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| View of the flooded area of Guatape from Piedra |
We had a good trip from Curacao to Santa Marta Colombia,
mostly down wind with light swell, we had to motor sail a little bit and
dropped sails for a while to try and motor away from a huge storm cell that was
centred right on us. The storm lasted a few hours and was actually pretty scary
as the thunder and lightening was the worse I have seen and so close. We
secured all hand held electronics in the oven and monitored from inside as
winds reached over 40 knots and the rain pelted Askari. We had been prepared
for these sort of conditions and bigger seas; the mountains on this part of the
coast of Colombia are the highest in the world directly next to the ocean so it
is not uncommon for some really yucky conditions to appear from nowhere. After
the storm, the wind steadied on our beam and we had a great sail directly into
Santa Marta, with dawn breaking and our first glimpses of the Sierra Nevada –
sadly the visibility wasn’t clear enough to see the snow that we had read
about.
We were called by port control as we approached and we
provided our vessel information before they instructed us to proceed to the
marina. The marina tender came out to meet us, with big waves, smiles and
photographs they directed us into a great marina slip, close to the marina
office. Inside the marina it was flat calm; always a relief when you’ve been
sailing in 20 knots of wind just outside, so Andrew docked us perfectly
alongside Kailani who we had met in Bonaire.
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| Pan of our spot in Santa Marta Marina |
It was quite a shock at first to be in a city and see tall
buildings, however the marina staff were so friendly and efficient that we
instantly took a liking to Colombia. We signed a couple of documents, left our
passports and went off for breakfast – they took care of everything bringing
documents to sign every now and again. You have to temporarily import your boat
into Colombia if you want to stay more than a few days and it’s quite a
process.
We spent a couple of days adjusting to being in Santa Marta
and then set about making plans for some land excursions.
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| Parque de Novios, Santa Marta - great restaurants in this area |
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| Cathedral in Santa Marta |
Traveling around in
Colombia
Friends recommended a local taxi driver who was super
reliable and charged us fixed reasonable rates – we used Gocsan whenever we
needed a lift in and around Santa Marta – during our time here we became good
friends, despite not being able to speak English we always managed to have a
good chat with him and his smiley face made my day every time we met him.
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| Gocsan - super driver friend |
We took buses, mostly private buses and found that the bus
terminals were like airports, with left luggage places, boarding gates and
competing ticket offices. Our favourite was the small mini buses that only take
about 10 people, as they have comfy seats and good air-conditioning and tend
not to stop so much. Planes were also reasonably priced as long as you book
ahead. We missed a connection in Bogata and had to buy a last minute flight
with Avianca and that wasn’t cheap in the slightest….. We also took private
transfers, tuk-tuks and taxis when out and about and everyone couldn’t have
been more helpful, despite the fact that very few Colombian’s speak English and
our Spanish is pretty limited.
We found it easy to get laundry done, so leaving with a
small bag was fine. However, it is difficult to pack for all the different
climates, and nearly every trip we took we changed plans along the way and
ended up not having the right stuff – in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Santa
Marta at night I sat in the bar in my waterproof jacket, in the desert we got
stuck in the mud in flip-flops, we had to buy hats and gloves for our hike to a
glacier, I had to buy shoes in Medellin, etc (ah that was just and excuse as
they were fab).
The Land Trips
We made three different trips whilst exploring Colombia by
land: Firstly to Minca, just 45 minutes from Santa Marta but on the edge of the
Sierra Nevada – we stayed at the most wonderful hostel with views back to the
city, yoga every morning, lovely walks and a really great young backpacker crowd
for sharing travel stories, music and games at night. We hiked to two
waterfalls, saw amazing birdlike, including a Toucan, explored the coffee farm
and ate really great Colombian food. I highly recommend Casa Viejas in Minca.
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| Walking in Minca with giant bamboo trees |
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| At Victoria Coffee Farm |
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| How we loved the view at breakfast from Casas Viejas |
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| The method of getting coffee beans to the farm - water pipes! |
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| Santa Marta from Minca |
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| Minca walking |
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| You can't go to Minca without checking out the giant hammocks with views to Santa Marta usually |
After a few days back at Askari to change bags we took a
flight to Medellin – famous for being the most dangerous city in the world in
the 80s due to Pablo Escobar and his drug cartel, the city now works very hard
to shake this reputation and focus on all things positive rather than glorify that
time. It is a big city (3 million people live there) that sits in a basin with
mountains all around – it is known as the city of eternal spring for it’s
perfect climate. It has a fantastic metro system that includes cable cars; you
just pay when you walk into the system a flat fee to travel anywhere in the
system – it’s immaculate with not one mark of graffiti despite being over 10
years old now. We decided to first visit nearby Guatape – as Medellin Airport
actually sits outside the city in the direction of the town on Guatape, a
resort town on a manmade reservoir, complete with colourful buildings and the
famous Piedra del Penol giant granite rock.
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| Local buses are so colourful |
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| Guatape |
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| Piedra del Penol |
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| Guatape - so pretty |
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| Traditional Colombian Food - hmmm interesting! |
We arrived in Guatape on a holiday weekend and the traffic
getting there was just crazy – it was such a relief to stay just outside of the
town a short walk over the bridge. We took a tuk-tuk early in the morning to
hike the rock – it really was very touristy but we were early enough to miss
the crowds. It was hilarious how unfit most young Colombians were that were
trying to climb the rock – made us oldies feel quite good! We like the town and
enjoyed walking through the narrow cobbled streets but the highlight was
definitely meeting Oscar, who ran a Colombian Cuban restaurant from his home –
we had one of the best fun evenings with him.
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| The streets of Guatape such fun to explore |
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| Fun with Oscar at Cafe Cuba |
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| Taking CAT bus to a new level - you can bring your cat on the bus in Colombia |
We took the bus directly to the north terminal in Medellin
and had an entertaining ride for a couple of hours with buskers that join the
bus, street vendors and a pet cat across the aisle. Our first impression of
Medellin was not great as it is just such a big overwhelming city. We stayed in
the upmarket area of Poblado, but it actually is a much bigger area than you’d
imagine from reading the guides – the main tourist area is around Lleras Park.
We choose a business hotel in a quiet area and that worked out well as some of
the hostels and hotels close to the Lleras park would be seriously noisy. We
really liked the area near purple monkey hostel/stinky’s laundry but did
venture out to the area near Lleras one night – had a really expensive,
terrible cocktail at the Envy bar in the Charlee hotel which was supposed to be
glamorous but I didn’t like it. However, we did enjoy a great meal at Bonhomia
while the local football finals were on and the waiters were a lot of fun. By
day we explored Bottero plaza, the street art of Commune 13, took the cable car
to San Domingo and walk around the city centre. We really liked Medellin and
the people were nice but we were keen to get out of the city – not really our
thing.
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| View from Commune 13 - red roofed escalators carry people around this once so dangerous neighbourhood |
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| Commune 13 |
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| Amazing and confronting artwork in Communa 13 |
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|
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| Remembering the many victims of drug violence - many never found |
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| Bottero Plaza one of the statues was blown up but left as a reminder not to allow that time to return to Colombia |
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| Bottero Plaza |
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| Cable cars to San Domingo all part of the metro |
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| San Domingo artwork |
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| San Domingo |
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| Medellin with mountains all around |
We had planned to head to the coffee region and had the town
of Jerico as our next stop, however terrible mudslides occurred in the village
and we decided it was sensible to postpone, instead we hopped on a plane to
Manizales. We just had a loose plan to visit Los Nevados National Park. In
Medellin there is also a small airport right in the city – very handy for
Poblado. Our journey to Manizales was interesting, as the small plane circled
three times to gain enough height to make it out of the basin of Medellin and
then throughout the journey we flew with mountains alongside the plane.
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| Drinks at the envy bar |
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| Shopping in Poblado - leafy with cute boutiques - I could have been in Sydney |
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| Only in Colombia - memorial to the only famous person killed in a plane crash at this airport |
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| Flying out of Medellin |
Manizales is a university town that sits on a long ridge, at
a height of over 2,000m. It is the capital of the Caldas department of
Colombia, in the Andean region. It is the heart of the coffee producing area
and has not one but 7 universities, we found they were not used to having
foreign tourists there but many more people had some English, which made things
a little easier. It actually ended up being a great experience and we ate some
of the best Italian food cooked by a Colombian New Yorker and ended the evening
with some of the most imaginative cocktails (or arte) at Alquimia Speakeasy
with our new friend Manuel.
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| Manuel mixing up a storm - a special cocktail made up for us |
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| Stunning Hacienda Venezia Coffee farm - this looked like a great place to stay - we just had lunch and it was great. |
We went off to find information about hiking in the Los
Nevados National Park – which is within the Colombian Andes and includes three
volcanoes – Nevado del Ruiz (5,321m), Nevado del Tolima (5,276m) and Nevado de
Santa Isabel (4,950m). Sadly the Ruiz was closed due to volcanic activity
however we had learned it was possible to hike in the area around Santa Isabel.
We found a company in the city that ran tours and Paulo was so helpful, even
sending Andrew maps and recommending a finca (farm) that would put us in a
great spot. We immediately booked the finca and had a couple of days to kill so
ended up staying with a family in a lovely area near another coffee farm – they
honestly couldn’t do enough for us, however they really didn’t understand our
desire to go for a walk more than half an hour and stuffed us so full of arepas; I don’t think I will ever eat another one. It is hard to go for a walk in Colombia
because people assume you are either lost or need help. We must have been stopped one hundred times
and offered lifts or directions. When you think about it why would you want to
go for a walk- Colombians walk for groceries or to work or for water but not
for pleasure. They thought we were mad….
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| Hiking near Manizales |
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| Our wonderful hosts near Manizales |
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| Our first glimpse of Hostel Laguna |
Probably our favourite experience in Colombia was at Hostel
La Laguna. We had arranged to meet Ruben at the bus station as to get to the
hostel you either take a 4wd or twice a week there’s a milk truck that heads up
to collect the milk from the farms. Ruben is Spanish but totally in love with
rural Colombia, especially the animals and during the hour and a half journey
stopped several times to show us plants, birds, views, waterfalls, and to
introduce us to water buffalo, underneath a barbed wire fence. The journey
there was definitely part of the adventure, but when we stopped for the last
time and the hostel came into view at the top of the waterfall, my heart
skipped a beat – it was one of the most idyllic settings I have ever seen. This
was then topped by the warm welcome we got, at La Laguna guests really become
family and it is a wonderful mixture of working farm, day trip destination for
horse riding and bike riding from Manizales, locals from surrounding farms and
all sorts of animals, oh plus they have their own Trout nursery. The farm has
been in Alexandra’s family for over 100 years and she is passionate to make it
a success as a hostel too. They have all sorts of special accommodation from
the beautifully designed cabins to creatively decorated farm lodgings.
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| I met Water Buffalo on the way to Laguna |
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| Courtyard at Laguna - always a great fun place |
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| Ruben and Alexandra's mini piggies |
The next morning we were up at the crack of
dawn for our hike to the glacier at Santa Isabel – this was the highest hike
Andrew and I have ever done at 4,720 metres which to give a sense is higher
than anywhere in Europe or the continental USA (15,485 feet). The altitude
definitely made it quite a challenge but the delight at finding fresh snow at
the glacier was just incredible. A Colombian group just ahead of us had never
seen snow before, so I showed them how to do a snow angel and we had a snowball
fight – totally crazy! Most of the hike is across the paramo with stunning
plants that store water and weird birds the like of which I have never seen.
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| Plants of the Paramo |
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| Selfie when we got a phone signal at 14,000 feet |
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| Who'd have thought we would see snow in Colombia? |
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| Hostel Laguna - such a wonderful spot with the best people |
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| Cabin at Laguna with our wonderful host Alexandra |
The trip back to Askari was easy as Alexandra drove us to
the bus station in Manizales where we boarded a “collectivo” mini bus with
comfy seats and air conditioning directly to Pereira where we dumped our bags
at ‘left luggage’ and went to explore one of the most affluent cities in
Colombia. We ended up rocking up at the best restaurant we ate at the whole
time we were there – everyone else was in business suits and heels while we had
come straight from the farm, that didn’t phase them although we did sit in the
far corner…. Then just a short flight
directly to Santa Marta and we were back home.
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| Fine Dinning in Pereira |
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| Grey Desert |
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| Like being on the moon |
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| Bethel main pool - just such an amazing view |
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| Red Desert |
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| Our tuck-tuk to the red desert |
Back to Santa Marta......
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| Final dinner with Breezer's in Santa Marta |
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| Memorable Sunsets in Santa Marta |
However, we made it back in time to celebrate the wedding of
our friends Michelle and Tony on board Tryst. It was a beautiful evening for a
beautiful couple complete with bubbles and cake.
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| Askari even got in on the wedding of these beautiful people |
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| Santa Marta - Tjaart from Zouterik getting dinghy chaps made on the beach! |
A quick provision and we set sail for Panama.
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