We've been here in Cartagena, Colombia now for almost a month. And we love it!!!
Time flies, I know, when you're having fun. 🤣
Well, time also flies, when you are doing chores, going shopping on foot, doing work on the boat, or just video editing.
Nick's office on these hot days....👍🏻🤣
Catching a bug of some sort about 10 days after getting here, and having to call for a doctor to do a "boat call " and check on Nick, kind of slows everything, everyone. Of course when one gets sick, the other follows suit. The coughing was about the worst of it, and that likes to linger. So "take it easy" was prescribed.
The local weather made those Doctors orders absolutely doable.
It is super hot here, humid too, it is the rainy season here you should know, and doing just too much in a day, leaves you being drenched in just a couple minutes, and exhausted...🙄
And then drying clothes in humid temperatures? Well not that ideal.
Cartagena gets thunderstorms pretty much every day now, many are severe and come with super strong winds, and gusts up to 55mph ( 88kps). Pouring rain and big waves too. The nice thing about these thunderstorms though is, they only last for about 20-30 minutes, cooling the temperatures off just a taaaaad bit.
Then the sun comes back out with its brutal strength and heat. We are after all about 10° north of the equator.
We are nicely tucked away in this Marina, and are mostly protected from big waves, but the strong winds do hit us, making us rock and roll at the dock. Still safer here than out at anchor for sure. The anchorages around these marinas are called "boat graveyards" as enough boats drag anchor, crash and sink.
This Marina has been good to us, with its nice staff, and its security for our boat.
We can do laundry on site here for about $3.50 per load of washing and/or drying.
We have a store near by that has essentials that's open 24hrs a day.
A bigger grocery store about a 10 minute walk, is available with more of a selection. That's where we go food shopping most of the time. A bit pricey, as it caters more to foreigners in the Marinas, but with fresh eggs, fruits and vegetables, we really cannot complain.
We are getting ready a little every day to leave for the USA and Germany, to satisfy our visa requirements. Leaving the boat here, in the water, the Marina, requires us to find and hire a person that can periodically check on our lines and the boat.
We are making sure that we have enough lines to be tied up to in a four way, to pillars and the dock.
We are also looking at hiring someone that can occasionally scrape the bottom of the boat of barnacles and other growth. We do not want to come back to our bottom looking like a jungle and us not being able to then scrape it all off successfully to be able to leave.
We are storing our things on board in dry bags, like our clothes so as to hopefully not have a mold farm growing by the time we get back in 3 months or so. Our navigation books too have to be properly stored, as do all of our books.
And then there are the food items, spices, dry goods, and all the cans etc.
Proper storages of all these items is super important, and when the boat cannot get proper or enough ventilation in an already hot and humid climate, things can go bad real fast if not done right.
So we are pretty busy every day, little by little, things are getting checked of our list(-s) 🥴
Despite all these necessary things that need to be done, we do try to take a little of time here and there to explore and enjoy!
This map here shows one of the reasons we chose to come to Colombia and wait out the Hurricane seasons....
Slowly but surely we are preparing and packing, yet still taking it easy, until our day arrives, that we fly out. Back to family and friends, and work for a while...