Santa Marta

22 January 2014 – After having my way with Cartagena, I hopped into an open-top, cherry red, vintage Mustang and high-tailed it on out of there for the North coast.  The wind was blowing in my face, the emerald green Caribbean glistening to my left, and Alberto, my chauffeur extraordinaire kept saying, “Its cool baby” as he took another drag of his cigarette.  Okay, I confess: it was markedly less glamorous than that.  By high tailed it, I mean that I paid $22 for a bus ride to Santa Marta.  It took five hours – one of which was spent waiting to decide they were ready to leave. 

Santa Marta is another important city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.  Founded in 1525, it is the oldest surviving city in South America, which is pretty impressive in it of itself.  Its history is full of all the ransacking and pillaging of native populations that was so common during the Spanish Conquest, but this isn’t a history lesson, so I’ll leave it at that.

For the most part, the Santa Marta of today is a bustling city with mercados selling you anything you could desire – t-shirts, flip flops, blender tops, mirrors, tv’s, remote controls…

Massive mesquite trees at La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino

One of my highlights of Santa Marta was visiting La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino.  This a 17^th century hacienda that was owned by Joaquín de Mier, a Spaniard who was a devoted supporter of Colombia’s independence.  This continues to remain a very important place for Colombia because Simón Bolívar, who liberated Colombia and six other Latin American countries, spent his final days and died here.

I particularly enjoyed the centuries old mesquite trees that grew on the pristinely manicured grounds.  They towered tens of feet tall and easily dwarfed the mesquites we have in our front yard in Las Vegas.  In fact, one such tree would easily fill the entire yard.

Just when I was about fed up with the honking taxis and roaring motos racing by, I found a cozy little alleyway/walking street lined with cute cafes with outdoor seating.  With the sun just setting and the heat of the day dying down I gladly enjoyed a fresh mango, banana, and pineapple smoothie with rum in it as an acoustic guitarist and bongo player sang songs in the street.  That was followed up by quite possibly the greatest arepa of my life.  It was piled high with flavorful carne, pico de gallo and avacodos.  The tomatoes were a bit under ripe, but somehow even this added to the flavor.  Que rico!



Where Simon Bolivar died



Courtyard at the hacienda

The kitchen...not a Kitchenaid in sight

The streets of Santa Marta at dusk

Sunset on the beach

Tranquil alleyway



My world renowned arepa

Plaza de Novios, where all the locals hangout

Bienvenidos a Cartagena!

"La Puerta" (door) to the old city

17 January 2014 – Yes, I realize this is postdated.  You’re going to have to excuse my tardiness though, as I’ve been busy traveling.  So as I was saying, it was January 17th and I finally made it to the long awaited, much talked about country of Colombia.  Cartagena, Colombia to be exact.  Olé!

Cartagena is a wonderful, old colonial city that was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia.  Don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz, I just thought I’d throw a little background in for you.  It quickly became a bustling Spanish port town that, “came to be the storehouse for the treasure plundered from the local population until the galleons could ship it back to Spain” (Colombia Lonely Planet 2012).  So charming.  By the 17^th century, the Spanish began building a wall around the city to ward off pirate attacks.  It is this wall that encloses the famed old city of Cartagena.  Walking through “la puerta” of Cartagena is like taking a wonderful trip back in time.  The charming, old, colonial buildings are marvelously preserved and colorful pots of flowers rest on balconies as if not a year has gone by.  Horse-drawn carriages continue to clip throughout the cobbled streets as tourists' preferred mode of taxi transport.

While in Cartagena, I can’t say I did much more than wander aimlessly throughout the old city marveling at the quaint plazas and old buildings.  I also made it a point to partake in many of the fresh fruit juices the city has to offer.  Colombia has so many tasty and exotic fruits, that many don’t have English names.  My new favorites are Lulo and Guanabana.

An old church

At night, Cartagena takes on a charming new life of its own.  White lights drape the trees and line plazas giving the town an incredibly festive feel.  Gone too is the sweltering heat of the day, leaving you free to enjoy a mojito (or two or three) on a street corner.

Highs and Lows of Cartagena:

Low- Upon arriving in Cartagena I decided to stay at Hostel de la Luna, upon the recommendation of Lonely Planet.  You really must take everything the ol’ LP says with a grain of salt because this was a happening party hostel, crawling with Latin American 20 year olds ready to party.  Me as a bright-eyed backpacker eight years ago would have loved this place.  The very clearly, over-the-hill, tired old 29 year-old hated sharing a dorm with a bunch of jabbering youngsters as they partied all night long and left the light on…

This dormitory charade only lasted one night though, as I very promptly changed hotels the next day.  I found one that was not only cheaper, quieter and cleaner, but I got my own room too.

Highs- I got to hang out with my dear friends Lauren and Matt on their honeymoon!  While the little lovebirds nauseated me with their gross displays of hand-holding (the nerve!), we had an 

awesome time gallivanting throughout the city.  We dined on delicious ceviche made with tiger’s milk (only the finest for us), drank the world’s greatest mojitos, danced salsa with unsuspecting bartenders, sipped cervezas on the wall at sunset and all in all had a wonderful time.  Honeymoons are fantastic.  I highly recommend them!



Munching on freshly sliced mango

Beers on the wall at sunset

Eating delicious Argentinian food with Lauren and Matt





Delicious frutas!