A day in our life in Colombia

 

We set sail for Colombia on the 13th May, exactly 5 years from when we set off from Port Solent, so it was an auspicious day. We had a great sail down over a couple of nights and were excited to experience a new country and culture.

We have now been in Colombia for almost three months and we are loving it.  What a lush, vibrant and colourful country.  The people are very friendly, the food is delicious, the scenery stunning and its bloody inexpensive.  What’s not to love?

We arrived in Santa Marta and stayed in the very well-equipped marina there for a couple of weeks, with a foray into the mountains to visit Minca in the rainforest. It certainly rained a lot while we were there.  

 

Never seen a dog wearing a nappy before.  Marina Santa Marta

Greg can't believe the beer prices - one of our favourite bars - Mienpras

Empanadas

Great views from the balcony of Siembra - our hotel in Minca 

Did I mention it rains a lot in Minca?

High in the beautiful rainforest outside Minca

Sadly the coffee picking season isn't until September so we just learned about the process rather than seeing it in action at The Finca Victoria coffee plantation 

We then moved to Cartagena and we have settled into living here for a few months, so that it now feels very much like home.

A typical day starts about 6am with us glued to our phones over a cup of tea.  Everyone in the UK has been up for 6 hours already and Twitter is busy reporting the latest disasters from the morning news round.  We like to annoy each other by reading out astonishing bits of news that the other has already discovered. 

Then we get ready to go to the gym.  We have discovered a great, well equipped gym called SmartFit in the shopping mall which is less than 20 minutes walk away from the marina.  Not only does it have masses of up to date equipment, but also offers classes as part of the £17 a month package.

Our daily journey there and back has developed into a routine and as a result we are now part of the community along the route.  There are endless cheery smiles along with 'Hola', 'Buenos Dias', 'Buen Dia' and  'Buenas', to exchange with our regular acquaintances.

First we leave the marina and greet the security staff.  Security is taken seriously in the Club de Pesca marina.  There are always guards on duty, the gates are manned and there is CCTV everywhere.  We feel very safe, but then again we feel very safe walking around town too.

Security is good at Club de Pesca

Colombia is a country that thrives on recycling and repairing things.  Nothing is rubbish. There are numerous people pushing carts around and they collect plastic and cardboard, presumably to trade in for a few COP (Columbian pesos). Anything being thrown out, disappears immediately.  

This guy spends all day collecting up plastic and cardboard

Every morning we see this guy with his trolley in the road by the marina, loaded up with cardboard and plastic bottles. We assume he gets some small payment for delivering it somewhere.  If so, it seems like a good scheme to encourage recycling and keep the streets clean.

The streets here are very colourful, with extravagant murals everywhere.  this one is in the road by our marina

One of the many fabulous murals in the city

Next we walk by the park where there is often an outside gym set up.  We could probably join this, but its already too hot for us, I need aircon for exercise, otherwise I give it 5 minutes before collapsing in a listless heap.  We are very impressed with the outdoor exercise that goes on here though, with Zumba classes and team games taking place everywhere in the mornings and evenings.

Crossing the road is like playing chicken.  Its an adrenaline rush.  There are endless streams of cars, motor bikes and yellow taxis, constantly zooming along bleeping their horns.  Taxis are very cheap here.  It costs 8,000 COP or about £2 to go anywhere in the centre of the city.  Confusingly constant horn beeping seems to be associated with numerous attempts at communication….

•  Get out of the way, you are in the road
•  Coming through, not stopping for anything
•  Watch out, I’m about to spray this massive puddle onto you
•  Do you want a lift, I’m available?
•  Looking sexy today girl, (oops, perhaps not, on closer inspection 😊)

On our route there is a very busy junction with a bank and cash machines on the corner.  Cars and motorbikes are constantly stopping to get cash or go in the bank, but have difficulty reversing out into traffic on the main road. One man has created his own job there.  He stops the traffic and then waves cars out into the road, and he also has a stash of cardboard which he puts on customer's bike seats so they aren't too hot to sit on when they come out of the bank, all for a small donation of course.  The Colombians without paid employment have to be very entrepreneurial to survive here.

The man running his bike seat cooling business is about to guide a car out into traffic. 
He stores his valuable cardboard behind this grill, otherwise it might be taken by one of the recycling guys

Within a few hundred metres we have passed numerous stalls selling what seems to be breakfast here.  Coffee in flasks and baked arepas and empanadas.  These are like little pies made of mainly corn/maize dough then deep fried, with different fillings, especially cheese.  The vendors are along all of the streets but have the same pitches every day and their regular clientele.  Greg is trying them all before settling on his favourite. I haven't tried them, it feels a bit like having a 'Greggs' for breakfast and I'm allergic to cheese.  

 

This guy has a very popular stall in the mornings

The pavements are shocking.  You often have to walk in the road because lampposts are blocking the pavement and there are numerous holes and other pitfalls to catch you out.  It’s a miracle my step counter on my phone doesn’t suggest that I have a balance issue, because the number of trip hazards is staggering. Its impossible to manage here with a pushchair or for someone with mobility problems.

lamp posts are usually in the
middle of the pavement

We have a favourite bit of pavement.  It's been broken ever since we arrived.  Someone chucked a couple of old tiles in it to try to help navigate it.  Then about three weeks ago the workmen arrived to fix it.  ‘Oh good,’ we thought.  They started by making the hole much bigger, including digging up a bit of the road.  Then they must have got bored or pulled off the job because they just abandoned it.  The cordoning off posts are just lying forlornly in the hole.  The situation is worse than before.  We are bemused. Can’t imagine you would have much luck suing for any trips you might have.

Before the work started - some tiles added to help when it rains.
Notice the road is in OK condition

 

After the improvement works!
Now apparently abandoned with a massive hole in the road that fills up with water

Further along the route we will pass Maria. She is homeless and very thin.  She sleeps in the same spot on the street every day and I have seen her washing herself in a puddle on the roadside after it rained.  At first, I thought she was an old lady, but I’m not so sure.  Anyway, I have adopted her in a manner of speaking.  I bring food, sometimes clean clothes, and money on a regular basis.  Understandably she is always very happy to see me, but now I am worried about whether I have created a problem for when we leave.  We have made enquiries and there is no social security system to take care of old people who are homeless.  In fact, there is no social security system that we would recognise. There are a lot of very poor people here and all are constantly looking for money and food. 

 

Maria lives here.  She washes in that puddle 

Along the same stretch we say hello to Jose the fruit seller, the newspaper seller and a guy selling cold water from a polystyrene box.  We try to buy freshly prepared pineapple from Jose every day on our way back from the gym and we sometimes buy water on our way to the gym, just to be helpful although we would prefer to refill our bottles with tap water.  I explained to the newspaper seller that I don’t speak Spanish, so he has stopped trying to get me to buy a paper every day, but shouts 'Good Morning!' very loudly and proudly in English when I say 'Buenas'.  

 

Jose preparing pineapple to sell in individual slices 

His fruit is always very good quality

Now we are at the traffic lights.  The man with the dancing life sized puppets on a frame dashes out into the stopped traffic and presents his little show then rushes around hoping for some tips before the three lanes of traffic roars off around him when the lights change.

Standing on the roadside waiting for the lights to change we are bombarded with motorbikes beeping their horns to offer a ride to anyone who wants to be a pillion passenger and go anywhere, and the bus services which tout for trade anywhere along the route, not just at bus stops.

You will notice there is a lot of water on the roads.  It rains a lot and the drainage doesn't cope well at sea level.

Crossing the roads is a wet experience. I find flip flops are best, its like walking in hot bath water

Once we have crossed this major junction, we pass the spectacular Fort - Castillo San Felipe where the numerous hat sellers are preparing for the next onslaught of tourists.  Anyone without a hat is immediately approached to buy one from the selection balanced on their heads.

The hat sellers are ready for the tourists to arrive

We now weave through some back streets, saying hello to the guys who spend all day sitting under a tree outside the car repair shop, up a residential street, hopping around the numerous piles of dog shit left by the homeless dogs that roam the city overnight, and saying Bon Dias to the ladies who are busy sweeping their little bit of front pavement.

 

Now we are at the gym for a couple of hours, working hard and fruitlessly trying to defy gravity and time!

 

The journey home involves a trip via one of the supermarkets which are very good here.  There is an excellent range of fresh food which would undoubtedly be in the organic section in the UK, and you can get virtually anything else you want at very low prices. Our shopping bill is about a third of what we were used to in the UK.

Our afternoons and evenings are then spent doing either boat chores or wandering around the city, sightseeing and trying out bars and restaurants.  

We pass through Centenario Park on our walk into the old town. We were delighted to discover sloths living in the central park in the middle of the city, alongside monkeys and huge iguanas. We have never seen one so close up in the wild.  It was an absolute delight.

We were lucky to catch this sloth coming down one tree,
before crossing the path to climb another

The old part of the city is fabulous, with stunning architecture and interesting shops.  

Beautiful buildings 

       

Interesting shops 

The old bull ring has been turned into a shopping centre called Serrezuela, employing stunning architectural changes.  Every evening at 7pm there is a light and fountain show which comes from the central floor, which you can watch for free. It also has great air con and lots of bars and restaurants on the top floor, with views of the city.  Great if you need some respite from the heat!

The city is stunning and great fun at night.  Colombians love music, dancing and partying, so its not difficult to find places to join in.  

Roof top bars are fab here especially at night, as long as it doesn't rain 

Getsemene is a very colourful part of town, full of great bars and restaurants

 

Lunchtime tacos at Maria Benito

Best sushi at Mr Miyagi near the marina

We have met a few fellow sailors and liveaboards, although there are fewer people living aboard in the marina here than anywhere else we have been.  There are quite a lot of people on anchor.  We hadn’t realised it was possible to anchor here.  Everyone we have talked to says it is totally safe, they have had no problems and the anchorage is right in the centre of the city.  But we are finding it quite liberating being in the marina; we don't have to do everything together which tends to happen when dependent on the dinghy, so we are free to go out independently which is pretty much essential after 5.5 years of living aboard 24/7/365 

BBQ in the marina with friends from sailing yacht Anu on our 34th wedding anniversary

Labour is very inexpensive here, so it’s a good place to get labour intensive work done and we have had our decks re-caulked, our stairs re-varnished and our cockpit cushions remade since we arrived in Cartagena.  The only problem is that it is harder to source parts and materials here.  

Some things can be ordered on Amazon from the USA with no transport costs, but not everything is on Amazon and has to be ordered in.  We had a bit of a nightmare with our deck caulking.  We bought the caulk in one of the chandleries here.  The guys stripped out all the old caulk, taped up the teak and then discovered that the new caulk was dried up and presumably well out of date.  we ended up living under tent and netting for almost three weeks until the new caulk arrived and the rain stopped for long enough to finish the job.

We lived under this lot for three weeks!  It felt like a ghost pirate ship

Decks are much improved. 

We were recommended a good craftsman to make our cockpit cushions.  He brought lots of samples.  We chose the one we wanted and he telephoned in  our presence to make sure it was available. All good at this point.  Then the cushions arrived, not in the fabric and colour we had chosen, not even our second choice fabric and colour, but one that we had discarded.  Why? Apparently the others were not available, so he decided to go ahead rather than come back to us for approval.  

We were upset for a day or two, but now we have got used to them and to be fair, they are very well made and do look good.  It's just a really weird way of doing things but is apparently quite typical.  

Greg making sure his beer can matches the soft furnishings

And breathe!