April 22, 2018 – Santa Marta, Colombia

Santa Marta is an important commercial port and tourist destination on Colombia’s north (Caribbean) coast. The city dates back to 1525, making it the oldest city in South America. We caught a good glimpse of downtown as we cruised in this morning. We learned that Santa Marta claims to have the world’s tallest coastal mountain range (18,700 feet) clearly visible from the city. They also have a nice sandy beach area fronting the bay, right in downtown, with several tall tourist hotels. Population of the city proper is about 500,000. But there are many more in the surrounding metropolitan area, extending out as far as El Rodadero beach that we visited during our tour today.

We’re docked in the very busy industrial port, where one of their primary exports must be coal. Even though it was Sunday, we saw them working all day emptying large trucks of coal and arranging it into giant piles. In fact, that’s about all we could see from our balcony. We asked our tour guide about the coal, and he said there are usually cargo ships where we’re docked almost every day, and they transport the coal to Europe and the United States.

We left at 9:00 this morning on a fairly short, 3-hour Panoramic Santa Marta shore excursion. Our guide’s name was Guillermo. We began by driving through the city center in our very small, tightly packed bus. Highlights included the 17th century whitewashed cathedral and several jam-packed shopping streets. We believe the one below was called Fifth Avenue.

The beach here seemed nice and was starting to get crowded, even early on Sunday morning. Guillermo said that it would be full of local people later in the day. There were several hotels (including a Hilton Garden Inn that we drove by) and several high rises are under construction. There are a lot of Colombian tourists that come here for both the beach and the mountains. Santa Marta is the gateway for trips into the Tayrona National Natural Park, and for guided treks to the Lost City of Teyuna archaeological site, both in the mountains. There is also a gold museum here that might have also been the first house built in Santa Marta.

After leaving the city, we were very soon into rolling hills. Guillermo told us that it’s very hot in Santa Marta all the time, and they haven’t had any rain for seven months. We saw a lot of cactus plants -- everything looked very dry.

The tour then went down out of the hills and into El Rodadero, a busy tourist town, with a long, sandy beach along the Bay of Gaira, many hotels, restaurants, bars and other diversions. Once again, we had the impression that this beach area is mostly frequented by Colombians. It’s packed wall-to-wall with people in January and February, according to Guillermo. This wasn’t really on the itinerary, but it was worth seeing. We quickly left this town and returned to Santa Marta for a turn in a different direction to one of Latin America’s most revered sites, La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino.

This is the place where Simón Bolivar died in December 1830 and a highlight of our excursion today. The grounds are beautifully maintained – green grass and very large old trees. The hacienda originally dates back to 1608, when it was a working farm. Nearing the end of his life, the great “liberator” of five South American nations was not allowed to return to his native Venezuela, for political reasons. He fell fatally ill in Santa Marta and was taken to this hacienda for a few days, where he peacefully passed away (probably of tuberculosis) at the age of 47.

We took a leisurely stroll through the gardens and then to the hacienda building, which still has some of the original furniture including the deathbed and works of art. Guillermo took us room to room and explained what we were seeing.

 Next was a large white building erected for the centennial of Bolivar’s death (1930). In the center of this hall is a large statue of Bolivar. If you look at the statue from the extreme left and then extreme right, the statue seems to portray Bolivar as a young man and as an older man. It was quite hot today, so we were happy to return to the air-conditioned bus, observing iguanas as we walked along the trail.

This was a good, quick tour of Santa Marta. We learned a lot but were glad to get back to the ship in time for lunch.

There have been good entertainers the last few nights, two of whom were repeated from about a week ago when we had to miss their shows. This gave us a chance to see them. Broadway star and concert vocalist Christine Andreas, along with her husband Martin Silvestri were very good. She has been touring with a one-woman show, “Piaf, No Regrets” and did several of Edith Piaf’s best-known songs. Kieran Powell, a comical singing ventriloquist from England performed in the Starlite Club one night. Another singer, with whom we’re familiar, Lou Gazarra, starred in the Galaxy Lounge another night. He has added some very good music from when we’ve heard him sing before – it was very entertaining.

We now start heading north, with a few stops in the Caribbean, before returning home to Florida.

Jim & Ginny