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Published: February 18th 2008
El Rodadero beach at night
Here we were enjoying our juices. =)Santa Marta and such
So off we go to Santa Marta or better yet...according to my guidebook - El Rodadero, which is the touristy district close to Santa Marta. As the main bus drops us off at the bus terminal. We tell the cab driver to take us to Hotel Becoma...and he had no clue where that was. So I checked my book again and sure enough it says what I thought. So he told us it was Betoma!! SO THERE LONELY PLANET! The hotel was really close to the beach and it didn't seem that bad. As soon as we got out of the cab, some guy approached us like I thought would happen and asked us how much we are going to pay for the hotel. We tell him 120,000 COL pesos which works out to little less than $60/night. He told us to go check out his appartments. Since Hanz doesn't really speak that much spanish I boldly went ahead to see what I will see. (It was no big deal really, I am just trying to build it up). He offered me a couple of rooms and then I went upstairs to see the last apartment.
We decided to take that one because it was a HUGE 2 bedroom with 4 bunk beds in the living room so it could actually sleep 6 people comfortably and double that uncomfortably. I bargained him down to $45/night. This was aparently not a bad price since it was SUPER high season. I know, this is the only country that has regular, high and super high seasons...I asked to make sure there is no super duper high seaon but no.
But the NEXT DAY Next day we thought we would check out the surrounding area, and the beach. The ten minute walk was truly exhausting. WOW, I couldn't believe that if you really wanted, you could have the major portion of the town done in about 20 minutes max. If you wanted to go to the end of the beach and back it would be around 20 minutes as well. Not exactly Rio. It wasn't even that packed actually. And also it was mostly families so the white brother was getting worried. I thought sure enough, the older crowd was working so when we go out at night it will be better. We asked around what the clubs/discos
View from our apartment
We were about 1 block from the beach were. Everyone suggested La Escollera. You have to say "discos" because if you say clubs they assume gentlemen clubs/ strip clubs. Since it was the middle of the week and I didn't come there to stay at the apartment at night sure enough we ended up at a CLUB. They assured us that it was a safe one or whatever so we went in. When we got there, the last strip show was over so I thought might as well have some beer. The ladies that were there was nothing to write home about anyway, but the beer was quite refreshing actually.
We waited until thursday for the BIG day.....yes....when La Escollera was open. We got all dolled up and even smelled pretty...that's right. We walked to the premises since it was close enough (what wasn't). As we entered, the disco was an excellent piece of property surrounded by water so it was sort of on an island. It had nice relaxing couches on the outside so one was assumed it was a pimpin club. So we finally entered and to my and Han's surprise, we brought the average age up from 12 to 14. This is where MICHAEL
JACKSON comes in. Simply paradise for him. Molestation central. Other people's trash is anothers treasure. Once again, we were forced to reminisce about the good old times while sitting there and naturally sipping on alcohol while watching the kids. DAMN! I totally didn't think I would come there to babysit. You would think there would be at least a mix of people like someone closer to our age....at least semi legal....lol. I am not sure what was going on in El Rodadero but all the people were roughly the same age so I am not sure if the parents all had synchronized sex day and decided to take vacations together but whatever. The bitterness must end here.
SANTA MARTA Santa Marta was about a 10 mintute taxi ride from El Rodadero. So the next day we decided to check it out since I still needed to buy most of my clothes and some luggage. On the way there, there was a checkpoint where the military was pulling random cars over and checking them for drugs. It is slightly intimidating since most of them are equipped with machine guns. It's not like you're about to deny any of their
requests. We didn't get pulled over but we figured it was only a matter of time. We got dropped off at the center of town. We also needed some cash so we had to go look for a bank. Let me tell you that allow at LEAST 3 hours before you actually withdraw any cash from a machine. We walked around like morons getting denied at every ATM because of one reason or another. So I finally walk into a bank and wait in line for a good half an hour before they told me that they don't provide those services.
EXCELLLLEEEEENT So we walked around little more...mind you we were exhausted by this point since walking around at plus 30 or more for 3 hours ain't no picnic. At least we found Juan Valdez Cafe. I didn't feel like it but Hans convinced me so we got some. Juan Valdez is sort of like Starbucks except they actually serve real coffee. After our refreshing break, we had almost no money like not even enough to get back to our apartment so we need a bank like there is no tomorrow. On the way out of the cafe, I got
approached by the local "practitioner" of the arts of massage with benefits. I guess I really did look like I had no money cause she was absolutely horrid. I didn't even have enough change to toss at her to leave me alone. Maybe that was a little mean but that's life. We finally found a bank and took out some serious cash just in case. Most of the other machines either rejected us or offered us a quick withdrawal of $10. Considering that the transaction fee is around $5 it sounds like an amazing deal. I would have to make around 30 withdrawals to get enough money. So quick it would not be anyway.
Sightseeing We had this bright idea to do some sightseeing in Santa Marta other than walking around. We were quite motivated since we have done any museums or anything since we got to Colombia. Hans insisted we go to the famous MUSEO DE ORO. So we enter and I could see why it was free. They had about as much gold as my mom has in her drawer. But on the other hand it is fair cause I don't pay to see my moms
Santa Marta
The famous Juan Valdez Cafe drawer either. After that, we decided that sightseeing was better left for Cartagena.
Next day I ended up buying some jeans, shirts and a swim trunks. When we got back we decided to take an afternoon nap. Next thing I hear is a knock on the door and it was our neighbour and she wanted to borrow some bleach or something. So we started talking and Hans was happy because she spoke a little english....a rare find in those parts. She told us all the local stuff and showed us the best restaurants. That's one thing I did enjoy, and that was seafood. We decided that since seafood in Calgary is mediocre we will mostly eat what the sea has to offer. And the fish were really good. At the good restaurant I tried Monkfish....never had it before but I was really yummy. They are quite small so they give you about 3 or 4. That was also the first night was it was raining but only for a couple of hours. That night we ended up going to a club called La Puerta which was in Santa Marta. This is a breath of fresh air for reasons explained
previously so I could finally dance and have a good time. They sure like their Reaggeton but they don't play too much salsa. That's what they told us that on the coast, they don't do too much salsa. But they sure love their Vallenato, which I liked and it was a good thing because if you hate that music you will be suffering everywhere you go.
One of the nights we went out during the week and that was also mission impossible. Everything was closed so we even tried the next village called Taganga. It was a beatiful drive and I wish we could have spent at least one day there. But we did end up there for about 10 minutes at the local hippie joint since it most attracts hippies from europe. It would be basically impossible to get a cab from there to go back so we left with the cabby.
TAYRONA PARK
On our last day in Santa Marta, we decided to go to Tayrona Park. We went with our trusty neighbour so we took the local bus to get there. Once there, we ate some fish and drankZapote, the local jungle juice. We
missed the bus to take us to the beach, so we had the option of waiting or walking. We were told that it was only a 40 minute walk. We decided to wait but after half an hour I convinced everyone to put on some skeeter spray and to walk. So like an hour of walk later, some pick up finally drives by and drives us to our desired destination. The 40 minute walk was a LIE....maybe in the wizard of oz it would take 40 minutes. After one hour we were maybe half way there. Once we got off, we had to walk some more until we finally hit the beach. It was too bad that we couldn't swim there because the currents are supposedly insanely strong so I didn't want to risk it. We wanted to make it to this resort with cabanas and it was a long trek. We had to lie down and we fell asleep on the beach. When I woke up I had some red dots on my feet. It was the friggin PICAS, also known as sand flies. I hate them, they are so annoying and the bites from there don't go away
Tayrona Park
Other side of the beach for at least a month.
Anyway, we finally made it to the resort and crossed over to the other side of the where there was a small secluded beach with a restaurants. Since there was already a couple of people in the water, I couldn't resist and took a nice dip while we waited for our juices to be delivered. Yes, life was good at that point. The water was really nice. After that, we had to start walking back and it was a good thing we did because we just caught the last truck to drive us back.
The next day we said our goodbyes and left for Cartagena, the romantic city. What adventures awaited us there? You will have to wait for my next blog to find out.
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Bao
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Nice!
What a trip! Can't wait for more reports.....:)