Cartagena/Taganga/Santa Marta, Colombia

Well folks, we are now in South America! Just before we left for the airport in Panama City we made one last stop at Café Coca Cola for an early dinner, and then we took a taxi to the airport. The flight did not leave until 9:30 and it was a very tranquil boarding of the plane, as we were six of the ten passengers aboard the dinky (and bumpy!) flight to Cartagena. Given that the flight was only an hour long we were surprised by the fact that we were treated to a small meal and drink while we watched the lights of Cartagena appear in the distance. We went straight to our hotel close to the walled old city. The place itself was not great with small stuffy rooms, but at least there was air conditioning (sadly necessary in the heat of Cartagena when sleeping in a windowless box) and the kids got to have a TV again. The next morning Gustavo and (big) Ariel got up early to start the paperwork to get the vehicles out of the port, and subsequently spent two days there trying to get them out – during that time Claudia and the kids and I just hung around the hotel, went for a walk in the old city and tried to keep cool (the kids have had their fill of cable TV for a while, I think). On the second day, the vehicles were finally freed (happy birthday, Gustavo!) and we all went for a long walk in the walled city, a very beautiful, old and touristy city that looked like something straight out of a fairy tale with flower-covered balconies and walls of coral. By late afternoon, we headed to a supermarket and found a nice place to park right on the beach of a residential district in Cartagena, where we had a fire and celebrated Gustavo’s birthday (and the liberation of our vehicles) with Ariel and Claudia. As we sat there making the fire and drinking some rum, a colourful bunch of balloons fell slowly to the water from a rooftop patio overhead where someone had obviously celebrated their birthday earlier that day. The tide quickly brought them right in to where we were sitting, and it seemed like a birthday gift just for Gustavo! The next morning we parted ways with Claudia and Ariel and set off toward Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, past Barranquilla, stopping for a couple of hours at an amazing mud volcano called Volcan de Lodo Totumo, where we soaked away in a 2000 metre deep crater filled with creamy smooth mud, rich in minerals and salts. It was the most amazing sensation of floating and being stuck in place at the same time and we stayed in there for a long time, watching some local old ladies with rheumatoid ills soak away their pains. After letting the mud dry for a bit on our skins, we wandered over to a fresh water lagoon where we washed it off, and we were left with smooth skin (and still a bit of mud in our ears). After trying some arepas con huevo (arepas are the Colombian/Venezuelan equivalent of pupusas, also made with corn flour) we set off again on the drive along the coast toward Taganga, a small fishing village close to Santa Marta that we had heard about. We parked the westy on the beach and started meeting all kinds of interesting characters – Colombia is full of them, and I am so glad that we decided to ignore common fears about this country and come here! Claudia and Ariel eventually met up with us and after three days parking on the beach, we moved up the hill in town (along with another couple from Buenos Aires who are traveling around South America in an antique vehicle) to the soccer pitch where it was a bit quieter. We also went for a walk along the cliffs to Playa Grande with some spectacular views. The reason that we ended up staying for so long in Taganga is because we had to replace the outer tie rod end on the westy, and we met a really nice guy called Cesar who owns a shop in Santa Marta. Through him, we met Juan and Luisa and their son Santiago, a Colombian family who are living here in Santa Marta and who have two 1960s Volkswagens, a beetle and a bus. We hit it off, and they invited us to their home in Rodadero one day for a wonderful lunch and a cool, refreshing swim in the pool. Through Juan, we now have contact with the president of the VW Club of Colombia, and have been invited to the 2009 convention later in May! I’m not sure whether we will stay in the country long enough to attend, but at the very least we know have VW contacts from here to Uruguay. We already got an email from a guy who wants to interview us about our trip for a VW magazine! After being sent the wrong part for the vehicle, we had to wait an extra day. Tired of the heat and humidity of the coast, and anxious to keep moving, yesterday we headed up into the hills with Claudia and Ariel to a picturesque little town called Minca, famous for coffee growing. We had a cool and refreshing swim in the river and enjoyed all the singing birds and green freshness of the air compared to the heat of the coast. As we arrived in town, we stopped to talk to a little girl who was playing with her adorable baby monkey. Unfortunately, the cute little monkey in the photo below at one point turned into a little demon and attacked me! (apparently it is because I was wearing red?!). It was just a small nip but it broke the skin, and we were a bit worried about the possibility of rabies, so this morning, after a refeshing swim in the river, we stopped by the health clinic in the town just as a precaution. As soon as we told them what had happened they jabbed me with a tetanus shot and started to go ballistic because we don't have yellow fever vaccinations (we checked before leaving Canada and Colombia was not on the list). To make a long story short, they didn't even mention the possibility of rabies, but because monkeys can be big carriers of yellow fever they want to keep me under observation for a couple of weeks just in case (which means that, despite our desire to keep moving south, we might not be going anywhere for a while!). I am sure that the monkey is fine (he is only 5 months old!) but between that and the whole swine flu thing (which everyone here is talking about, so I can only imagine what it is like back in Canada) we were a bit depressed, so we decided to rent ourselves a hotel room with internet access for a couple of days so that I can file our income taxes and try out skype technology on a conference call with my supervisory committee back in Hamitlon (of course, there is also cable TV so the kids have quickly and happily plugged themselves back in). It also means that we have email and skype galore, so we can communicate again! We'll let you know how this whole monkey drama plays out....if we can convince them to let me go we will start heading south toward Bogota on Friday afternoon (but I don't know about that, as it was hard to convince them just to let us leave Minca this morning!).
Despues de quedarnos varios dias en la parte vieja de Panama, sin la camioneta, parando en un pequenio apto, y pasando varias veces por el café Coca Cola, cruzamos a Colombia. Volamos en la tarde en un avion chiquito, solo para nosotros, y a pesar de que el vuelo no lleva mas de dos horas nos trajeron algo para comer. Ari y Teo estaban de fiesta, mas que contentos, ya que teniamos practicamente todo el avion para nosotros.
Llegamos a Cartagena a las once de la noche, y enseguida nos metimos en un hotelucho. Por lo menos tenia aire acondicionado, mas que necesario por la gran humedad y calor. Al otro dia, Ariel (grande) y yo comenzamos con los tan deseados y largos tramites en el puerto. Entre idas y vueltas, y pasando por la gran burocracia que abunda en casos como estos, pasamos dos dias para sacar a las respectivas camionetas del container y recien al segundo dia (de interminables tramites) del puerto. El miercoles de tarde, salimos a recorrer la parte amurallada de Cartagena, y mas tarde acampamos en la playa para festejar la salida de las camionetas y mi cumpleanios. Alli, nos quedamos en la rambla, y desde la azotea de un edificio se desprendieron varios globos de colores que magicamente llegaron hasta nosotros. Asi que nos baniamos de noche y despues de cenar y un rico ron, caimos muertos. Al otro dia, nos despedimos y partimos rumbo a Taganga, una playa muy linda cerca de Santa Marta. En camino, paramos cerca de un volcan de lodo, el volcan Totumo. Esta fue una de las experiencias mas ricas del viaje. Estar tirados “nadando” en el barro fue alucinante, tratando de nadar sin poder ir a ningun lado. La profundidad del volcan es de mas de 2000 metros! Pero para llegar a la cima solo hay que subir unos pocos escalones. Alli nos quedamos por un buen rato, pensando que estabamos en un banio de chocolate gigante. Despues a enjuagarse en el lago y a comer unas ricas arepas. Seguimos camino pasando por Barranquilla y despues de unas tres horas y varios peajes llegamos a Taganga. Este, es/era un pueblito de pescadores y en los ultimos tiempos el turismo lo abarca todo. Aquí, tambien acampamos en su pequenia rambla, frente al mar. Al otro dia llegaron, al atardecer, Claudia y Ariel que se quedaron en lo de una amiga en Cartagena. Esa noche conocimos a un par de mecanicos que tienen el taller en Santa Marta. Asi que, al otro dia pasamos por ahí para revisar los vehiculos. Cesar, el duenio del taller tiene un amigo que es fanatico de vw, asi que lo llamo para que viniera a conocer a nuestra querida camioneta. Resulto ser que uno de los terminales (el del lado del condutor) necesitaba ser cambiado. Al rato nomas, aparecieron Juan, Luisa y su hijo Santiago al taller mecanico. Enseguida, Juan llamo a Bogota y pidio la parte que estabamos necesitando. Ellos tambien tienen una camioneta, del anio 63, y un escarabajo, o fusca. No nos quedaba otra, que esperar … asi que sin pensarlo dos veces esta gente nos invito a su casa para pasar el dia. El domingo fuimos todos (incluyendo Ariel y Claudia). En su preciosa casa pasamos fenomeno. Almorzamos, nos baniamos en la piscina, y mas tarde tomamos un rico tinto (asi es como le dicen al café en Colombia) con tortas de ciruela y naranjas. De mas esta decir, que mas de una vez intercambiamos informacion, sobre diferentes rutas a tomar, y un rato antes de salir, Juan comenzo a llamar a sus “contactos vw" que dicho sea, no son pocos. La amabilidad y generosidad de esta gente es impagable, desde ya, muchisimas gracias!
Por dos o tres noches mas dormimos en Taganga, pero esta vez nos movimos hacia la cancha de futbol del pueblo. A veces y sobre todo en estos pueblitos turisticos, se hace dificil quedarse por mucho tiempo en un mismo lugar, el ruido de los bares en la noche, incluso, la gente local y hasta la policia se pone un poco nerviosa, y te piden amablemente no estar mas de un par de noches en el mismo sitio. Una de esas noches hicimos pizzas a la parrilla con nustros amigos y otra pareja de argentinos (Gustavo y Analia) que estan viajando por Sudamerica desde hace ya unos 7 meses. Un poco cansados del calor, ayer fuimos a Minca, un pueblito en la montania conocido por sus plantaciones de cafe, porque todavia estabamos esperando el repuesto y como en la costa hace demasiado calor, preferimos subir y baniarnos en el rio. El lugar es hermoso, y en el camino se ve Santa Marta desde lejos. Cuando llegamos habia una ninia con un monito bebe, y cuando paramos a verlo a Allison la mordio en el brazo! Para hacer la historia corta, en la clinica prefirieron que nos quedemos en la zona mientras hacen examenes para asegurarnos de que esta todo bien (mas que nada se preocupan por fiebre amarilla, que es transmitida por monos) antes de empezar el viaje hacia el sur. Mientras tanto, estamos quedandonos en un hotelito en Santa Marta por un par de dias, para poder tener acceso a internet y asi tambien programar los pasos a seguir maniana con la gente de la clinica en Minca. Lamentablemente, el dia lo pasamos entre clinicas y mecanicos aunque, por suerte y gracias a la ayuda de estos ultimos, la camioneta (por lo menos) ya esta lista para seguir el viaje.