broken down boats and druglord mansions

A long haul overnight bus from San Gil brought us to Santa Marta, on the northern coast, by early morning a few days ago. It was already sweltering hot at 8am so after checking into our hostel, La Brisa Loca, we went straight into the sea. Water is like a warm bath, barely even refreshing but definitely better than nothing. The beaches right here in the city arent very nice, but its only a short bus ride or boat ride away to many beautiful places.

Yesterday one of the hostel employees took us all out on a boat ride out of nearby Tagagna to several beaches to the east. Despite the fact that the motor died out about every 100m, the trip was fantastic. The men in our group went out to spearfish, but showed back up empty handed while us ladies enjoyed some AMAZING snorkling, and of course plenty of cold beers. The waves at the second beach were too big for the boat to land, so we all had to swim to shore, definitely an amazing journey and too beautiful to explain in words. We were the only people around for miles.

Its so hot at night that the packed tiny bars are a big stinking sweaty mass of people dancing the night away to salsa and rumba. The average price of a beer is $1 or $2 US. A cocktail runs you about $3 and an entire bottle of your alcohol of choice with mixers is about $10--slightly different than the $200 bottle service we are used to paying for in San Diego.

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Culture shock has hit me pretty hard, the poverty here is so extreme that its often hard to grasp. But the people of colombia couldnt be any nicer. So many locals have welcomed us with kind words, wonderful food, and even amazing service in the bars and restaurants (which is odd to find in a non tipped-based industry). One of my favorite encounters with the locals so far has been the toothless old woman, Alba, who makes our breakfast smoothies each morning around the corner. She squeezes fresh oranges and adds a variety of fresh tropical fruit to a blender full of ice all for $1 US, which is 2000 pesos.

Today the owners of the hostel took us to a nearby town with a nice beach where we rented a tent, each got foot massages, fresh ceviche, and a cooler full of beers all for less than $20. Later we rented three kayaks and paddled out to an island in the bay where a HUGE old mansion sits rotting and crumbling into the sea. It belonged to some past druglord and must have been palacial back in the day. More snorkling and spearfishing there, and then we gave a local woman and her child a ride back to shore in our kayaks as they were having no luck flagging down a boat for a ride.

Its difficult to explain the beauty and mystery of this place. There are so few gringos here that we are nearly as much of a spectacle to the locals as they are to us. The nearby mountains make the scenery very dramatic, although its desert here. Tomorrow we are heading to the nearby nacional park of Tayrona to camp out in hammocks, where its supposed to be a lot more lush--many other travelers have told us it has some of the best beaches theyve seen in the world--so we shall see...

Oct 10, 2009

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