sure we were safe as this stretch of coast is questionable according to them. Before we left Santa Marta I questioned the Guardia in the Marina about this anchorage, they said it was OK but gave me a phone number of a guy owning a restaurant to call in case of emergency. We felt that we were in good hands here!
Poor Sid wasn’t feeling good the entire trip, sore muscles, headachy and later on that day he came down with a high fever. Knowing of Steve’s dengue he caught in Santa Marta we feared the worst. The following morning he had a slight temperature and it went away. But we decided to stay put and let him rest. Later as the fever returned with a vengeance we decided to boogie to Cartagena the following day to be close to any medical facility if needed.
The wind had subsided, we could have used at least 5 more knots of it to be able to sail, should have left the previous day, oh well. The last two hours of the trip we were finally able to turn the engine off and quietly sail slowly along the Colombian coast, while we waited for Wind Shear to catch up with us. It was exciting to finally see all the high rise buildings of Boca Grande on the horizon and our anticipation rose. Approaching the old town brought nothing but good memories back and heading into Boca Grande we noticed there were now two instead of just one buoy. Sailing between the buoys into Boca Grande we realized that we just had circumnavigated the Caribbean, wow it took us 10 years, could have gone around the world a couple of times. Hey after all we are the Turtle Express!!!
A huge dark cloud was hovering over the entrance and it looked like we were going to get some rain, yeah, rain we needed it. But of course the cloud was just teasing us it released the rain somewhere away from us.
Wind Shear followed us into the harbor and we found Club Nautico exactly where we left it plus a whole bunch of boats in the anchorage. Last time we arrived there where only 6 boats anchored including us. Not just are there many more boats in the anchorages but also many, many more high-rise buildings wow this place has blossomed. This anchorage has nothing but a thick mud bottom which is hard to get hooked, first try was a miss so we moved to a different area and before pulling back and setting the anchor we let is sat for a while. We were so excited to be back in beautiful Cartagena.
Sid still wasn’t feeling better it was coming and going, not just that I came up with the same thing and Debi started as well. Later we heard the same from other cruisers who had been in Santa Marta, one went to a doctor and was told that she had a case of dengue, hmmm.
Club Nautico Marina was a crappy marina 10 years ago but ohmygosh it’s pitiful now, the docks are falling apart and where the once so much fun restaurant was it’s just a pile of rubble with a tarp for a roof and a huge mess. The showers are horrible, the bathroom portapotties, man what a dump. We pay 6 bucks per day or 20 per week to be able to tie the dinghy to the dock and go ashore but it comes with unlimited use of water and shower. Imagine, this marina has hours for water usage from 08:00 – 12:00, 14:00 – 19:00, so no showers after 7 o’clock! WI-FI is horrible, we had to go to the Internet Café.
It did not take much time to settle in and get to know Cartagena all over again. After a couple of weeks of socializing, shopping, some boat chores, annoying sulfur and smoke smells in the early mornings causing sinus problems, being waked by what seemed hundreds of boats all day long, a lot of barnacles growing very fast on the bottom of the boat, we decided it was time to head into a cleaner and more quite environment. Sid was shocked to see that the boat from the waterline all the way to the bottom of the keel was 99% covered with barnacles when he cleaned the propeller. That kept us busy for a couple of hours in the clean anchorage of Cholon. (Don’t get me wrong as bad as the anchorage in Cartagena sounds, it has a breath taking view and it is worth stopping here to see charming Cartagena Vieja).
Amazing the wind had been blowing out of the NE ever since we arrived in Colombia but of course the day we’re trying to sail west the wind came out of there. We motored though the channel of Boca Chica which reminded us of the ICW except for all the tourist boats speeding on either side leaving huge wakes behind. The entrance to Boca Chica is very beautiful as there is a well preserved fort on either side. Heading out the Boca the water was calm with only a one foot long swell out of the North. We pulled the sails out and since the wind was right on the nose we had to sail 90 degrees off our course. For about 15 minutes we sailed at 3 knots then we gradually slowed down as the wind got lighter. When the knot meter read 1.8 knots we had enough and pulled the jib in and motor sailed the 9 miles to the first way point. After that we had four more to follow for which the last one was very confusing as it was behind the island and we do not sail well across land. Some adrenaline was flowing while trying to figure out where to next. There seemed to be a little channel between the two islands, one had a long reef extending the other a shallow beach. As we watched a pleasure boat motoring through the cut we followed him very, very slowly with Sid on the bow and Manuela steering with a sharp eye on the depth sounder. Can you imagine driving your 6 foot draft boat through a narrow channel and only 10 feet next to you are people standing in waste deep water waving to you, yikes. We managed to get into the Bay of Cholon with no problem, lots of friendly waves from swimmers and never saw less than 10 feet of water. The bay is huge and, very protected weather wise but unfortunately not from scum bags. The night before we arrived two dinghy engines where stolen off two cruising boats. Even though both dinghies were pulled out of the water during the night the thieves managed to steel the motors as they were not locked to the dinghy. Lock it or loose it! (They do know who it was and since there have been no more theft).
The bay is beautiful with several little islands just big enough for some big shot to build a weekend retreat on it. The anchorage has good holding and the water is a lot cleaner than in Cartagena although not clear either. First thing we did was clean the bottom of the boat, yikes that was some work, we were sore for a couple of days from the underwater acrobatics.
We had the best reunion with Carmen and Roberto, formerly “Fresh Air”, last time we saw them was 10 years ago in Cartagena. They live up on top of the hill in a huge house, had a bit of confusion between feet and meters when they built it, so they ended up with a house triple the size than planned. The house “Crows Nest” is nestled on top of the hill surrounded by lush vegetation with a breathtaking 320 degree ocean view, wow. In the bay sits an old big shrimping boat “Manatee” owned by Roberto and Carmen and every Wednesday and Saturday they have a Happy Hour onboard. Some times it’s a potluck and some times Carmen cooks up Hot Dogs. When we participated we had a scrumptious potluck and everybody that played an instrument brought it along. We had one guitar and 3 harmonica players and we played way into the night.
Daily Crows Nest and Paradise went for an early morning walk along the bay, Paradise ending up with blisters on their feet, had fresh brewed coffee afterwards overlooking this beautiful bay.
The nights were so quite you could hear a mouse fart, but just before the sun puts her blinking eye over the horizon peacocks started screaming in unison, being followed by another species of bird which we have not found out yet what it is. This bird call is so pretty it sounds like a flute. Then there is the Guacharaca bird about 53 - 58 cm, dark brown above and pale below dull plumage and similar in appearance to a turkey with smaller head, long strong legs and a long broad tail. This bird makes the loudest noise of all the birds and like the wave at a foot ball game from one side of the bay to the other. We asked for the English name of the bird, nobody seemed to know and it didn’t Sid take long to figure out the name himself as all you hear when they squawk is: “whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck”. I read up on it, it’s a Rufous- vented Chacalaca, Ortalis rificauda a member of an ancient group of birds of the Cracidae family. It inhabits northeast Colombia and Venezuela. It is also known as Cocrico and can also be found in the Grenadines, Bequia and Union Island. The male’s call is a loud and low ka-ka-rooki-rooki-ka answered by the female’s high-pitched watch-a-lak. I don’t’ blame them for yelling back what we think is what-the-f….
We had a wonderful time but also some problems with the alternator, it did not charge our batteries which is a mayor problem. Also the solar panel regulator quit working so did the wash down pump so back to town. Besides we were expecting visitors and didn’t want to chance getting stuck in Cholon. The weather was another worry as it had been howling 25 knots for a solid 3 days, we had a break in the weather and we took it with a gentle 10 knots on the nose.
We were all excited to have guests and what a perfect timing, we just got out of the Taxi in front of the Charleston Hotel in Old Town Cartagena when our friend Dave Baker got out of the Taxi right behind our Taxi. His friend Jerry Maize joined him and we had nothing but a good time. Don’t know who wore whom out. We explored the Cartagena Vieja (Old Town), walked the famous old wall “Murales” around the city, climbed the San Felipe Fort with Gustavo our tour guide (don’t miss video at end), talked to Mom (ask Dave who’s Mom), ate at the best restaurants in town, got hooked on Mojitos and Zacapa Rum, toured the Bay in a speed boat and explored the Boca Chica Fort” where Romancing the Stone with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas was filmed and of course we also rested in the cockpit of Paradise catching up on good old times and savoring the moment our friends were with us. Dave found a few things he thinks we should change on the boat like this:
From:
To: 
Right after they left unfortunately we got caught up in a bit of a mess involving our buddy boat Wind Shear. I don’t want to write about it yet not until it is all over with which may take many more months to come. It’s an unbelievable story, for us something to chew on for a long time to come. Stay tuned for this story, I will bring it to light when time comes.
Cartagena is so dusty, the boat sooooooooo filthy and forget about hoping or wishing for some rain, the rainy season was not due until at least June/July. How do you clean the boat in this situation? To see how it’s done watch the video clip at the end.
We decided to go back to beautiful Cholon it is so much calmer and cleaner there besides we wanted to catch up some more with Carmen and Roberto. Sid was helping Roberto and Ken to fix up Manatee a 68 foot Shrimping Boat to get shipshape. They were working on it 12/7 and are having a wonderful time and at the end of the day they look like they worked a coalmine and smelled like they sprayed themselves with Eau de Engine Oil. I was mainly in town with Debi dealing with attorneys.
Cholon is a true Paradise, the sunrises magical the days quiet, beautiful sunsets and cool nights with magnificent view of the stars.
The vulgar birds are still keeping us in stitches, definitely don’t miss the video at the end.
Going into town from Cholon is a hoot. We get picked up at 5:30 by the boat taxi called lancha. It’s a 1 ½ hour ride and when the wind blows to much we have to walk across the isthmus and await the taxi on the other side as this side is calmer also knowing then that there is no taxi back the same day. But that is not a problem there is also a bus that can take you back which leaves at noon from the where lancha drops you off. The lancha returns any time between 9:30 and 10:30 AM, the bus at noon but takes 4 ½ hours to get back to Isla Baru. There is another alternative and the most fun to take a taxi to the Baru Ferry, across are motorcycle taxi waiting which will drive you 1 ½ hours over a dirt road and sandy beach (this one depends on the skills of the driver if you have to walk it or if he manages to drive all the way across the sand). I would not suggest to take the moto-taxi during rainy season as the roads gets too muddy to drive safely. When we know that we will miss the 10:30 boat we just spend the night at Hotel Colonial in town which is always fun and has wonderful restaurants.
On one of the lancha trips back, Sid was looking for his wallet and ohmygosh it was not in his pants pocket. We looked through everything but could not find it, yikes, we thought he had been pickpocket and now we had no way to get to cash as this was our only ATM card, mine was sitting in our mailbox in FL. Everybody on the lancha immediately grabbed their pockets to check if they still had theirs. Almost back in Cholon I assorted our bags and picked up the shrimp bag I had bought and guess what I found in with the shrimp – Sid’s Wallet!!! Didn’t know shrimp steal wallets as punishment we ate them for dinner!
May 19th surprised me with a birthday potluck with other cruisers at Crow’s Nest, we had a lot of good food and fun. Roberto’s neighbor Heime who lets us use his dock to get ashore is taking care of his neighbor’s property which was taken over by the Government for drugs and once a week we have a Happy Hour sitting in the fun colored chairs under the shade of trees and have fun. Carmen and I got together during the day and we sewed some cloth for us and always when I arrive at her house after climbing the steep hill she hands me a tall glass of fresh papaya juice, yummy.
We also found that we had a pet on board, her name is Lizzy and she was a beautiful young iguana with the longest tail and found a home in our gear box in the cockpit. She sure enjoyed the mangoes we left out for her and we hoped to have her as a pet for a long time to come but we are not sure if she swam back ashore or if she was washed out of the boat when we sailed to Panama.
We finally received the first rain but of course it was not enough to wash the boat, it just moved dirt around but it was a nice treat and it told us we had been here quite a while and it was time to head towards Panama to rendezvous with my cousin Gaby from Norway who was coming for a 3 week visit.
