Day 14- A different day in Santa Marta (22/7/25)

 

Today is not what I had planned it to be due to the cancellation of my trip last night. So, as a last-minute thing, I booked something else for the evening.

Still, very much in holiday mode, I had a slightly later start to the day. I didn’t fancy the same breakfast as yesterday as that seemed to play havoc with my digestive system. It has occurred to me that eggs have been a regular part of my diet since I have been here, whether it be scrambled eggs in the morning, or fried eggs on my evening meals, and even turning up in the occasional Arepa. I asked the waiter to just give me some fruit. He asked if I would like some pancakes with that and I said yes, then realising that these include eggs too.

The pool man has done a fantastic job; the pool is crystal clear this morning and the signs telling us not to use the pool have been removed. Allowing myself an hour of sitting in the sun to let my breakfast go down, I went for a dip. And then another a short while after. Being in the pool is such a relief from the hot sun.

Daniella, or was it Danielle, I couldn’t remember, came out of her room for breakfast and we shared an excited whoop at the pool being open. They leave today, but she was happy that she got to use the pool before leaving. I imagine that there are very few opportunities to use an outside pool in Bogota.

I did the usual thing of lazing by the pool and having an occasional dip to cool off. I repeated this process for a couple of hours. The Hotel is quiet today, so I had it almost all to myself.

Knowing that I needed to be at the harbour at 4.50, I thought that I should head into town to get some food and water. I had booked a 3-hour sunset sailboat trip around the bay. This was a sort of contingency trip just in case my bigger trip got cancelled again.

I had contacted Viator, through which I had booked the cancelled trip to see if I could find out for certain whether it would definitely go ahead tomorrow. They could not really help so I asked for the contact details of the company, so that I could ask them myself. I sent a very polite message to them and awaited a response.

Walking down into town, I passed the same little bar that I had stopped in yesterday. It seemed that an ice-cold beer would be the perfect answer to the heat. It is also a great spot for people watching.

Moving on into the centre, I found a nice little restaurant for a meal. Seeing as I am on the coast and that fish and seafood seem to be on every menu, I had arroz de mariscos, seafood rice. This came with the now obligatory fried plantain, which I am not that fond of. I washed this down with limonade de coco, which is the most wonderful drink. It is like a coconut slush with lemonade. And it was absolutely gorgeous. I even considered ordering another but decided against it as I was about to go on a boat.

At the harbour, a small crowd of maybe 10 people were clearly waiting for the same boat. These were made up of a few couples, a family with two young kids and a woman. We headed out into the harbour, and then out into the bay. Looking back at Santa Marta, you can see just how close the city is to the magnificent Sierra Nevada mountains. You also notice just how high these mountains are. You see a row of mountains behind the city, then you look up and see another, even higher mountain range, some distance behind, and then it hits you that there is an even higher range behind them. This is the very top end of the Andes, although they are not named as such, but if you look at a map you can see the long spine of high mountains that extend from here, all the way down to Argentina.

The sunset is the selling point for this trip, however, there was some thin cloud cover that made the sunset a little bit underwhelming. The warm sea breeze and the pitching of the boat, as it pushed through the waves, made the whole experience so relaxing. The gentle music coming out of a huge speaker on the deck added to the whole atmosphere.

We went around the headland to Tanganga and moored up just of the beach. A row of beach bars and restaurants were light up beautifully with multicoloured lights. The music pumping out of them had several people on the beach dancing and singing. The town looked amazing. I told myself that, if my trip tomorrow is cancelled, I would head there instead. Apparently, it is only about 15 minutes by taxi.

We went back to Santa Marta in the dark. The sea was much rougher going back which made the experience much more fun, with waves often splashing up over the sides of the boat. During this part of the trip, I was in a text message conversation with Alex who was just starting his day. It is quite a strange experience to be out on a boat in South America whilst chatting to someone in Southeast Asia.

Arriving back into Santa Marta Bay, the city looked wonderful all lit up. Pictures never to it justice; it was a beautiful site.

Back on land, there is a great little bar right by the harbour that I had visited a couple of nights back. So, I dropped in for a couple of beers. A young girl who works in there had a long chat with me. Her English was very good, which made for a slightly more interesting conversation. Like just about every other Colombian I have spoken to, she was desperate to know what I thought of her country and what places I had visited. Afterwards, I sat and watched the sea lapping at the clear white sand, then got a taxi home.

This has been such a lovely day, considering I woke up a little sad that my plans had been cancelled. The good news to round the day off was that I got a very apologetic message back from the tour company. Apparently, they have been having some technical difficulties but were able to offer me an almost identical trip, at a reduced rate. Meaning that, not only am I off on a lovely trip tomorrow, but I am also getting a partial refund. The perfect end to the day.