Cartagena to Aruba

Chris Parker, our weather forecaster, finally gave us a heads up. We asked our agent to get our departure papers and paid up our bill at Club Nautico. Early on October 1 we filled our water tanks, did a quick last minute grocery run and left the dock at 9:00 AM for the fuel dock. Seven hundred and fifty dollars later we pulled away and temporarily anchored off the marina. It is 22 hour trip to the Five Bays anchorage so we have decided to leave at 6 PM to cross the River Magdelana in the early morning when the winds are calmer and we can watch for debris - and still anchor in Guayraca, the middle bay of the five before dark.
It's always eerie to leave a harbor in the dark. The channel is pretty well lit and we've been this way before so it's safe. Still I held my breath a little as we negotiated the narrow entrance throught the breakwater. The rest of the night was really lovely - calm and full of stars. We had a positive current so we really had to turn the engine down so as not to get to the Magdelena before daybreak. It was calm as we approched but once the wind came up against the currents steep waves with short intervals crashed over our bow and tossed us a bit around. We knew this often happens here so we were prepared and it only lasted a few hours. Then it was a nice the rest of the way.

Approaching the Five Bays in Tayrona National Park is always wonderful. The highest coastal mountain range (peaks over 19.000 ft) in the world looms up behind the rocky cliff lined harbors. Our favorite is the middle bay with it's small fishing village and coffee colored beach. Our friend Reynando came out to visit with us and we spent five days snorkeling, kyacking and admiring the view. We were waiting for Chris to give us the go ahead for our next passage and he finally said, "GO"
This next part of our journey was full of possibilities and timing arrival in daylight at the potential anchorages was tough. We left early in the morning and at 3:00 AM passed the first possibility, Cabo de Vela (Cape of the Winds). It had been a good passage with some great positive currents and we were making good time.

Some squalls and a second oil platform not marked on our charts gave us some exciting moments but we were feeling pretty good. We decided to keep going and at least make it to Monjes del Sur, a rocky Venezuelan outpost we had visited last October (see posting for all these anchorages in October 2007). The weather still was great late in the afternoon but if we continued on to Aruba we would be there at 2:00 AM so we tied up onto the rope at Monjes at 5:00 PM and settled in for the night.
The next morning gave us an unexpected challenge. I was up early and noticed that we were lying in a strange position relative to the wind. We had somehow been pushed over the line and our keel was caught. Scott had to wake up quickly that morning for a swim to free it before the wind came up. We cast off not long after and set our course for Aruba and the Renaissance Marina - luxury ahead!
This is a first class establishment and a good value. We pay $50 a night to stay there and the rest of the hotel guests pay $300 and up. Three nights refreshed us completely. We also met a very nice couple from Scotland on "Atlantia", Margaret and Will that were heading west.


Our first day there however was spent on the internet and on Skype. We had decided not to continue on to Trinidad if we could change our plane tickets. These were frequent flier ones on American and Continental so this was a difficult process. It took a day but we managed. Unfortunately it meant I couldn't be home for Thanksgiving and my planned sister Paula's visit. This was very disappointing but frankly it was a huge relief not to be transiting the Venezuelan coast at this time. Security problems have been rampant. Just last week a French cruiser was killed there on his boat by robbers in front of his wife and 10 year old son. There have been many incidents within the last month. The Russian navy is off the coast till November in joint exercises with Venezuela. To top it off I've been suffering from bursitus and sitting for long periods of time has probably caused it to flare up again.
We emailed and then called all our family after we made the changes. Everyone has been understanding. Our next port of call is Curacao and we had a lovely day to motor sail the 50 miles over there.

Sitting and Waiting - for a window

A weather window to be precise. This next leg of our journey east to Trinidad is about 450 miles along the Columbian coast to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire (off Venezuela). We would love to go direct from here to Bonaire, taking about 3 days (and nights). But it is unlikely the weather will hold long enough for us to do this. The prevailing currents and winds are against us and this is a notoriusly windy and stormy area. Squalls and thunderstorm are predicted pretty continuosly. So it's a little nerve wracking waiting.
Meanwhile we've had workers swarming over the boat. Scott and they have fixed the generator, the air conditioning, the ice maker, and the shore power relay. He's been searching out boat parts to accomplish that. We hired a young man to clean and polish the stainless steel and fiberglass. He's on his third day ($25 a day).
I've been cleaning the inside of the boat; washing down all the inside surfaces to get rid of mold and dirt. And then there is shopping at the supermarket and the public market, followed by repackaging, pre cooking, stowing and inventorying.
Every morning we walk for an hour or more around the old city. There had been a happy hour evening and pot luck here at the marina with the whole cruising community showing up. We've met a lot of new friends and seen many old ones.
So waiting around isn't boring - or scary, but we're still hoping to take off soon and get this section of our trip over and done with!

Intruders at Isla Fuerte!

Well we've now had our first attempted robbery and luckily it was unsuccessful. Our first night here I woke up to some unusual noises. They were very faint and I listened awhile trying to figure it out.

It didn't sound right so I went into the main salon and up the companionway. A man was standing on our stern deck trying to undo our outboard motor from it's perch on a wooden piece between the stern arch. We looked at each other and I yelled "Hola!". He looked scared to death and jumped overboard. He had a friend in a small dugout canoe below him but missed the boat. He swam to shore and his friend paddled furiously away. Scott then appeared wondering what was going on! .

We called the Columbian Coast Guard on our VHF and they responded immediately. Scott gave them an excellent account of the incident and answered all the questions - in Spanish. Our friends on Vindomar were listening and were very supportive. Roy slept up in the cockpit for the rest of the night to keep an eye on things.

Honestly I wasn't really that upset. These were poor fisherman not professional thieves and that outboard would have changed their families lives. They have to paddle miles out to fish and it's obviously very dangerous and hard. It was a great temptation. I am very grateful that I didn't stand up on the bed and put my head out the hatch (which I have often done to investigate a strange sound) as he would have been only inches away from me.Regardless of this incident we really enjoyed our stay at Isla Fuertes and would love to return on our way back up the coast next fall. There are no cars on the island but lovely paths.

We found the same combination of beautiful wealthy second homes and the local residents. The house at the top right was covered in old newspapers and the small village clean and brightly painted. The home just above right is a typical older construction but neat as a pin. Scott and I walked all over while Roy & Sue kept an eye on the boats and then they took their turn. We visited one small resort with charming rustic two story cottages for rent (see the second picture above left) and a funnny monkey statue welcoming guests to their dock (above right).

The village stretched out along the beach. We bought bottles of ice cold water at the tienda and enjoyed them here. Again after two nights we set sail, this time for Panama. This meant saying goodbye temporarily to our great buddy cruiser, Roy and Sue Potter. We so enjoyed their company both on our Medellin trip and through the islands.

San Bernardo Islands

This group of islands further down the Columbian coast houses both the local fisherman and second homes for wealthy Columbians, mostly from Medellin and Cali. We anchored off a lovely island with a number of beautiful homes but the locals only use it to obtain (from holes dug in the ground!). They live, totally packed together, on a small island nearby - 1280 people, 780 in residence at the moment. At least half the population is under 16. The local school has two sessions a day. We walked all over the island and were welcomed everywhere. The men were gathered on the wharfs talking and the women in front of the homes (see pictures of both below). The kids were all having fun and like kids anywhere acted up for the camera. This boy on the left put on quite a show to the vast amusement of his friends. The children are very charming and we had a lot of fun meeting everyone.
There is a health clinic there and we met the "Doctora". We also observed one of the classrooms in the school. All the kids were in neatly pressed uniforms and discipline was clearly not a problem. One really surprising detail were the paintings on many of the homes - most of secular Christmas. One example here shows Santa Claus above the door! All the homes are painted in bright colors and some were nicely but simply furnished. We saw an occasional TV set. There is a generator for the community that goes on at 6PM and shuts off at 10.
We spent another two nights here. The weather has been so lovely and mild. Scott completed the installation of our new "Super Wind" wind generator so in a way it's been disappointing that we haven't tested it out at higher speeds, but seriously, we're not complaining.
We're sailing next to Isla Fuerte, a single beautiful island 30 miles further SW. This will be our last stop in Columbia as Scott and I are planning to head from there to the eastern San Blas islands in Panama. Sue and Roy will have a shorter passage to the western end of those islands as they have more time in the San Blas than ourselves.

The Rosarios, Columbia

It seems strange and a little scary to leave the dock after a long time tied up in one place! We were more than ready however and excited about the coming trip. First we needed to fill up with fuel at Club de Pesca nearby and this took hours! The process is slow here and we took on 250 gallons of diesel. Unknown to us the boat was settling into the mud as this happened and it took five men and all our power in reverse to get off the dock when we finished!

In addition their credit card machine wasn't working so Scott had to go to a bank and withdraw $700 in cash.
Still we were off again sailing through beautiful Cartagena harbor, by the city walls and church domes. It was a beautiful day and a lovely easy sail to the Rosario islands, some 20 miles away. .
We were there in the late afternoon and settled happily back on the anchor to watch the sunset next to Roy & Sue on "Vindomar". We've decided to "buddy boat" for awhile down the Columbian coast. This is our third time to team up with another boat since we left the eastern Caribbean and we feel very lucky.
The Rosarios are a tourist destination from Cartagena but very low key - mostly day trips with only a few small hotels. The local people are fisherman mostly and live very simply. We bought nine lobsters from one and had a feast!
One distinction however is a world class aviary! Hundreds of birds from all over the world have been collected here and cared for by a team of locals. Here are photos of a toucan and some beautiful flamingos. We spent only two nights and then headed southwest to the San Bernardo islands around 35 miles away. Navigation is very dependent on watching the color of the water and signs of coral heads and reefs so we time our arrival if possible with the sun overhead or behind us. We have electronic and paper charts but many of them were surveyed hundreds of years ago! They are often a little to more off target. Sometimes we finish anchoring to find our computer shows us in the middle of the island. Eyeball navigation is easier than it sounds and we've had lots of practice.

Pereira and back to Medellin

From the park we drove the opposite direction from Montenegro to Armenia. This is a modern city of a half a million people built around a river valley and very attractive. The road from there to Pereia followed this lovely river with levels of mountains marching off into the distance in paler shades of blue. Farms with grazing horses and cows made us think of Vermont. Pereira is the capital of Risaralda, 1400 meters and also home to about half a million people and 8 universities. This drive took about one and a half hours, arriving at sun down again.
We drove through the streets looking for a hotel amid throngs of people. The first hotel was full but thoughtfully called and found us the Soratama Hotel on the Plaza de Bolivar. The streets were packed for a huge parade for Easter Thursday. The music and parade lasted for four hours; lots of bands, religious groups, military and retinues with their statues on platforms carried by penitents. Several groups gave us quite a scare with full Klu Klux Klan outfits of white or black, but as they were carrying big wooden crosses, we hope it didn’t have any of the same significance here. I'm sorry that these photos, taken necessarily from a distance and in the dark are not very clear. They do look better if you double click on them and enlarge them. The third picture shows the "Roman" soldiers in full regalia.
This 3 star hotel cost $80 each with a big breakfast buffet (more local foods than in Medellin - how about meat soup for breakfast!).
Our rooms unfortunately varied wildly. We had a two room huge suite (with a exercise bicycle no less) and Sue & Roy had a small room with twin beds. One really nice thing was that valet service for the car was included. We were really glad to turn it over to someone else to park! After checking in at the hotel we watched the parade from a second floor restaurant across the plaza in a very nice shopping center. Again a Columbian gentleman who worked in Westchester, NY came over to visit with us for awhile.
We were up early and walked around the Plaza, amazingly clean after the thousands who were there the night before. That's our hotel behind the statue above right and the cathedral above left. A huge earthquake devestated this area in 1999 and the top half of the church is being rebuilt in wood.
We left at 7:45AM that morning and found the driving much easier and still very beautiful, following a huge fast moving river with occasional standing waves. Later we joined our original route and went back over the steep mountain and into Medellin. There are plenty of places along the road both directions to have a nice lunch.
On the way down we had a terrific fish soup followed by fish or chicken dinner (huge boneless chicken breast or an entire trout) with all the trimmings and drinks for $5 each. On the way back we waited until we were less than 1 kilometer from the airport and then stopped at a big restaurant on the right with a BBQ that served big portions of local type dishes and meat. They had a salad bar too. We got to the airport at in plenty of time for our 6:10 PM direct flight back to Medellin (an hour and a half flight).

The Parque Nacional de Cafe, Columbia

The next day we spent at the Parque Nacional de Café. This is a big somewhat Disney World type park, but very scenic. It was built on the side of a hill on a coffee plantation. We bought a ticket at our Finca which didn’t include the amusement park section/ rides. It did include entrance, the coffee exhibits, Coffee Show, Orchid Show, the gondola and the train ride. This was perfect and took us most of the day.
At the entrance was a tower from which we got a lovely view of the countryside and the whole park. In the picture here you can see the sculptures which illustrate the farmers and their wives planting, harvesting and processing the coffee as they did for generations.
As we walked down the hill this process is demonstrated and an English speaking young woman was our guide. She was charming and we really enjoyed her company, and that of the many other Columbians that stopped us to talk. Everyone was so delighted to see foreign tourists visiting their country! Children, studying english in school asked if they could help us in any way.

We waited in line for the Coffee show for 45 minutes but talked to people the whole time. It was really a party. One family in particular were so nice. The oldest son had spent time studying in the states and their daughter, although at first shy, had a great time practicing her english.
The show was terrific, basically a variety show: traditional dances and songs by a talented group of incredibly energetic young men and women. The orchid show however, unless we had our grandchildren with us (wish we did) was a little boring (animatronics orchids singing and speaking in Spanish).

We enjoyed the train ride around the park. Two comedians put on a fun performance as we waited at the station. They recruited Scott into the act - a good choice as he eats this stuff up! Then three funny and riotous musicans played while we chugged along. The day went by quickly and after a lovely gondola ride back up the hill we were back on the road heading through the city of Armenia to Pereira for the night. (continued in the next entry)

The Coffee Road to Armenia (Columbia)

The road out of Medellin was a large modern highway but soon changed to a two lanes, one each direction. Route signs on the road were generally good, although in a few places difficult to see. We didn’t get a map of the country so we had to use our Columbian guidebook, over eight years old. We managed, only missing two turns during the three days. People were very nice when you asked for directions. The roads were good with only a few sections with pot holes. There was road construction going on all the time but very well organized with one way periods alternating.

Soldiers are everywhere and we were stopped every hour or so for a quick check. They were always very nice. We felt very safe everywhere. This was rarely a highway by American standards. It was only occasionally a divided road. It took us 9 hours to drive to the Parque Nacional de Café in Armenia.
There were toll booths every 45 minutes or so. The rates were from $2.50 to $4. We probably paid around $30 total round trip (around 600 kilometers total distance).
It was spectacular. We took the mountain route avoiding the cities on the way down and the faster route through them on the way back. It still took 7+ hours for the same trip back. Those times of course included breaks and lunch.
The views are marvelous!


We could only occasionally pull over to take pictures as the road was narrow, winding and went staight down one or both sides.
Finca Hotels are the place to stay down in coffee country. Fincas are the traditional coffee plantation homes and a number of them have been converted to inns – some modern versions.
We didn’t make reservations and it was almost dark now for us. We left too late from Cartagena. We followed a series of signs for 7 kilometers into the countryside for Hotel El Bosque del Saman, hoping they'd find us a room. We had some tense moments waiting for confirmation but we got the last two rooms. !!!
It is in a beautiful location among the coffee fields and a real family resort with lots to do right there. They have a major rope course, horses, cows to milk etc. There’s a pretty main house and a pool overlooking the view. Breakfast and dinner were included and rather basic but adequate. We wish we could have stayed for several days here. There are many attractions around this area but we only had time for the Nacional Parque de Cafe the next day.

Medellin, Columbia

Sue and Roy Potter on “Vindomar”, not long after our meeting, joined forces with us to spend five days in the interior of Columbia together. This was too short a time for our itinerery. We should have allowed at least a week or ten days. We flew Avianca round trip for $150 each. There are numerous flights to Medellin and this was the cheapest fare. We flew through Bogata, which is at least 3000 feet higher than Medellin, and was really quite cool hurrying from one gate to another, I could feel the thinner air. Medellin is at 1500 meters and very comfortable. The temperature was 80 degrees at mid day and cool enough later or early in the morning to need a light jacket.

There are two airports in Medellin – the regional one Herrera, almost in town and the International Cordovada Rionegro, which is 50 kilometers away from Medellin. A taxi costs 48,000 pesos and takes about 45 minutes depending on traffic. You can take a bus for 6,000 pesos (right outside the arrivals) and then a local taxi to your hotel. The local taxis are on meters and generally very inexpensive.
We made a reservation over the internet at the Poblado Plaza Hotel (part of the Estelar group, Carrera 43A No. 4 Sur – 75, Tel 268-5555 Fax 268-6949 email info@hotelpobladoplaza.com ), a four star hotel in the Poblado district (the original settlement location in the 1600s and now the fancier neighborhood) and paid 206,000 pesos a night per room (this was listed as a holiday special with the normal price being twice that). The rooms were very attractive with elegant linens, the buffet breakfast was enormous (and included) and the staff very helpful. Someone always spoke English at the front desk. There is a pretty rooftop exercise room/hot tub/sauna/reading room – no pool. There were a lot of hotels in Poblado and also downtown at all ranges so checking online or in a guide book should give you a big choice.
There is a great subway system in Medellin with 25 stations, Line A has 22 kilometers of track and Line B has 8. Subway is a misnomer as it is above ground but the modern attractive stations feel very safe. We walked down to the nearest station and took it downtown (one way 1,400 pesos) and walked around for the afternoon. We really enjoyed the Parque de Berrio with its charming statues by Fernando Botero (two examples are shown above, that's Roy with me at one). Botero is an internationally known sculptor and painter and he has given a big selection of his work to Medellin. Around 20 sculptures are set around the pretty park and much more can be seen in the Museum de Antioquia which faces it.
Also on the parque is the Palacio de la Cultura Rafael Urib (shown behind the statue at the top), a baroque fantastic building, once the home of the government offices and now housing a variety of cultural events. We enjoyed a show by a young modern artist there. Medellin spends more money on art and culture than most cities and sponsors its’ young artists shows. Public art is everywhere - and sometimes quite amusing as you can see from the group of unusual manniquins posed on a balconey downtown! Next was the Antiguo Palacio Nacional, once a government building and now a big shopping center but with fun architecture both inside and out. (that's a shot of the interior on the right)
Also nearby are several old churches, the Iglesia de la Veracruz (the oldest church still in use) and the Basilica de Nuesta Senora
del la Candelaria, a colonial style church built in 1781. We had a big lunch at one of the Pollo restaurants that abound in Columbia. A huge plate of roasted chicken, potatoes, cole slaw, rice and arepas with drinks was about 10,000 pesos. Later we sat in a café overlooking the square and drank a beer while watching the incredibly busy scene. Everyone seems to be in a hurry in Medellin, at least during the work day. A comparison with NYC would not be out of place. Recycling is easy here as well as you can see from the photo of the three trash options here.

The next morning, after a huge breakfast, we took a taxi to the Cerro Nutibana. This is a small mountain right in the center of town with a miniature typical village on top and some good views of the city and the surrounding mountains. We walked around the park as well then took a taxi to the nearest subway stop. Our goal was the Fundacion Jardin Botanico Joaquim Antonio Uribe (what a mouthful), a really beautiful park at the University stop on the subway and the subject of my next entry.