We did our best to improve our work/life balance this week. The contractors were here early in the week to polish the final touches on the deck. As soon as they finish one job, they immediately hold out their hand for money to begin the next job. Trying to explain that we want to hold off a few weeks on the next job is near impossible. So, we now have kitchen cabinets being built and the bowsprit project underway. At least both of those projects take place off the boat until they are ready for install! In the meantime, Bill continues to demolish the galley and I go behind him to clean and repair whatever we are re-using. On Wednesday, we kicked the guys off the boat and told them we needed a break until Monday. It was nice to have a bit of a lazy morning before we started on our chores. There was also a “taxi strike” in Cartagena due to the high fuel prices so it gave us a good excuse to laze about a bit.
On Thursday morning, we grabbed a taxi to head over to the Old Town. Last time we tried walking to Old Town, I had to give up and turn around due to the heat so this time we took a taxi which was a smart idea. The park outside the entrance boasts a family of sloths and monkeys. One of the locals showed us the sloth tree and we were lucky enough to have one of the sloths awake. He was a little difficult to capture in a picture because he was in constant movement, even if it was slow motion. We did not take time to find the monkeys this trip but we will find them at some point. The Old Town is surrounded by a fifty-foot-wide wall that is seven miles long so it was well protected! We have definitely determined that no one could build a fort or walled city better than the Spanish! The buildings in the Old Town have been well-preserved and we found our way to two of the Catholic Churches. One of the churches also had a museum so we learned a bit of history and saw some unique art. We learned that the Colombian Catholics are hardcore! They had services daily that ran from 9am to noon and then picked back up again from 3:30 to 6:00pm. That’s a lot of churchin’! We have been surprised that we have not been inundated with street vendors in Cartagena because it has the reputation of being one of the harsher cities for determined vendors. As we wandered the old town, we had a few vendors approach us but they were all very polite and accepted ‘no’ graciously. As we approached one of the main squares, we found where all the vendors were hiding. Ladies with fruit hats wanting pictures, men selling Cuban and Colombian cigars, one man selling “genuine” replicas of the statue in the square that he was painting gold at the same time he was trying to sell them and of course, the cheap jewelry guys. As we were heading to get a drink, a man approached us and waved us to a table. We sat down and he dragged a waiter over to get our drinks. The man introduced himself as “Johnny. The Fixer.” It came across much like Bond, James Bond as he said it several times. His English was perfect which is always a dead giveaway that the person has spent time in either the States or Canada. Johnny, The Fixer, had spent time in several States. He had something for everyone. He had tours, contacts for boat rides, dinner reservations and even announced he could take us to a cock fight that night if we were interested. I definitely declined the cockfight! After chatting us up for about twenty minutes, Johnny, The Fixer, gave us his contact information and stated that whatever we needed, we could get in touch him. It’s always good to know the town Fixer….you just never know when something’s gonna need fixing! Our day of fun ended at a fish restaurant where we ordered an amazing seafood stew with coconut rice followed by a limon cheesecake. A feast for two under $30.00! We rounded out the week with a trip to the grocery store where this week’s salesgirl was pushing Vegan Chicken Nuggets. That exchange was pretty much identical to the previous week’s vegetarian hamburger episode. “No pollo, no nuggets!” Then, when I walked down the next aisle, a different sales girl tried to sell me regular chicken nuggets. All we could figure was Americans must be known for loving chicken nuggets! Bill managed to locate some coconut rice at the store so once the galley is functional, we are going to see if he can make it like a true Colombian! I am sure if he struggles, Johnny, The Fixer, will be more than happy to show up and help. **More pics on Pictures tab
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A week of planning, boat jobs and new experiences. I have been very busy planning our first outing from Colombia for the end of this month. We will be going to Ecuador! I have only been to mainland Ecuador for one day while making my trip to the Galapagos Islands back in 2017 and Bill has never been to Ecuador. I spent most of the week fighting with the Latam airlines website booking flights. I would try to book a flight and then the price would suddenly increase as I was booking so we had to play the clear cookies and cache game and use phones and two computers in order to get the flights booked. After much ado, we are ready to fly to Quito and Cuenca for a 10 day adventure in a couple of weeks with much cooler weather. A much needed break from the heat! Before we could leave Colombia, we had to meet with our immigration broker to make sure we were following all the Colombian rules for non-citizens who arrive via boat. We took a taxi over the port and then attempted to find her office. We stopped by the security office where several officers were standing. I asked one of the officers, in perfect Spanish I might add, “Hola, donde es Largamar?” The officer stared at me blankly and responded, “I don’t speak English.” Bill and I burst into laughter since I was not speaking English…evidently I was not speaking any form of intelligible Spanish either! In spite of our communication difficulties, we located the broker’s office and were given the green light to travel at any time as long as we be sure that Galt is re-registered by next July.
Following the broker escapades, we headed to the grocery store. I am not sure what was going on at the grocery store but evidently it was “push certain products” day because there were sales girls everywhere yapping at us in Spanish and pointing to certain items. One woman approached us trying to sell us vegetarian “hamburgers”. Bill said, “No hamburgesa! Vegetables. No carne, no hamburgesa!” The woman looked confused and stared at the box, certain she was showing him a box of hamburgers. She pointed and responded, “Si, hamburgesa!” Bill pointed to the word vegetarian, then to the picture of the burger and restated, “No carne. No hamburgesa!” Finally getting the joke, the woman laughed and shook her head. I am not sure the Colombians quite know what to do with Bill but he certainly seems to entertain them. Our week ended with a trip to the central market and the mall. We needed to buy some shoes and pants for our trip to Ecuador and everyone told us the central market was the best place to find items “cheap”. Cheap in Colombian terms means CHEAP because the prices here are already crazy cheap on American terms. It was Saturday and the market was already packed at ten in the morning. We made our way through the first section which was prepared foods. As we walked along, there were open fires with pots of soup, rice, fish and lobster. Women stopped us and shoved spoons of food in our mouths gesturing for us to come sit at their booth. We had quite a time trying to explain that while their food was delicious, it was a little early for lunch and we were not hungry. I apologize that I did not take any pictures of the market but making us stand out as tourists more than we already were did not seem like a wise choice at the time. The next area was the unprepared food and there were live chickens, rabbits, meat counters with every part of the animal displayed, fish, fruits and vegetables. The watermelons were the largest I have ever seen and were about the side of a microwave oven. The further we walked into the labyrinth, the grittier it became. Bill stated that the market was as if a Moroccan souk had married Bourbon Street after a rough Saturday night. As we came into the clothing section, thousands of shoes greeted us and Bill began his search for hiking boots. He stepped into one shop to try on a pair of boots while I remained in the alleyway. The alleyway was about 4 feet wide and somehow, people moved about easily dodging grocery carts that had been adapted to run on the broken concrete, hordes of people and puddles of I don’t want to know what at every turn. The shop across from me had a large stereo system with music blasting throughout the market. As one song started, everyone in the market froze. Standing silently, awash with anticipation. It took me a minute to realize they were waiting for the song to begin. As the singer began to sing, the entire marketplace began to sing at the top of their lungs. I felt as if I were in a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical or a bad episode of Glee! I came to the conclusion that the song must have been the Colombian equivalent of I Will Survive or American Pie because the crowd sang it with such gusto and passion. Sadly, Bill missed the show but he did find a pair of boots that fit! After battling our way through several more blocks of the market, we emerged on the other side alive and well. We headed to the mall to pick up our new stovetop and sink for the galley remodel. The mall in Cartagena reminded me of the malls in America back in the eighties. All the stores were open, restaurants were busy and people were everywhere. The main thing the mall had was air conditioning so as long as the AC lasts, the people will come. Continuing our boat projects, the kitchen floor is coming along nicely and the carpenter will begin working on new cabinets next week. The deck work has been completed (except for the painting which will be done at a later time) and the bow pulpit where the anchors hang will be completed in about a week. Galt is loving all the attention but we are a little weary with the dust and constant flow of people on the boat. Monday is yet another holiday in Colombia so we are looking forward to a small break as well! In the meantime, I will wish you a “Bonita dia” in my awful Spanish! *Found some pics of the market on Google images for you! We have been getting to know the quirkier side of Colombia this week. The contractor for our boat work needed us to go with him to pick out some materials and he was very enlightening on the daily ins and outs of Cartagena. Bill asked him why most of the passengers on the motorcycle taxis are not given helmets. Answer: during Covid, it was thought that Covid would spread if the helmets were used between passengers. Therefore, helmets for passengers were forbidden during that time and many motorcycle taxis have not reinstated the use of passenger helmets. That sounds safe. Obviously, a massive head trauma would be far more survivable than Covid for the majority of people. Next quirk: due to traffic issues in Cartagena (we have not really seen any more traffic here than in other cities of the world we have visited), cars are forbidden from driving on certain days based on their license plate number. For example, tag A cannot drive on Mondays or Thursdays, tag B cannot drive on Tuesdays and Fridays. I asked how people were expected to get to work. Answer: they have to find another way to get there. Third quirk: in Manga (the area where our marina is located), only one male can ride a motorcycle at a time. A male and a female can ride together but not two males. Why? Answer: two males could be trying to steal things in the area. So, logic from that statement indicates males never commit crime without an accomplice, females will never be the accomplice and once you cross the Manga city limits line, crime must be rampant! Just over the line, there were at least 20 motorcycle taxis waiting to pick up the poor guys who had to walk a mile to cross the line. I could see the thievery in their eyes!
As we ran our errands in Cartagena this week, we discovered the mall (which was air conditioned so I’ll be going there A LOT!), the equivalent of Home Depot and the Castillo de Amor and the Motel Indiana. The Motel Indiana had a huge sphinx head for an entrance as well as a pyramid so we had to research it online. With suite names such as the Ramses and Cleopatra, how could you go wrong? Well, the rates are quoted in two-hour increments and range from $8.00 to $38.00 depending on the “luxury” you want. Room amenities included stripper pole, jacuzzi and “erotic furniture”. If you don’t believe me, take a look! (www.motelindiana.com) We could not find a website for the Castle of Love but we are guessing it is a high class joint as well. My son (in Las Vegas) was recently telling me about a company in Vegas called the Mile High Club which involved renting a private jet for 45 minutes for $1000.00. America vs Colombia….the only difference is geography and price! The day our contractor took us out to look at the flooring for our galley, we found ourselves in a dicey bit of town. As Bill put it, “The place that everyone knows is there but nobody wants to look at; The place you go to in order to get stuff done when you can’t get it done anywhere else.” Our contractor, once again….better than any tour guide…proceeded to tell us the name of the barrio was Heineken and “it used to be bad. Like dumping dead bodies bad.” When he saw my face, he quickly added, “Used to be! Used to be! Now it’s okay!” After leaving Heineken without crossing any dead bodies, we made our way through the next barrio which was named July 20th for no reason that anyone seemed to know (I researched and it was their independence from Spain date) and another barrio named November 11 (which was named after Cartegena’s independence from Spain date). If you want to read more about Colombia’s independence, be sure to check out the Flower Vase Incident which is quite humorous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_Declaration_of_Independence So, it has been quite the educational week here in Colombia! Hopefully, this week will be filled with completing the galley floor repair, completing the deck repairs and waiting for our new stovetop to arrive. Until next week, save your pennies for your stay at the Castillo de Amor! We have begun to set up our routine in Cartagena and learn some valuable survival lessons. The first lesson is water, shade, food….in that order. It is HOT here. Temperature wise and humidity wise it is like Georgia but for some reason, I am struggling! Survival lesson two has been that I can go approximately 1.5 to 2 hours in the heat before I have a total meltdown so we are adjusting our touring schedules accordingly. The first few days in Cartagena, we explored the surrounding area to find the restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacy and other necessities. We also found some very reliable workers who have already begun several of Galt’s much needed projects. They have replaced the starboard side soft spot on the deck and will complete the port side this coming week. Considering it took us three times as long to complete the soft spot we did on our own when we were in Florida, we voted this money was well spent! Other projects in the works are galvanizing the anchor chain, replacing the remaining salon windows, tearing out the galley floor to repair those soft spots and sprucing up the galley. Galt is a hive of activity!
We have also been busy having some fun! We found two couples we had met in Grenada that just happen to be in Cartagena this week so we met them for dinner one night and had a lot of fun catching up on everyone’s adventures. We also tried several of the restaurants around the marina and we have not had a bad meal yet. On Wednesday, we hopped on a bus to make the 5 hour trip to Santa Marta for a few days. The bus was basically a shuttle type vehicle that had 16 seats. While we were quite snug, the cost of the trip was only $3.00 each so a little discomfort was not too bad. We arrived in Santa Marta and found our hotel in the center of town. We were within walking distance of the marina, the boardwalk and tons of restaurants. The first evening, we met a woman that Bill had been in contact with for a few weeks on Facebook. She was going to volunteer as crew when we moved the boat from Aruba to Cartagena but the timing did not work for her. We wanted to meet her and make an in person friend so we had a wonderful dinner together and she gave us some helpful information about the area. Overnight, we determined that our hotel was the party palace of the city as the hotel and adjacent bar did not quiet down until around 3am. Luckily, we had earplugs so we managed to get some sleep. We arose early the next morning to catch the bus to Tayrona National Park. The bus was supposed to be only a 45 minute ride to the main entrance but we ended up with a 1.5 hour ride to the far entrance of the park. The buses run like the other islands where they stop randomly to pick up and drop off people. The ‘hawker’ that stands in the doorway yells out the bus’s destination and tries to get as many fares packed in as possible. By the time we reached the park, we were glad to be off the bus. In the park, we hiked a short way to the beach but the waters were so rough that all we had were red flag warnings. We found one beach that had two red flags and one yellow flag which meant we could dip in the yellow flag area to cool off. The water was very rough so we just got wet and hiked our way back to the bus stop. We saw some cool ants and a spider on the hike but that was all the excitement for the day. We voted Tayrona did not have much to offer people like us but if you are a hiker and a camper, you might enjoy the jungle. After another slow bus ride, we made it back to the hotel. We decided to walk along the promenade area and try some street food for dinner. Colombians are known for their love of hotdogs and we found an amazing hotdog stand with tons of toppings to choose. We split a hotdog so we would not fill up and then moved onto the arepa lady. The arepa lady was grilling arepas on the street, filling them with chicken and then loading them with cheese. It was amazing! Next stop was the chicken skewer and corn on the cob man. Also amazing but we voted the arepa lady the winner of the evening! The next morning we explored Santa Marta a few more hours, almost had heatstroke again then hopped in a taxi to go to the town of Minca. Minca was a quirky little town that catered to what I call the “granola crunchers” and every menu in town had vegan and vegetarian options which is always a giveaway for who their visitors are. We checked into our hotel and headed to dinner at The Lazy Cat which was the most popular restaurant in town. Bill ordered ceviche for $7.00 (he is going to turn into ceviche!) and out came the biggest bowl of ceviche we have ever seen. He declared it the best ceviche he has eaten and he even turned up the bowl at the end to be sure he did not miss one bit. We finished off our day with some excellent gelato…probably the best we have had since leaving Italy last year. On Saturday, we hired a driver to take us to the La Victoria Coffee Plantation. The plantation was about 3 miles away up a very curvy and steep road. We passed several people walking and we were very glad we had splurged for the taxi. Once we hit the dirt road going into the plantation, we were glad our car had four wheel drive because otherwise, it would have been impossible. Several couples had ridden motorcycles to the plantation but they would come to regret that choice by the end of the tour. The tour was given by the owner of the plantation who was an older woman of Colombian and German descent. She explained the struggles she had finding people who were willing to do the back breaking labor of picking coffee beans as well as the struggles to supply enough beans for the large conglomerations. Her plantation basically made its’ money from tourism and by selling their small crop to other distributors each year. It was an interesting tour and we always enjoy seeing cool machinery. The entire mill was run by waterpower and when we arrived, there was a small river that ran through the property. Halfway through the tour, it began to rain. And rain and rain. The small river became a torrent and flooded over the entry drive penning anyone without a four wheel drive in place. The road that had been a bumpy adventure on the way in was now a slippery, muddy uphill adventure on the way out and we, again, blessed our driver and four wheel drive vehicle. On Sunday, we took a taxi back to Santa Marta and dropped at the main bus terminal. We decided to pay a bit more in order to get an express bus with roomier seats ($16.00 each). We were met at the taxi stand by a worker who showed us a large bus that was express to Cartagena. We had to get more cash out of the ATM since they did not take credit cards. When we returned, we were put on a smaller bus (one step up from the one we had taken to Santa Marta) and were told it was “express”. As we headed out of the parking lot, the hawker began his chant out the bus door and we quickly began to suspect that we had been bamboozled. Our “express” bus proceeded to stop every few minutes for new passengers that were brought to the bus by outside hawkers. Vendors selling food and drinks also came on the bus at some stops. We noticed that for each passenger or vendor that got on the bus, money changed hands between the hawker, driver and vendors. One external hawker who brought a passenger to board was not happy with the payment offered to him by the driver so they argued very loudly for a few minutes and then the poor lady passenger was forced to get off the bus due to the payment not being what was acceptable for the hawker. After watching the money exchanges during the ride, we decided they all probably ended up with the same money each night that they started with that morning. After a tight, hot and long ride, we arrived back in Cartagena and decided we were done with buses for a bit. This week will be busy with more boat projects and planning our first South America getaway in August. More details to come! ***More pics on Pictures Tab |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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