Impressions of Santa Marta
As I write this post I am currently in Santa Marta but by the time that it comes for me to leave I will have stayed in the city for about three weeks and so far I have really enjoyed my time here. I am planning to spend Christmas day in Santa Matra with two good friends whom I recently met in Panama city. My friends Eric and Allison are originally from Scotland but they emigrated to Canada over twenty years ago and meeting them in Panama was the first time that I had actually seen them since they left Scotland all those years ago.
Santa Marta has a very laid back and relaxed atmosphere which I have enjoyed. The main tourist area is situated just a few streets back from the main road that runs along the sea front. During the day it is very relaxed and it has a small tree filled square that is full of restaurants which have outdoor seating. This small square is my favourite place to sit in during the day as I can drink coffee whilst smoking my cigars and watch the world go by.
The trees in this small square are also inhabited by red squirrels with huge tails. They are very similar to the ones that I have seen in my home country of Scotland but somehow, maybe because of the strong sunlight here, they appear to have a brighter reddish colour to their fur than those that I have seen back home. They are very entertaining to watch as they scurry about looking for food, seemingly unperturbed by any people wandering about in the square (Photo courtesy of Allison)
Some of the surrounding streets are also tree lined giving people some welcome shade from the sun which in my estimation is very much stronger here than it was in Panama, probably because Colombia is nearer to the equator than Panama.
The sea front has a nice but relavively short walkway with the usual tourist traps placed strategically along it and at the Southeren end there is a small beach. At the Northern end of the walkway there is a container port and this is where the large Caribbean cruise liners dock before discharging their tourist occupants in to the city for their visit ashore.
A statue of someone had also been placed on the walkway but there was nothing written on it anywhere to suggest who it is of. However I did a bit of online research and I found out that it is a statue of Rodrigo de Bastidas, a Spanish conquistador who founded the city in 1524.
At night time the main tourist area comes alive with lots of bars and restaurants having opened up and with some of them pumping out very loud music.
In the tourist area there was a good mix of locals and tourists but unfortunately when I was there at night time I was constanlty pestered by people begging for money, something that still happened to me during the day but it hapened much less during the day than it did at night time. There were also lots of people wandering around with small cases full of cigarettes and fake Cuban cigars. The cigarettes were cheap at about 2-3 USD per packet but the fake Cuban cigars were sold at genuine Cuban cigar prices so I never bought any of them but at least every night there was always a very picturesque sunset to end the day.
During my first few days in the city I met an English guy who was originally from Nottingham but who now lives in Manchester. He was a really nice guy who was in his mid thirties and he had also been travelling in Colombia. It was very interesting to listen to his impressions of Colombia as I find that getting another perspective on a place where you have been to or will be going to is always useful. Like me he had previously been to Bogota, Medellin, and then in Cartagena and like me he had enjoyed his time in both Bogota and Medellin but he had also found that Cartagena, outwith the main tourist area, had an uneasy feel to it.
I am enjoying my time in Santa Marta which I have found to be a very clean and tidy city. The city is also full of litter bins which the locals seem happy to use, which is a refreshing change. The city is also very safe and although there are a lot of police on patrol I have ever seen anything that I would even remotely consider to be dangerous or even unsafe.
Like the cities of Bogota and Medellin there are some obviously homeless peole sleeping on the streets in the city. However these people do not seem to present any danger to anyone as when they are awake they are always fully occupied searching through the litter bins and rubbish bags looking for things that they can sell, such as empty bottles and empty soda cans.
Santa Marta is a destination which I would be happy to recommend to anyone who wanted to visit Colombia, especially if that person was wanting to stay at or near to the sea. I can definately say that whilst on my travels during the past year Santa Marta is the best place that I have stayed in, so far.
However all good things must come to an end and soon it will be time for me to do what I actually came to South America to do, to ride my bike to the Southernmost part of South America that I am able to ride it to.