Santa Marta Colombia
The route from St. Lucia to Panama could easily skip Colombia, but it juts out in just the right place and the majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains beckon sailors to visit. Stopping is easy, convenient and well worth the time.
In visiting Santa Marta and Tairona National Park, we got our taste of Colombian culture in a quick, short week. There were friendly people, inexpensive (and tasty) food, crazy and confusing money ($1.00 = 3000 Colombian pesos), street musicians (The Funky Band, check them out on Facebook), secluded beaches, challenging diving and some of the highest mountains in the Americas.
We have been gradually meeting all the other ARC boat crews who are as varied as the boats they sail. Lucky for us we have our friend Erwin aboard who has been chatting up the competition participants and getting the lowdown about all the other boats and crew. I expect by the other side of the Panama Canal we will all be fast friends as we experience this unique adventure together.
The World Arc sponsored some great tours including one to a famous centuries old coffee plantation where we bought some coffee that was organic and just about as local as you can get! For $ 6.00 a pound, we stocked up on our Colombian coffee because where else would you stock up on coffee?
ALORA has been exceptional as expected with our only equipment issues being a faulty stove burner and a dead coffee maker. I guess we must make do with the Cappuccino machine! If our only issues are appliances, we should definitely count our blessings!
So now we say goodbye to Colombia and South America and sail a mere 36 hours to the exotic land of Guna Yala, known as the San Blas Islands of Panama, to meet the Guna people and sail their lovely reef strewn archipelago before heading for Colon to prepare for our canal transit on the 1st.
It is all happening so fast!
L.Stel