The winds continued to blow in Santa Marta, usually easing between 1am and 3am and then picking up again after sunrise, blowing sand through the hatches and covering the boat inside and out.
Back on board we fell into a sort of routine; breakfast on board, daily provisioning, trips to the bank, doing the laundry and changing the bedding regularly, going out for dinner, drinks with friends and new acquaintances and Dualingo (just me). We both suffered bouts of the runs, Pete first and me 24 hours later. Fasting was required, which also helped us to lose a few pounds.
We met Graham and Ay, from New Zealand / Japan who, funnily enough, know people in Cass Bay, near Christchurch, where we have friends. At the marina bar, Cambiante, we chatted with Shane and Mickey, from Texas and we had regular catch ups with Richard and Eddie, Adam and Bev (Blu), Mitch and Avi (Miocene) and Hugh and Debbie. There was also the French, Gael and Cecile, with their young son. Next the Danes arrived; Rainbow and another yacht. They had actually suffered from too little wind on their crossing from Aruba but still had 40 mph winds and 3m waves on the final stretch. We all became a big, happy family of people who arrived in Santa Marta from the ABCs, with plans to head off to San Blas and / or Panama, in the near future.
We returned to Donde Chucha Gourmet, in the early evening this time, ahead of the queues. The food and wine were delicious and the visiting guitarists worth staying to listen to. However, with a table in the corner, against the wall, we were visited by cockroaches. We found a new favourite restaurant, Ouzo. Pete said the octopus (pulpo) was amazing. I had the oven baked pork, with apple, red cabbage and potatoes, which couldn't be faulted. We were seated next two lovely English girls, Sally and Lauren, who were travelling in Colombia for a few months.
Pete was inspired, by the colour of Santa Marta, to use his Nikon camera and we headed to the market to take photos. However, he then felt self-conscious, so I took the photos on my phone; brightly coloured fruits and vegetables and buckets of freshly caught fish. We bought a white fish and watched the lady fillet it and remove the scales. It served us for two meals and cost the princely sum of £4.
We managed to create an account to apply for our interview at the US Consulate in London and paid the fee of $185 each but when it came to scheduling the appointments, dates beyond May had not been released. Hopefully we can log in again in a month or so, without paying the fees again.
We needed to plan and book our next trip and decided on Medellin, which would require us to fly from the airport in Santa Marta. Medellin is a city in a valley at altitude and is supposed to be very pretty and famous for the drug lord, Pablo Escobar. About 1.5 hours away, is Guatape, a strange, high hill, with a river and a village decorated with mosaics. We chose a hotel and then went about booking the flights, a cinch at £40 return per person. However, each time I completed the booking and submitted payment details, I was greeted with the message, 'Failed to book flight. Please try again.' I went through the process 7 or 8 times, using different credit and debit cards and each time, the price had increased. Eventually, I gave up and we decided to visit Minca instead, booking Casa de Hadas for two nights. We decided to take a taxi, as the road is twisty and rough and the little bus is reported to be cramped, sweaty and uncomfortable. Juan our friendly taxi driver quoted 130,000 pesos for a one way trip, which was way over the expected charge, so he probably didn't want to go there. Katherine at Cambiante phoned a friend of hers, Viktor and he said he would take us for 80,000; deal! We arranged to be picked up at the marina around 9.30 to 10am on Wednesday.