Colombia, even with COVID what a great place!!

February 12,2021

Since March when COVID started and destroyed everyone’s plans, Colombia as destination was in our minds all the time. We patiently waited until it finally open its sea borders in December and all efforts were compensated by seeing our family. Strange enough that they opened when COVID was still rising and we ended up being there at the second peak of the pandemic.

We spend 2 months in Colombia, completely different to what we planned and also very different from when we just go for a normal visit without the boat.

Since the pandemic started we have been very careful not to get around crowded places, avoid certain activities  where a lot of people is involved and so on. It is just us, taking care of ourselves. But in Colombia, I kind of felt more responsible. When we arrived I was sure we had no COVID. But my family lives in the capital which it is either one hour flight or 24 hours drive. High risks to actually get COVID on the way and carry it with us. My biggest fear was to bring it to our family. This sickness is still such a  big unknown.

We arrived just before Christmas and people was out like crazy. In a way, I could understand, they had been confined, lockdown, with restrictions all year, some people could not live with the idea of spending the holiday season without celebrating with their families and friends. The consequences showed two weeks later, early January, when COVID numbers escalated further than ever. And the peak started going down only after they installed new quarantine and restrictions.

We were very lucky, we managed to see almost all close relatives and couple of friends one by one for short periods of time. Extra bonus was that my dad and sister came to Happy Days and sailed with us for a week each separately. Only that, made every effort we did to go to Colombia more than worth it!!!

At the time, I am writing this, I’m glad that COVID seem to be getting better in Bogota, restrictions are being removed and people are starting to go back to the “new normal”. I think there will be couple of years to go back to normal and hopefully this pandemic will teach us something and we will go back to a “better normal”.

Now it is time to go. Thanks Colombia for everything!!!!  Special Thank you to our family for all the great gifts, calls, thoughts and until next time when we can hug again!!

Here are some of the things that keep us busy during our stay in Colombia. Sit back, relax and enjoy!!!

Christmas and New Year.

Because of second peak of COVID being exactly by the time we were there. Things were very challenging. We wanted to go see all family and friends. We normally make a big family reunion and on top of that it was Christmas and New Year. Time to celebrate together.  But this time all those plans had to be canceled not only for us but for lots of families. I even read that one of the causes that get more people infected is actually that, family gatherings, because people get complacent and forget about all the biosecurity protocols.

My dad has a small farm only 2 hours drive from Bogota and at lower altitude. So we were there for most of the time. Cedric still gets a bit of height sickness in Bogota and he doesn’t like the cold.

My uncle who normally host the Christmas party had an empty house. So he came to the farm with us. Two families, plenty air, no sharing plates of food, alcohol to clean, masks, washing hands,  we followed all recommendations. We had a great time. He even brought food like if the big family was going to be there, so we had plenty to eat for the next 3 days.

New Year was a party of four. My dad, sister and us. It was wonderful to have time to share together. And not because we were only four we did a small dinner on the contrary we prepared a banquet and celebrate way passed midnight with karaoke!! Happy New Year to all!!! Hopefully 2021 brings lots of healthy and happy Days!!!

Visiting Family

Visiting my auntie was a real highlight. She and her husband received us like super stars, they had prepared a huge poster with lots of pictures form our trip, she is my number one fan on the blog. She also had cooked lots of really nice food for us. Arepas, Colombian hot chocolate, sweets, fruits and lots more. She had completely rearrange the house to make sure we follow all the biosecurity recommendations. Such a great afternoon. I’m glad we went even if we couldn’t hug and we had to keep the distance but at least we could shared sometime together.

The youngest of the family is Sara Lucia and last time we saw her she was just months old, she has grown so much and is talking plenty.

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We prepared a box full of small goodies for Sara Lucia and her parents -my cousin and her husband- it had some nice food but a lot of small things for that I selected for her. When she opened it, she started looking so excited. I guess her first impression was that she needed to chose something; but, when she understood the whole box was for her, she killed all the protocols of physical distance. She opened her arms as wide as she could and thank me offering me a big hug. My only hug!!!

Sofia and Martin my cousin’s children, have been growing up so much as well. Sofia who was our flower girl in our wedding is now taller than me. It was such a joy that they could come to the farm just for an afternoon. They also have been at home for months, still doing school online and not really sure when they could go back. It’s been almost a year already. It is amazing but they both still practicing their favourite sports Martin football and Sofia skating.

Green therapy

We were in Bogotá for a few days when it was announced that there was going to be full lockdown on 3 sectors of the city. Surprise, surprise, my dad’s house was in one of those sectors. The option was to go to the airport and take a plane back to Cartagena, jump in Happy Days and leave or to go back to the farm and stay lockdown there for 2 weeks. We took the second option and that was the best decision. We really enjoyed some land time and what I would call: The Green Therapy.

The farm is only 2 hours drive and it is such a beautiful place. We could go for walks, collect fresh fruits and even had time to work on some house improvements and a full coffee harvest.

We were out of season and still got avocados, lemons, oranges, bananas, cassava and coffee. Not to mention all the flowers and birds that may several displays for us.

In regards to the coffee, we already knew the process for the coffee harvest, but we never did it ourselves. When we got to the farm Cedric saw the trees full of coffee red an yellow so it was the right time to collected it. He then talk to Diego, who normally works on the farm and he explained the whole process to Cedric. He had the necessary equipment at his house so Cedric got busy. He collected the grains and with Diego’s guidance he harvested a full kilo of coffee.  I documented the whole process, have a look at this video. I promised it is the best coffee ever, not only because it is Colombian but also when you harvested it has something else that makes it very special.

I did some work as well. Actually, not a huge job but it took a lot longer than expected. Well I didn’t exactly worked eight hours a day and not to mentioned I had lots of coffee breaks. My sister came to stay on the farm with us for a few days, so having some company was wonderful to get some work done!!

She also did plenty cleaning and organising. With COVID the farm had been empty for more than 8 months, so you could imagine the amount of work to be done. At the end we were very proud of the results look at this !!

I’m so lucky, my sister, certified “gem-therapist” offered me a full treatment as Christmas present. Instead of going to a cabinet like for a doctor’s appointment, she prepared a perfect scenery with the sound of nature in the background. It was so great, I just didn’t want to move from there even after the hours she took to reconnect me to the earth. (Disconnect from spending a year on a sail boat ?)

Sailing in Colombia

We had not sail much in Colombia before and paradoxically this was the time we could do it. My sister was looking forward to come to cartagena to see Happy Days. She would take the risk of the flights. The problem was not the sailing as it was not her first time. She did 8 weeks with us in Indonesia when we had “Thira” in 2009. At some point we thought she could come to Panama with us. But the situation was still very sensitive there. Getting stuck in a foreign country was still a possibility. We looked into going to San Andres and Providencia but it included quite a bit of sailing with and against the wind. So we decided to tour the “Archipelago Islas del Rosario y San Bernardo”, potentially even push down to Tolu.

We did a bit sailing, lots of swimming, snorkeling, yoga, paddleboard and few walks on the islands. It was her first time on the paddleboard and she had no problem standing up and keeping the equilibrium. A bit of practice on the direction and she could go start discovering the islands around. It was a full vacation and for a bit we could relax and “forget” the outside world.

Islas del Rosario are more popular because they are closer to Cartagena, so there are boats on day tours that brings people to spend the day on the beach. Therefore, it could get busy on weekends and during the day. The Isla Grande has quite a large infrastructure of hotels, eco hotels and restaurants to welcome the visitors. They have suffer the pandemic as they were completely close for months and they are now restarting to open with the recommended protocols. In the afternoon, just after 2 o’clock boats start to making their way back to Cartagena, normally the wind gets stronger and it is going against the wind so better to arrive before the sunset. That worked perfect for us because after everyone was gone we could go to shore to explore and be back for apero.

Talking about apero. One thing that I always relay with vacations in the Caribbean is piña colada. We were in these islands with perfect blue skies, turquoise water and we were missing Piña Colada. But we had two problems not a lot of a cash -we forgot to take cash when we left Cartagena – and we didn’t want to go to the island with the floating bar because there might be too many people, too much covid risk. So what to do? I looked at the recipe, we had all ingredients on board and ready go!!! I’m now an expert making Piña Colada.

San Bernardo Island are further away, so when we went there we were the only sailing boat of the area. Locals came to offered us fish, lobster, crab they say they could cooked for us as well. But remember? No cash, we had a few dollars and negotiated a bit. But we had enough to get a few things. And guess what, I also was craving for coconut rice, it is such a typical thing to eat in the islands, so then again, look up for the recipe a Colombian one and it came out perfect!!

After a few days touring around it was time to go back to Cartagena, dropped my sister and say good bye to Colombia for now.

I highly recommend you to read her impressions about her visit to Happy Days. I bet you’ll enjoy it as she is such a writer. Click here

A good Peruvian friend that lived in Cartagena recommended us a restaurant. “La Gloria”.- with such a name, it was destiny we had to go-. Great peruvian food and the terrace was exclusive for us. Amazing view, excellent food, the best company what else can we ask for a nice good bye and thank you Colombia.

You can’t imagine how grateful I am that we managed to visit Colombia, see the family and we are still all healthy!

Next stop, Panama. Until then.

PS: If you want to see more pictures from our visit in Colombia click here.