Colombia 

4/15/02 - arrived in Catalina Harbor on the northwest coast of the island of Providencia. Just to the northeast of Providencia and connected by a floating foot-bridge is Catalina Island, a former hang-out of the English pirate Captain Morgan. Most of the islanders proudly claimed descent from pirates and true to their English ancestry, they spoke an English-like language. But since they are now Colombian there is a strong Spanish influence.

Providencia is a sleepy place. There are some tourist resorts on the south part of the island and an occasional cruise ship visits, but the reefs are a couple of miles from the anchorage - too far for frequent snorkeling trips, and the one road that circles the island only takes about an hour to explore. We found one restaurant that was open consistently: Eneida's on Catalina Island, so we went there frequently. The beers here are a little smaller than the typical 12 oz., weighing in at 300 ml or just over 10 oz, but they only cost 1,000 pesos or about $0.45, so still a good deal especially when ice cold!

Providencia as seen from the slopes of the considerably greener Catalina Island.

4/30/02 - Having pretty much exhausted the touristic opportunities in Providencia and having a long list of boat projects that could be achieved in proximity to hardware stores, we sailed for the more urban island of San Andres under a waning but still bright moon. San Andres is about 50 miles south southwest of Providencia, so a relatively easy sail for us in the prevailing easterly trade winds.

San Andres is a popular destination for Colombians from the mainland, with jumbo jets arriving and departing regularly from Bogota. Although most of our time here was spent on boat projects, we took time out to do some touristy things like ride a golf cart for a visit to the blow hole at the south end of the island. 

While in San Andres, we repaired a leak near our main hatchway, installed a washdown pump for the anchor chain, repaired our instrument system, repaired our diesel engine, made minor repairs and varnished the mast, did some sewing projects, handled a package of mail, and restocked with provisions for an extended stay in the San Blas islands. We met the crews of the sailboats "Galatea", "Indara", "Restless", "Dalliance", "Lydia B", "Journey" and "Nous Deux". We became good friends with the staff of Tonino's Marina - Tonino, Capt. Marco Newball, Fernando, Gregory, Jose, and Hoche. We hung out with the launcha drivers who keep their boats in the marina - Truman, Mario, Beethoven, Ethan, and several others whose names we never quite were able to catch.

The people we met in San Andres were exceptionally friendly and helpful. Whenever we ran into a difficulty, there was always someone ready to offer some helpful suggestions or give us directions to just the right store or shop where we could find the part or supply we needed.

July 2002 - We had a long trip to make in a short time against adverse wind and current to reach Maracaibo, Venezuela from the San Blas Islands of Panama in the month of July 2002. We traveled west to east along the Colombian-Caribbean coast but did not officially enter the country.

Our friends on "Ithaka" have a good summary of our voyage at Cruising World. We departed from the central part of the San Blas on the third of July and tied up at a dock in Maracaibo, Venezuela on July 24, 2002. For almost the entire intervening time, we were pushing toward our goal. We used our anchor time to sleep or make repairs so we could press onward the next day - no sight-seeing. In retrospect, we realize we were quite lucky on this passage since several subsequent sailing voyages of this coast reported by others were marred by incidents of piracy at Punta Hermosa. We speculate that we may have been spared because our direction of travel - up wind along this coast - clearly signalled to locals that we were deranged.

A highlight of that journey was our visit to Guayraca, near Santa Marta about the middle of the Colombia coast - behind a very rocky headland, we came upon this remote settlement in a deep bay where the towering Santa Marta Mountains meet the Caribbean. We had been advised that this particular harbor was the home of some friendly people who could help us obtain some desperately-needed diesel fuel. This was one of the only places in Colombia where we visited people ashore during this trip.

Sand Dollar at Guayraca (near Santa Marta)

As anticipated, we met the Garcia family within minutes of arriving ashore. Jonathan Garcia, age 15, was at the beach to meet us and make sure we found the grocery store and had a chance to see his father's collection of artifacts. We soon learned that Reynaldo Garcia makes his meager living from excavating the local hillside for artifacts from the 1,000 year old Tiarona indian culture that occupied this area and apparently had a rather large burial site covering the hillsides around modern-day Guayraca. They buried the remnants of dead relatives in ceramic urns - after cremation or a time of dessication we imagine, since the urns are not very large. Some urns were also used to store food items and once in a while a piece of jewelry. It is these latter urns that Mr. Garcia seeks to support his two boys - his wife died some years ago.

Mr. Garcia was very proud of his discoveries - fancies himself somewhat of an archaeologist, though of course his actions completely destroy the archaeological value of the site. We were toured around the area by Jonathan the next day and learned that excavation of the area has been a local industry for more than 30 years. Reynaldo was able to obtain 40 gallons of diesel fuel for us. He and a friend who has a taxi in a nearby town, brought it to us a couple of days after we arrived, and all too soon, we were preparing to depart again.

Reynaldo the "excavator"

The Colombian coast is not heavily populated despite the presence of cities like Cartagena and Baranquilla. Most of the times that we approached land it appeared completely deserted, and as we went further east, it also became quite desert-like. We spent a night tucked behind the point of a narrow headland at the entrance to Bahia Honda - close to the northernmost tip of the South American continent. We went ashore to stretch our legs and see if the land could really be as desolate as it appeared from off shore. It was.

June 2004 - we headed for Aruba from Maracaibo at tthe end of our teaching contract in Venezuela, but the wind gods hinted none-too-gently that it would not be in our best interest to pursue that course. Two consecutive evenings of greater that 40 knots of wind in the Gulf of Venezuela persuaded us to return westward along the Colombia coast to Cartagena. It is a much more forgiving coast when transited down wind! On this trip, we spent a leisurely week in Guayraca with the Garcia family and other new friends. We were there for the weekend of July 5 - which is a date somehow associated with Simon Bolivar (aren't all dates somehow associated with him, we have begun to think?) Anyway, the beach at Guayraca was full of kids who mounted a series of expeditions to visit the sailboat. Over the course of the day we had about 60 guests aboard as waves of kids, and later their parents found ways out to visit and have a peek.

July 2004 - Cartagena is a beautiful city full of friendly people, historic buildings, and good food. We did not have much time to savor the city in our first month because we were diligently investigating shipyards. There were three here that catered to sailors: Ferrocem (now FerroAlquimar), Todomar, and Manzanillo. We found it very difficult to make our final choice between Ferrocem and Manzanillo in the final analysis, but finally the convenience of an on-premises restaurant convinced us to go to Ferrocem.

a pretty avenue in old Cartagena as seen from the outer fortifications

We had a very productive month of August 2004 in the shipyard (and Lisa took some time out to visit her mom in Kentucky). We had a hard-top bimini top made on our refurbished stern rail, had the deck repainted and the mast taken down for some TLC and replacement of lower stays, repaired a couple of seacocks that had been leaking, had the bottom and topsides painted and the name painted on, had a captain's chair built for the cockpit, ports and turnbuckles plated with chrome and new glass and gaskets installed, a new larger fuel tank, and some repairs to the cockpit seats. It was a big project for us and we spent a lot of money in the shipyard - 8 million pesos for our work crew for the month, 5 million for stainless steel work, about 4 million on materials, 3.5 million on stays and end-fittings, and another couple of million for the shipyard space. At 2500 pesos to the dollar, that is about $9,000 of work - more than we'd planned, but we found the labor rates quite favorable and the workmanship was good. Everything we did was helpful and will make an improvement in our living, so it was well spent. We set up a separate page for our work crew to show off their work a little.

the Bazurto market area (on a slow day!)

We left the shipyard at the end of August and tied up at the docks of Club Nautico to spend a few days washing off the remaining shipyard grit, put the sails back in place, take out the accumulated trash, refill the water tanks, and generally recover. Since the Club Nautico dock cost $0.25 per foot per day, plus $3.00 per day for water and electricity, we could not stay long. It is better for us to be out at anchor and only have to pay $2.00 per day for dinghy dock access and use of the Club Nautico showers (open air - nice on a sunny day).

There were several friendly cruisers hanging out at Club Nautico, and quite a few expatriates of various countries who had more or less settled into Cartagena on a permanent basis. We understood the inclination since we found prices to be almost as low as in neighboring Venezuela, the climate very agreeable, the city picturesque and the people uniformly friendly: we began to truly get back into the cruising lifestyle mode at last.

Cade swimming near some Goliath groupers at the Oceanario

October 2004 - we began taking trips out to the nearby Rosario Archipelago every other week or so to clean away barnacle accumulation, get a swim in some clear and clean water, and get a little change of scenery. Each trip of five to seven days would be spent in one of the many pleasant and protected anchorages in this group of islands 18 miles southwest of Cartagena, and we spent much of our time there working as volunteers in the Oceanario, a privately owned sea aquarium facility that had daily dolphin and shark shows, and also featured some nice laboratories for a fledgling effort to conduct some marine biology research. We were put to work in the Conch lab, helping establish a hatchery for queen conch that may eventually be able to restock the local reefs with these interesting creatures.

By mid-December, over 50 sailboats were anchored off Club Nautico and as many more were docked. We met many new friends and saw many continue on with their travels.

dinghies jamming the dock at Club Nautico

Lisa became an avid participant in the afternoon games of Baja rummy, Mexican Train and Chickenfoot dominoes, and the occasional bead stringing and jewelry making sessions. Cade found some chess players and we whiled away many pleasant afternoons on the deck at Club Nautico. A hundred people participated in the Christmas Pot-luck dinner, and then the crowd here began to wane. There were still dozens of anchored boats around by New Years Eve, but many began to talk of plans to sail westward to the San Blas of Panama or toward the northwest. We determined to move on to Panama as well.

Lisa aboard the Colombian training ship "Gloria"

July 2005 - we returned to Cartagena from the San Blas in the company of Ithaka and Mesqua Ukee. Cartagena was almost like we left it, but perhaps slightly more prosperous under the continued beneficial leadership of President Uribe. This year, we did not visit the shipyards - but nor did we have time for volunteer work at the Oceanario. We worked on a new list of boat projects instead - building a hard dodger to go with last year's bimini, deck lockers for propane and general storage (to go with converting the galley stove to propane), replacing chain-plate bolts, doing some LED lighting projects (see our article in the September 2005 issue of Good Old Boat!), varnishing and painting, rebuilding the engine transmission, and of course conducting numerous hardware hikes to help orient our fellow cruisers, and organizing various social events such as Sunday afternoon games on the deck at Club Nautico and excursions to various events during the holiday season.

Cruisers we met in Cartagena in 2004:

Abu Dei - Anne & Bruz
Amulet - Nancy & Chris
Australia 31 - Yvonne & Bernie
Chewbacca - April, Bruce, Kendall & Quincy
Chi Lin - Patty & Mike
Erin Brie - Vicki & Greg
Felicia777 - Carol & Gregory
Fifth Season - Gail & David
Friction - David
Gabrielle - John
Gonzo II - Jean & Bud
Gosi - Barbara & Tom
Illusions - Katy & Jeff
La Cardinalia - Maximo
Lady Domina - Irvin
Leprechaun - Terry & Iris
Leprechaun - Beth, Joe & family
Malola - Eric & salty
Maya III - Colin
Mesqua' Ukee - Lyette & Tom
Mon Dragore - Dominique, Patrick & salsa
Mystiqu - Sherry & Ted
Oasis - Kyoko & Ed
Promesa - Blanca & Leo
Queen Mary - Brenda & Gene
Rived - Margo & Clive
Shilo - Sonja & Harry
Sun Dazzler - Janice & Dorcy
Sundancer III - Bobbi & Noel
Trinka - Kara & John
Vagamundo - Natalia & Luis
Velela - Bill
Velela II - Mo & Charlie
Windsong - Yvonne & Bill
Xtazy - Nancy & Paul

... and in 2005, many of the same plus:

(wait for it - still collecting names!)