Hi there
I spent three weeks kiting along the Caribbean coast of Colombia and wanted to share some of my experiences with you.
Colombia seems to be one of the destinations less traveled when it comes to kiting tourism. And hence one meets mostly locals from the big cities on the spots. The people on the spots are extremely friendly and helpful and there was more than enough space everywhere. Many people think that Colombia is still dangerous. This fear before traveling was not confirmed and I felt safer in Colombia than on any of my previous trips to Brazil, Venezuela and even Argentina. Theft seems to be a very minor problem. One of the kite centers did not even employ night guards for that reason
The windy season around Cartagena and northwards seems to start in December and lasts until the end of March. These are typical trade winds that get stronger during the day and reach a maximum just an hour before sunset. North of Riohacha and towards the Cabo da Vela the windy season lasts until June and the winds are reported to be rather strong with an average of 40 knots around the Cabo da Vela where winds are offshore
We only kited around Cartagena and in Puerto Velero so I will only describe these spots
Cartagena:
Cartagena is a beautiful colonial town with many faces to it. Most tourists stay in the historic center where there are many really nice boutique hotels. The backpackers area round Calle Media Luna has an equally rich colonial architecture but a much more authentic feel and life to it. We stayed there in Casa Mara for 20 dollars a night in big double room with a view and pool. There are lots of restaurants nearby and a good meal with a beer sets you back anywhere between 4 and 14 dollars per person.
The kiting beach is 8 kilometers to the north of the historic center and a 20 min taxi ride to the beach costs 10 000 Pesos or 5 dollars plus whatever little tip you want to give the taxi driver.
We were invited to use the Aquanatica station
http://www.kitesurfcolombia.com/portal/index.html http://www.colombiakite.com/ at once and used this as our base.
Kite storage there is 5 dollars a day for a big locker but if you don’t want to use the storage facility you are still very welcome to kite there as long as you stick to the clearly defined rules.
The owner, called Chucho is very friendly and will help you with many requests. One on one kite courses cost around 300 dollars and to me the schooling made a very solid impression even if the school Best kites were a bit battered.
The wind in Cartagena seems to be coming round 1 or 2 pm and builds to about 18 to 22 knots before sunset on a good day. From the other gringos at the station it became apparent that there are 3 to 5 good wind days in a week during the season in Cartagena and that the wind seems to be coming in waves. Three days of good wind one day of no wind and then one day of medium wind. My experience being there towards the end of the season confirms this wind pattern.
The sea outside the kite station can best be described a small chop with some minor wind waves. After 3 days of good wind there is a minor swell <1m. There are absolutely no stones or obstacles in the water. Just fine brown sand and an occasional piece of driftwood.
Puerto Velero
Puerto Velero is a bit more off the beaten track. But once we discovered it we were really mystified by this spot with its many possibilities. Similar to Cartagena the wind comes from N turning NNE and NE in the evening just here it is 10 knots stronger than in Cartagena and often starts already at 9 am in the morning reaching 30 or more knots before sunset.
There is a combined windsurf and kitesurfschool on the spot run more as a hobby than a business by the very friendly and cool Carlos
http://www.nauticavelero.com/index.html . Additionally there are fishermen families on the beach that provide you with food and coffee (fried fish or chicken)
You can sleep there in tents or in hammocks for 5 dollar a night at and in the station or take a 20 minute mototaxi ride to the sleepy town of Puerto Colombia where the mid range hotel Pradomar offers very friendly rates for surfers (15 dollars night) North of the Pradomar Hotel
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...=UTF8&t=h&z=16 there is another beach called Salgar that is locally famous for its waves.
For the more seasoned backpackers there is also a cheap hotel in Puerto Colombia a few meters from the central plaza called Hotel Estanbul. While it has a very nice courtyard some of the rooms can be noisy.
Puerto Colombia has all the amenities of a small town with restaurants and shops including an excellent shoemaker who also fixes broken kite equipment. Gringos in Puerto Colombia seem to be a rarity and hence after a view days there one is greeted friendly in the shops and the mototaxistas await you outside the hotel to bring you to the spot for a fair price.
To get to Puerto Veloro from Cartagena you can either rent a taxi or take a shared taxi to the road crossing with the main road. The shared taxi cost about 10 dollars and can be arranged from any hotel in Cartagena. Once you are on the road crossing motorcycle taxistas will bring you to the beach… including all your kiting equipment.
Kiting Puerto Velero
As one can see from the satellite image
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...=UTF8&t=h&z=15 the wind comes over land into the bay and is therefore quite gusty in the northern part of the bay. The water is perfectly flat due to the offshore wind. A large part of the bay 500x500m is shallower than 1 meter which makes it ideal for people who want to learn how to kite. Martin the local kite instructor speaks ok English and teaches skillfully (tel 3004008410)
There is no official rescue there but both the fishermen and the people on the station keep an eye on you and have rescued quite a few people whose equipment broke while I was there.
We made sure we never kite alone in order to be able to help each other in case of some fu.. up
On the western side of the land spit of Puerto Velero nice wind waves and a bit of swell build during the day. Kiting there is great fun but for the experienced rider only due to a medium strong current of one to two knots and a beach that is totally littered with driftwood. For a few pesos one can however ask to have a person from the surfstation to be ready at the beach to help you launch and land from the water.
In the bay itself a bit downwind from the station there is a world class flat water spot with little gusts.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...=UTF8&t=h&z=16. The area of super flat water is comparable in size to the lagoon in Cumbuco but totally without kiters even in high season. The water depth is greater than 1.50m which I consider a good thing.
In conclusion.
We had a great time combining hard kiting and the solitude of Puerto Velero with the party life and kiting in Cartagena. You have to be able to speak travel Spanish to get around and organize your trips but once you are there things are easy, safe, friendly and somehow everything organizes itself…
There are many underexplored spots along the coast of Colombia and with tourism in its infancy I expect kiting there to become a lot more popular.
Here some pictures of the trip
http://picasaweb.google.de/peterthew...r0q4q21MfL5gE#