On July 29th, we bid farewell to the Dutch
Caribbean and set our course for Santa Marta, Colombia. The 300 mile passage is known for being a
tough leg, with trade winds often blowing 25-30 knots and rough seas. The forecast called for two days of easterly
winds at 20 knots, and increasing again after that, so we decided to go for it
and sail as far as possible before conditions deteriorated. Some people
are concerned about pirates due to the close proximity of Venezuela, but the
rough sea conditions usually make attacks very unlikely.
The trip started off with nice sailing wing-on-wing in 15-20
knots, but it quickly built to 20-25 knots.
We dropped the main and sailed under poled-out jib alone, and Saviah
flew along at 6.5 knots. We watched the
seas steadily build from eight feet to twelve feet during the first night, and
by day two they were up to 15 feet.
During this stretch, we encountered the biggest seas we’ve seen yet,
with several 25-30 foot waves rolling through every hour. Fortunately, they were long period waves and
weren’t breaking. We did get the
occasional wave that would come out of the north and hit us on the quarter,
bringing hundreds of gallons of water over the cabin top and into the cockpit.
Conditions finally began to moderate during the second
night, and by dawn, the Colombian mountains were visible. As we neared Cabo de la Aguja, the winds
dropped to 10 knots, the seas calmed and our speed slowed significantly. By noon on day three, we sailed into the calm
waters of Bahia Santa Marta. Landfall is
always a high, but especially after a rough passage!
Most cruisers who visit Colombia seem to make one stop in
Cartagena, the beautiful colonial city 100 miles further down the coast. Although we wanted to visit Cartagena, we had
been warned that it is a less than ideal place to visit by boat. Many cruisers reported that the water in the anchorage
is filthy and foul smelling, the holding is lousy, and the hot and humid air
can turn the cabin into a sauna. We also
heard that the marinas there are subpar and really expensive to boot. Santa Marta on the other hand has an almost
new marina at very reasonable prices, and this seemed like a good base for some
land travel.
We were happy about our decision as soon as we arrived. The marina was very nice with all the
amenities, including an air-conditioned lounge where we could use wi-fi and a
small store on-site. They had really
friendly staff and armed guards patrolling 24/7. On our arrival, one of the marina staff
arranged for an agent to come out to the boat to handle the clearance
formalities for us. Colombian
regulations require the use of an agent, and they charge around $100 for the
service. Later that day, Jose and Rafael
came out to the boat to collect our papers and passports.
Santa Marta isn’t really a tourist destination. It’s a bustling port city with a population
of about half a million people. It is
the oldest city in Colombia, established in 1525, but unfortunately the
structures were not preserved, like some of the other colonial cities in the
country. There are supposed to be some
beautiful beaches on the outskirts of the city, but we’ve seen plenty of
beaches and opted to hang out in town.
Since food was generally inexpensive and it was often too
hot to cook, we ate many meals ashore.
There were dozens street vendors selling empanadas and other fried food
really cheap, including Andrew’s favorite, a ball of mashed potatoes, stuffed
with rice and meat and then fried. Juice
stands were also very busy in the heat, making all kinds of refreshing cold drinks. One thing we found a little unusual is the
popularity of soup in the restaurants.
Although they were quite tasty, the idea of eating hot soup when the air
temperature was so hot was not appealing.
It was affordable to get around town, with a taxi ride costing
5,000 pesos (about $3). It was the same
price to go around the block as it was for a 30 minute ride across town. So we took some trips around town to see the
central Mercado, where the outdoor stalls have everything for sale, from meat
and vegetables to auto parts. The cheap
taxis also made it easy to reach the big mall, which had a nice grocery store
and a big home improvement store where we found supplies for a few boat
projects.
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| Santa Marta |
After five days in the country, a customs official finally
showed up at the boat to do an inspection and complete the final
paperwork. At that point, we were clear
to do some traveling inland. Although
Colombia has a reputation for being a dangerous place, the situation in the
country has improved significantly over the last decade and in most places, as
long as you’re careful, it is generally safe to travel. So we decided to see some of the country and
started off with a short trip to Minca, a small village in the nearby Sierra
Nevadas at almost 2,000 feet of elevation.
The cheapest way to reach Minca was via a collectivo, which
is basically a shared taxi that leaves when the car is full. So, we made our way to the central mercado and
waited for the next available one. Ten
minutes later, the driver had enough people to make it worth the trip, and six
of us piled into a small five-seater car.
It was a sweaty and bumpy hour on the partially paved road into the mountains. The driver seemed to be trying for a new
personal speed record while swerving from one side to the other to avoid
potholes, but we somehow made it in one piece.
Only a few years ago, Minca was occupied by a paramilitary
group and occasionally the FARC guerrillas before that. They left in 2006, and now it is a scenic
little village with temperatures at least 10 degrees cooler than Santa
Marta. We spent three days there
relaxing at a hostel, Casa Loma, high on the hillside. Getting to the hostel involved climbing 200+
steps, but the rustic place was charming and had great views all the way back
to Santa Marta and the ocean beyond. The
showers were only one temperature which was ice cold, but we quickly learned to
take them right after the climb up the stairs and then it was quite
refreshing. The owner of the hostel was very
helpful, and there was a good group of international backpackers there that we
enjoyed hanging out with in the evenings.
We spent our days exploring the area, walking through the
village and visiting some of the nearby waterfalls. There was one viewpoint where you can see the
snowcapped mountains in one direction and the sea in the other, but it was a
long uphill walk along the road. Rather
than spend an entire day getting there and back, we decided to hire moto taxis
for the way up and then just walk back. We
both hopped on the back of a motorcycle, which turned out to be an adventure in
itself, as the drivers navigated the bumpy dirt roads. The
view wasn’t great due to the clouds, but the walk back was nice.
All of the beans on the plantation are hand-picked. They then go through a series of machines
that are powered completely by the water flowing down the mountain in the
nearby river. After the beans are deposited
into the first machine, they don’t need to touch them until the end of the
processing. The flow of the water brings
the beans from one machine to the next and even sorts them by weight. These machines are now almost 120 years old
and still work the way they did when they were originally installed. The water also flows through an old generator,
which provides enough electricity for the facilities and all 20 of the homes on
the plantation. After the tour, we hiked
up the plantation road to see the coffee plants, fruit trees and the little
houses built into the hillside where the employees live.
At the airport, we piled into a cab and headed into downtown. On the way in, traffic slowed, and we came to
a stop on the highway. Our cab driver
quickly leaned over and locked all of the doors. It was a reminder that we would have to be a
bit more careful during this part of the trip.
Although Bogota has made some big improvements from the 90’s, when it
was considered to be one of the most violent cities in the world, it still has
a way to go. We were told not to have a camera
out in plain sight and while we were there, we didn’t see another tourist with
an expensive camera around their neck.
We stayed and spent most of our time in Bogota in the La
Candelaria neighborhood near downtown.
Bogota is an old city, founded in 1538, and this neighborhood is one of
the oldest, as well as the location of most of the cultural activities and
sites. There are some well-preserved
homes over 300 years old, as well as some really good museums.
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| La Candelaria neighborhood, Plaza de Bolivar, guards at president's mansion |
During our stay in Bogota, it rained every day and was quite
chilly. It felt like Seattle in the
fall, which was a nice change from the heat down on the coast. None of the buildings had heating, including
our hostel, but that was ok since we had eight blankets on our bed.
The tour was led by an Aussie named Christian who called
himself a “street artist” and moved to Bogota a few years earlier because of
the lax graffiti laws in Colombia. He
took us on a walking tour where we went through various streets while he
explained all about street art. He told
us about the various kinds of graffiti from the hoodlums that do tagging, to
the individual artists and big crews that do murals. Some people do freehand spray painting, or
use brushes and quite a few actually use stencils, from poster cutouts to
computer images projected onto a wall.
Some of the stuff is political, some goofy cartoons and now they even
have rogue advertising, where businesses actually pay people to spray paint
their product logos on the side of a home or business.
Graffiti is not permitted in Colombia, but not really
considered a crime either. Occasionally
these guys will be stopped by the police and asked to pay a small fine (more of
a bribe), or possibly spend the night in jail.
But this is rare and usually they aren’t bothered by the police at all. Many of the building owners don’t want their walls
tagged, so they ask local artists to paint murals. Generally, once a mural is up it won’t get
painted over or tagged, so this is preferable to them. Many of the local people are quite proud of
the street art, and artists come from all over the world to paint here.
After three days in the big city, we were ready to move
on. We took a nice big air conditioned
bus for the first few hours to the city of Tunja and then switched to a smaller
crowded bus for the last hour to Villa de Leyva. At 7,000 feet of elevation, the temperature here
was about perfect.
Villa de Leyva was established in 1572. There are less than 10,000 people in this
well preserved colonial town with cobblestone roads and whitewashed
buildings. It was a pleasant change from
Bogota. The local people were very
friendly, and there is little to no crime.
It was nice to break out the camera and not have to constantly look over
our shoulder.
Four days flew by, and we were on the road again. After the bus back to Tunja, we switched to
another big luxury bus for the four hour trek up to San Gil. Unfortunately, we were the last ones to board
and had to take the only two open seats in the very back by the toilet. This did afford us front row seats to some
engine repair, when one of the employees came back with a wrench and
screwdriver and removed a large floor panel, part of which was under Andrew’s
foot. A big wave of hot air hit us when
the panel came off, and there was the engine, and the highway below, going by
at about 50 mph. The guy hung down with
his tools, made some adjustments and put the floor panel back like it was no
big deal. Not sure exactly what he was
doing.
From San Gil, we took another small bus to Barichara, arriving
seven hours after leaving Villa de Leyva.
Barichara is another beautiful colonial city. It was founded in 1705 and many of the
buildings look like they were just built.
This is a town of about 7,500 people. It was starting to warm up again as we moved
down to about 4,400 ft of elevation, and it was hot walking around on the hilly
streets. The cobblestone streets here
were different than Villa de Leyva, as they were made from big rectangular
boulders. It is hard to imagine how long
it must have taken to build those roads.
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| streets of Barichara and Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepcion |
While in Barichara, we did the five mile walk on the
historic El Camino Real. This is
stone-paved road that was built by the indigenous Guane people centuries
ago. It goes from Barichara, down the
rim of a canyon and then through the valley to the village of Guane. After we arrived, it only took about 20
minutes to walk every street in the tiny village. We were happy to discover a bus going back to
Barichara, so we didn’t have to make the uphill trek back.
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| El Camino Real and Guane |
In Barichara, we stayed at a new hostel on the outskirts of
town that is owned and recently built by a Frenchman. Some of his friends from France, who were
involved in music and theater, had spent the last month in Barichara, teaching
some of the local children about music and theater and doing some performances. We were lucky enough to see some of the
performance and spend time with them at the hostel, which was certainly a highlight
of our stay there. The last night we
were there, they had a grande fiesta, where many locals turned out bringing
their musical instruments and dancing until the wee hours.
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| Barichara |
After four days in Barichara, we were back on the bus for a
four hour trip to Bucaramanga. This is a
bustling city of about a million people, where we spent one night before
catching an early flight the next morning.
After a quick stop in Medellin to change planes we arrived in Cartagena
de Indias, the last stop on our trip and by far the most popular tourist destination
in Colombia.
Cartagena is a beautiful, well preserved colonial city with a
rich history. It was founded by the
Spanish in 1533 on what was the former location of the indigenous Caribbean
village called Calamari. There was much
gold here to be plundered from the indigenous people and the city grew fast
because of this. It quickly became the
main Spanish port on the Caribbean coast, serving an important role in the
administration and expansion of the Spanish empire. It was also the place where this newly found
treasure was stored until it could be shipped back to Spain.
Because of these stockpiles of treasure, Cartagena became a
very tempting target for pirates, including Sir Francis Drake who sacked the
port in 1586. In response to these attacks,
the Spanish needed to protect the town and built several forts and surrounded
the town in Las Murallas, thick walls stretching eight miles around the city
that took almost two centuries to build.
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| Castle of San Felipe de Barajas |
Most of our time in Cartagena was just spent wandering
around the narrow streets and alleys of the old city. There are many beautiful old churches,
interesting museums and homes hundreds of years old. We especially liked the big decorative doors
that you could drive a car through, with little doors cut into them for people. There are also some great restaurants here,
and we had some delicious seafood dishes.
We found a nice little hotel right in the middle of everything, which
fortunately had air conditioning so we could escape the heat. This was one of the hottest places we’ve been
yet.
While preparing to leave, some other cruisers in the marina were
relaying stories about the San Blas Islands that were a little disturbing. We heard from three different boats about 70
knot winds in the anchorages there and boats washing up on the beach. They also spoke of the daily lightning storms,
and many boats were reportedly getting struck.
A week before we left, a boat came in from San Blas that left after they
were hit twice by lightning in about ten minutes. This didn’t give us much motivation to head
out, and we started to drag our feet a little.
This time of year was supposed to be the worst for lightning, and it
would be getting better in a month or two.
We did some research on the internet about ways to protect
the boat, but the more we read the more confused we were. One source suggested attaching jumper cables
to the shrouds and stays and dangling them in the water to ground the
boat. We decided this was one simple
cheap solution to try, so we bought some.
In the end, we decided that even though this is one of the worst places
in the world for lightning, the odds were in our favor that we wouldn’t get struck
and decided to go for it.
So on a Thursday, we decided to leave the following Monday,
assuming the weather forecast held.
Another boat in the marina was also planning to leave that day. They had just called their agent and
recommended that we do the same, even though we were told he only needed 24
hours advance notice. So we did, and Jose
came out to the boat a few hours later, and we told him of our plan. He said would come out the next morning to
collect passports and documentation and clear us out.
The next day he didn’t show up until noon and informed us
there was a soccer game that afternoon and all the offices would be closed at
noon, meaning he wouldn’t be able to clear us out in time. An hour later we ran into our friends who had
just received their clearance documentation and were ready to go. That is when we realized we ended up with the
wrong agent. We should have used Dino,
the better agent, but it was too late to switch at this point.
The next day Jose came back, again about three hours later
and this time said he needed more money.
We told him about our friends who had no problem clearing out and
refused to give him more money. This
really upset him, and we started to wonder if we were ever going to get checked
out.
Fortunately, our French friends that we met in Barichara
were traveling through Santa Marta at this time, and the delay gave us time to
hang out with them. Two days later Jose
showed up again, collected our documentation and headed out to the
offices. Later that afternoon, we
received our clearance papers, without paying any more money and with lots of
thank you’s for using his service, and would we please recommend to him to all
of our friends. Early the next morning,
on September 10th, we set out on the 290 mile passage to the San
Blas islands.