Sorry again for being quiet for so long! We were very busy ramping up Mozart and, due to all this work, simply not in a mood to work on our blog. However, we’ll use this week to catch up and then keep it active and updated on a frequent basis. .
Tired from many weeks commuting between workshops, mechanics, electricians, painters, and many among those who destroy more than they fix, we had to learn a hard lesson. Due to Colombia’s great people and their extremely friendly attitudes, we forgot that no group of humans is homogeneous. In the eyes of some people, we remain stupid, money carrying gringos ready to pay for whatever shitty work one delivers. We spent a lot of time in South America before and claimed to know this continent pretty well, and still we stepped in this trap and had to learn it the hard way. This is also part of a journey, the good and the bad experiences, but all of those are valuable. In this case, the bad ones had cost us a lot of time. Since the Temporary Import Permit of our vehicle will expire by beginning of October, we will sadly not be able anymore to explore this amazing country by car. Long story short, the journey goes on, and here we go …
For some remaining issues on Mozart, we ended up at Edier’s workshop in Pereira, a recommended mechanic we’ve put the last bit of our trust in (and haven’t been disappointed!). We parked Mozart at his place, discussed the details, left the car there and … granted ourselves a week of holidays from this trip. So from September 11th to 18th, we flew to Colombia’s north to explore the Caribbean Coast, starting in Cartagena. Cartagena is for sure one of Colombia’s most touristic places, but with a good reason. Being a Spanish hub exploiting its South American colonies for centuries, it has been attacked various times by pirates seeking their ‘share’ of the cake. This led to the construction of Cartagena’s impressive city wall and fortresses to reduce those lawless sailors’ motivation to brawl. Even if super touristic, we highly recommend to visit Cartagena to everybody who comes to Colombia. Get an accommodation in its beautiful bohemian street art neighborhood Getsemani, enjoy the well preserved historical center through a walking tour, uncovering all the small details in its (mainly Spanish) history, walk through Parque Centenario stumbling over curious monkeys and chilling sloths pleasurably scratching their butts while watching down at you. Take it slow in this hot, humid climate, but enjoy the city and its Caribbean vibe.
From Cartagena we went on to Barranquilla with a rental car. Barranquilla has a more industrial face than Cartagena, so we stopped there only for one night for one special reason: El Varadero Restaurante. Patrick knew this place from former business trips and claimed, you can’t be some hundreds of kilometers close by and not eat there. So we went to this restaurant for dinner, listening to Cuban live music, watching typical dancing and diving into Varadero’s mind blowing dishes.
The next morning, still too stuffed for a real breakfast, we left Barranquilla heading towards Parque Nacional Tayrona, where we found some of Colombia’s most beautiful beaches, surrounded by dense rain forest. Peeling ourselves out of our hammocks at 5am, we got to watch the stunning sunrise above Cabo San Juan’s beach rocks.
The last stop of our Caribbean holiday was Taganga, a sleepy fisher’s village next to Santa Marta. We can’t say anything about touristic Santa Marta, but were very happy with our decision to stay and enjoy Taganga. Mainly all you can do there is walk, relax, eat and … dive again! Our first diving since Isla de Providencia, and amazing to be back underwater and enjoy this parallel universe.
Time to fly back to Mozart and see how he’s doing.
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