We have been in Columbia now for almost 3 months and most of that time has been spent either in or around Santa Marta. In July Spruce and Zenna joined us at Marina Santa Marta and we took the opportunity to head inland for a couple of nights to Minca. For us it was a second visit having first explored it with Vicky and Bob on Foxy. It was then that we met Leila and Guilame who have a small art/craft gallery called Ecoarte Casa Taller and discovered that Leila runs classes in bookmaking. I had followed up with Leila and arranged a class for us. The plan was for the three girls to spend an afternoon making books and for the blokes to chill or do whatever they do.

A taxi to Minca is around 30,000. We had two rickety jeeps collect us from the marina and drive us there for 10,000 a head - so basically the same. We stayed at Casa Loma for the views and organised our days so that we had minimal climbs up and down the 250 stairs to the hostel (worth every step when you get to the top).

Our afternoon through to evening session with Leila was a lot of fun and we each came away with a small perfectly formed and bound book. Leila is a patient and particular teacher and ensured our finished products were something to be proud of. She and Guilame are delightful people and have a simple elegance in all that they do, including the garden where they grow and sell arugula and avocados, and it was a pleasure to spend time with them. Link to Ecoarte

While we made books the boys headed to town and waited for us to join them for dinner. We took longer than expected and by the time we returned they were well watered and hungry. We had dinner late in a cafe called el Mox Mica remarkable for its perfectly round front door. The food was good too.

Next day we walked to the cascades about 5 km out of town. The walk is pleasant along a dirt road that winds through forest and in and out of rural areas. The last stretch winds around a hill, with huts and restaurants below and pasture above, to a series of pools and a gushing, slightly chilly waterfall - welcome after a warm walk.

The final evening we spent lounging around the hostel watching the sunset. It was Sue's birthday the next day and she was champing at the bit for an upmarket meal. By the time we arrived back at the boats that idea had gone to pot and it wasn't until they reached Cartegena a few weeks on that she finally got her dinner.

Tayrona Park



Three days after our return from Cuidad Perdida (see separate entry), we headed with Spruce and their two companions Ed and Fay from Casa Loma to the bays of Tayrona Park for 10 days. There are 5 bays in all but with northerly winds and swell we decided to spend the first few nights in Ensenada Gairaca. Spruce arrived before us and we both secured an anchorage in a nook on the inside east end of the bay thinking this would shelter us fom the swell and winds. Swell yes, winds no, at least not at night. The katabatic winds were phenomenal, blasting us with gusts that felt like 50+ knots but because they were dumping the strain on our anchor was minimal. Even so, the strain on us listening to that at night was wearing. The bay is relatively isolated with the exception of Ronaldo who has a habit of rowing out to boats in his canoe and having a chat and collecting boat cards. He has been doing it for a while with cards back to 1990.

There are nice walks along the beach and into the bays but Ed and Fay on Spruce found out on the second day that our boat permits were only valid on the water and we were not to walk on the beaches or hike unless we had individual permits for the park. While this is fair enough since tourists coming from land have to pay, for us it posed a problem because we were unable to get to the park entrance to obtain passes. In effect, we were prisoners on our boats - albiet very comfortable prisons. After 3 nights of being battered by wind Spruce up-anchored and moved to Ensenada Chengue. We stayed put, planning to join them the following day at Ensenada Concha. Spruce thought the snorkelling was better at Chengue but they were hit by swell and the reef made the anchorage uncomfortable. Our only regret with staying at Gairaca was not trying the south west corner of the bay. Although counterinutive given the direction of the trades and swell it may have been a more comfortable site and we saw two boats anchor off the beach there. In fact, this is roughly the position we ended up anchoring in Concha. The first night we anchored off a fishman's hut on the east shore near Spruce but the wind turned south west and blew us around on our anchor to be uncomfortably close to the rocky cliff. That plus an early morning signal from the fisherman that they were putting out their nets had us haul the anchor and head towards the beach for another site. We anchored in 6-7 metres of water off the beach. This bay is popular with tourists and between 10am and 4pm is crowded with swimmers. Before and after though we had it to oursleves and it is a very pretty beach with better snorkelling. Sue topped the snorkelling off by finding a seahorse.

Spruce headed back after 3 nights and we again stayed for another day. There was some filming going on in the bay and an imitation minature submarine was being towed around with an intermittent flurry of activity - a lot of fun to watch. The only incident which left us a little weary was what we surmise was two boys pulling down our swim ladder, taking a shower with our deck shower, and stting in our cockpit. Nothing was touched otherwise but it was uncomfortable and left us thinking we would anchor further out next time.