Santa Marta

This year our Midsummer Night's Eve was somewhat different - we spent it at the Caribbean coast in Colombia, in a town called Santa Marta. However, our trip began from the industrial port city of Barranquilla, from where it was two hours drive to Santa Marta.

The traffic in Barranquilla was quite heavy already early on Saturday morning. In Colombian traffic anything can be seen - donkeys, horses, rickshaws, mopeds, cyclists, cars, trucks, you name it!

At some point, the scenery started to get slightly more tropical.

Santa Marta is a popular holiday destination especially for Colombians but attracts many foreigners, as well. The weather is sunny +40 Celsius degrees, often cooled down slightly by the sea breeze.

Finally we arrived to our destination! Our beautiful little boutique hotel La Casa de Isabella is in the historic centre of Santa Marta.

As we had only one whole day in the city, we had to go and explore. Rodadero Beach is popular among the tourists, so that's where also we headed, 5 kilometer's drive from our hotel and the historic centre.

The local people on the coast, also referred to as costeños, are said to be calm and laid-back, even to the point of being lazy. With these temperatures, I don't wonder! Just by sitting, doing absolutely nothing, the sweat was running.

The heat can be overwhelming, especially if one is not used to it. Usually I prefer the natural breeze do the "air-conditioning", but boy, was I happy we were able to cool down the hotel room for the night. Otherwise it would have been impossible to sleep because even at night the temperature does not drop much.

Seafood and fish is especially good on the coast. Fresh and light! Well, and the beer, of course, had to be consumed rapidly. Nobody likes warm beer, eh? ;)

This señor is making us coco locos, a very strong cocktail including, well, just about everything.

When the rays of sun hit the sand in the water, it looked like there would have been tiny bits of gold mixed in.

After some beers and coco loco, it was time to go back to the hotel and take a siesta.
In the evening, we continued exploring the neighbourhoods. The streets and the beach were filled with different kind of Latin music and people dancing to it.

The next day we still checked out the local market and later were relaxing an hour by the hotel pool.

Then, unfortunately, it was time to drive back to Barranquilla, where the plane was leaving back to Bogotá later that afternoon. On the way we still went to have a look at the Taganga Beach, a famous scuba diving spot and a backpacker paradise.