SANTA MARTA

24th - 27th Nov 2018

A rather dodgy looking statue near the port. Make of it what you will.

Another bus (Unitransco this time) ride from Cartegena to Santa Marta; supposedly a 3½ hour trip east along the north coast, but turned out to be nearer 5 hours. The hold-up occurred at about half-way during the lunchtime rush hour around the large port city of Barranquilla. Big traffic jams. I maybe mentioned before that Colombia has three rush hours; morning, evening and lunchtime when everyone seems to drive home for lunch. Anyway, arrived safely at the bus terminal which is again some distance from the town centre. I then discovered that there are no Uber cabs operating here. I had to use one of the  little yellow perils. Give the cabby his due, it was cheap and efficient.

Santa Marta is another port town and, frankly, does not have an awful lot to offer except for a few amusing places in the centre and on the sea front. Boiling hot again. However it does have very attractive wooded, hilly and mountainous countryside just to the east and south; the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range. Popular with hikers and bird-watchers.

I found a fantastic hostel (mentioned in Lonely Planet) called Masaya. It is central on Calle 14.

Very comfortable en-suite room. It is in what was a very grand town-house. Left: The atrium with swimming pool. My room was at top right.

Right:....with a very decent rooftop bar/restaurant, but it got a bit windy up there.

Left: The rules of the house!

One of the joys of this place, and other hostels, is the staff tend to speak good English and are remarkably helpful in giving good advice.

Right: Sorry to bore you with  more statues, but in the centre of the very pretty central park called, inevitably, 'Parque Bolivar', was another of his many large erections. Again pigeonless. Someone in this country  could make a fortune by exporting their 'anti-pigeon' stuff.

It is, or was, a convention that a statue of a horse with both front legs off the ground meant that its rider was killed in battle. One leg off the ground indicated he (or she!) had been wounded, and all legs on the ground meant that the rider had died of something else. Simon Bolivar died of tuberculosis, so his horse is not correct. Not sure what all four legs off the ground would indicate, but that would entail a more difficult challenge for the sculptor.

There is one, and only one, place in town that provides a popular venue for bars, restaurants, music and other entertainment. It is along Carrera 3. Quiet and almost deserted by day it becomes heaving at night (left). Quite amusing.

I happened to be walking through the Parque when what looked like a running race was coming to the finish line (right). The cheering crowd were waving blow-up sticks with some product name on them. Film crew all around. It was being filmed for an advert and I can't remember what for. 'Runners' hidden and they must have done several 're-takes'.

There is another 'Museo del Oro' here. It is a pale imitation of the one in Bogota. There were several 'staff' wandering around in traditional tribal costumes (left).

Right: Also on display in the museum. There is a festival and parade each year which features crocodiles, or are they caimans, and people wear or stand in outfits like this and parade through the streets. Might go down well in my home town, but it is not famous for its crocs (or caimans).

Left: There is a long beach with a rather dirty port at the northern end (behind me). Very hot weather and I was tempted to take a dip, but due to the 'hide your kit' problem explained in earlier blog, I settled for sitting in one of the bars and having a cool beer instead.

Right: Dotted along the sea-front are several of these rather odd statues. Not sure who this one represents but has strange physical features including an enormous left hand and right foot. Female I suppose but I've never met one shaped quite like this, and not sure I want to. 

The police around town use these Segway type scooters. They are common for this purpose from Mexico down through all South America. I think they are a very practical idea. Can't be used in UK simply because nobody knows how to classify them, and therefore simpler to ban them. Typical British lack of initiative and fear of 'Elf 'n Safety' problems.

On Sunday I walked through the Plaza de la Catedral. Right: The impressive Catedral.

Left: I went inside. It was packed; standing room only. These Catholic churches don't half have a big following (and a big collection no doubt). Amongst the clergy present I noticed several women officiating in clerical style garb, even doing speaking parts from the front. I didn't think the Catholic Church had women priests, or maybe these ladies were designated as something else. 

As the service progressed there was another priest taking confessions from his box on the side. There was quite a long queue. Right: This lady had just stood up after doing her confession. I don't know what she was telling him but whatever it was the priest was having (silent) fits of laughter. I think it must be rather fun taking confessions. 

Left: A shady street during the quiet mid-day period; the best time to go for a peaceful meal in one of the few eateries that was open. Maybe this was on Sunday when many of the shops were shut.

On Monday I decided to go on a 'tour' east outside the town around the village of Minka. I started out from the Hostel in a yellow cab (all included in the tour) and shared the ride with a German/Italian lady called Laura. She and her wife and family were on holiday here but the others had gone snorkelling. She was a very amusing lady. Right: The High Street in Minka which is about 20 miles out of town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

We were due to meet our guide, Joe, and his daughter, Andrea, there plus other people on the tour.

On arrival at Minka we met Andrea, our guide for the day, and four rather swarthy gentlemen who looked a bit middle-eastern. We (Laura and I) couldn't work out where they were from and couldn't even work out what language they were speaking. We had guesses as to where they came from.

Left: Laura (top left), Andrea and the four 'unknowns'; our little tour group.

Minka is a very popular village as a base for tourists, especially the back-packing, hiking, naturalist and bird-watching types. It has some rustic but very charming looking hostels and the area is in very scenic wooded hilly countryside about 1000ft above the sea. Coffee, cacao and bamboo (above 1200ft) are grown in the area. There are good views over Santa Marta (right).

We first walked to a place were there was an 'original' native village (in pristine condition) and given a demonstration of the coffee making process. Colombian coffee is hand-picked (here anyway) so they always get the correctly ripened beans. It is therefore better, and more expensive, as a result.

Left: A demo of how the beans are selected, washed, dried, roasted and finally hand ground.

We were then invited to sit down and try cups of freshly ground and brewed Colombian coffee. It was very good (rather strong). It was at this sociable stage that we got to know a bit more about the four blokes who were with us. They were Swedish! Well, not exactly; One was Palestinian, one Albanian, One Azerbaijani and can't remember the other. I suspect second generation living in Stockholm. They all spoke perfect English and turned out to be very amusing. Four mates who had travelled together widely and this time had decided on Colombia. Its amazing the sort of people you meet on these trips. Anyway, they were very good news and seemed constantly to take the piss out of each other.

Wandering back through Minka we passed the village church (right).

It was then on uphill. I asked Andrea how high the mountain was around here. She said up to "5775 metres". Bloody hell, I thought, thats nearly 19,000ft! Thats well above oxygen requirement level. I wasn't banking on that for a relaxing day out! Fortunately we were only going a little way up. This is the Sierra Nevada range which has the second highest peak in the world directly above sea level. 

We tramped on up paths to a rather delighful waterfall. The idea was to go for a swim and play about on the rocks. Laura stripped off and took full advantage of the shower  facilities (left).

Right: The four 'Musquetiers' ( they said they were Muslim. "No pork please" when asked if they had any dietary requirements for lunch, "but lots of anything else") celebrating their climb to the top of the very slippery waterfall. 

Left: Being English I kept my clothes on and paddled.

The others were all then taken off to a fall nearby where they could slide down another smooth waterfall. I could hear their screams as I sat on a rock where my feet got bitten by, I think, some vicious sandflies. Bloody itchy for a couple of days afterwards.

Back along another track we passed several bamboo plantations. Bamboo, a grass, is an extraordinary plant. It grows here in areas above 1200ft altitude. From shoot to full grown at a height of about 30ft takes only 6 months. The mature plant is dried and used to make an extraordinary range of things from furniture to buildings. The strength and resilience of bamboo is greater than steel. I was told.

To a 'villa' in the middle of nowhere for lunch. This was situated on a promentary overlooking Santa Marta with amazing panoramic views. and belonged to Joe the tour boss. The building, and its furniture, was made almost entirely out of bamboo. He will be opening it as a guest house next year. Perfect place for a truly 'get away from it all' holiday, and very comfortable.

After a delicious and amusing lunch we were given a talk on bamboo (yes, it was interesting) and then a demo of how chocolate was made (left). 

The seeds are cut out of the cacao fruit (grey and slimey things which you can suck, if you want to), washed, dried, roasted and then ground in a mincer (rather like the coffee process). This produces a dark, strong and bitter basic chocolate.

Right: Pick up a ball of this and squidge in a pinch of moist sugar cane and bingo! You have a sweet tasting chocolate. No milk or starch involved; that's left for Messrs Cadbury & Co to produce a less healthy variety. The basic chocolate we ate here is supposed to have amazing aphrodisiac qualities. The great Aztec  leader, Montezuma, apparently ate vast amounts of the stuff every day and this did the trick for him. Our four Swedish companions therefore got well and truly stuck in. One of them is getting married next year, and the other three have promised that they will all be there on his honeymoon!

Left: Serenaded by, can't remember his name, who gave us the chocolate demo. He was quite a talented guitarist and singer.

It was a good day out with lots of laughs so thanks to Joe and Andrea, and the others. Goodness knows where the Swedish gang will end up next. Maybe I'll hear from them!

Right: A bevy of Santa Marta beauties lined up at dusk on the seafront. Not sure what that was in aid of; not for me thats sure.

Left: El Rata at the bar in Masaya hostel.

I think thats about all from Santa Marta. Next off on a fairly epic bus trip back to Bogota.

One more report to come from there.