Santa Marta, Colombia

Greetings my wonderful readers, I have a short and sweet entry for you all today. This one spans multiple short trips because it was our home base for a couple take-offs. Hope it makes sense when you read it 😉

We woke up earlier than I hoped, and slowly made our way to the shuttle via uber. It took about 15 minutes to get to this shuttle spot, vs the hour it would’ve taken to get to the bus station. It was 45 USD for all three of our shuttle tickets, and one was leaving right when we got there so we didn’t have to wait. All sailing seemed smooth at Berlinas, but then the ride itself was wild. Very hot for my companions, and quite warm for myself. There was no space to be found that was comfortable for me. We pushed through.

The highways were similar to the US, but slower speed limits. However, the speed is but a gentle suggestions as we were booking it down the road. Lanes did not matter, and motor bikes rule the streets. It was honestly a comforting ride, even as all signs pointed to it being a hot chaotic mess. They took a video of each of our faces when we left Cartagena and Baranquille (one of our stops for snacks/baño break in which I got an empenada of course), as well as 4 random stops on the side of the road. They counted us all at each stop. Still not positive why they counted and filmed us. Maybe they wanted to be sure we were all still on it and no one new had hopped in? We may never know the truth.

Either way, ever since we arrived in Santa Marta that night and made it to our hostel, I had grown more and more sluggish. The hostel was called Viajero Hostels, which we later learned has so many locations, a lot of people we met had stayed in one. We got a quick dip in the pool as it lightly but chillily rained on us. We showered but it took some time, considering there was one shower in our 10 person dorm, and everyone had swam. The hostel was huge. The pool was on the 4th floor and everything is super high tech. We received wrist bands that were essentially watches without clocks on them that opened our dorm door and our storage shelves. At 20:00 we had a Colombian food tasting which was fun. They had plantain chips, bocadillo y queso, passionfruit with condensed milk, and something I was not certain I could so so I didn’t try it. We then had dinner at the hostel restaurant and I could barely stay upright I was so tired. Which was a share because they had karaoke that night. I drifted off to sleep hearing the faint sounds of everyone singing. The next day, we left for Tayrona.

You will hear about that in a different post, so stay tuned. However, we did come back to Santa Marta for one more day about a week later. Here’s what we did:

This time we stayed at Mr. Baboon Hostel and it was a cute place in a cute spot. We strolled around, hit an ATM, and walked along the boardwalk/coast for a bit. We then walked through the Parque de Novios before stopping for a happy hour. There were so many restaurants and bars in this area. We got 6 mini Heinekens for 30K COP. For dinner, just down the block, we had 2 “mini” giant gyros! They were so good I am hungry now thinking about them. We thoroughly stuffed ourselves and then headed back to the hostel. As I mentioned, all the clubs we walked by must be why our hostel’s free salsa class at the bar that evening only had 2 people. We joined in for a bit, practicing our new moves we learned in Minca the night before and we weren’t half bad. After the lessons subsequently ended we chilled upstairs for a bit longer, relishing in the ocean breeze before calling it a night.

The rooms are super duper cold which was sooooo so so welcomed after the past week. In the morning we got a free breakfast of the classic eggs and toast duo. This one was extra adorable because we each had a basket with out name on it and 2 eggs inside. We were then able to tell the chef how we wanted our eggs prepared. The crazy part of breakfast was I saw Chris when I walked upstairs. We met her at our first hostel in Bogotá! We had a short but sweet reunion before going our seperate ways. The rest of the day was a travel day for our. We flew from Santa Marta, to Bogotá, to medellin. They made me check my bag, but it arrived in Medellin so nothing to worry about. Santa Marta had a super nice lounge with yummy cookies. I think I took 5 with me they were so good. Little tiny one bit sized buttery sugar cookies. I only have one left now and I’m saving it for a rainy day. Enough about the cookies, Madeline!

Santa Marta was a lovely town, and I am sure with more time we could have really taken it by storm. One thing I have been loving so far about this journey is we are not doing everything. We meet people and share stories and realize there are things we won’t do or didn’t do. Instead of being sad, it really does excite me. It means I have a reason to come back. It means I can still experience something new and fun, and yet everything I have already done is just as amazing.

Well that’s all for Santa Marta. Miss and love you all, ciao!