After Los Roques we set sails towards Bonaire, we did not enjoy it too much, maybe we was spoiled after two weeks in Los Roques. We had some fouling on the bottom, so we stayed a few days extra to scrub the bottom. We are not very comfortable to work under the surface with our Hookah style set, but after a few days the bottom was clean again.

Next stop was Spanish water in Curacao, a place more geared towards cruisers than Bonaire and we enjoyed the stay much better.

Curacao

Sailor services provide a lot of information and services, I can strongly recommend contacting them the first thing when arriving. By chance they came by and told us that we could not clear in during Sunday we had to wait until Monday, that was very important info for us as we were in process booking a rental car to go into Willemstad on Sunday, instead we could rent a car from them on Monday, which was much closer and more convenient.

They also arrange several social gatherings, such as Barbeque evenings, joint dinners at various restaurants. We appreciated that very much.

Sailors Services, Barbeque

One of the Spanish waters anchorages, this one just outside Sailors Services

Joints dinner

Hamburger evening

Besides social events we did a few boat works, the most important one was to fix the motor to our water maker.

We had a mishap on our way to Los Roques, on our passage I felt the smell of smoke, when opening the engine hatch smoke and a terrible smell came up. I had by mistake activated our anchor wash pump. Unfortunately, the hose was not properly attached to the pump so the hose got lose and salt water was sprayed over the electric motor, a short was developed and the motor started. Resulting in smoke and a ruined motor.

I contacted Dessalator, they were very helpful, explaining that a new motor was 1450 euro plus vat and freight. A few phone calls later they found a second-hand motor with only 120 hours. They dismantled it and changed bearings and sold it for 200 euro! That is what I call excellent service. We got it delivered to Willemstad. And it was an easy fix to replace it with the old one.

We have a lot of spare parts, the one below is a full replacement of the head sail furling system with gears and electric motor. I put the parts in rags sprayed some wd40 on the rag and then vacuum-packed the different parts to avoid corrosion.

Kerstin made a rainwater collector in case of another problem! with the water maker and to take advantage of rain.

Work in progress, later when raining we got to test it and it works great.

Kerstin also made a cockpit sea berth, it will come in handy on our Pacific passage, especially as I always sleep in the cockpit.

Colombia

St Marta

 From Curacao to St Marta we had an uneventful trip, we had heard about difficult winds and shoppy sea, but we had a very gentle trip.

Arriving St Marta should preferable be done during office hours. One has to use an agent for clearing, and during office hours the marina arrange clearing for a discount and even free of charge if you stay one month or longer, we paid 100 USD.

The marina is good and situated in town, so everything is easily accessible by foot.

If you need any work done, I can recommend to contact Oscar Ivan, he works on a boat in the marina and he arranged a few jobs for me, one was a stainless steel part that needed to be welded. Fast service and good price, he also cleaned the bottom on our hull.

You find him on WhatsApp +57 301 2399612.

One drawback with St Marta is that the boat get very dirty a lot of fall down from the nearby commercial harbour.

The marina is close to town and a beach, which looks very popular among locals when they are free.

We enjoyed the restaurant and bar life which was very loud.

The lost city

We signed up for a four-day trip to “The Lost City”, or Teyana as is called by the locals.

Teyana is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountain. It is believed to be from 800 AD i.e. 650 years older than Machu Picchu. It was discovered by tressure looters as late as 1972,

Soon after, gold figures and ceramic urns began to appear on the local black market. This alerted archaeologists, and a team of archaeologists reached the site in 1976. The site was reconstructed between 1976 and 1982.

The city itself lies ca 1200 above sea level, the hike is 55 km there and back, in total we climbed 3970 meters up and of course the same amount downhill.

It was a stunning beautiful trip, many times we felt like Indiana Jones, when walking in the rainforest.

We had to pass several smaller rivers

But rivers was not only for crossing it was very refreshing to take a dip after long day of hard walk in the heat.

Ackommodation was very basic

Part of the trail did really give a feeling of stepping in the footstep of Indiana Jones.

To see cutting leaf ants did not make the adventure less

To reach “The Lost City” itself you need to climb ca 1300 steps.

A happy smile at our faces, a bit grim halfway up, but it was a very rewarding trek all in all.

The city covers a very large area and only a fraction has been excavated, it is believed that up to 20000 people could have lived there. The Tairona people still “run” the city and its closed on for them sacred periods.

This how the houses should have looked like at that time

We had the fortune to meet their leader up there

Kerstin got a blessing from the leader. He is a famous person and has his portrait on one of the colombian bills.

The way back offered again fantastic views

But the last hours it was torrential rain for hours and the trail become extremely slippery and it was no way to stay dry. We became, wet, cold and muddy, my sandals become totally muddy and broke half way into the rainy walk.

But finally, we got to the end of the trail, we were all rather tiered and happy.

Medellin

It is rather expensive to move around with your boat in Colombia for each marina you need to clear in and out by using an agent, first we had planed to sail to Cartagena, but due to the cost, we found it more cost efficient to fly, so we took a flight St Marta-Medellin-Bogota-St Marta, the cost for the ticket for both of us was below 300 USD.

So first we flew to Medellin and from the airport we took land transport to Guatape which took about 2,5-3 hours as we had to use three different transport ways, it was bit of and adventure itself. The last part was by jeep type vehicle

Guatape itself is a colourful tourist place, we had booked Airbnb for two nights, but one should have been enough, and an over the day trip would be very feasible.

And the main attraction is this rock , called El Penol in Spanish

But the village itself is not too bad, it’s a very colourful place, with plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants.

The lake is a hydroelectrical dam.

The colourful village.

The rock has 708 steps, and the top are at 2150 m asl. So, it is hard work to climb as you must negotiate quite some climb before reaching the steps.

At the top there are a great view.

Medeline

Medline is a vibrant city with lively night life, which is almost impossible not to notice.

These party busses were all over and I guess free of charge they run around playing load music and we guess anyone could board and party.

This how much we party, a happy hour Frozen Margarita

Comuna 13

One of the main attractions in Medellin is Comuna 13. It was claimed to be the most dangerous area in the 1990 th. But after the peace with the Farc guerrilla it has become safe and a tourist attraction. It lives about 160 000 people there.

Entering the Comuna 13

It is again a very lively and colourful place.

And a lot of noice

But I’m afraid also misery, from above it looks rather worn down

Bogota

Last stop on our short trip was Bogota

It was a nice place to visit, at lot of street art.

They had several guided city tours that we took, one was taste Bogota, and we visited a coffee house where baristas were trained, there we tasted several different coffees, the coffee in Columbia is very good.

And they made coffee art,

Tried Obleas at a local fast food stal

This particular place was visited several times by Mick Jagger, I guess he was mighty proud for that, at least I would have been.

Not often you see a man with only one leg dans tango.

We also had time to visit the gold museum, they had so many amazing gold objects, I’m afraid that the Spanish got more than a handfull of treasures from their looting in South America

When not strolling the streets, we tried the local cuisine.

Back to St Marta, we waited for a weather window to take us to Porvenir, San Blas a bit over 300Nm away. This time we did not worry to much about the wind, our worries was for thunderstorms, which are very frequent in this part of the world.  We decided to consult Chris Parker and ask for advice. We waited a few days as it was a lot of activity in the air. When we finally went it was more or less no wind, fortunately not much thunder either, but we could more or less constantly during nighttime se lightening in the distance.

Towards San Blas

We had an amazing sunset, but also some heavy rain on our trip

This was 25 May definitely in the rainy season which end around december, this is also a period with rain, thunder and not very much wind. The humidity is very high and the temperature as well. We found the heat taking away part of the fun to be in San Blas. We had rain and thunder more or less every day, not full days just an hour or two.

We arrived at the small island Porvenir, with a small airport and an office to clear in. Cruising permit for San Blas is bought from the local Cuna Indians.

Porvenir island above

The first impression was good

It felt very exotic, and when we were visited by a local in his dugout canoe selling fish and langusters that feeling was reinforced

when the local fruit supplier come by

Kerstin made a divine languster pasta that we enjoyed that evening.

But we also frequently saw a lot of litter on the beaches not nice at all

Down below follow a few very nice anchorages we visited, as you can se there are some shallow anchorages, one need to be very careful and the Panama Cruising Guide by Eric Bauhaus is necessary to have.

We had some time limits so we could only stay for two weeks, we have a few things pulling us to Sweden, both positive and one very sad. My oldest brother passed away after being sick in cancer. On the positive side our youngest daughter is getting married. But also seeing family, friends and grandchildren is of course very delightful.

If you like the blog please hit the like button, also appreciate comments or questions if you are heading the same path as we have covered.

Turtle Cay Marina

We had booked space in Turtle Cay Marina, which is not fare away from Porvenir about 35 Nm.

TCM is a very small marina in the middle of the jungle. A bit runed down but pleasant, owner and employees are very helpful and friendly. Cost for us is Only 300 USD/month, that include 30% discount as we are member in the Panama Posse.

 

We spent a few days to Prepare Kerpa for being left “alone” for extended time.

Kerstin cleaned her very thoroughly inside and as a final measure wiped down all surfaces with vinegar to prevent mould. We have a dehumidifier we set on 65% humidity and connected it to one of our inverters. We do not want to have shore power connected as this part of the world has a lot of thunderstorms and I have heard of more than one boat catching fire when being connected to shore power during lightening. We rely on our inverter and solar power. I sat the solar power regulator to 27,9 V not to push the LiFePO4 cells to hard if sun would be very strong, has probably very little impact on the durability, but as a precaution.

We also agree with one of the local hands working for the marina to look after Kerpa, to see that everything works Ok and keep her clean. It a lot of birds in the area and they like to put their remains on the boats, and also building nests. I get regular reports and photos on Kerpa so sure she will be clean and in a good shape when we get back.

We have moored her with double lines and heavy duty shook absorber if there should be heavy wind our surge.

Next blog about our time in Sweden with friends and family.