Colombia

Our Caribbean adventure had finished in St Kitts. We now had to cross the Caribbean Sea to reach the Panama Canal and along the way we planned stops in Santa Marta (Colombia) and the San Blas Islands (located off the Panamanian coast). The sail would take us three nights and we had agreed to use the short passage to trial our planned Pacific shift pattern which will be 3hour solo shifts (We’ve never tried solo shifts before). Understandably Clodagh was nervous at the idea of sitting up alone for three hours with no one to chat with… We set the Rota out to minimise the time Clo was sailing in the dark alone and to ensure we all got plenty of rest between shifts. We settled in to the rota quickly and was enjoying the sail right up to the last night (about 50miles from Santa Marta) when the wind speeds started picking up to 40knot gusts and the average was blowing at around 30knots. This alone wouldn’t have been a problem but when you add the 4m waves which were coming across the boat as well as from behind it makes for some very uncomfortable sailing, especially at night! We had our Staysail (smallest head sail) reefed right in and were still managing 6knots!! Skipper Pete was first to face the conditions and was fighting at the helm to keep us in a reasonably straight line! Eventually (after a couple of hours) Pete decided to try the electric auto-pilot to give himself a break and to see if it was man enough to handle the conditions. Thankfully it was!, which meant that for the rest of us, on our following watches, we just had to keep an eye on the reefing of the sails and the fast approaching Colombian coast line. This wasn’t a simple task, we didn’t think we’d have our full foul weather gear on at any point in the Caribbean Sea but we were getting soaked by waves smashing against the boat. By the time the sun started rising I was on watch and Damo had stayed on watch with me to get us round the final headland and in to the Marina. Thankfully, as we rounded the headland the winds dropped away, the seas calmed and the sun came up. We cruised in to Santa Marta Marina at first light and tied up to the service pontoon to wait for a berth to be designated to us.

The Marina staff were very friendly and more helpful than any we’d come across previously. We were shown to our berth, given water and electricity and shown the showers. We were glad to be on land and after cleaning Rafiki down we all headed for a well deserved shower and breakfast! Over breakfast we made plans for the week starting with an afternoon stroll through town for a few beers. We made our way in to town and wandered around the towns narrow and charming streets and stopped on the main square for a few G&T’s on what felt like the hottest day of our trip. After watching the world go by for an hour or so we continued the stroll down a narrow pedestrianised street and came across a nice bar with seats outside on the street. We took a seat and moved on to the bottles of wine and ended up striking up conversation with a French couple sat at the table next to us. They had moved to Santa Marta just a few months ago to set up a restaurant (Taparazzi) and said we should pop in for a bite to eat. After a few more bottles of wine we were wiped so headed back to the boat and grabbed some food en route.

One of the prettier streets in Santa Marta

While eating breakfast one morning we met Mauricio, an American/Colombian who had invested in the marina. He was kind enough to give us his card and offer to help in anyway he could to make our stay more enjoyable. He regularly said hi and asked that we were being well looked after. He helped organise a day trip in to the mountains which had been reccommended by some other cruisers staying in the marina. We headed up to the mountain village of Minca along some very interesting roads (interesting in as much as they went from a complete highway to a dirt track) and picked up a guide. From there we were taken to a small road side BBQ overlooking the valley down to Santa Marta. The BBQ is run by an old Colombian fella that serves up cold beers, huge plates of meat and handfuls of marajuana! We had our fill of everything he had to offer and then made our way up to the Victoria Coffee Plantation for a quick tour and a taste of the local Colombian produce for a quick pick me up…! The tour took us around the historic coffee processing plant and told the story of how the bean goes from tree to cup. An interesting tour and well worth the bumpy road trip up. After the plantation we were back in the car and driving back around the mountain to a picturesque spot in the middle of the jungle. After we’d parked up and walked for 20 minutes or so we reached a rickety old bridge which lead us to a small fresh (ice cold) water pool which provided a brief respite from the baking sun. Once chilled to the bone, we made our way back to the car and were treated to one last stop off at a small hotel in the village of Minca. The hotel has a balcony which overlooked the lush green valley and thanks to a well designed bird feeder was a haven for hummingbirds! We sat and watched the miniature birds come and go and take their feed and was then loaded back in to the car for the trip back down to town.

BBQ - As much meat and marajuana as you can take...

Victoria Coffee Pantation

​​Bridge Engineering in Colombia

Hummingbirds feeding in Minca

After a great day out exploring we headed in to town to try the Tappa Razzi restaurant for dinner. Once in the busy little restaurant, Jean-Christophe (JC) made space for us and fetched some expertly crafted G&T’s along with a bottle of BBC (Bogota Beer Company) for each of us. After many G&T’s and some excellent food we headed to the roof bar of the adjoining hostel and agreed to meet JC and Rose May for some drinks. The bar was packed with young backpackers but there was a nice chilled feel about the place. We stayed for a few rounds and then made our way to a bar next to the marina called Mika. It played electronic music and served up overpriced and average G&T’s…luckily we got there just before it closed so only stayed for one drink. We’d lost track of time and sadly there was only one option - a lock in at the restaurant… We piled in to a cab (yes one cab - all 6 of us!) and made our way back to the restaurant. We carried on drinking and putting the world to rights until we were disturbed by a commotion outside!? We opened up the doors to discover it was daylight and the Easter procession was passing by! Probably the sign we needed to call it a day!?

Needless to say, we were not on best form the following day and spent most of it lounging on the boat or in bed - The perfect Sunday!! Monday morning started with a double celebration - Pete’s birthday and Rafiki’s one year anniversary of going in to the water! To mark the occasion, Clodagh had booked a room in a nice boutique hotel in town for a couple of nights. They packed their bags and headed off to check in. We’d agreed to meet up later that night for a few drinks and a birthday dinner. Damo and I spruced ourselves up for what had promised to be a quiet dinner and a few beers to celebrate… After about 10 G&T’s we were as battered as a piece of cod in a cheap fish and chip shop. We had bumped in to Ola and Eliana (Friends of JC and Rose May) and they had insisted we get drunk with them…we had put up a tough fight but caved eventually. As it was Monday night, most bars closed early but Ola said he knew a place that would be open till late…it wasn’t completely legal but it would happily serve us booze until we fell over - we thought it sounded ideal. We followed Ola around the back streets of Santa Marta and slipped in to an unmarked doorway. Behind the door was a large courtyard with a bar on the opposite wall. We were the only customers at the time… Ola promised us that the bar would get busier through the night so we took a seat and ordered some beers. As predicted the bar did start to fill up…pairs of women started filling the bar. These ladies were all very, very friendly. Far more friendly than most i’d come across before. It didn’t take long to realise that the bar was filling with prostitutes that had finished their shift on the streets and were looking for anyone drunk enough to take them home! Needless to say, none of us got that drunk! We sat together drinking and chatting until gone 03:00 - we felt as though Pete’s birthday had been adequately celebrated so we left the bar (after the door staff had confirmed there were no police waiting outside!!) and headed back to the boat/hotel!

Tuesday was a write off. Damo and I suffered on the boat and around the Marina and Pete and Clo had the luxury of lazing by their rooftop pool! We were due to leave Wednesday morning so we planned to head out Tuesday night to meet JC and Rose May for a goodbye drink. Damo couldn’t make it following the Monday night session so I headed in to town to meet the others at the hostel above JC’s restaurant. As i wasn’t keen on getting smashed again I had a few beers with everyone at the hostel and then left the two couples to head in to town for dinner…

The follwing morning Damo and I woke early, prepped the boat and headed up to the marina for breakfast before Pete and Clo returned to Rafiki. They were due to meet us at the café at around 1030 but only Clo turned up. Pete had picked up a virus and was not comfortable moving too far away from the bathroom (I’ll say no more…). We were stuck in Colombia! To make the most of the day, Damo and I headed back to the boat and decided to go out for the day. We had been told that there was a bus that would take us to Cartagena and that it was only a couple of hours down the coast and there was a return bus at about 9pm. We jumped on the bus and got comfortable…about 4.5hours later we arrived in Cartegena and discovered that the last bus back was in an hour and forty minutes!! We jumped in a cab and asked them to rush us to the old town! We walked around at some pace and I barely took the camera away from my eye as I tried to snap pics of the beautiful old town on the move! Sadly, before we knew it we were back on the bus on our way to Santa Marta. I had floated the idea of just checking in to a Hostel and heading back the next morning but Damo was keen to get back (missed opportunity for a bloody good night in my opinion!?) Once back at the Marina we heard from Pete and Clo that not only was Pete still ill but also, Clo was now feeling ill too! We still couldn’t leave! Not wanting to spend another day on the boat Damo and I decided to head round to Taganga, a small beach front town for a swim and a few beers. We set up camp in a small bar called Taco right on the beach and ordered a couple of BBC’s. We sat there watching the world go by and taking the occasional dip until the sunset! We grazed throughout the day on the decent Mexican food and was pretty much drunk by the time we left the beach - it was a great day. We liked Taganga and decided to come back that night to see what the nightlife was like.

Beautiful Caratagena above and below

Sunset at Taganga Beach

After showering and changing we headed out and bumped in to Jess, an American girl we’d met around the marina. Together we headed in to town to warm up at JC’s bar and then head to Taganga. We’d agreed to meet Ola and JC in the Mirabel club which overlooked the beach. The bar was packed and proved to be a good night, we wandered off at one point to find a party in a nearby hostel and met up with some kiwi’s (they get everywhere!) who led us back to the beach and a closed bar! Our night had ended much sooner than we had wanted it to (I’ve no idea what time it was…) but we had no other options. We jumped in to a taxi and set off for Santa Marta. On the road up out of the valley we were stopped at a police roadblock!? After having a torch flashed in my eyes I was ordered out of the taxi... The officer felt me up and told me to empty my pockets in a not too friendly manner. I did as was ordered and once he was satisfied I had nothing illegal on me, I was allowed to jump back in the car! The others were also searched and thankfully also allowed back in to the car! The cab took us back to the Marina and Damo, Jess and I stayed up until sunrise chatting and drinking our remaining stock of booze on the boat!

That was to be our last night out in Colombia. Pete and Clo were on the mend and we were keen to move on. Sadly, the lost time meant that we had to cut the San Blas islands from out itinerary but we were all keen to get through the Panama Canal and in to the Pacific anyways. We cleaned down Rafiki and prepped for the crossing to Panama. We could’t believe how quickly this time had come around - next stop Panama and sailing through South America!!