We have been in Colombia for over a month now, we left Aruba on the 9th of October and landed in Santa Marta on the night of the 11th, with the marina welcoming us on the morning of the 12th. Colombia wasn’t really on my radar prior to the trip, I was aware that we would be staying in Panama prior to crossing the canal, but didn’t really think about what we would be doing before that. We spent four months in Aruba and Curacao, waiting out the majority of hurricane season, but storms are still forming and there is a lot of lightning in Panama. So here we are in Santa Marta, Colombia!
Santa Marta is the oldest city in Colombia and was the first city established by the conquistadors, although Cartagena soon overtook it. There are some older fortresses / lookout towers that were used for early defense. The marina is right in the middle of town, there is a decent grocery store within two blocks and a whole restaurant district, so we are living very comfortably. However, there are still some issues with crime locally, which is why we are in a marina and not at anchor. The marina is very safe and a significant number of our cruising friends from Curacao are here, making it a welcoming community.
Since we are staying here just waiting for weather and not making major repairs, we have made a few trips into the country as tourists. Our first trip was to Cartagena de Indias, named after the Spanish town, with “de Indias” added since the Spaniards thought that they were in India. The name stuck, although for the most part people just write Cartagena. We travelled with friends and stayed in a simple hostel inside the walled city, which was vibrant. A key difference from Santa Marta was the street vendors who were aggressive – people followed us around selling everything from hats to jewelry to food and water and even rapping about us. If you wanted to take a picture or if someone showed you where the monkeys and sloths were hanging out in the public park, you were expected to cough up a bit of cash. For the most part, “no, gracias” worked, if said nicely and at least twice.
While in Cartagena de Indias, we spent much of our time in the neighborhood Getsemani, which is just outside the walled city. Getsemani is a trendy district of bars, restaurants and hostels interspersed with various tourist-focused stores (coffee, alcohol, chocolate, souveniers). Like Spain, Colombia is full of beautiful art everywhere you turn. There are fantastic street art paintings everywhere, statues, handmade art – there is a beautiful focus on art. On our way to Cartagena de Indias, we drove through Baranquilla and saw the Shakira statue, a modern bit of art that is very popular.
Food-wise we have enjoyed our Colombian meals. One of the first ones we had was arepas, which are like a really thick corn tortilla, and are either filled like a pita pocket or are the base of a tower of good toppings. There have been a surprising amount of vegetarian and vegan options, more so than in some parts of Europe, and we have found vegetarian menu options even in the small towns. Thinner arepas are served instead of toast at breakfast, or thicker ones filled as a sandwich later in the day.
Colombians appear to eat more fish than many of their Caribbean neighbors, and fish is sold on the street from stands without ice or any refrigeration. I have bought canned tuna that is caught and packed in Colombia (according to the information on the can), and you can get all sorts of fish and shrimp dishes. One popular dish is soup, and there are street vendors with large tureens of soup in all sorts of flavors and varieties that they push around on carts.
Coffee is grown in Colombia, and we did a coffee tasting for Magnus and our friend Mats (neither Eva nor I drink coffee) which was really fun. It was a small local shop, with beans from a local plantation, and the guy in the shop was obviously passionate about brewing the best possible cup. They tasted coffees that were fermented in different ways (with the casing on the seed, without the casing, different numbers of days, etc.) to bring out various flavors, similar to bringing out flavors in wine.
We tasted several local chocolates, and went to the “Museo del Chocolate” in Cartagena. It wasn’t really a museum but a store that had put up some various items that could be viewed if you bought some chocolate. Interestingly, there were several posters from both versions of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film – it seems to have made a big impact in Colombia. Coffee was brought by the Portuguese from Ethiopia to South America, and Chocolate is originally from Mexico. Both do very well here.
After returning from Cartagena, some friends were organizing a trip to Minca, and asked if we would like to join them. The magic words “tree house” were said, and Magnus lit up like a little kid on Christmas morning. So we joined three other couples and travelled to Minca on a tour package that included a coffee plantation, swimming in a waterfall, a cacao seminar and tasting, and also a bird-watching tour. If you have Instagram, take a look at our room on our #AnderssonSailing page, or look at Jungle Joe in Minca, it’s pretty cool.
We started with a hike to a small organic coffee plantation, and realized that the processes for preparing coffee and cocoa are fairly similar. Both start with approximately 5 days of fermentation, then they wash and dry the beans, then toast them, and finally grind them. Cocoa beans aren’t dried fully, so that the fats remain. Coffee beans are exported as dried beans, and then roasted according to local tastes. Colombians like a less-roasted coffee than Swedes do, so the local coffee has been very lightly roasted, and often sweetened with a brown sugar syrup. As part of our cocoa seminar, we were served a cup of hot chocolate that was made with cocoa, water, vanilla and brown sugar – no milk. It was absolutely fabulous.
Minca is in the jungle, and since it often pours down rain in the afternoons and early evenings, the bird-watching part of the trip was in the early morning. Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world after Brazil, and part of the Amazon is in Colombia. There are not only many local species, but also many migratory birds. We saw Toucans, parakeets, hummingbirds and others from the hotel, and on the morning walk with the guide there were 38 different species identified.
Otherwise we have been hanging around Santa Marta, which is an interesting town and worth a visit. There is a “market” section of town where small shops around a theme line the streets – there is a street section for car parts and repairs, one for electronics, one for shoes and clothes, one for meat, one for vegetables, one for home furnishings, one for parties and pinatas…. it’s amazing. People are amazingly resourceful, and will go to great lengths to help out. Language has not been a problem – people are willing to work with gestures and mobile telephone apps and friends – there is a real “can do” attitude here.
Also, people are amazingly friendly. We have been served beer and coffee while waiting in a store, people smile and greet you when passing in the streets, and generally everyone has been welcoming. It hasn’t always been the case in the Caribbean islands, but people in the Caribbean part of Colombia appear to be generally content. We haven’t been on the pacific side of Colombia, and aren’t currently planning to sail there, but you never know!
Our marina fee includes access to a local hotel pool, so if we are hot and need to cool down, we wander over to the pool and swim in the afternoons. Evenings we often gather friends together and play games, the marina has a patio with a roof over it in case it rains, and that way it is easy to get 6-8 people together around a table. We are berthed next to two other Swedish boats, and have many buddy boats in the marina, so there is always someone we can talk to if we are interested in company.
Our plans are to leave Colombia as soon as the winds are favorable for sailing to Panama, hopefully in a week. That’s all for now from Marina Santa Marta on 13 November, 2024.