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Rossario Islands as last stopp in Colombia.

I think we can say, we have seen quite a bit in Colombia and can only recommend this beautiful country. Off we went to Panama!!!Leaving Cartagena didn't go the easy way. This beautiful city wanted to hold us, Colombia wanted to keep us...... we only crawled through the water. Starting the engine was even more shocking: we still crawled and left a black track behind us. Scary!!!

18 days ago we cleaned Elitsha s hull completly. Could it be........sails down and heading to some shallow water, dropped the anchor in and.... yes, a 2 cm layer of mussels and seapocks. We, i mean Dick, cleaned the propeller and the hull, complaining: "i should have known it, I should.....and i prepared white asperges, which is Dicks favorite dish. We chilled in front of this pictureque fishing village with its friendly people who offered help and assistance.

We slept very well and now chasing the sun through the water again with as a little bonus, all over sudden a submarine surfaced just next to us.

Sea Life is good and full of surprises.

Rossario was wonderful quiet and enjoying nature, snorkeling and chilling.

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Cartagena:

old meets new,

modern meets antique,

classic meets hipp vibes

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Tayrona National Parc with by boat

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My birthday present from my family:

a weekend in a small lodge in the Colombian jungle, Barlovento, Tyrona National Parque, with good food, amazing river, ocean and jungle views, hikes, horse ride , traditional massage and with my gorgeous husband. What a treat.

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......... and as cherry on top just when we thought it cant get any better and prettier anymore, we went with Juan, another driver and tourguide to Guatepe, some 90 minutes away from Medellin. Juan showed us really everything on our way to Guatepe, we climbed the rock (half way my legs said: stopp😉), El Penol, saw all this beautiful, colourful and artfully painted houses and on our way back Juan raced through the bush (which was an adventure on its own) to be on time before, at and after sunset to show us the most beautiful panoramic views of HIS city. Juan doesnt speak English and we dont speak Spanish, but with the help of google translate the day was filled with information, laughter and friendship. We had a typical colombian lunch on a roof top terrace. After 12 hours of exitement and beauty he brought us back to our place and he spoiled us on these beautiful bracelets to not forget him and his country........how could we!!!!

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Again with Johan and Denis, this time communa 13:

A poor area of Medellin. Thanks to the Escorba family the youth of this neighbourhood got uplifted by amazing programs: art, music, grafity, small business development...

Such a joy to stroll through this area. On top of it all they have an escalator system, connecting all street levels, which is unknown in the rest of the world.

"Inventive city planning is one reason behind this surge. High up on the city's hillside, Comuna 13 is an area that had been plagued with violence and was once a stronghold for guerrillas and drug traffickers.

Its 12,000 residents had to hike the equivalent of 28 stories home after scraping their living in the city. Steep roads made it impossible for vehicles to access this poor neighborhood, leaving the community isolated and impenetrable.

The solution? A giant 384-meter orange-roofed escalator that scales the mountain in six sections, with a journey taking just six minutes. Opened in 2011, the development has become a model for urban planning around the world.

More importantly, the simple innovation is credited with helping to bring peace and pride to a community once plagued with violence.

Architect Carlos Escobar came up with the idea. "Nobody trusted that this project would be possible. Before, this area was under the control of gangs," he said. "Right now, this area [has] become a neutral zone. The control is in the community's hands.

"It is really beautiful because [since] the construction, we [have] never heard anything about violence in this place. It has increased the pride of the community."

'The great uniting force'

As tourists and residents from across Medellin now visit the neighborhood, it's an ingenious example of how transport can unite social classes. And it's not the only example of innovative transport in Medellin."

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Somos lo que jamos a los demas

We are what we leave to others

Medellin, city of transport innovation:

A cable car system -- more commonly associated with ski resorts -- was built in 2004, linking other parts of Medellin's underdeveloped suburbs to the city center.

Known by locals as Metrocable, it was the first time gondolas had been installed exclusively for public transportation and has been replicated in cities from Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Caracas in Venezuela, to Ankara, Turkey, and La Paz in Bolivia.

Now there are six cable car lines carrying tousands of people every day, turning a tiring trek into an effortless ride for thousands of "Medellinenses."

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ALMOST 3 MONTH COLOMBIA!!!!!

We spend our time in hurrican seaso in a beautiful country which surprised us on a daly base.

Medellin was one of the highlights:

Medellin: 4 million people in a valley surrounded by the mountains of the Colombian Andes and so so amazing!

City of enternal spring

City of Pablo Escobar: Robin Hood or terrorist

City of amazing changes: from the most dangerous City in the world to a pretty safe one

City of wonderful youth programs, envolving youth into art, sport and music

City of awarded transportation system to take its people to work and back home by cable cars and elevator

City of the most fantastic and friendly people

Medellin, city of enternal spring. Never seen a city full of skyscapers and at the same time that green and full of flowers, trees and all sorts of greens.

Medellin the city of Paolo Escoba, Robin Hood, terrorist, drug lord, murderer, husband, father... His life was to be scared to dead of and to be celebrated by many poor of the poorest. His grave gets visited every Sunday by many people of communa 8 and 13. Our tour guides Dennis and Johan explained the difficult topic and how Medellin made its metamorphoses from most dangerous cities of the world to one of the most fascinating ones. Even Dennis and Johan felt disgusted and they admired Escobar at the same time. We visited communa 8, the neighbourhood Escobar built from scratsh with thousands of houses for the poor. He built sports facilities, youth centers.....you name it.

And........

there is a black massive mable wall with tiny little holes in it on the property , Escor once had a hotel. Every little hole represents a dead minister, member of the Cali cartel or just common people who were at the wrong time at the wrong place.

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Colombia

Back in South Africa, we never considered to sail to Colombia:  no interesting history and culture, big chance of being kidnapped, FARC, drug war between the drug cartels, terrorism…… All these associations and prejudices in our mind didn’t really invite us to go there.

Last year, Zora mentioned, on her Central America trip, she will definitively go to Colombia. My mother heart went kedang, kedang and I didn’t think it was a good idea, but what to do if you have a grown-up girl, who makes her own decisions. The only remaining thing: inform yourself better about risks and the beauty of this country. And here we are: IN COLOMBIA AND LOVING IT. What an amazing and divers’ country. Wearing masks wherever you go but no PCR tests and no other restrictions and its very affordable, which gives us the chance of travelling around a bit without Elitsha.

But let’s start at the beginning:

Zora sailed with us through the wild sea from Curacao around the Cabo de Vela to Santa Marta. Again, we couldn’t go to close to the Venezuelan coast because the thread of piracy. We knew that it would be rough, that’s why Su flew to Colombia in advance and rather checked out bars, shops, hostels ….. Zora wanted to experience, what we are experiencing for 6 month now and she got it: 45 knots and 5 m swell and high freaky waves, thunder and lightning, the whole program…..

But what she also got, was the feeling when the wind dies down, the waves and swell gets smaller and they then just rock you into a comforting sleep, when you catch a big MAHIMAHI, when you see, at the tropics, snow covered mountains, inviting beaches in fjords of the coastline of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta from your sailing boat, when flying fish land on Elitsha and you have to save them, when you see  birds  and see land again, yeahhhhh and when you finally get to the city, then to the marina, get in contact with the officials, when you dock and when your proud to have done it and when Su came to the marina to say Hi again.

On our arrival we didn’t see cosy and colourful little houses like in Curacao, instead we saw skyscrapers and a in a way a bit sterile Marina with a lot of motorboat, few sail boats, excellent bathrooms with aircon, a little bar and restaurant. We have access of the swimming pool of the Marriott Hotel and the Gym…..and…….we heard music from all corners of the nearby  bars and the new and old city centre, people were very friendly and happy, cheering and celebrating the good life. Later, walking into the old city nothing was sterile anymore. Wouww. If there were no masks you would think Covid never happened here. Music, dance, acrobatic, lots of bars, restaurants, shops, markets……and all full of happy people. We were back in civilisation.

For the next weeks we enjoyed Santa Marta and found our way here. Zora and Su booked themselves into a hostel and we saw them so now and then before they started “real” traveling. They went to places, and we afterwards went there too. Hahahahahaha. First to Minca and then to Medellin. They also went to Cartagena, but there we will go later with Elitsha after we have left Santa Marta and sailed, snorkelled and anchored in the Tayrona National Parque in October.

After 3 weeks at the Marina, we drove with a taxi to a hostel outside of Minca, yes, a hostel with infinity pool, private bedroom with terrace………and in the midden of the jungle. In Minca we had to change cars, we had to get into a 4 X 4 otherwise we would never have reached this paradise. We had to ascend another 800 m of steep muddy paths, that even had the driver moaning and groaning. The 4-meter-high bamboo which grew on the edge of the paths would have prevented us from falling down the wasn’t great fun to get there. Dick enjoyed it a lot.

1 600 m high above sea level I had to wear socks in bed at night and we wore long sleeve shirts and jeans in the evening. Fantastic feeling after suffering from Curacao’s and Santa Marta’s heat.

We enjoyed our 2 nights stay, with nice meals, awesome breakfasts, nice walks, traditional massages, great company of lovely people from all over the world and finally made our way back to Elitsha in Santa Marta. And again: not a fun ride for me.

It felt like coming home. Seeing our boat, our friends……. our favourite ice cream shop….  Ready for the 30+ degrees again.

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Our new home for a while: Enjoying vibriant Colombia

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Our new home for a while: enjoying vibrant Colombian life

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Our home for a while: chilling..........

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The sail towards and arrival in Sannta Marta Colombia

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It's been a long time, since I posted on tumblr. I had hoped to get my laptop back and working, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. It died, regardless of the new screen I paid a lot of money for, probably due to a defective motherboard. So I am trying to befriend our navigation tablet, to write letters, emails and tumblr messages on there. In Colombia I will try to find an expert who can hopefully safe the hard drive with all my documents.

One month on Curacao with our favorite girl(s) (Zora arrived 1 week after us, Su, Zora's friend, arrived 1 week after Zora): snorkeling , swimming, chilling, cooking, having coffees, wines and cocktails and many lovely chats. After bachelor and master studies succesfully finished by the girls, they were ready to be spoiled. Chilling is what you can do best on Curacao. The lovely beach clubs and beaches are superb. Zora, Su and Dick snorkeled and dove a lot. Once again we met our Polish friend Mike, who is our constant companion since Suriname. We met new friends, German, Dutch, Canadian and Swiss ones.

But the next adventure is calling us: we sailed to Westpunt, Curacao, to have the best start for our sail to Colombia. The peninsula southwest from Aruba is famous for very strong winds and currents and it can change daily. Around Santa Martha, our first destination there, the weather can often hold no wind and nasty thunderstorms. So we are ready to go with the best weather window we can get.

Santa Martha and Cartagena, our second destination in Colombia seem to be fantastic places with lots of cultur and natur to explore. Su already flew to Cartagena and is checking out the best coffee and wine spots. We are getting photos, videos and enthousiastic reports. We can't wait. After chilling and not sailing at all for the past month sent here on Curacao (its just not Grenada where you can sail around and visit places by boat), we are more than ready to leave. Sailing from our Marina in Spaanse Water to Playa Grandi, lying at an anchorage, we've already been visited by turtels. A promising start of our journey! We miss Su, but for a first ever sailing trip, this sail might become a bit too rough. So we have to do it without her. Can't wait to see her back at Santa Martha.

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