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| Santa Marta |
Hello Again
Santa Marta, Colombia. What a delightful stop this was. Once
again it was such a pity we could not have stayed longer and really explored
the area. For starters the marina there is great. Very clean with a wonderful
team of staff to look after you. They took care of all our check in and out
paperwork which is really helpful as our Spanish is very limited at best.
Anyway one has to have an agent here by law to do your paperwork.
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| Santa Marta |
We had arrived into one of the oldest cities in South
America. It was founded in 1525 by the Spanish. Of course there are the more ancient city
ruins scattered throughout South America which were built by its indigenous
inhabitants. Santa Marta sits along a sandy bay surrounded by the highest
coastal mountain range in the world – the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Its two highest peaks are 5,775mts. National
Parks and lovely beaches are also in close vicinity. We were told that for some
days each month a katabatic wind blows off the mountains at up to 50kts at
times, creating spray filled waves in the marina. Fortunately for us these
winds did not occur during our stay. In fact it was hot and sunny. The
temperature was not below 30deg. C. During the day, but in the evenings it
dropped somewhat to make going out for dinner and sitting at the outside tables
at the restaurants really pleasant.
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| Santa Marta |
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| Santa Marta |
The city really comes to life in the evenings with people
coming out to enjoy the beach front promenade where street vendors set up
stalls selling everything imaginable. We found the supermarket had a wonderful
selection of foods at very reasonable prices on meats and local produce. We also
found fruits which we have in New Zealand and not seen for ages, like feijoas,
tree tomatoes, and banana passionfruit, along with another three varieties of
passion fruit. Also there are the lovely purple skinned sweet potatoes
everywhere.
