Cartagena was founded in 1533, by Spaniard Don Pedro de Heredia, it was a center of early Spanish settlement in the Americas. It gained fame in the
mid-sixteenth century when gold and silver from the mines in New Granada were exported by convoy to Spain.
The city’s history includes its role as a center for the Spanish Inquisition and as a major slave market. It saw expansive development in the eighteenth century as the de facto capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Cartagena became the main hub of commerce and transportation in the late viceroyal era, and continued as a seat of commerce into the modern era. It was known as a location where the cocaine drug lords created a safe haven along with this wealth.
Mestizo make up 58 percent of the population, white 20 percent, mulatto (mixed black and white) 14 percent, black four percent, mixed black-Amerindian three percent, and Amerindian one percent. After the abolition of slavery around 1819, a national ideology of mestizaje encouraged the mixing of the indigenous, European, and native Amerindian communities into a single mestizo ethnic identity. 90% of population are Roman Catholic so I hope to explore any pagan remains but need to understand Spanish much better.
The "Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena" were selected in 1984, as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for having the most extensive fortifications in South America. They have around 11 different fortification locations here.
We arrived in Cartagena, Colombia on the 7th of May. So we hung out in Venezuela out islands and ABC’s the entire winter (Dec to May). Cruisers thin out once you leave the Eastern Carib. Had a good trip to Cartagena (500nm) considering the horror stories we’ve heard of hi winds and seas due to the semi-perminent low and shelf. Since leaving Venezuela we have had down wind sailing so very different since leaving Bahamas. Its even more downwind leaving ABC’s. So have had to remember what to do with forward/back poles, etc. Our windvane steered great under genoa only with the wind darn near dead behind at times. When we first arrived in Cartagea we were surprised at all the hi-rise buildings but that doesn’t detract from the old, walled city which is very cool. Its much more third world and I need to expand my spanish. It feels safe to walk around even at night but need to be careful as most houses have bars over everything and fences. Even the public phone receivers are double locked to the base so we know there is theft. The commercial harbor is VERY dirty and even the wind blows soot everywhere. You need to clean the bottom every 2 weeks as it is so nutrient rich here. We have never seen barnacles grow this fast.
We hope to visit interior Colombia in Oct as there are too many things to do before we come to MN June 24th till Oct 6th. Then in November possibly to Chile/Argentina. Then in Jan/Feb to San Blas, Panama. So plan your visits because you don’t want to miss this part of our trip/travels/world. Just fly to Panama City and then take a small plane to Nargana or Porvenir.
Tom chipped his molar 2nd day we got here eating of all things a Arape, a cheese filled dough ball. So he’ll need a crown (for around $285), going to see a dentist on Thursday AM. Prices for services like this have a wide price range as some said they went to a dentist that used some form of epoxy for $10. We got blood-labs done as well as again looking at reducing budget and going with another health insurance carrier.
The historic OLD walled city is BEAUTIFUL. I (Rose) had to wait 4-5 days to walk any distances as my hip (bursa) was strained during this passage (from rolly following short seas). It was very painful and was concerned about how long this would take. I really need to be more careful with my body. They have tons of museums (even in churches) from emeralds to modern art to historic which are very nice. Then there are the forts and the 8 mile wall around the city that you can walk. It takes about 20 min. to walk from our anchorage to old centro or take a 5,000 Peso taxi or 1,300 P bus. We feel safe and the people seem very kind. The districts near the city are bustling with motorcycles/buses/etc. cramming the narrow main roads but still see donkeys pulling carts and people walking around with baskets of fruit on their head, push carts with lemonade, housewares, etc. Its wonderful to see how the walking street venders use creative methods to display/carry their wares. Very charming. At stop lights vendors are selling cellular top up cards to just entertaining you in hopes of a tip. You can still find reasonable meals. The lunch plate of the day is great for around 5,000P (or $3 US) is soup, meat, beans/rice, salad, plantain and drink. The street food is also good but my Spanish isn’t good enough to always know what you are buying. They have this arepe – thick corn tortilla filled with egg and chorizo then deep fried – yum. Then empenada white dough stuffed with meat or cheese. At night you see and listen to local musicians strolling by the restaurants and squares. Experiencing each countries food is a side benefit of this cruising lifestyle. In dutch islands you have paprika potato chips and in Colombia its lemon…. For some reason small change/coins are difficult to obtain so stores don’t give coins back if you don’t have the correct amount upfront.
The navy base is across the channel from us so here their historic bosuns whistle and cadence in the early AM. The AM is really hot until mid AM when land breeze picks up until around 1am when starts to die down. The cruisers are changing as we keep going west — more free, liberal type, interesting. It also appears that this is a good spot for solo male cruisers to find a young Colombian woman to hang with. At least this is what you see at this time of year before the mob of cruisers come from East in Oct./Nov. and start heading toward San Blas in Jan/Feb. So sorta glad we are here now when its abit more tranquil.
There is only one place to tie your dinghy Club Nautico so it is sorta expensive at 40,000 pesos or $19 US per week for showers, water and use of rustic yacht club. But John (US marina manager) provides ALOT of information about marina services and where to go for this/that. They also wash/dry/fold a load of clothes for $4.50 so this is the first time I have others do it for me. It is a commercial harbor so you also get black soot on ALL leading edges. Maybe during the rainy season it gets washed off more often and doesn’t blow the stuff around as much. There are about 20 boats anchored here, 2 small marinas that have maybe 20 sailboats and 3 yards that have maybe 30-50 sailboats stored so not alot of boats compared to other areas. But John says there are more boats anchored here this year than last. Maybe due to the crime and government issues in Venezuela. Actually we met our maybe 3rd cruiser from MN since leaving — he is a pilot from Mankato, MN that just brought a new catamaran from South Africa.
When checking into Colombia you must hire an agent to handle all the formalities of obtaining an immigration/visa stamp for 2 months and temporary boat importation for 1 year. You also have to use the same agent to check you out of the country. Evidently there is a "new" cruising permit fee (valid for 2 months and renewable even if your boat is on the hard) that was put into place this past February but both agents you can hire don’t charge the same fees for any of this. There is no place to really understand what ANY of the fees should be so you just grin and pay out.
We are getting our cockpit cushions covered for $95 before they became useless and a sail cover made for $170 with fabric I picked up in Trinidad so that’s pretty good price. The old one lasted 10 years. So labor is reasonable but marinas and hauling out is similar to eastern Caribbean so again should have been here a couple years ago.
I (Rose) went with some cruisers to a colombian ladies (x-cruiser) family farm that really was more of a weekend retreat property as they had minimal animals and crop based on its location in the hills. Her father was a doctor. So was sorta dissappointed by this as thought I would see some interesting historical farm events. BUT the country side was nice and then we rode via motorcycle connected to a awning covered cart (rickshaw) to another farm that had natural mineral springs. So this family with 2 teenage boys would submerge our bodies to our heads into these 8" to 3 feet holes. The holes would obviously be MUCH bigger by the time we would TRY to CRAWL/slide our way out. It was surreal and we were covered with BLACK MINERAL from head to toe. Lots of people here buy the stuff to make there skin healthier. The mineral holes were cool and would bubble even with your entire body submerged so felt very odd. I will post some pictures that tell the story better. To clean off you would go from hole to hole that was thinner in mineral. Finally we walked back to the mineral farm house to get abit of water to rinse off. Then enroute back to the cruisers farm we stopped at a stream and cleansed even more.
It was a riot and this place isn’t the tourist spot in further inland so was very cool. The downer was a young alcoholic british couple with infant that got so drunk they were embarrasing and he created a scene at mineral bath. I indicated to him that he was inappropriate (as he was walking around nude covered with mud) and wanting to use all of our water to bath himself so I asked him to wait his turn. He didn’t like this so the rest of the afternoon was trying to attack me by trying to pee on me, throw full coke bottles at me and finally was able to catch me off guard and poured coke all over me. Everyone was trying to keep him away from me but I finally decided to leave with another cruiser and colombian women to go back to cartagena. After I left he found others to pick on. So obviously this was very disturbing. This is the first time I have ever had something like this happen. Another cruiser told me later that he also does cocaine SO no wonder.
After 3 weeks of Cartagena dirty waters, we decided to sail 20nm to the Archipelago/Nat’l Park Isle Rosarios and Cholon (Baru Pennisula on mainland). You really can’t get from Cartagena to Baru village via auto unless you have a truck as there is a sandy lagoon that you need to pass as the road hasn’t been built yet so lots of water taxi’s. We spent 2 weeks at these 2 different areas and had to return to Cartagena as we were running out of propane to cook with. The waters are better but due to the mangroves not as clear but nice to snorkel. Fish were sparse and reef not great but nice to be able to jump in the water again. What was interesting was that this area has some underground fresh water as you would see hazy water and feel very cool spots. It also surprised us that these islands were so crowded with rich (vacation only) to poor homes. This area is not charted very well and with the hazy skies we couldn’t read the waters and went aground. We haven’t done that since leaving Lake Superior but that was sand and this was hard dead coral. Well we got off after abit by hard motoring when a passing boats wake lifted us abit. It was very scary and we were grateful that we had no major damage. Unfortunately, leaving this place on a rainy day we also misjudged and briefly went aground again…. Again we were blessed with no damage but this has got to stop. Tom/I will switch places next time in hopes for improvement. We will have lots of practice missing the reef in the San Blas!!!
They have a wonderful Rafa’s bird sanctuary with 800 different species owned by a rich Colombian that is free but they are in cages. Its also odd to go to an outdoor aquarium that far away from mainland. I guess that’s why there are so many water taxi’s and tour ferries that leave Cartagena every day making all sorts of wake for us. They have pens of different species and a few different shows of traditional dolphins but the show with the nurse sharks was amazing. I didn’t realize that they would come on command mounting a platform for food.
We spent abunch of our time cleaning the interior with vinegar/bleach and getting ready for haul out. We are noticing a lot more mildew due to this humid climate. We haven’t cleaned this much since we moved aboard but understand that if we don’t the boat will be one big mildew ball upon our return. Electricity here is too expensive so we will not run our small A/C unit while away to dry the inside out but will use Para Formaldahyde powder for the first time. Its very strong so can’t stay on boat until aired out a day. Hauling the boat for only 3 month storage is a lot of work but the only way to be able to spend some time back in MN so worth the efforts in this heat.
Anyway, hugs till we see you. We continue to feel blessed to be able to endure the good with the bad and share this experience with each other. We only wish we would see more of you out here with us or visiting us…. BUT we continue to say that its like luxury camping.