Tuesday - 8th Jan 2019 - Santa Marta Columbia

We both woke up stiff and sore. We only thing we could think of was the stone house with its stairs of all sizes and maybe the walkways which were sometimes uneven or maybe transferring across boats? We did not know which activity it was but we could hardly walk up or down stairs. 

We stretched out our right legs as it seemed to be only our right legs that were affected. Odd. We went down to the Grand Pacific restaurant but it was closed so we decided to go to O’Sheehans for breakfast. I had Oatmeal, a small fruit plate and toast,  Margie had corned beef hash and 2 eggs with toast, coffee and me, tea of course.

 Our tour 'Highlights of Santa Marta', was off at 9:25 and we were on bus number 6 with Sandy. Sandy was a retired teacher and spoke fairly good English. He told us lots of the history of Santa Marta, Columbia,  the amazon  the Orinoco, and a little bit about Cartegena, his home town. 

The bus took us through town and outside of the city to a park, the Cinque do something where Simon Bolivar had a house and gardens. Now it is a botanical garden and museum with a special building dedicated to Simon Bolivar, the first president of Columbia, even though he was from Venezuela. 

 The gardens were lovely and the trees were magnificent. There were butterflies everywhere, white , bright yellow, orange, black and white. Almost all large and fast. The house was interesting too. It had each room how Simon Bolivar would have had it. His chapel with his saint, his bedroom with the clock set at the time that he died, his dining room, his sitting room , his courtyard, kitchen and bakery. It was nice and my favourite was the courtyard. 

I think I could do that in my yard. The bougainvillaea were lovely. Then over to the sugar cane press and the washrooms at the next buildings over. Only one for men and one for women. Margie required the washroom for awhile as she had a touch of the runs, possibly from our malaria pill that we had taken the night before. Everything worked out alright and she did not miss a beat in our tour. 

We continued on through the garden to the 300 year old tree that go hit by lightning but was still alive.

Then off to the building that was monument to Simon Bolivar and next to it was a gift shop /cafe where I purchased a lovely t-shirt and some water. When I went outside there was a pond with some vultures sunning themselves and got a nice photo of them. odd looking birds but cool to see.

From there we proceeded to a resort where we were seated in the shade, given beers and water and some lovely entertainment by some very colourful and energetic young dancers. It was all very nice and warm.the young dancers put on quite a show with their live band playing loudly by the side of the dance area. 

It was fun. I could not help wondering how the quests the resort felt about the show as we were seated right in the middle of the area used to get to the beach from the hotel. Oh well they were entertained daily I am sure as part of the package deal they got. 

 Our tour continued with Sandy and we proceeded back to the bus where we saw a large iguana in a tree though we tried to get some photos, we were not too successful. Back into town and dropped off with a short walk to the gold Museum. 

An interesting collection of artifacts from all the time periods in Columbia. Pottery, stone, and gold. Lots of gold worked beautifully into an assortment of things: crowns, clasps, bats and beads. There were these little seal thins made from clay that were so cool. they would press a design into clay pottery I guess on ink onto fabric, I am not sure which.  Interesting but again we had to use the washrooms sob the time we found Sandy again we had missed some of Sandy’s talk. 

From the gold museum we walked about three blocks to an old square surrounded by old buildings. Colonial, Republican and the white washed cathedral of Santa Marta. 

The cathedral was lovely with lots of statues and some stained glass windows. I did put some money in the take of this cathedral box but could not find any candles to light so just said some prayers anyway. Margie told me later she found out that there were candles at the front of the church for purchase. Oh well. We then went back to the bus, trying to purchase some earrings on the way but the vendor did not have change so, sadly,  we could not get them. 

Back on the bus and it was so hot outside that the air-conditioning felt like heaven.

After a shortish drive back through what was the messiest section of town I think ( there was a lot of plastic bags and garbage laying around along the road sides) we arrived at the ship to be  greeted with cool wash cloths and drinks to rehydrate us while we waited to get onto the ship through security. A wonderful way to be greeted on a very hot day.

I went to sprinkle mom and dad over the ships bow and the breeze caught the Kleenex and blew it onto the deck below. when I went to the deck below to get my Kleenex I found it was closed due to cleaning and maintenance. What?! Where were Mom and Dad? Well I hope that they are happy somewhere in Santa Marta bay. 

 

Our room had lovely air-conditioning and so we did not go out again for awhile. I had a lovely nap ( beer in the afternoon always makes me sleepy) and Margie worked on her payroll stuff. She woke me up for supper.

We had dinner at Magenta’s with Soren  who was from Denmark and was in shipping and transportation, Rasmus from Denmark who was a retired  electrician who owned laundromats and tanning salons, Jeff from Oregon who had lost his wife for the evening, who was a robotics engineer, and Larry from LA and New York. Larry was an actor and entrepreneur selling old tv shows and movies on DVD and Blue-ray on Ebates.

 The dinner was very good as always and afterward we just came back to our room and went to sleep early. Bye bye Santa Marta.

 Towel animal - Koala Bear