ColombiaMedellín is Colombia's second largest city. It actually consists of 10 municipalities that basically grew together, with the municipality of Medellín being the dominant one that also gave the city its name. The 10 municipalities are in turn divided into a total of 16 "Comunas" which can be equated with city districts. Medellín is a ...
read ColombiaBy bus it takes 15 to 20 hours to travel from Barranquilla to Bogotá and the railway is only partially built up in Colombia as the topography is extremely varied. In addition, it seems that the railway network was primarily built to facilitate the transport of the mining industry and not so focused on passenger transport. To get to Bogotá we therefore ...
read ColombiaAfter our hike to Ciudad Perdida, we stayed a few extra days in the city of Santa Marta, which is the capital of the Department of Magdalena. It must be admitted here that we were really tired after the hike and needed to rest. The only problem was that our wet, sweaty clothes smelled anything but violet 😉. The hotel did have a ...
read ColombiaOn our wish list of places to visit in Colombia was Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) located on one of the slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, near the coastal city of Santa Marta. Ciudad Perdida is a ruined city also known as Teyuna. In the Chibcha language of the Indians, the name roughly means "origin of the people of the earth". Another, less exotic, name for the site ...
read ColombiaAfter winning the battle against all the little bugs in the boat, we could now declare it both bug and mold free - at least for the time being. We made sure there were chafing pads and shock absorbers on the mooring lines, packed up the dinghy and stowed away as much as possible below deck. Now we could lock up and leave the boat for slig ...
read ColombiaAfter clearance from Aruba, we set sail for Colombia. We had an average wind of 18-20 knots almost the whole way and depending on the wind direction we alternated between genoa and downwind sail during the leg. The mainsail was never hoisted during the two and a half days we sailed. Our planning, for once, also matched really well with ho ...
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ArubaWe sailed the 75 nautical miles from Curaçao without any problems. We had a tailwind all night and "old man sailing", a typical Christer's expression 😉 meaning slow-sailing with only the genoa/foresail up. In our case with the purpose not to arrive too early in the next morning. Once we wriggled into the shallow industrial port where immigration and customs have their offices, we were abl ...
readThe island is part of the Netherlands Antilles and one of the three ABC islands with Bonaire to the east and Aruba to the west. Together with the buddy boat Kwilena from Viking Explorer, it took us three days to sail to Curaçao from Grenada. We were able to use our downwind sail the entire distance but, as on the Atlantic crossing, we had problems with chafing on the halyard. As we approache ...
readToday is Midsummer Eve and Christer and I (Malin) are sitting in the boat, chatting and sipping a really good gin. A gift from our sons who visited us. These well-mannered gentlemen! 😉 We had a wonderful time with our visitors and we miss them already. Together we went to a guided tour of Grenada, saw scenic places, watched how ...
readWe left Martinique and made a night sail to St. Vincent and the Grenadines which we visited on our way north. On the way south we once again passed the island of St Lucia. This time we chose to go on the east side of the island to get steadier Atlantic wind and waves. We anchored at the small island of Bequeia where we cleared in in and stayed a few nights at the beautiful Princess Margaret Beach. ...
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