DAY 5 Jan 17 - Santa Marta, Columbia

Santa Marta is a city and municipality located in north west Colombia by the Caribbean Sea and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, and is the capital of the Magdalena Department. It has a population of nearly 500,000 inhabitants.

The city was founded in July 29, 1525 by Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, accompanied by some two hundred of his men and a few Amerindians natives. It was named after the Catholic day for Saint Martha, which in Spain was celebrated with festivities. However many historians argue that he named it after the Spanish city of Santa Marta de Astorgas, which he had also visited.

Santa Marta is an important maritime port and hub for tourism, history and culture. During the Colonial times the city started losing its importance as maritime port to nearby city port of Cartagena. It was one of the first cities to be founded in Colombia. El Libertador Simón Bolívar died at a ranch named Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino on the outskirts of Santa Marta on December 17, 1830.

During the 20th century the city served as a main port for massive exports of bananas and coal, produced inland with the assistance of major multinational corporations. In recent years, Santa Marta has attracted large numbers of people displaced by the paramilitary groups operating in the area. The warm climate and the possibility of occasional work serving the tourist industry has increased the city's population drastically.

The ship docked quite early although the notes we received from HAL said it would be a tender port. In the event we docked in the industrial port and the ship ran a a fee shuttle bus service to town. Another older ship, the Ocean Dream, following us into port and is docked nearby.

We were both awake early with me up and about by 6.00 o'clock. I brought Maria down some coffee and smoked salmon and fruit which she ate on the balcony. She informed me that the seas had been rough all night and she hadn't slept well. I was oblivious to this as I sleep through most things even after a double espresso coffee after dinner.

It certainly was hot with the 7.30 temperature in the low 80s and the highs expected to be in the low 90s by mid-day. Dedan and Edgar soon appeared at our cabin door and we were pleased to let them make-up the room while we sat on the balcony. It's great to have your room sorted out first thing in the morning, which is the routine we are now expecting.

The 8.30 shuttle bus took us the 10 minute drive to the centre of town by the beach next to the old Custom House. Wow it was hot as we strive to keep in the shade. The black sanded beach was already full of children many swimming in the cooling sea water and generally having a good time together. It was Sunday so no school. From the beach area we had a good view of our ms Prinsendam and the much older ship, Ocean Dream, that had arrived shortly after us.

We walked into the centre of town proper and visited the Cathedral where there was much Sunday activity including a christening with the gathered family members wearing white. We also visited another quite large church close by which was very busy as there was a Sunday Mass in progress.

The narrow street around this part of central Santa Marta have many stalls with a variety of freshly squeezed fruit juice on sale and much in demand. Others were selling all kinds of bit and pieces none of which took our fancy. Most shops were shut because of the day of the week.

One thing we did notice was the number of police around the town. All in groups of two or four. There were hundreds of them visible to us. Of course there is a 'civil' war going on in parts of Columbia and this may have been the reason. I must say we didn't speak to or see, to our knowledge, any local Colombian drug barons.

The city is justifiably proud of its connection with the great Simon Bolivar (El Libertador) who was the man responsible for the liberation of so much of South America from the colonial Spanish occupation. He truly was a great man. He ultimately died penniless (or is it peso less?) in this city and was buried in the Cathedral where there is a monument to him although his remains were later moved to Caracas where he was born.

The park where our shuttle bus dropped us off is named after the great liberator and has a large monument there celebrating his achievements and I was pleased to have my photo taken below his statue.

By 10.00 we were just too hot and bothered, it must have been near 90 degrees, so we jumped on a returning shuttle bus and enjoyed the bliss of its a/c for the next 10 minutes.

Both HAL and our travel agent CSI ran tours today but we, and others, felt that nearly as much could be seen on foot and at no cost. The tours seemed to last about 3and a half hours and included a folklore session thrown in. Oh well I'm sure we will see plenty more folklore on this cruise!!

An inspection of the aft deck and pool area shows that the decking work is nearly completed and I must say it look good even if the pool and its two jacuzzi are filthy dirty still. This will be a lovely space on the ship to relax in once it opens, hopefully, tomorrow. The bar area with its large shading canopy will enhance the whole aft deck ambiance.

The rest of the day on board we just hung out as they say and chilled with our books. Lunch was a salad as efforts are made to watch waistlines. Yesterday the sun and strong breeze got a bit to us so today we have to try and stay out of the sun so as not to exacerbated the situation. High factor protection is the order of the day round these parts while we are so close to the equator.

It was dusk when we eventually departed Santa Marta heading for another day at sea in the Caribbean. As the ship turned round we stood on our balcony to have a last look at this the first of the South American towns we would be visiting on this voyage. Two tugs stood on stanby as we pulled out of the harbour and several cargo ships were anchored nearby. This was quite a busy commercial port.