Getting Organized in Santa Marta

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We took a bicycle taxi to the bus station to save some walking. It only cost us 6000 pesos instead of the10000 it cost to get into town. Prices may vary... We bought tickets to Santa Marta on direct bus, but the six hour bus ride took eight hours, which is the norm for Colombia...

On the bus we bought arepa with egg from one of the many vendors that got on at one of the stops, and it was delicious. We should have bought more bus snacks on this trip. There's really no downside.

We took a taxi to Hotel Miami and got a room. One of the staff had a huge Great Dane that was super friendly. I don't think dogs that big really know how big they really are.

We needed food so we went to restaurant nearby with delicious Panini's and wraps. We grabbed some water at the Exito, and went back to our hotel and watched the Simpsons on TV until we fell asleep... at 9:30.

A lot of early mornings have caught up with us. But we slept great in our air conditioned private room.

The next morning there was a moment when I thought one of us had ruined the toilet. Everything worked out though. I'll leave it at that...

We had to check out of our hotel since they were full for the night, and we started looking for another place to stay that would be a bit more affordable, but we had some trouble. Many places that showed availability online were not available. We settled on a non air conditioned fan room in hostel. It seemed nice enough and the price was fair.

Then we went and booked our way into PNN Tayrona. Tayrona is a national park along the coast that you can only access by boat or by foot. It sounds hard to get to, but it's really popular and very busy in high season. They limit the number of people that can enter the park each day, but because we were booking accommodations we'd be guaranteed to get in.

We were going to do the Lost City trek, but 4 days in the jungle lost it's appeal somewhere along the way. And Tayrona comes highly recommended to us, and we don't have time for both.

The young travel agent was really, really nice and very honest. The best way into the park in high season is to book your entrance in advance. And we booked hammocks. We've never slept in hammocks before, and we're a bit sceptical. It's a bit of a roll of the dice, but it's our only assured way into the park, and then we can look for something else once we're there. Or stay in the hammocks again if we like them!

Afterwards we got a coffee at a Juan Valdez and bought some fruit for breakfast. Then we went to the gold museum. It was a lot smaller than the one in Bogota, but still really nice. They had a lot of history about Simon Bolivar, since he had spent his last days near Santa Marta. And he's kind of a big deal, and an international hero...

Also, unlike Cartagena, Santa Marta has no city walls. The museum explained that Santa Marta was an important port, and was attacked a few times before adopting a “Defence by Defencelessness” strategy. Instead of fortifying the city and keeping an army at hand, they did the opposite. Would be attackers then assumed that if the city didn't feel there was anything worth defending that there was nothing worth pilfering and mostly left it alone.

I like this city for some reason. It just seems nice. It's got some grit, for sure. But it's nice, and there's stuff going on. I just prefer it to Cartagena for some reason.

We had fish and pasta for lunch on a closed street, and then kept walking around the old town and along the coast. Vanessa looked at the street shops, and the shops along the beach.

I don't know if I've really mentioned it up to this point, but the police here in Colombia are really nice. They give directions to people, help push stalled cars, and let you ride their segway. Well, they didn't let me ride their Segway, but while I was waiting for Vanessa to finish in the market along the beach, I sat and watched as a police officer let someone try out his official police Segway, and showed him hoe to ride it. Only in Colombia!

We grabbed some water and bought more chips with tazos. We're getting towards the end of the trip, so there's not much more time left to collect them.

After a while we parked ourselves on a patio on a quiet square and enjoyed some beers. We need to do that more often. It's one of our favorite things to do while travelling, and we didn't do it that much on this trip. I guess we didn't really have too much opportunity though.

We got dinner across the square at a place called Radio Burger. And I had one of the best burgers I've ever had in my life. It was called the Choriburger, and it's made with ground Argentinian steak. I'd missed once on this trip with a disappointing Argentinian steak, so I was hesitant to risk having my heart broken again. But I'm really glad I went for this one. It was amazing! Vanessa had a mushroom burger that she liked too. Mmmm burgers.

They also had entertainment. They had hired some B-Boy dancers that were breakdancing on the street out front to entertain patrons, and a guy dressed as Edward Scissorhands and another as the Mad Hatter that would pose for pictures. It was fun.

We went to bed fairly early to get ready for our trek into Tayrona. Unfortunately, some loud Argentinian girls that were sharing our room came in, made a bunch of noise, and left the light on. That was too bad.

Santa Marta is known for its nightlife. That's either good or bad depending on what your after. But it's a thing. It's why many people come to Santa Marta for their holiday.



We were looking forward to some quiet time in the Tayrona.

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Photos

Edward Scissorhands and the Mad Hatter
Best Friends!