Cartagena, Colombia

Crews of Njorth Clan, Bonnie Doon, Mir and Champagne

This place is astounding. I know I say that about everywhere but Cartagena feels like home. We arrived to the sound of a viking horn from our friends Henri & Siska on Lille Ø and spent the first week exploring the city with them. The place is rocking at night so colourful, clean and the locals are really friendly. The food and booze was cheap and everywhere made a perfect margarita.

Buying the tasty ants. They go great with a margarita

Local delicacy, I love them

A lot of history here. We visited the torture museum, an ironically beautiful building in the old town, were they conducted the Spanish inquisition. I knew nothing about the Spanish inquisition. Quite disturbing especially some of the devices used.

We visited the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas with Clare from Champagne.

Mandy under the statue of Simón Bolívar the Venezuelan dude responsible for Colombia's, and many other South American countries, independence from the Spanish.

After a week we sadly said goodbye to our Finish friends who were off to San Blas heading to the Panama canal. We'll see them again. We made a date to meet up at the point of maximum totality for the September 2035 total eclipse of the sun off the coast of Japan. Yes, I know it's a long way off but I never dreamed I would get this far so why not, I'll only be 74.

I had to go the dentist to get a filling replaced and went to see Doctor Felipe who was recommended by Lee, the local OCC rep. Very professional, screens on the ceiling with drone footage of exotic locations like Menorca and Miami. All the doors opened like in star trek, very slick setup and pain free.

Marina Club de Pesca is one of my favorite marinas so far. The locals opened it years ago with 2 intentions. One, cheap beer for the local sailors and two, to meet and welcome other visiting sailors. This is still true. Such a friendly place. Very busy with everyone coming and going and no snobbishness like some Mediterranean marinas. We met up with Lee the local Ocean Cruisers Club representative who got us a berth. He is American but has lived here for 50 years with his wife Pachi whose family started off the marina. The marina bar was unbelievable, the staff were ace, it had the cheapest beer in Caregena and the best steak Mandy has ever had. (And me, but I always say that) We have been twice and are going again before we leave.

And the starter was like no prawn cocktail I have ever tasted Gromit.

Then there was the week long Fiesta Nautica Cartagena celebrating the independence of Cartagena from the Spanish. They set up a massive stage pointing out over the bay. We had a great view from our boat in the marina. It was loud, you couldn't hear each other on the boat without shouting. We asked our friends, Zak and Clare from Champagne if they want to come out with us in the dinghy to see how close we could get to the stage. It turned out to be one of the craziest experiences ever. We drove around the back of the flotilla of boats. They ranged from massive superyachts to little Dinghies like us. There must have been a thousand boats all rafted together. 

Some boats had porta loos on board

So we got as close to the stage as we could. The police stopped us, in a really polite way, and told us to raft up to this random boat which we did. 

Astonishingly a guy on the rafted boat started waving at me, it was doctor Felipe, MI DENTISTA!! who must have recognized us as the only gringos in the bay. We had a great time with him and met his wife. He gave us a beer and a few shots of whisky and the guys owning the boat gave us some food. What great people and what an experience.

Doctor Felipe

Doctor Felipe's wife came on board for a beer

The music was amazing, one of the big names jumped on a jet ski, I think it was Carlos Vives, and started whizzing around the boats. The crowd went wild. He nearly got close to us. My spotify November playlist is now very South American.

The party continued into the night

We went to the local market, Bazurto, and it was truly a locals market. Never seen so many bits of dead animals. Stomachs, feet, intestines and zillions of pigs ears. The fish section was something else and I also have never seen so many bananas in my life, they were piled up everywhere. 

We were with our friends who we met in Almerimar, Spain, Clinton and Lisa and Steve and Sue from Bonnie Doon. It was quite a culture shock for me. I just don't know what they did with all those pigs ears.

Great nights out very cheap food and lots going on. And of course great margaritas.

Lens replacement

We first heard about this operation last year from Jo and Viccy on Dolce who had it done in Dubai about 4 years ago and raved about their new sight. Then we found our from another cruiser friend, Brett, that he had it done in Cartagena back in 2021. His words were "I couldn't recommend this guy enough" Living on the boat my life was ruled by what pair of glasses I needed. It was getting ridiculous for both of us. Also I had the onset of cataracts which over the past 2 years living on the sea had got noticeably worse. Mandy was not as bad as me but still needed glasses to do anything.

Typical boat job day view of my collection of required eye wear

So before we left Curacao we booked a consultation with Doctor Carlos Granados Lacera of the Ebenezer clinic for the 5th November. This guy has done about 15 of these lens replacement operations a week for the past 20 years. I have never had decent vision out of my left eye and he said after the op I would be able to see out of both eyes. Also we would be glasses free and I would be able to see the stars without halos. Obviously we were scared and talked about it lots. The next week we had a bucket load of tests to measure our eyes for the feasibility of the procedure. The following week on 18th November we had our left eyes done. 2 days later we had the other eyes done. It was probably the craziest thing Mandy and I have done together, sitting there in the armchairs in our scrubs getting cannulas put in for the sedative. Mandy went in first and 15 minutes later she was done then another 15 minutes and I was done. It was miraculous!!! I can now see out of both eyes for the first time in 64 years, I cried. We don't need glasses anymore. We had different lenses, Mandy can now read the smallest text without glasses but gets some halos around lights at night which apparently will go in a few months. Doctor Carlos was gobsmacked at how good her vision is so quickly after the op. I got the distance one with no halos so the stars are now pin sharp again. I can now resolve the 4 moons of Jupiter through my binoculars for the first time ever. My close vision is not as good as Mandy's but I still don't need glasses for anything other than super small text in the dark. We've put our phones in teenager mode, small font and dark screen. The battery lasts forever :-)

Post op checkup with the miracle man himself, Doctor Carlos

The op sounds quite gory but you don't feel or remember a thing. He goes in the eye via a 2mm hole with what I understand to be a type of sonic jack hammer which dissolves the old lens which he then sucks out. Then he pushes in the new lens which is folded up like an umbrella which unravels. He lines it up and that is it. From initial consultation to the conclusion of the procedures and being able to see perfectly was 15 days. We would highly recommend anybody to come and visit this amazing city and have a medical holiday and get your eyes fixed. I believe you wont get better treatment anywhere on this planet. And Doctor Carlos said our sight should get even better over the next few months. Particularly for me as my brain needs to adapt to having clear vision in my left eye for the first time ever.

 https://ebenezeroftalmologia.com/

Watching the video of my op blew my mind but I don't think I would have liked to have watched it before the operation. Just under 12 minutes into the video you can see the lens being inserted.

So next stop Cayman to spend Christmas with Tim. We are really looking forward to our first overnight passage where we don't need glasses and can see the chart plotter without having to get up and squint at the screen. This procedure was seriously life changing.

I am pretty sure we'll be back to visit this amazing city......Drop the lines Babe!