Santa Marta: The Oldest City in Colombia
We arrived in Santa
Marta, only to spend a quick two days preparing for our expedition to San
Lorenzo. Santa Marta is a small beach city, located two hours North of
Baranquilla and four from Cartagena. It is the oldest city in Colombia due to
its convenient locality, on the northeastern coast, for shipping. It has since become
a popular destination for backpackers and ex-pats who have opened restaurants
and hostels to accommodate the millennials who wants to explore Colombia’s vast
wilderness. These destinations are becoming quite touristy, including the hip
backpacking mountain town of Minca and the coastal national park - Tayrona where
the beaches are lovely, the water is blue, and the forest is full of animals.
Santa Marta is hot.
Chris and I mostly drank jugo, and ate food. The Copa America tournament has
been going on (until their loss to Chile a few nights ago) and so the streets
are filled with yellow jerseys and loud plastic horns that sound throughout the
night whenever Colombia scores a goal. On second night in town, we met with
Beto Rueda, professor at the University of Magdalena, and his wife Camila. They
are both young, extremely kind, and a beautiful couple. We grabbed some drinks
and food and discussed work and Colombia in my broken Spanish. Luckily, Chris
is fluent in Spanish and served as a sort of translator for me these first few
weeks.
During the first few
days we met with Beto Rueda, the professor I will be collaborating with at the
Universidad de Magdalena, and parques nacionales employee named Rebeca Franke. The
entire meeting was in Spanish, so I think I got about maybe 15% of what was
happening. But what I did find out is that I may become a Colombian park ranger
for a month (um what?). But that will be a story for another day…Santa Marta
served as our base in between field excursions and I am pretty sure we sampled
45% of the Airbnb’s in the region.
Santa Marta Favorites
There is a place in Santa Marta called “Parque
de los novios”. It is a small
square with benches, trees, and open areas to sit. It is surrounded by trendy restaurants and
bars. We spent one night eating at a place called Ouzo, I wasn’t that impressed
despite its reputation. However, my favorite thing were the street performers.
There was a band of older men, one very tiny Colombian man, with a permanent frown
etched into his face, played the accordion, while another older, skinny afro-Colombian
played the drums. The singer was the youngest by 10 years. I recorded a crummy
video and donated $ 2,000 pesos. Then the break dancers came to our side of the
park. These young men, probably 18 or so, had a choreographed set that they had
performed around the park throughout the night. They were incredible.
Literally, one guy was bouncing on the cement, upside down, legs in the air, on
his hand and then would pop down and bounce on his shoulder, and then back up
to his hand… on CEMENT! How do you do that!? There were back flips and synced
moves, I was super into it, $10,000 pesos.
My favorite thing we
did in Santa Marta was go to La Puerta. La Puerta is a dive bar, known for its
champeta (Colombian style of music and dance, similar to reggaton). We met up
with Beto and his wife Camila, who looked lovely as always, while I wore my
tattered jean shorts, dirty keds, and a gray tank top (really killing it with
the whole dirty hippie vibe). I promptly ordered a mojito, because hey why not?
Everyone else stuck with the local beers- Aguila (Ah-gee-lah, I have the
hardest time remembering this pronunciation or Club Colombia). After my mojito,
I immediately started swaying to the rhythms of the DJ. Camila and I were
definitely having more fun than the boys and I got to be like, “yeah, I’m with
her”. Because my Spanish is not the best, I find that my best way of
communicating with people is through dancing. Well, OK, this is when people
think I am Colombian. Camila even said I looked Colombian as long as I didn’t
talk (heard that one before in Cuba too- ultimate gringa accent over here). We
ended up dancing at La Puerta until 2 am… success.
We came here to find the ranas!
limonada con menta (my favorite!)
Roaches, now I just need the rats!
Anna look alike (B. Frye)
A representation of the indigenous cultures (4 groups in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta) in downtown Santa Marta
gato
street art + gato
gato
 |
| Para las arepas |
Chris KILLIN it in my clothes (he was incredibly unprepared for this trip :) )
Despues de la Puerta, I still don't look good in yellow
Lastly, there is a café
called Lulo, it seems to be run by an ex-pat, although I am not sure where she
is from since we only spoke to her in Spanish. Lulo (also a type of fruit) has
the BEST jugos in town. Be sure to try the limonada con menta, my personal
favorite because it is incredibly refreshing. We ate here three times. I got
two arepa salad meals, one sandwhich, the patacones (fried plantain chips), and
many jugos. I mean the jugo is only $4-5,000 pesos which is less than $2 USD-
mas jugo por favor!
Arepas + Limonada con menta at Lulo
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