getsemani

 
 
 
 
 
 













 

 
getsemani one of the neighborhoods of cartagena and where we seem to go to the most. it has cool restaurants and very narrow streets with beautiful houses, lots of bars and plazas. it is touristic, as every other corner in cartagena but more for backpackers; and it has a certain bohemian charm. we realized we always go at night and never take the camera with us. so one day we decided to walk around the neighborhood just to see what we were missing in the dark an take some of these pictures of the buildings we like so much. the day we walked was a Sunday and the atmosphere quite different from what we are used to on weekend nights…

tierra bomba

within the huge bay of cartagena there is an island called tierra bomba. it has the best and closest white beaches and it is only a dingui ride for us. so without leaving the marina, we take the dingui and motor ourselves to paradise on occasions. its like a mini vacation every time. the places sell the typical dish from the coast: coconut rice, fried green plantains (patacon) and fish, any style, with beer of course, or soda, right on the beach! and if this was not delicious enough, for dessert they have the typical simple but yet lovely cocada which is a coconut sweet made with condensed milk, caramel or panela which is processed sugar cane. a delicious treat for me; but not so much for esteban, as he is not found of coconut… but I do not feel so bad for him. this city has plenty of other choices.

going to tierra bomba is always fun and it is a good change from the city life and activities. the sand quality is so much better from that of cartagena beaches, and yet is so close…

cartagena

our home ... for now at least, for the next few months.

so now that we have established ourselves back in cartagena – the city we’ll call home for the next several months, until we get ready and decide to head up again towards florida – we are happy and discovering a gorgeous city. the marina is comfortable and we can walk anywhere from here. the city is full of shops and cool streets with vendors everywhere selling crafts. it also has a huge variety of great restaurants and movie theaters; -to ease our movie cravings, which is by the way what we missed from time to time in the last three years at sea. funny; we never went to the movies before embarking on our trip, but once we were sailing, and of course it was really difficult to go to the air conditioned super comfy theaters, we missed not having them around.. we bought all sorts of movies in asia and everywhere we could get them and we also exchanged them with other cruisers, but our small screen TV on board is not quite the same… so we always longed for a cinema, specially in long crossings, at night… but here we are, back in civilization and “normal land life” for a while. now we have our chance. we’ll see now how many times we actually go to the theater.

cartagena is a very convenient place for us. I can fly back and forth from florida to be with esteban and the boat is safe and in a comfortable place (notwithstanding the never ending constructions in the club nautico). It is probably too humid and hot, but manageable; specially when we turn on the AC on board!

the city is safe, clean and pretty. We have many options of groceries and restaurants of all sorts and budgets and when we get tired of the city life, we have the nearby islands with beaches and nice water to swim in.

   

the plans

so what is next after having finished our circumnavigation? who knows. for now work.. and fair winds and more and more sailing in the future … we hope!! we will stay in cartagena for some time. I will be traveling back and forth to florida for now. it should be all right.  its a pretty good combination. both cities are wonderful and they both have ocean all around!

our very own map

we loved what my dad created in the farm: a gigantic mural with the map of the world, ready for us to plot the route along, plus many artifacts of the boat all around the house. the sextant which we gained from a friend when we completed the circumnavigation, and luckily we never had to use; or the storm jib; and our collection of world flags; plus other things we had on board. all of these pieces look pretty cool around the farm and in display (sort of) and seeing them makes us realize the significance of what we have just done.

la finca

we would not miss going back to the farm for anything in the world and so we went. I would have to say this was an extra special visit because we spent a lot of time with my beautiful nieces, on top of the nice people we always see when we go. we went in time of tangerine harvest. what a treat, a luxury we did not have on board. It seemed not only us, but the girls could also not be stopped from eating them. and to make sure we always have plenty of this delicious fruit, they planted more trees! It’s a beautiful and peaceful place and now it has a whole new room for my parents. It is a one of a kind exotic place.. nothing like it in the whole world.

on with the celebrations

because we finished the circumnavigation in colombia, my family welcomed us in person and joined us celebrate the completion of the voyage…, or the craziness as they probably thought of when we began (but which certainly is no longer the case).

we had drinks, dinners, lunches, trips to the islands and cholon, and then mainland to the farm and bogota. we celebrated for two weeks, from the coast to the mountains, we traveled and shared with friends and family. it was really great.