World Cruising Club is very pleased to include Santa Marta, Colombia as a new stopover on our World ARC itinerary. Santa Marta is a beautiful historic city located along the existing route between St Lucia and Panama where the recently completed IGY Santa Marta Marina has provided a world class facility for the benefit of cruising sailors.
Santa Marta is rapidly gaining popularity as a world tourist destination and with the governments increasing awareness of the importance of nautical tourism, Santa Marta is also gaining popularity as a destination for cruising yachts wishing to experience the region’s scenic beauty, archaeological significance and colonial Spanish influences.
Santa Marta is located in the Province of Magdalena on the northern coast of Colombia on the Caribbean Sea. Founded in 1525 it is the oldest surviving city on the South American Continent and an important colonial city of Colombia. Santa Marta is known for its dramatic landscapes with white sandy beaches backed by the high Sierra Nevada Mountain range while city itself is full of colonial Spanish architecture, traditional restaurants, street food and lively bars.
In Santa Marta World ARC crews will have the opportunity to see much of what Santa Marta has to offer including tours of the city, a coffee plantation visit and two tours within the popular Tayrona National Park. Tayrona which lies east of Santa Marta is where the Colombian jungle meets the Caribbean Sea and is renowned for some of the most beautiful beaches in Colombia and important archaeological sites. The first tour is a visit to the stunning Bahia Concha for a beach BBQ. The second tour is an archaeological tour of the park visiting ancient remains of a Tayrona settlement that dates up to the 16th century.
Simon Bolivar, who played a successful role in the struggle for independence of Venezuela, Colombia (including Panama at the time), Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from the Spanish Empire is a celebrated figure in the history of Santa Marta. Bolivar is considered to have helped lay the foundations for democracy in much of Latin American and is regarded as a hero, visionary, revolutionary and liberator. Bolivar moved to Santa Marta late in his life suffering from tuberculosis in hope the warm climate would delay the illness but he eventually died in 1830. The house where Bolivar lived in Santa Marta is now a historic site and art museum set amid large and beautiful gardens.
Santa Marta has a lot to offer cruising sailors and World Cruising Club look forward to establishing Santa Marta as one of the highlights on the World ARC route.