Steak and Veggies
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 1 Mar 2010 06:38
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Sunday 28 February 1500 Local 2000 UTC
10:24.94N 075:32.72W
Its a little hard to keep track of what I have told
you about and what I have not, however there has been lots happening since we
arrived in Cartagena.
I think I was going to be going to the Fed Ex
office for parts when I last wrote. The next day, as I left Trish at the
supermarket getting some provisions, I returned to Club Nautica to organise a
taxi to Fed Ex, and there were Fed Ex right at the door, with the
parts, and a bill for 240,000 pesos for duty and charges! 2000 pesos is about
1USD.
This saved a trip to the other side of town, and
though expensive, was very expedient. Had I tried to get the parts in duty free,
I would have to employ an agent and it would have taken about two weeks to clear
customs on a duty free basis, I am led to believe.
So as I was walking down the dock,
come building site, that is Club Nautica I met John the Marina Manager, who
was trying to gather some cruisers together for a meeting with the
Guardacosta, who wanted to improve information flow between cruisers and the
coast guard and wanted to learn more about what they could do to help. Not
having to go to Fed Ex I now had an hour or so on my hands so I volunteered to
offer John, who is an amazingly helpful and knowledgeable guy, and perhaps the
main reason people stay at Club Nautica, some support.
The other four people and I, jumped aboard the
launch and took our seats after donning the "lifejackets" provided. I had my
feet up on the footbar on the chair in front and about half way across the
harbour I happened to look down at my foot bar and I realised I had my feet up
on a machine gun which had been jammed down the seat back by the already heavily
armed Guardacostas! Good grief, I had visions of accidentally spraying the
launch with machinegun fire from my flip flop protruding big
toes!
The trip to the base was facinating and there we
found a a collection of impounded boats and four different "beach built"
submarines that had been built and used to transport drugs from Columbia to
its export markets. It is hard to imagine how anyone would survive in these
subs, but desperate people do desperate things.
My message to the coastguard was that it was great
to see them making the effort on cruisers security, and that if the kept it up
and liaised with the cruising community via the well known web sites then they
could do their part in increasing tourism in Columbia, which their president has
set as an objective for the country.
We all have an idea about security in Columbia and
I think it is fair to say it is negative. Guide books and web sites warn us to
take extreme care. However the President of Columbia who has now been in power
for almost two full terms has taken an extremely firm view of how to deal
with crime in Columbia and he has piled
resources into it, and has achieved stunning results. Zero tolerance, and hard
and heavy - just my kind of guy. None of this mamby pamby half hearted efforts
we have had in the UK.
We also see that ordinary Columbians seem to really
appreciate what he has done and how the country has changed for the better.
Without going into all the stuff with the drug cartels - just as an ordinary
tourist, we have rarely felt as safe as we have felt in the old town, "Centro",
of Cartagena de Indias. It is flooded with police of all kinds who
are all very helpful when you ask them for information.
It is however clear that there is a gun culture and
not far from our marina there was a "gangland killing". This however is no
different from London, Belfast or Glasgow really. Security guards all carry
weapons and the security guards in our new marina, Club de Pesca stroll around
at night with sawn off shotguns always at the ready in their right hands.
Apparently there has been no cases of theft from the Club de Pesca marina,
but just recently one of the guards spotted a small boat coming into the
marina in the dark. He let go four shots at them to "corall" them in while the
coastguards arrived to arrest them.
After finally getting our boat cleaned by Friday
afternoon we made the move from Club Nautico to Club de Pesca where we
berthed up in a tight spot with limited alongside pontoon for the yacht and
a single pile to starboard forward. Our new neighbours were all out to welcome
us and take a line and we were quickly asked over to the club happy
hour. There we met at our table a handsome and friendly young couple -
Maurice who was a champion surfer, and a Columbian, and his girlfriend Jania
(remember the "J" is pronounced as an "H" in Spanish) who was Panamanian
and very beautiful. After spending a couple of hours we asked them over to our
boat as Maurice was just entering the family marine business and was very
interested to be around boats. They then invited us to Maurice's family home
where they were staying, which was in the old town of Cartagena. The house
was amazing and had open courtyards inside, open to the sky that is, and with a
great big built in sunken bath under one of them. The house had no windows, only
shutters and was very open from room to room allowing good air flow. It seemed a
mix of moorish and Spanish design which it probably was. It was a really
interesting visit and we rounded of the night with dinner
together.
During the day on Friday I went to the University
to the English department and met the head. I asked if there was a student who
would like to spend the day with us on Saturday, as a bit of a "cultural
exchange", and to act as a paid guide. The university was going to get back to
me but unfortunately we were not able to get it organised and all I have to
show for my efforts in this exercise was two missed calles from unknown numbers
on my phone. They may or may not have been from the student or the
university, but unfortunately what I thought was a good idea for the student and
us did not work out. I think we will however pursue this concept in other areas
that we visit.
So Saturday was spent strolling around the old town
once the days jobs were done. We went into the Naval Museum and were just
in time to catch a high octane music and dance performance which clearly showed
a confluence of Spanish, South American Indian and African styles and
influences. In the evening we were going out for dinner to a really good
restaurant. The meal was great. More steaks, which were melt in the mouth juicy
and right there and then I decided that if I ever became a vegitarian I would
still have a steak at least once a month. There was a band playing in the
Restaurant who were playing Vallenato. Vallenato has an inescapable beat
and a typical ensemble is made up of the accordian, the guacharaca
(gwaka-ratcha) and caja. The guacharacha is a word I have heard many times
before but did not know what it was. Well now I do - it is a percussion
instrument of indigenous South American origin and consists of a stick like
wooden body with a row of cuts and a metal fork. The metal and wood are
perhaps reversed in modern instruments. The sound is made by rubbing the stick
with the fork and it is infectious. The caja is a bucket shaped wooden
drum hich is played by hand. The musical genre as we should expect
again reflects the mix of Spanish African and Amerindian
roots.
As the night went on the diners started
dancing and next thing we know we are in a good old fashioned "lock in". So it
was about 0300 when we got back to bed. The last time I was up that late was on
the night watches last week. People watching was great there, from the coke
sniffing hookers accompanying two wealthy guys, to one table who looked like
mafiosa, another of professional couples and yet another of all very
attractive women and of course intimate couples.
We are now fully stoked up on steaks and feel ready
to fend off, should it happen, any sudden and severe onset of
vegetarianism.
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