Colombia
Santa Marta
Santa Marta is not known as a tourist destination, and we thought it was an unusual stop on our itinerary. Rather than hang around town we decided to go further inland on our day we spent there. We went on a tour that took us trekking through the jungle in search of a waterfall. Before we booked the tour we read the description to see what we would be in for. It said, “enjoy a hike through the forest with the usual jungle crowd.” We found that pretty amusing and now when we wonder what we might encounter somewhere we say, “probably the usual jungle crowd.”
It was nice little walk through some creek beds and over some gnarly tree roots. We saw loads of native plants, some huge spiders and some pretty humming birds - the usual jungle crowd I guess. Except the monkeys didn’t feel like showing up that day. We passed a small village selling local homeopathic remedies. They had eye drops made from honey to cure conjunctivitis, topical pain cream from the marijuana plant, and an oil that keeps mosquitos away. There were small bags of coca leaves which are usually steeped for tea and locals will chew on them as a mild stimulant and to suppresses pain. They were also selling trail side BBQ. We didn’t anticipate vendors in the middle of the jungle, so we didn’t have our wallets on us to buy anything.
After walking for about an hour we arrived at a small trickling waterfall and our guide said, “We have an hour to enjoy the view. There is another place to view the waterfall from above, but don’t go up there. If you do go up there, proceed with caution because you go at your own risk.” Before he was even done speaking I was headed up the rocks to see the rest of the waterfall. Ashley called to me, “did you hear what he said?” “Yeah, ‘proceed with caution.’” She had intended for me to pick up on the, “don’t go up there” portion. She knows me well enough to know that wouldn’t stop me, especially if it involves getting a better view of a waterfall. The guide had to give that disclaimer since our group wasn’t exactly fit or prepared for a jungle walk. As we proceeded at a cautious pace up the rocks, Ashley was glad that we ventured up there. There was a much better view and some pools to soak in. She took a dip in one of the pools to cool off, and we sat entranced by the mist off the waterfalls and lots of pretty orange butterflies.
Cartagena
We were both pretty excited about Cartagena after hearing some good things, but we didn’t know exactly what to expect. We were charmed by the parts of the city we visited. We went on an MSC excursion around the city that took us through the Getsemani neighborhood, to an old fortress, and to the emerald museum.
Our first stop was the old fortress, and our tour gave us literally five minutes to view it from the outside. We were disappointed to not go inside or spend more time at it. I hastily got my drone out and got about 30 seconds of footage before we had to move on to our next stop. We got off the bus to walk through the picturesque neighborhood of Getsemani (pronounced Het-say-monny) It’s known for the abundant graffiti/art walls plus the umbrellas and flags that hang throughout. There were about 3-4 MSC tours in other languages on the exact same route and schedule as our tour so there were about 200 ship passengers milling about in this neighborhood. We’d turn a corner and see an awesome painting on the wall, but before I could ever get a photo five people would walk in front of my camera and stand there obliviously.
We moved on to the Emerald Museum and saw some stunning stones. A Spanish galleon ship sunk back in the 1600s off the coast of Cartagena. It was loaded with silver, gold, and emeralds after plundering Latin America. On it’s return to Spain the British attacked and succeeded in sinking the ship. The shipwreck was only discovered a few years ago, and now the Spanish government has the gall to say the booty belongs to them since it was a Spanish ship. The value is estimated to be around $17 billion. The Colombian government is not going to give up the emeralds up so easily this time around. After much debate an international council deemed that the treasure legally belongs to Colombia. While the Spanish did get away with a lot of Colombian antiquities, our guide said they were ultimately defeated by the Colombian air force - mosquitos.
We had a few more hours to spend in the city, and we weren’t quite ready to go back to the ship. We asked our tour guide if he could drop us off back in the Getsemani neighborhood again. We wanted to walk the same area without the hoards of people. We had to sign a waiver for leaving in the middle of an MSC tour so the tour operators don’t get blamed for coming back two passengers short. We handed him our waivers, stepped off the bus, and he said, “best of luck girls. Don’t pay more than ten dollars for you cab back.” It was much more enjoyable to take in the quiet streets and appreciate the atmosphere without the hundreds of other MSC passengers. It was a beautiful little neighborhood, and the people were so friendly. Many of them were sitting on their stoops and would offer a friendly, “buenas” with a smile and head nod.
We sat down for a local lunch of fried snapper and bistec a la plancha. We tried out the local beer, Aguila. And right before we had to pay, all the power went out in the restaurant. We were worried we wouldn’t be able to pay by card without a power source, but luckily most places we’ve been have portable credit card machines they bring right to the table. It was a pretty hot day, like most that close to the equator, and once the fans stopped blowing after the power outage it was time to get out of there. We hailed a cab and he wanted 20 dollars to return us to the port. We told him 10 dollars like our guide told us, and he agreed although he was a little annoyed that we knew how much a cab should cost. He then proceeded to stall the car 4 times during the 15 minute drive back to the port.
Cartagena had a lovely ship port that had a wildlife sanctuary on the premiss. We only had about 30 minutes before we had to board the ship but we could have spent hours watching the wildlife. We came across two cheeky tamarind monkeys who were chasing each other around from tree to tree and came down right in front of us on the ground. We got to walk inside a toucan sanctuary and marvel at the inquisitive birds. We watched a lady extend her finger trying to get a toucan to jump on her hand. Ashley looked at me like, “she must not like that finger because she’s fixing to lose it.” Call me crazy but I’m weary of offering my fingers to wild animals especially those whose beaks are bigger than the rest of their body. We also got to see some flamboyant flamingos and a proud peacock who kept fanning his tail. I noticed that there were peacock feathers fastened to the inside of the the birds’ enclosure, presumably to make the peacock think there were other males suitors to compete with so he would flash his impressive feathers more often for the tourists. I wonder what it does to his psyche - do peacocks have a psyche?- it must be exhausting showing off all the time when you’re already the only game in town.
We enjoyed Colombia and found the people to be friendly. It was nice to practice speaking Spanish, and the locals were more than willing to strike up a conversation in the markets. We loved the vibrancy of Cartagena and appreciated the unspoiled nature of Santa Marta. Maybe next time we’ll visit Medellin.
