Santa Marta has been ‘our home’ for almost 2
months now. We have used Santa Marta Marina as our base while we enjoyed travelling
around Peru and Colombia.
Santa Marta is the oldest surviving city in Colombia. It was founded in 1525 so last year (2025) the city celebrated its 500th birthday. It has a rich blend of colonial history and the indigenous Tayrona heritage. Santa Marta was once a strategic Spanish port, and it is where Simon Bolivar spent his final days.
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| Simon Bolivar |
As mentioned in our previous blog, the strong
Katabatic winds rush down the Sierra Nevada bringing along lots of dust. When
we returned from our travels, dear Passages was covered in black dust. It has
stained our lines/ropes and despite cleaning and washing Passages, the black
dust seems to seep into every nook and cranny. There is also a water issue here
in Santa Marta, amongst other things. There is plenty of water available just
the delivery of water, even to the marina, is problematic. It has been quite
frustrating. The water in the taps is not drinkable, so we have had to buy our
drinking water. We can’t make water using our water maker, as the water in the
marina, that dear Passages has been sitting in, is not healthy. The growth on Passages’
hull was incredible. We paid a diver to clean the hull. Mel usually does this
when we are in clean decent waters but as he said, he wasn’t going into that
water!
We spent Christmas and New Year in Santa Marta, and it was certainly festive. In fact, throughout
Colombia, we found the Christmas decorations and lights to be amazing. The Colombians certainly seem to enjoy the Festive season. We noticed that the Christmas decorations and lights were up until the 12 January which happened to be a public holiday.
For New Year, we went out for dinner with Iris
and Peter from Switzerland. They are on a catamaran called IP and have been
sailing for several years. I stayed up to watch the small fireworks display,
but Mel didn’t and to be honest, they weren’t anywhere near what we have seen
in other parts of the world. (I know I’m such a snob, but Australia sure knows
how to put on a fireworks display).
While we were in the marina, Mel organised for a
carpenter to do some work on the boat. For awhile now, the bifold door in the
main head/bathroom, didn’t close as one of the folds had come slightly apart,
plus Mel has been slowly working on installing a 2.5kg load washing machine on
the boat. The mounting of the washing machine and the electrical and plumbing
has been a major project, but I know I will be so chuffed once it is completed.
The carpenter, Heber, was a friendly guy but it was quite frustrating as on a few occasions when he said he would be coming round to the boat, he then messaged to postpone for another day. In between all of
this, Mel and I started to prepare for our sail and time in Guna Yula/San Blas Islands in Panama.
There was a great weather wind for us to sail to
Panama which Pleiterik – the lovely Dutch family – Deanne, Raymond, Miles and
Vajén took, along with IP – Iris and Peter – the Swiss couple. We knew we would
have to wait for at least another 10 days for the chances of another good
weather window to become available but until then we were waiting, hoping,
relying on Heber, the carpenter, to complete the woodwork jobs we had assigned
him to do.
Eventually
the woodwork was completed the day before we had planned to leave the Santa
Marta Marina for Panama. Heber, did a great job, which ultimately is the main
thing but oh dear he was slow or just meticulous.
We were keen to visit the town of Minca, which is about an hour away from Santa Marta, up in the high
mountains overlooking Santa Marta. We were undecided whether we should spend two nights away in Minca, but with the uncertainty of Heber the carpenter, and on advice from a ex South African couple, who now live in Bondi, Sydney Australia, Ian and Carol, they said a day visit to Minca, is perfect if you are not intending to visit the waterfalls or go for a hike.
We were hoping to go to Minca to celebrate Mel’s
birthday, but Heber decided to spend the whole day working on the boat, so that
put paid to our plans for Mel’s birthday.
We did, however, managed to go to Minca for lunch on Tuesday 13th, the day before we left Santa
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| Minca - centre |
Marta. Heber came round early 8.00am, to do the final touch ups of the woodwork and by 11.30am we were in a ‘collectivo’ – minibus on our way to Minca. We walked up and down the main street of Minca, found a nice restaurant to have some lunch, walked around a bit more and then caught the collectivo back to Santa Marta. We were back in Santa Marta by 4.30pm which gave us enough time to go to the local fruit and veggie markets for some fresh produce for some of our time in Guna Yula/San Blas Islands. But I will explain more in our next blog post about the San Blas Islands.
Minca had a hippie/back packers type vibe
especially when you see ‘Blue mushrooms’ for sale in various forms, like
biscuits, cookies, etc. in most restaurants. We felt the advice that Ian and
Carol had given us was correct and maybe, if we hadn’t done as much travelling
as we had done over the past two months, we would have enjoyed Minca a bit
more, but we were keen to move on.
We met Carol and Ian by chance in the Colombian equivalent of Aldi – D1. They were looking for
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| Minca. |
something to drink and when I heard their accent, I smiled at them and we just started talking. We arranged to meet up with them later for dinner in the city centre. They were, like us and many people throughout the world, saddened and devastated by the terrorist attack very close to where they live in Bondi.
Carol and Ian are spending the next two years
travelling and only started their journey two months ago. We met up with them
one more time before they left for Cartagena.
By now, we were eager to leave Santa Marta.
Despite the lovely and convenient facilities in and around the marina, we were
becoming weary of the constant water and the sanitation issues in the town.
Apparently, the sanitation issues have been long standing, and every newly
elected major promises to fix the issue. Along the main waterfront street, raw
sewerage in a liquid form, would run down the street. Together with the heat,
the smell was awful.
Our plan was to leave the marina after lunch time
on Wednesday 14 January, anchor out in the bay and then leave early Thursday
morning, heading for Puerto Obaldia, Panama – one of the main entry points, but
that is for the next blog entry.
Until next time…..
Take care, keep well, stay safe and be happy.
Best wishes, always
Mel and Caryn
