Buenos tardes de Santa Marta, Colombia, supposedly the 2nd oldest settlement in South America. The city is built on a beautiful bay where the Sierra Nevada Mts.(yup!) meet the Caribbean and is a popular Colombia resort town. Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, died here and was buried in the local cathedral but eventually returned to his birth place, Caracas, Venezuela. After exploring the esplanade, where most of the tourists hang out, we spent a lot of time walking the back streets where locals work, eat, sell, socialize, etc.--a much better way to get a feel for a place. A visit to the local museum (where Bolivar once lived) was well worth it; pre-Hispanic artifacts (many made of gold) were on exhibit, and much information about the history of the region, including a current film highlighting the problems between the indigenous people in the surrounding mountains and the farmers who want their lands, was displayed. Finally the heat got to us (90 or so) and we returned to the ship before sailing away towards the San Blas Islands, off the, coast of Panama. A nice cold Margarita and music featuring Jimmy Buffet, among others, made for a nice send off from a very lovely port.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 23:13:34 +0000
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