Sunday Island – Columbia

Sunday Island sailed to Santa Marta, Columbia, arriving in the early morning of Friday 16th December. We had been warned not to anchor in the bay as the fishermando not take kindly to boats in their fishing areas and have been known to help themsleves to any gear left on your deck and not locked away. The bay was not suitable for anchoring so we found an empty pontoon in the marina and tied up until the marina office opened.

Later that day we endured the three hour process of checking into the marina, and the 1-5 day process of clearing into the country. Thankfully our agent managed to clear us into the country before the end of the day so we were free to explore the city. We visited the local trinckete markets that sell all sorts of colombian artisal wares like Aguadeno hats and Vueltiano Sombreros. we got a few of the bags, and good luck wall hangings, including mask made out of Parana scales and teeth that are made up in the mountains by the Amazona tribes.

On Saturday the 17th December we made our way to the mercado publico. Here we found all the amazing local street food like arepas and fruit and veg stands with an abundance of local pineaples and mangos and any other tropical food you might deam of. We got a local bus into the Mountains to the village of Minca. its a lot cooler up in the mountains and once up there we set off to explore the rainforest and waterfalls. After a 2 1/2 hour walk to the waterfalls we found a built up tourist mecca of 4WD landcruisers, motorbikes, bars, hostals, and many many tourists. We were charged a few dollars to enter the waterfall (we did not expect this and where glad we had some money with us ) where we cooled off in cold fresh mountain pools.. We have been fortunate over the past few years to have huge waterfalls all to ourselves, so it was a shock to the system to be swiming amongsall the tourists, and definately deepened our apreciation for the seclusuion and beauty of some of the wilder places we have visited.

We were hoping to tour the coca, coffee and chocolate fields but ran out of time in the mountains, and jumped on the local bus for our return to sea level, We enjoyed some tacos for dinner and had an early night. It was nice being in the safety of the marina, however the annoyance of sand flies and mosqueto’s reminded us of how lovely being on anchor can be! Emilie does not normally attract the pesky creatures but was compleatly attacked one evening on our way down from the mountains. We spent the next days exploring the surrounding area, and then set sail on Tuesday 19th December for Cartegena, arriving the following day on the 20th December.

Cartegena is a beautiful city, with a fortified old town. It was a bit like exploring the old town of Valetta, with a lot more hawkers asking if we wanted to buy various local specialties. We decided that there was not need to explore the city further and set off the next day to the San Blas Islands.

Our position report can be viewed at: http://cms.winlink.org:444/maps/positionreports.aspx?callsign=vk7hew