Santa Marta

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Wed 15 Feb 2017 00:55

Having arrived in Santa Marta on Friday we have been doing a lot of waiting. It was 24 hours before we had our passports returned so that we could leave the marina area of town. Then we have to wait for our temporary import document for the boat and our cruising permit. All of this is dealt with by an agent, in our case the marina have an agent who works for them and they don’t charge for his time if you stay a week. When we want to leave we need a ‘Zarpe’, clearance to go to another administration district or to leave the country. We are waiting at the moment for the customs to come to the boat to measure for the temporary importation.

 

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Santa Marta is one of the oldest cities in South America having been established in 1525 and the fourth largest in Colombia. It is situated between the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and the sea; apparently you can see the snowy heights from the beach. It is the original burial place of Simon Bolivar the liberator of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Peru from the Spanish, his remains were returned to his home town in Venezuela.

 

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The beach, quiet just now but it came alive at the weekend.

 

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Vendors selling water, sunglasses, sweets, food and trinkets are everywhere

 

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Wonderful Colonial Architecture

 

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The Cathedral

 

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Parque de los Novios. At night this is alive and the bandstand is used by youngsters practicing their breakdance routines.

 

As a resort and cultural, historical centre it has a large number of tourists and although fairly quiet by day comes alive at night with bars and restaurants opening on many streets.  There are many  buskers around the bars, and also on the beach at the weekend, some of them are very good.