January 12th, Sea Star entered her new temporary home in beautiful Club de Pesca Marina. We are stern into the concrete fixed dock and tied to two pilings from the bow. We are in the marina for a few weeks to have Sea Star, who was looking a bit grungy, cleaned as there is fresh water and electricity available here. There are industrious workers who clean and polish very nicely. The man we hired, Estuardo, has children in the Univercidad de Cartagena and works for a modest amount per day. Sea Star has not looked this clean and shiny outside since we stopped in Maryland at Gratitude Yachting Center. We have other things to work out, too. Should Dan have arthoscopic surgery and if so, where?
Where will Sea Star sail to next? and do BMW motorcycles have more fun? These issues will be discussed in later postings, maybe.
We continue to enjoy the city sights, sounds and activities. There are always festivals and fiestas in Columbia. One of the larger ones is later next month in a city named Barranchilla. It's supposed to be a wild three-day festival. We think we will go for a day as it is obvious that every hotel, motel (we've learned about them), and Bed and Breakfast type place has either been priced WAY out of our league or was "unavailable" for the time of the festival. What the proprietors seem to do is not take reservations, and then just charge whatever price they want to to some lucky hotel seeker. I'm really looking forward to a great parade and show and a long day!
Throughout the month of January there has been a fabulous Music Festival, a classical music program with the theme “La Magia de Mozart”, involving entertainers, many well known world-wide. The concerts were held in or near magnificent architectural backdrops; churches, halls and in beautiful outside venues in the Walled City. A lovelier backdrop it’s hard to imagine.
San Pedro’s Plaza includes what used to be San Pedro’s convent, the beautiful church, what looked like some apartments above a large restaurant restored to Colonial splendor, and in another building on the other side of the square is the Museum of Modern Art. The square still contained its Christmas lighting and during the concert the video recorders and perhaps TV cameras provided plenty of light to see the performances as well as the crowds.
The concerts were magical! Dan and I attended one of the 10:30 at night ones that included famous Columbianos; a guitar soloist Ricardo Cobo, followed by the Bahia Trio with a lively Caribbean beat, and a rowdy, fun, small orchestra of eight called Porto Candelaria who actually played (among other instruments) the plastic bottle! With the encores the music went on to 12:30 AM! Remember-cruiser midnight is 8:30, so we were tired but that was a January highlight for both of us!!
At other concerts, a group from the London Symphony has performed as well as Sahnghai Quartet, celloist Alisa Weilerstein, violinist Bella Hristove and many others, for free or close to free.
The last night of the festival I decided I did not see as many of the performances as I had hoped to. That night, with a friend, I attended the Mozart Requiem,K 626 with four wonderful soloists and the London Symphony. As before there were plastic chairs, maybe 500 of them in the square totally filled with concert goers, mostly Columbianos, and hundreds more of us hoping to hear the concert were standing next to the fencing around and behind those seated. The people were dressed in their finery and all, especially the women, looked gorgeous and entry was free.
The Requiem music was very moving, but the irrepressible spirit of Cartagena kept popping through in the more subdued parts. There was a Marimba Band with drums and flutes marching in a nearby street on one side of the open square where the outdoor concert was on—then on the other side a salsa club’s music was spilling into the street. The professionals never lost a beat nor let their eyes wander to the distractions. The piece was strong enough to overshadow the other sounds for the most part, and the eleven bongs of the church bell added to the dirge at 11:00PM.
From our berth at Club de Pesca it is an easy walk to the Old City and every time I go, there is more to discover. There are vendors, exclusive shops, at least four museums (we haven’t had energy to hit one yet), exciting plazas and restaurants of all types and prices. Cartagena is known for its emeralds and as you pass store windows, the jewelry gleams. We did explore one museum where very old emerald pieces were displayed as well as cave walls recreated so that the visitor would get the idea of how the various kinds of emeralds are mined.
There is an interesting mix of old and new here. Along the one half mile of waterfront is a meandering brick walkway where people stroll and powerwalk or lounge on the park benches during the day and later the wide walkway is use for running and in-line-skating classes for the kids, and baby stroller walking. In the evening there might be street music for the adults that we can hear from our boats. This area is new and park-like and contrasts with the streets of the Manga area where the marinas are located and we mariners are cautioned about pick-pockets and worse. We have not felt in the least threatened but about once a week a dingy and motor is stolen and you hear of some crime.
The brick walk described above meanders along the Porto de Cartagena, the cruise ship tourist stop, the anchorage to Club Nautico and through a city park, to an old fort finally arriving at Club de Pesca-
Quite near, a short taxi ride that costs $5,000 pesos-about US $2.50 there are two malls to rival those in the US where the shopping is great and the food court, intriguing. We were able to see the new movie “Avitar” in 3D. Another of the areas of Cartagena is Boca Grande where the high rise buildings you see in my pictures of the anchorage are located and many rich Colombianos have condos. This is the area where cruisers often need to go for Doctor visits. There are modern dentists’ offices, lots of specialty doctors such as plastic surgeons, orthopedists and laser eye clinics. Many cruisers feel the out of pocket cost is manageable and the care is superior to their US facilities, so they chose to have their care in Colombia. We are all astounded when the doctors freely give out their cell numbers and when you call- they actually answer and speak to you directly to make appointments and such.
Some things are expensive but some are very cheap. Cruisers here are getting all kinds of work completed as needed for reasonable prices. Some have added inside woodwork in boats, hard dodgers, or canvas projects such as biminis. Some have pulled their boats out of the water and redone the hulls or painted, others have pulled all their chain and anchors and regalvanized them. We haven’t needed too do much. We have had some electrical work completed, replacing the cable up the mast to install our new radome, replacing our VHF radio mic in the cockpit and installing a remote for the Sirrius radio- all due to the lightning strike back in July.
What is next? We’re not sure yet. We’ll be here a while and perhaps go on a trip to a lovely island where we can SWIM again, the Rosarios. At the Rosarios you can snorkel, see an aquarium that is reported to be great and there is an aviary that has many species of birds-so we’ll see when we feel like getting off the dock and going! It’s fine for now while we sort out some things that still need doing. Meanwhile our Spanish is improving a bit-geeze it's hard work to learn and retain a language. At the dock we run our air conditioning. It's hot in Cartagena during the day. The boat heats up until breathing becomes difficult, then we close up and put on the AC for relief. Later in the day the breeze comes back and the nights are usually comfortable to sleep.
Here are some pics of the activities we have been doing lately. Sorry about the quality of some.
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