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Tulla Mhor - Santa Marta day 6-12



Santa Marta is a lively, fun, interesting city. The Santa Martians (as they are probably not called) are very proud of their city and country so are welcoming and pleased to impart lots of information. Key Santa Marta facts we were told several times: Santa Marta is Columbia's oldest city; the Sierra Nevada behind Sant Marta are the highest coastal mountains in the world at a snow capped  6000m; the great liberator, Simon Bolivar, lived and died in Santa Marta, he has numerous statues around the city and his house is in a park and open to the public.

Columbia has had a difficult and violent past but the area around Sant Marta is now opening up for tourism and there is plenty to see and do. The marina is in the centre of the city so it is an easy walk into the main town with lots of bars and restaurants. Many are round a lively square which was full of young people, mixing and meeting. Young men showing off with break dancing, girls strutting their stuff. Along the beach and sea front are lots of stalls all linked up with walks ways running between them their walls made of plasticy tarpaulin. Here you can buy any amount of tat, souvenirs, hats, traditional bags. There are endless street food vendors all over the city selling the usual kebabs, maize pancakes and other hot food. There were healthy options too with trolleys selling tropical fruit freshly prepared. Mangos peeled and sliced into plastic cups or cubes of pineapple. Coffee trolleys with multiple flasks of various coffees allowing a caffeine fix at any time. Prices are more than reasonable with a delicious  steak meal in a nice restaurant very affordable, even for us OAPs.

There is endless amount of rubbish everywhere. Away from the sea in the foothills were shanty towns with wooden shacks, further down towards the road there were more substantial small concrete houses making small townships. All round these areas were piles of rubbish blowing around and along the streets. Rubbish was blown into the marina and was scooped out every day from the marina wall. There was a major sewage incident with a large leakage in a street close to the marina lasting a couple of days. This contaminated the marina water and the beach which was still in use. We had already been told that tap water is not safe to drink in Santa Marta so had arrived with full water tanks to avoid taking on any water and contaminating our tanks.

There is increasing wealth and new high rise apartments with large balconies overlooking the sea and marina some still being completed. We did our provisioning at a very good well stocked supermarket in a new shopping mall. Roads are being widened and replanted in preparation of Columbia's 500 year anniversary.  

World ARC had organised several trips for us, the first a guided city tour was a bit random but took in the afore mentioned Simon Bolivar house and the gold museum. Here are beautiful intricate gold jewellery and trinkets dating back to 400 AD made by local native Indians. Most of their gold was stolen and taken back to Europe  by the Spanish.

The following day was a bus trip to a beach in the Tayrona national park for swimming and barbecue. It took quite a long drive to get there over rough roads but was quite busy with a very active beach culture. Lots of small fabric huts for shade, boats going over to the other side of the bay and a camp site. At our end of the beach we were spoiled with waiters, lots of cold drinks and tasty food. 

That evening we took a taxi to a fishing village, Taranga, in the next bay with Anita and Stephen from Timshel. The road is quite steep with a fairly hairy taxi ride. It is a backpackers heaven with a hippy vibe. We were greeted by an elderly American with long white beard saying "it's really cool here". The beach was still packed with young people still swimming in the dark. Cocktails on the beach and supper before the ride home. Eilidh asked if we had been to the beach nightclub but sadly we are really past this. 

We did two optional tours, one to Tayronaka, an 'Eco village' in the park. The bus travelled along the pan American highway. There are lots of people at the side of the road selling contraband petrol from Venezuela where it is seemingly cheaper than bread. There were the remains of Tayrona village previously inhabited by Koguins. The trip involved drifting down the river in large inflatable tubes, which we were not expecting but was great fun. The river flowed thru jungle with caymans, although we only saw one on our way back and it was up against the river bank, howler monkeys, toucans, and lots of other birds. When we reached the sea there were drinks at a beach bar which seemed an unlikely place and then a boat ride back up river. 

The other tour was to a coffee plantation up in the Sierra Nevada near a village called Minca. There is increasing tourism here with taking, mountain biking, several guest houses. After arriving in Minca in a standard minibus we had to change as the road further on was very steep and rutted, often just a mud track thru jungle. Most of the vehicles continuing on were 4x4 but our group was in a minibus with raised suspension. It was a very bumpy ride but we had an excellent guide, Manuel who was a retired English Literature professor. He had endless bad jokes and key facts. The coffee plantation, La Victoria established in 1892, was amazing. The coffee plants were under the larger trees on very steep slopes. The coffee fruits had to be hand picked in very difficult terrain. All the processing was organic with no chemicals and minimal energy use. The machinery dated back to when it was established and could all be repaired easily. The owner showed us round. She was very proud of it but it only just viable.

Our last day was spent shopping, organising the boat and preparing for the next journey to San Blas islands Panama. The overwhelming feature of the weather in Santa Marta was the incessant wind. This was very strong and blowing on our starboard side. The boat was tipped over making us feel we were still at sea. There was weed growing on the boat on the port side as it was covered with water. Grit was blown all over the boat and it was quite wearing. We could not put up any sunshade as it increased the wind age too much.

There was a dinner and prize giving in the very smart Sant Marta club which was all marble and chandeliers. Tulla Mhor won 1st prize! The next day we set sail for Panama. 


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