Pirates Never Got Booty In Cartegena, Colombia

Upon arriving into Cartegena by boat the energy in the city was different than anything i had experienced in all of Central America. By the time we had spent an evening just walking around town Dave said ¨Cartegena is more beautiful than Rome,¨ and I agree with him 100%. The Cafés spill out onto the streets at night, the ruins are maintained well, the gold museum is small but interesting, and the area has the shape feel and friendliness of Europe but with a Caribbean flair which gives it a completely unique style.

Cartegena was the major port town for the Spanish during their reign over most of Latin America. Much of the gold and other precious metals that were taken from the natives were shipped out of Cartegena. Thus the entire old town is built in a colonial style with a huge wall all the way around the city, and a large fort to protect it.

The Spanish designed the water ways entering the town to funnel all ship traffic into a bottle neck. They then built two more forts (one on either side) of the bottle neck to prevent pirates from entering and rampaging the city. One of the forts was built on an island which is called Tierra Bomba. This can be translated as ¨Bomb Earth¨, or how I prefer to translate it, BOOM LAND.

Today we got on a ¨direct¨ bus from Cartegena to Santa Marta, a trip that should take 3-4 hours. Five bus transfers and eight hours later we finally make it to Santa Marta which is not at all what I was expecting. But this is the jump off point for some beaches and Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) which will take a total of six days. We will probably start on Sunday, and be back to civilization by Friday. Until then!

Sailing to South America

Well, it is official. Not only am I no longer a Peace Corp Volunteer, but I have successfully managed to find myself in Colombia after a five-day trip on a sailboat. My travel companion Dave and I pulled an all-nighter partying in Panama City on Wednesday Oct 18, with other people who were leaving at the same time. At 2 A.M. on Thursday morning we left to make our boat named New Morning in Portabelo, Panama by 6 A.M. I now find myself on land in Cartagena, Colombia for the past hour still looking for a bar of soap, a hotel, and my land legs. Who would have thought that we would be more likely to vomit from not being on a rocking ship than being on said rocking ship.


Dolphins playing in the bow wave

We spend two of the five days in the Comarca Kuna Yala (AKA the most beautiful place on the planet) snorkeling, laying on the beach, cleaning the bottom of the sailboat, talking to crazy sailors, talking like crazy sailors, almost buying a boat, and tempted death by swimming 70 ft underwater through a cave in the reef. We then practiced our harpooning skills with the abundant fish to their delight and deafening cackles.

All fish and humans having survived our excursion, Dave and I and our fearless captain Shell (his given name) set off for Colombia on the New Morning. To our disappointment Shell (76 years old) had perfect teeth, both eyes, no peg leg. His first mate, an 18 year old cat named Dylan (named after the lyricist Bob) was ever watchful and distrustful of either stowaway. We were both surprised when both Dylan and Shell survived the trip without any major health complications. Dave only had to remind Shell once that we needed to travel east (instead of the then present heading of west). Shell grew up Jewish in Manhattan, served in the Korean War, went to the original Woodstock, and has been living on a boat since 1986. Despite all this he has maintained his sanity (enough) to make sailors out of Dave and me in a mere two days.

We sailed when there was wind and motored when there wasn't, averaging around 4 knots over the 200+ miles. After the two play days in the islands we traveled continuously for two days and two nights. During the night we would take turns on watch. Dylan ran a tight ship and was quick with the cat-o-nine tails. Lashes were given for falling asleep, and we had to walk the plank if we ran into any cargo ships.

An interesting fact about sailing... When sailing, you do not use the wind to push you from behind, rather you want the wind to pull you from the sides. Think of a sail as a wing on a plane. It is an airfoil creating negative pressure in front of the sail (vertical wing) that pulls the boat through the water. The wind pushing a boat from behind is actually very in efficient. Here is a link for more info on sailing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing, and here is a link for more info on basic airfoil physics http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/fluids/airfoil.html.

So far Cartegena is clean and friendly. I'll update when I know more.