No 7: Passages 2026 - Santa Marta Colombia

 

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 500^th 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.

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 Christmas, four couples and one family (including Mel and I) from the marina, went out for dinner on Christmas Eve to the main steak house on the Waterfront. For Christmas day, we enjoyed our time on the boat and then went out in the evening to enjoy the festive atmosphere of Santa Marta.

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 13^th, the day before we left Santa

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

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

                                                                                          Photos of Santa Marta

No 6: Passages 2026 - Sights of Colombia – Bogota, Salento, Medallion

 This is our first blog entry for 2026 – so to all of you – Happy New Year! May 2026 be a wonderful year for you and your loved ones.

Back to our news - as mentioned in our previous blog post, after touring around Peru and seeing some of that country’s wonderful and amazing sights, we flew from Lima, Peru to Bogota, Colombia.

We arrived in Bogota, late Sunday afternoon and as always took a taxi/uber to our hotel. I was quite

apprehensive about going to Bogota due to its bad reputation, which I am sure is justified as we had been advised not to visit certain areas. We had chosen a hotel in a central area which was renowned for having many restaurants, safe night life and was close to the cultural areas of Bogota.  

My first impression was that of a dirty city, covered with lots of graffiti and litter. This perception did change as, like most big cities, there are some lovely areas.

Bogota is situated on an elevated and broad plateau called the Bogota Savanna. It is one of the largest cities in the world at altitude, averaging about 2,640 metres above sea level. The city is surrounded by high dramatic mountains, which gives the city a coolish climate. Many years ago, the area once was a large lake, and one can seem remnants of this scattered around the city.

 On Monday, we took a funicular to the top of Monserrate, where we could see the whole expanse of the

city. Monserrate is a mountain and sanctuary 3,152 metres above sea level and its name originates from Monserrate in Catalonia, Spain. The main attraction is the 17^th century church and shrine to El Senor Caido – the Fallen Lord. This is a major pilgrimage site. The whole area had Christmas decorations and lights which was lovely to see, plus there were the markets and cafes.

We spent over three hours enjoying the views of Bogota before we descended back down to the city by the cable car. We then took a taxi to the main historical and museum area of Bogota, where we enjoyed a few hours meandering around the cobbled streets and went to the Museo Botero – which featured many artworks of Fernando Botero. You may remember in Cartagena, Mel enjoying himself feeling the huge statue of La Gorda Gertrudis (Fat Gertrudis). Botero certainly has a distinct form of painting and design, as his sculptures are unusually huge.

Botero Museum | The Cultural Network of the Bank of the Republic

Afterwards, we just kept walking along the main street back to our hotel. As we walked, we encountered a variety of sights: towering skyscrapers, the main university, green parks, intricate roads, and an interesting blend of modern and colonial architecture. The Colombians seem to acknowledge their colonial past but are not ‘hung up’ on it and appear not to have any grudges against it. We passed lots of stalls selling Christmas items plus a large area where people were selling second hand items. Once again, the street art was amazing!

On Tuesday, we decided to take the hop on/off bus so we could get an idea of the whole of the city.

The tour started in a very upmarket area, which apparently was the main financial area of the city. It was

Monserrate 

quite beautiful with lots of green, leafy streets, walkways and parks. Contrary to my original thoughts of Bogota, it has many green areas and parks and some lovely areas where one can see people care for their surroundings. A large metro system is currently under development in the city centre, which should alleviate the congestion when completed.

After our tour, we decided to once again to walk back to our hotel but this time it was from the opposite end of where we were on the previous day. In fact, in the two days we were in Bogota, we walked the length of the main city.

The next day, Wednesday, we flew from Bogota to Perreira, which is in the coffee region of Colombia. Perreira airport was the closest airport to where we were planning on staying for the next two days,

We saw a Black Condor.

Salento. We caught an uber through to Salento which sits in the Quindio department (similar to a province), part of Colombia’s coffee Axis (Eje Cafetero). Salento is a very pretty town as the houses are brightly painted and there are many restaurants and cafes. The central square was decorated with lots of Christmas decorations once more, since it was a week away from Christmas. While we were in Salento, we took a traditional Willy jeep (the local transportation) to the Cocora Valley to see the iconic wax palms. These wax palms can reach up to 60 metres tall. While we were there, our guide, Sebastian, drew our attention to the prolific bird life in the Cocora Valley. The views in the Cocora valley, were spectacular.

After visiting the Cocora Valley, we took another Willy jeep to a traditional finca (coffee farm). The weather was a bit against us, but we had an enjoyable time learning about the harvesting and manufacturing of coffee. No wonder it has become quite an expensive beverage as the whole process is labour intensive and quite involved. The cheap brands of coffee are harvested in a more commercial and quick way but decent specialist coffee, is quite involved. I am not a huge coffee drinker, but I certainly prefer the Colombian coffee to the Peruvian coffee and the typical cheap Starbucks type of coffee. Mel enjoyed tasting the different varieties and blends.

Salento had a lovely, relaxed feel about it. Mel and I are always in a quandary as to how long to stay in

a place. For example, we thought 3 nights would be enough for Bogota. However, an additional day would have been great as we would have enjoyed going to the Salt Cathedral which was a whole day excursion and then to Salento – it would have been lovely to have spent longer there as well. We faced the same dilemma in the next place we visited, Medellin.

From Salento, we caught the bus back to Perreira where we spent a few hours exploring the downtown area before catching a taxi to the airport. As always, there were lots of elaborate Christmas decorations and lights everywhere in the city

plus, what we had noticed in quite a few central squares and parks in Colombia, were tables of people playing chess or dominoes. It had quite a community feel as all ages were involved.

 Later that evening, Friday, we caught a flight to Medellin arriving rather late and in the pouring rain.

Medellin is Colombia’s second largest city and is known as Colombia’s ‘City of Eternal Spring’ because of its year-round mild climate – it’s average temperature all year is 22 – 24degrees C. My favourite temperature!!!! Medellin has had a huge transformation in recent years, as it had a bad reputation for violence but is now known for its innovation, urban renewal and cultural.

The artist Fernando Botero was from Medellin and many of his oversized sculptures can be found in the city, particularly in Plaza Botero.

 The Tunel de Oriente is an 8,2km long tunnel connecting the main airport – Jose Maria Cordova International airport in Rionegro to Medellin’s city centre. It only opened in August 2019 and has reduced the travel time to the airport from 1 hour minimum to 20 – 30 mins. It was quite amazing to experience at night and then again during the day when we left to fly back from Medellin to Santa Marta.

We had only booked one night in Medellin, so we were up early to explore as much as we could in the short time we were there. There is a river running through the main city centre of Medellin – the Rio

Rio Medellin.

Medellin. It has many tributaries, which gives the city a lush and calming feel. Once again, we would have liked to have stayed longer in Medellin, but we had been away from Passages for almost 3 weeks, and we were keen to get ‘back home’.

We arrived back in Santa Marta on Saturday – late afternoon. Passages was fine although very dirty and dusty. Due to the Katabatic winds blowing down the Sierra Nevada range, the dust in Santa Marta is quite incredible. But that is another story.

So, until next time…..

Take care, keep well, and stay safe.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

👉The rest of Colombia

P.S. At the moment, we are making plans to leave Santa Marta, Colombia for Panama - San Blas Islands on Wednesday 14 January. (fingers crossed).