Highlights of Santa Marta

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Arriving to Santa Marta

Just arrived the hostal owner was telling me that tomorrow a lost city trip would leave and if I want to join. I said, I want to shower first 😊

I took a shower and felt better. Then went for a short walk in the city. I think it is a pretty beautiful town. I had some food in the restaurant on the opposite site of the hostal and then talked again to the owner about the trip and decided to go. So we went together to the bank to get the money (500 colombian pesos). Next morning I had a short breakfast and then was ready for the tour.

The lost city trip

I met Mauricio, our guide, who was the same guy, i contacted per email before to get information about the trip. I got his email address from the german guys in Coro - we went to the Sierra Luis together, on the spanish pathway with the caves and almost rainforest like passage. Pretty funny!

There were a lot of other people going on the tour. I think, we were 11 people. Our english entertainer, Phil, a german companion, Andres, a girl from New Zealand, Susie, a girl from Canada, Amy, the independent Michiel from the Netherlands, the couple from Brooklyn, Mike and Caroline, two unimpressed action guys from Australia, Ilya and Josh, and then some other guys who did the trip in 4 days. We did it in 5 instead of 6 days, because almost everybody wanted to go for carneval to Barranquilla.

The first day we went with two cars in 2 hours to the village Mamey, where we had lunch. After that we started hiking and the path led uphill - nothing about a slow start 😉. I spent the 3 hours hike talking to Andres, the german guy, which made the hike a lot easier! He is sursprisingly open and we had interesting subjects. I wish him all the best for his family and job in Germany. The last hours of walk was downhill and then we arrived to the river and had the chance for a swim. How good that felt. After another few minutes we arrived to the first camp (see picture). We had lunch in romantic candle light and started to drink some beers afterwards, like every following night. This camp was perfect to watch some birds, especially in the morning.

All the time the guides provided us with fruits, juices, delicious meals and cookies.

The next morning we had the chance to see the production of cocain for some extra money. Some of us, including me, went. The guy brought us to a little tent near the river in the jungle, showed us the plants and their different stages. Then under the tent he had some leaves and started to show us every single step with his hands. In the end we got a small amount of white powder, which some guys really dared to smoke - must be really unclean stuff!!! After 1 hour demonstration we went back to the camp, called Alfredo, and started walking. First it was uphill again, but then there was a long time just down, until we reached the river again, which we had to cross again. This day we stopped by a beautiful place natural swimming pool, where we could swim and jump (see pictures). Then we also went to one of the indigenious villages and got some information about their cultures - mostly just about drugs 😞. We continued walking until our next camp, called Gabriel. This camp was situated by a river, so I went there for another swim and to wash my clothes from the sweat and my shoes from the mud. I am really happy about the shoes I bought. They are perfect: good for sport, good enough for hikes, not too warm and they even dry easily (at least a lot easier than other shoes).

The next day we walked a long, long way. Another time we started uphill. Up, up, up, until we reached the sugar cane fields of the Kogi and saw the machine, with which they press the juice out of the cane. Of course we also tried some sugar canes to get some energy. Then we went down, down, down, until we reached the river again. We followed a while the river upstream and stopped there for a swim under the beautiful waterfall. From there the stairs up to the lost city started. This was definitely the hardest part of the whole hike. But how amazing the feeling when you walk up the stairs through the jungle, which looks like from a indiana jones movie and then the happy feeling when you finally reached the lost city.
We went first to the camp and had dinner, then we went for a walk through the lost city with a guide who gave a lot of information. Enjoying is just the translation. In the night I used my chance to talk to the locals. They had a six pack of beers and one guide invited me to join them. So I did. We talked about their lives, which was really interesting for me. I went really late to bed.

The next morning I woke up a little bit earlier and took my own walk through the lost city. I went paths that were almost overgrown by the jungle. There is definitely still a lot of work to do to put the whole city free. I saw many things that I couldnt explain, but for sure there are a lot of things still unknown and undiscovered. They told us, that every hut was build on a stone cycle and when somebody died who lived in that house, he was buried inside of this cycle and the others had to leave the hut and find a new one. Then the hut was unused until it broke down, which was taken as a sign that the soul has left the place. Then the family could build a new house there. It sounds really unpractical and inlogical for me, so I do not believe it! They also said that almost all the buried bodies are stolen by tomb raiders. That I believe indeed because this culture was known for having lots of gold. On my walk I had a weird experience with a humming bird. He came from nowhere and stopped right in front of my face, maybe 3 meters away. He kept looking at me for half a minute and then turn a little bit to the left and stopped again, to the left and stopped again. When he was behind me, I had enough and continued walking my path. Curious little bird. I also saw very interesting spiders, although I dont really wanna know if they were dangerous or not. They told us yesterday that the helicopter should come today to bring food for the military there and to take a girl, that had an injured leg. So, when I was on my walk, I heard the helicopter and started running because I didnt want to miss the landing. But he didnt land, he just threw some bags and left again, without coming close to the ground. After breakfast we waited one hour more for the helicopter, which didnt showed up. Then we left, because we had a far way back. On the way the stairs down to the river, we used some lians to do a swing - that was awesome, although I was scared, I wouldnt have enough strength. But it was easy!

The rest of the hike was pretty boring, we just walked back all the way to the camp and the next day we walked all the way back to the village, skipping the first camp. I was really exhausted at the end and wanted sooo much a river to take a swim. On the way, we saw snake, brown and unspectacular but very dangerous. Somebody killed it before us!

Thanks to Claire, Andres and Michiel for the pictures

Fundive

In the evening of the day we returned from the lost city trip, I agreed with Andres to meet in a restaurant. Most of the others were staying in Taganga, so we were just three people, Andres, Michiel and I. And we were sooo sleepy that we just had dinner and then went to bed. The next day I went for breakfast in Santa Marta and I saw the gold museum there, which is really small but interesting. Amazing what kind of techniques they had already at that time.

Then I met Andres in the city and we agreed to go to Taganga together. We met there at the beach. I was checking for diving and got the chance to go tomorrow. I said yes! We also met the couple from Brokelyn on the beach and talked to them. For the sunset I went up the hill on the right side and on the way up, I met my diving instructor who will go diving with me tomorrow. We sat down there, enjoyed the sunset and talked. He told me about his girlfriend in Cali and offered me some pope, but I said no, because I promised it to Daniel 😊

I went down again and Andres had left already. But the others agreed to meet at a bar in Taganga, so I went there. It wasnt easy to find, but I found it. It is situated on the rooftop of a hostal and had a great view. I met Mike and Caro again and we had dinner and some beers. Then they showed the movie "Amelies crazy world". I left in between because I had to return to Santa Marta. But on the street I saw some people dancing and having a little party, because of the carneval. I stopped to watch and met a guy, I met earlier in the bar. We talked and watched the happening. Then I waited for the bus, but it didnt come, so I had to take a taxi home. I wanted to go to the club to meet Andres there, but I was too tired and went just to bed. Had to wake up early for the diving and had to be sober for that!!!

Next day I went diving and it was awesome. On the lunch break on a close beach in the Tayrona park, I found some corals. The other girl didnt show up so I went diving alone with the instructor and he showed me sooo many awesome things and made a lots of pictures. We saw a lion fish, a sea snake, these interesting crabs, a octopus, these puff fishes, these tube fishes or however they are called, this yellow, white fish with the long back razor, a baracuda and many more. Once there was a swarm of big silver fishes (no clue which ones) above me, surrounding me. The instructur tried to get my attention, but I was so occupied with the ground under me. When I finally looked at him, he scared me by showing with a hand above me. It was beautiful. I really enjoyed it. After the diving we went for dinner together and had a nice time. Then I went back to Santa Marta. In Santa Marta I went to the internet and met Michiel. I asked him about the Guajira trip he wanted to do and I spontanously decided to join that trip.

The trip to Guajira

The disadvantage of my spontanous decision was, that I had to wake up 6 o´clock in the morning to get the 7 o´clock bus to Riohacha, where I have to be at 9 o´clock. Wie gesagt, getan! Surprisingly I was the first person arriving to the hotel. They offered me a coffee, which I happily accepted, and I got more information about the tour until Michiel and 4 other people arrived, a french and a british couple. The tour is organized by kaiecotravel.
After paying the 500 colombian pesos, what are 200 euros, we went with the car to Uribia. There we had lunch and continued our carride to Manaure, where we saw the salt lakes and learned about the work of indians in the manual way and the industrial way, which takes place side by side. And in the industrial way the people earn more. We asked one worker and he said he gets 500 centavos per 5 kg of raw salt (=half a colombian peso = 20 euro cents). Then we went through the desert, where I for the first time of my life saw a real fata morgana - all around us seemed to be ocean, but there was just one side that leaded to the ocean. Then we went to a beach, which I think is called "Ojo de Agua". Really beautiful, with big sanddunes and blue, blue, blue sea. We took a swim and we went up to the virgen to have a nice view over the area. There I bought one of my bracelets, the green/white one for 1 colombian peso. Then we went to "Cabo de la Vela", where we stayed over night. I wanted to go for a swim, but the ground was really muddy after some steps and I prefered not to. We had dinner, a beer and some local spirit, which name I dont remember and late at night I tried to find internet to contact Daniel, which I didnt for quite a long time and was unsuccessful. 😞 So, I went to bed.

The next day we had breakfast, arepa with eggs, and started our trip in the car. First stop "Puerto Bolivar", the half official smuggle harbour between colombia and Panama. We wanted to enter and there was a crazy woman who wanted to show us around there. But the guardian started to discuss that we cant enter, the crazy woman said something and took me by the arm pulling me with her. Michiel was right behind me, but he didnt make it. So I was alone with this crazy woman and my still not so good spanish in this smuggle harbour. I was a little bit scared. She took me to a room, where a old man was laying in his hammac. I think she was saying to him, that I am visiting and interested in his story and that he can tell me a little bit. But he was totally uninterested - a depressed, unmotivated, energyless old man, probably living there - and so he didnt tell me anything and I was still so confused that I didnt know what to ask. Maybe he has a really interesting story to tell ... Then she took me to the boats and asked if I could visit one. I was afraid! But one captain said yes, so we went on his boat and his wife showed me around. So, I saw the cabins, the kitchen, the shower, the steering room, the engine room, but of course nothing about the smuggeling. The woman was selling cards for cellphones to the crew. After some time I said, I have to go back, so we went back to the group. The real funny thing was, that the whole time I had no clue, what kind of harbour it is, because I didnt know the word for smuggle in spanish. I thought, it might be for the transfer of people after I saw the old man.
Then we went to the bahia Portete and had lunch there in small tiny village. On the way we gave somebody a lift. Then we went to the beach "Pusheo", a beautiful beach with calm green water and a lot of shells in the sand. From there we went with a boat around the bahia Honda, where we saw flamingos, then we went to a tiny beach with another viewpoint and afterwards around the bahia hondita and finally arrived to the Punta Gallina, which is just a 2 minutes walk from where we arrived with the boat. There we had some time to rest and then we went to another beautiful beach, which I think was the Punta Aguja. Then we went to the lighthouse, which is more a light on an iron tower. There we saw the sunset. We went back and had dinner. After dinner we, Michiel and I talked to the indians living there. It was just one family living there and giving us hospitality. The indians on the peninsula Guajira are much respected by the colombian state. All the land belongs to them and they are living under their own laws, except if they harm colombian people. Its very interesting but they are not very talkative and made the impression to me that they dont know anything about the past and their ancients. What is special about this place, beside that it has a beautiful nature, desertlike, surrounded by carribean sea, is that it is full of shells, every step you can see a new shell. And huge shells, bigger as a hand. And the Punta Gallina is about 7 meters above the sea level and builds some kind of plateau. Walking down to the beach you can sea the layer of the soil full with stonern sea animals, for example a huge sea urchin (echinite), big as a human head! Sooo sad that I didnt have a camera 😞

The next day we went to the "Taroa", the huge sand dunes in the north of the peninsula, which leads directly in the sea. There I laid down on the side, hands close to the body and led my self role down until the water. What a fun! Then everybody went for a walk in the dunes, exploring his own way. Its amazing! After some time we found back to the car. From there we just went back all the way to Riohacha. Interesting was also that on the road through the island were often chains hanging, so the cars have to stop there. Sometimes it for the indians who are selling things, for example shrimps, others just want to have money to let you pass. I think we had to stop more than five times because of that.

From Riohacha, Michiel and I went back to Santa Marta. We took a taxi to the busterminal and just leaving the taxi we were surrounded by a crowd of men, screaming where they want to take us. We accepted one bus that was standing outside, which costed us 50 euro cents less than the official one and would leave immediately. I was sceptical! The bus was indeed leaving immediately, which was good. But the driver was very tired and I was scared he would fall asleep, so I paid attention to him, all the time. I think, he thought, I was flirting with him, because I was looking at him all the time and he started to smile at me. At least it distracted him from falling asleep. I was happy when I finally fell into my bed 😊

Thanks to Claire, Andres and Michiel for the pictures

Buying a phone and camara

The next day I spent walking around in Santa Marta and looking for cameras and in the internet looking for their descriptions. I found some, but the best was in the Exito market, unfortunately also the most expensive. Finally I decided to buy them and in the market I bought also a cellphone, so I could finally communicate with Venezuela.
I tried the equipment in the hostal.

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Photos

swim
Jump into the blue water on the lost city trip! After sweating great!

giant spider
Afraid?

ciudad perdida
I am at the foot of some stairs leading to the lost city! Foto made by Phil Golz. Gracias!

dive1
Fundive in Taganga

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Fundive in Taganga

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Fundive in Taganga

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Fundive in Taganga

guajira1
The salt lakes in Manaure, Guajira