Day 167 - 169(September 1 - 3) Santa Marta

Day 167 - 169(September 1 - 3) Santa Marta

So my flight to Santa Marta lasted all of about 1.5 hrs or so. As opposed to the bus which would have been closer to 20 hrs and I paid about 100COP ($55) for the fight an the bus would have been about 80COP...

It was raining when I arrived and that set the tone for the next couple of days. Santa Marta is not a very pretty town, there are nice upscale areas (Rodedero) but I didn't really go there. I stayed at La Brisa Loca hostel (has a small pool, pool table, rooftop deck and bar...) which was run by two American brothers from California and also employed several Americans. The next few days I just hung out and tried to get a handle on what to do in the next few weeks up here. Typical of the tropics during rainy season, it was usually nice most mornings and then rained in the afternoon. The problem up here is two fold, the tap water is not really potable and also when it rains a lot, the sewers in Santa Marta flood. So most of the time the streets were fairly flooded but thats normal...

An interesting side note and one of the tourist attractions, Simon Bolivar, one of the most famous liberators of many countries in South America died in Santa Marta. He led Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela to independence from Spain and helped to form the first independent union of independent nations (Gran Colombia) and was the president from 1819-1830. He died from TB at 47.

Anyway, Santa Marta has a "beach" but its really a slightly sandy waterfront. The town still acts as a large port city and you can image what that brings around. As usual there is a nice cathedral, a few parks and plazas. I met various people and shared stories and got ideas of trips to take. I ended up hanging out for most of the next week or so with an American and his Colombian girlfriend as well as some of the people from the hostel. The clubs have plenty of reggaeton, cumbia and other music as well as the local champeta. Champeta is the Caribbean regional music and has a bit more African influence.