We have been in Columbia about ten days now and found it a interesting place with its own culture, unlike the ABC's
The main annoyance is the clearing in process, probably the slowest of any country we have visited. You have to have an agent and we tried to get the Romovela agency but neither of the email addresses we had worked and when we asked for them on arrival at Santa Marta, the marina gave us someone Called Jose. He is nice enough, but his english is almost non existent. After ten days we have accumulated 4 pieces of paper to do with the clear in process. We are not sure if we are fully cleared in or not. It's the agent that makes everything take so long I believe. After about three days here he brought out the customs agent onto our boat to fill out some forms.
Today, which is Wednesday, we happened to see the agent in the yard here and we told him we would like to clear out and have everything done by Friday as we wish to leave early Saturday morning. We brought him into the marina office and got the english speaking clerks here to translate for us to make sure he understood. So we shall see what happens.
During our last ten days here we have done lots of exploring. We took a jeep ride up to Minca, a tiny little village in the foothills at about 2500ft elevation. Once there we did a half day hike with an organized tour. There was two other couples from Australia on the hike with us, though they were much younger. The hike was a circular route up to a waterfall, and the route there was up a trail a bit but mostly up the creek bed where we had to wade thigh deep up the rapidly flowing creek and balance on slippery boulders. Coming back was an easy trail and then on the road. Then we had an included lunch and then walked over to a coffee plantation and a place with a great view of a valley with many humming birds.
We also did bus trips to towns on either side of Santa Marta which are more touristy. Also did lots of exploring of Santa Marta. Very little English spoken here so having a translator or phrase book is great. We have a Spanish/English translator on our smart phone which is handy.
Another night we watched a display of fireworks not far from where we are docked. They also turned on all there Christmas display lights that they had been putting up the last week.
On Saturday, winds permitting, we are planning to do the 110 miles to Cartagena over two days, with an overnight stop at Punta Hermosa. The anchorage in here is suppose to be good. So there is no overnight passage to do, which is good as the winds at night seem to often increase to very strong, and we have often noticed that even in the marina. The last few nights have been very windy here at night. The wind seems to pickup after dark and die some after daylight. Sometime is around 30 knots at night, probably a lot stronger out at sea. Santa Marta to Baranquilla area is know for very strong local winds, often over 40 knots.
Our agent finally arrived with our departure zarpe for Cartagena at 7pm tonight and we are hoping to leave tomorrow morning. He gave us 3 more pieces of paper making a total of 7. We will find out in Cartagena if he has done the paper work correctly.
INFO
-Try to get Dino for an agent in Santa Marta, as he has better english and people seem happy with him. Ask for him as at Marina office as soon as you arrive. Our agent we got given to use was Jose, he charged us a total of $220 dollars for everything. His fee was $120 and then $100 for a permit and we could stay up to 3 months or a year for this, not sure as we don't plan to stay in Columbia more than 3 weeks.
Note: In hindsight he did everything right and his fees were comparable to anyone else. The only hassle was trying to communicate with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment