When we left Santa Marta Colombia on March 15, 2016 we vowed to come back to Colombia the country we have learned to love so much. Just before we left we made even a small down payment on a very nice condo behind the marina. Medical problems and the fact that it was more difficult than we anticipated selling our condo in Miami Beach in Florida prevented us to legalize the purchase of this condo. We knew that Kelly, the commercial assistant of Marina Santa Marta, our Colombian daughter, was expecting her baby in October 2016 and promised to visit her with Christmas. Many factors including illness and boat problems prevented us to keep our promise but finally begin February 2017 it appeared a good time to go. So on the February 8, 2017 we stepped on the plane in Panama City and flew via Bogota to Santa Marta Colombia to see our Colombian granddaughter Luciana, her mother Kelly and Kelly's husband Freddy.

Kelly invited us into her home so we could spend a lot of time with Luciana in the week we stayed in Santa Marta. We should not come anytime later since Kelly after a maternity leave of 4 months needed to go back to work on Thursday February 16, 2017. We arrived late at night in Santa Marta and stayed the first night in a small hotel in the center of old Santa Marta. Since Kelly and Luciana needed to see doctors we spent the morning strolling through the center of the city took a lot of pictures of people in traditional costumes, street art and historic buildings. We drank coffee in a famous coffee house and had lunch in our most favorite local restaurant.

In the afternoon we met Kelly in the marina and in no time we were surrounded and greeted by many of our old friends and marina staff. Although the marina store was closed and we could not buy anything to drink to celebrate our renewed friendship we had a great time sharing stories and admiring our Colombian granddaughter Luciana. We discovered then and during the remainder of our stay that Luciana is an extremely cute, very happy and friendly 4-month-old baby. She does not mind that people she has never met hold her and she is very generous with baby smiles and sounds like she is talking. Kelly took us to her house in a very nice middle class neighborhood with narrow concrete streets, narrow sidewalks and an abundance of large old mostly mango trees. Fruit vendors who pass by very innocently ask if they can have some mangoes but since we all know they will not eat them but sell them their requests were all denied.

We spent over 5 months on our boat "Island Girl" in the marina in Santa Marta, Colombia, we made many trips in the country but we never stayed in a residential home in a typical middle class neighborhood. This experience made us love Colombia even more than we did already. Although most of the houses have a very solid iron fence in front of their small front porch it all feels very safe. The kids play in the street, traffic is very light and it is easy to connect with your neighbors. On many street corners you have small shops and bakeries that sell the traditional Colombian pastries and bread. At the end of the street where Kelly and her family live is a soccer field, basketball field and a gym. Both fields have only bare dry soil and with the wind we had the dust was blown into the faces of the players. But that did not withhold them from playing. On Saturday teams of all age groups played and on Sunday there was a tournament for retired people. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the high level of technique, skills and endurance at which these clearly older people were playing. With older I mean people of my age of around 70 years. One of the goal keepers made an incredible safe with a high dive and smooth landing while he rolled over to absorb the landing.

Kelly's home has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a large living/dining room. However, my favorite spot was the front porch where you could experience all the activities in the street while enjoying the wind and the rustling of the leaves in the mango trees. Inside the house has two 'air chambers' that have openings in the ceiling which allow the wind to cool the house. In Linton Bay Marina internet access is only possible with your cell phone and our cellphone hotspot. In Kelly's house we had very fast internet access that allows us to use "Google Translate" to talk to the non-English speaking people. Johana, a very nice young and beautiful family member came daily to spend time with Kelly and tried to teach me Spanish and helped Dorothy to improve her Spanish language skills. My Spanish is not improved but I had a lot of fun trying.

On Sunday Kelly invited all the available marine staff for a get-together with food and drinks. We had a great time to see all our old friends again together with their wives and children. The babies we had seen before we left Santa Marta last year have grown in the meantime and the older children are smarter and good looking. The boys where playing soccer video games and one of the boys beat everyone even the grownups. The food was good and the drinks relaxed the sometime difficult exchange due to our limited Spanish conversation skills.

We visited the model condo in the building where we intended to buy a unit and for which we made a small down payment. They offered us a very nice lunch served in the dining room of the model condo and we received an update on the delayed completion of the 2th tower which houses the unit we are interested in. However, we are running out of time to complete this transaction and we cancelled the purchase. We hope that after we bring "Island Girl" back to the USA we can reconsider.

Saying goodbye to our family members Kelly, Freddy and Luciana and our Colombian friends was hard and very emotional for us. We desperately hope to be back and enjoy their company again.