Santa Marta

Our first port of call on this voyage was Santa Marta, Colombia. Colombia can boast of being known as the only South American country that touches both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Of course, Colombia is known for other things, not all of which they can or should be boasting about.....

Santa Marta is a tiny port that seems to have a focus on exporting coal. There’s also a National Park called Taytona that has a number of hiking trails and some pretty beaches. I didn’t really relish the idea of going hiking in the hot and muggy weather, nor was I particularly interested in having a beach day. So, instead, I took the little port shuttle through this small working port and hopped off at the edge of town. I’d been here before in 2017, and done the same thing. Today I was with my friend Patty, who has never visited this city. Our goal was three-fold - visit the gold museum, see the cathedral, walk the malecon and then get out of the heat and back to the ship. 

We accomplished our goal! The gold museum contained a nice bit of history about how civilization developed in this area, seemingly being settled around 200 AD. There were some beautiful artifacts here, including one gorgeously carved burial urn and lid, that was found completely intact. There were some artifacts of gold, but truth be told, they should really call this the history museum. 

A couple of young tourists were taking turns posing in front of this cafe. 

Street art

Some of the gold pieces in the museum 

The cathedral

This is the burial urn

Man sleeping

Bats were considered powerful creatures

More street art

Cool sculpture along the malecon 

A typical street

Inside the cathedral

This is our itinerary for the 80 days

Beach

One of the town squares

I loved this shot

Street art

Another cool sculpture 

And more street art!