We depart Santa Marta today (Thursday 5th) for Porvenir in the San Blass Islands, a 300 miles passage, with a good weather window that will enable us to clear the northern coast of Colombia and what is characteristically a the high wind zone at this time of the year. The marina is built with the entrance facing east (the prevailing wind direction) and the berth are laid out on a north/south axis and as we were virtually right at the entrance so any wind is on the beam, and we have just had two nights with 40 knot gusts then the boat heels to port and puts a lot of strain on the mooring lines. Fortunately we carry a couple of heavy duty lines with big springs that absorb the shock rather than transmitting directly to the hull.


Street sellers of fruit and juices abound - fabulous


Look at those mangoes

My iPad and phone went overboard in my manbag and while retrieved it is clear that salt water and electronic “devices” do not agree. We did manage to find a place in Santa Marta that sold iPads and I managed to buy another one yesterday from a guy who spoke no English. Before we depart the main job is to get all the apps downloaded and to reload the Iridium Go software that enables the emails and phone calls at sea.


Streetside typing pool, old typewriters


Coconut water for sale

We spent a couple of days visiting Cartagena the historic walled city some four hours bus trip away. We booked a boutique (a euphuism for a very old small hotel within he walled city as opposed to the international chains who dominate the skyline on the approaches into the city) hotel online with difficulty as there was an international writers conference being held and the town was heavily booked. Fortunately we struck gold in that we had a good boutique hotel (Casa Badillo Zen) in a very central part of the walled city, although a transformer failure resulted in a good part of the city having no power for 24 hours (candles and cold showers it was).


Main square - Cartagena


Cartagena street scene


Keith & John looking for a bar, Cartagena

Unlike Santa Marta which seems like a working town, Cartagena is very much the tourist hotspot well presented, strong police presence (on every corner), population of around 1.0 million, founded in 1533 and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984. We were told it was the centre of the Spanish gold trade and also the port where African slaves were landed. Sir Francis Drake called by in 1586 and took control of the city, destroyed about 25% of it and then negotiated a ransom of 107,000 pieces of eight for the city to return it to its governor. Originally on an island and heavily fortified in the 17th century to ward off unwanted invaders. In 1610 the Catholic Church established the Inquisition Holy Office Court by royal decree and the Palace of Inquisition was completed in 1770. We visited the palace and the well preserved instruments or torture are still on display but probably not used anymore – certainly the blade on the guillotine was not sharp or shiny!


Many churches in Cartagenas


Guillotine at the Palace of Imquisition

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The impressive fort - Cartagena

In some respects it reminded us of the Gold Coast in Queensland – high rise apartment buildings, numerous upmarket hotels, smart shopping centres all spread along the coast – apart from the old walled city in the midst of all these 20th century developments. Huge tourism, cruise ships every day, a vibrant city centre in the old town, music, nightclubs, and great restaurants. The smart part of the city is Bocagrande with the Caribbean beaches, but not the beautiful blue water we have got used to. We subsequently learned that the beaches are made of volcanic sand and this gives the water the greyish look which makes it look very uninviting (for us) but not for the hundreds we saw swimming. All in all a wonderful city to visit – not to me missed.


Cartagena


Cartagena - old town

We had a great meal in a top rated restaurant co-incidentally just 20 metres from our hotel – one of the best meals we have had for some years, presentation and flavours to die for! The restaurant had four tables inside and two outside, very interesting scene.


Great restaurant Catagena

We will have no email access other than the Iridium address probably for the next week but we can be followed on live tracking on www.sailblogs.com/member/savarna with the link on the left hand side of the blog home page.


Cheers for now
Pam & Keith