We woke and met upstairs of the hotel for out rooftop breakfast. The standard Colombian breakfast of scrambled eggs, orange juice, toast, fruit and coffee. All of it not bad except usually the coffee, which is really stunning considering the country.
After breakfast we went our separate ways for most of the day. Chris wandered around finding out about rentals, and ended up with our wonderful hotel hosts driving him around and showing him areas. I wandered the city.
At first, I ended up at a Juan Valdez coffee shop. I enjoyed people watching. In particular watching the sixty something American dude who is now living here in Colombia trying to work his moves on an early 20’s british backpacker. At first he was just quite friendly while they ordered the coffee, but also pushy for them to sit together and talk further. At that point I decided to sit next to them, just for my own entertainment. He carried most of the conversation and then, once he shifted to the higher flirt stage, I watched her suddenly realize she was missing her bus and she bolted.
I walked around town for quite some time, including the beach and malecon. Santa Marta is a beautiful city and overall one of the best spots I have seen in Colombia. The only real down side is the Venezuelan issues. I completely understand the situation these poor people are in, and sympathize with what they are going through, but when you walk the streets by yourself as a very noticeable foreigner it can get quite overboard. Many people suddenly see you and put their hand out, “gringo – dinero”. I politely said no but multiple times had people actually get angry with me for not giving them money. I also watched how they would walk through a crowd of 20 people straight to me and ask me alone. Apparently, not unlike other places, this is really hurting the tourism of the city and I hope a solution that works for all is figured out sometime soon.
I spend the later part of the afternoon in the little pool on our hotel roof. In the 35 degree heat it was very nice. As the afternoon was ending, Chris and I went off for coffee before wandering the streets for a while and sitting down or dinner in a steak house. The steak was great, not quite the same atmosphere as the cool outdoor eateries where we had been the night before, but fantastic cooking. After dinner, we walked back to the main tourist zone and people watched for a bit. I ended up buying a small purse made from Venezuelan money (since it isn’t worth anything they weave it into souvenirs). I thought this was quite a cool thing to pickup since I had seen news articles on these being made. In addition, it is a way of giving money without just handing it out, which only makes the problems worse.
Colombia Motorcycle Ride 