journeywithmadonna

…….at the Dreamer Hotel/Hostel in Santa Marta where we were, once again, the oldest residents.

…….for which you must pay! She was standing on the corner so several of us took her photo……..and she very quickly crossed the street and charged us all a thousand pesos(about 60 cents), and she wasn’t leaving until you paid. The basket on her head was full of fruit and coconut treats which you could purchase so that, with the photo income, probably gave her a decent income.

……..obviously left a blank because the blog and pictures I posted last night did not print but the title did. I’ll repeat it here….if I can remember what we did. As previously mentioned we are enjoying Santa Marta, population of 440,000 so not quite as large as the other cities we visited here which suits me quite fine as I get sick of the noise, especially of the blowing horns! Santa Marta is South America’s oldest surviving city and seems to be the place for ColOmbians to go to on holidays not only because of its long stretches of sandy beachfront property but also because of all the sun, rum and fun. Interesting that’s why Dawn came as well……..well us to, but not for rum, but the cervaza and vino come in handy after a sunny day at the beach.
The Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, which I referred to earlier I think, as the Simon Bolivar museum has fabulous grounds and of course beautiful flowers. It is a bit of a shrine to Simon Bolivar who is much revered in these parts and is known as the liberator of many countries in Latin America, including ColOmbia. He was taken here by a horse drawn carriage in December, 1830 where he later died of numerous physical and “moral” illnesses……….wonder what they were? Yves got to choose how we spent his last day so Dawn recommended Playa de Concha to which he quickly agreed, as did we, so off we went in a taxi to the more private beach. It’s absolutely necessary to rent a little tent as shown in the above picture so that you won’t fry on the beach…….and of course chairs as well so that’s what we did and where we hung out for the day and it was fabulous. We just relaxed, swam in the unbelievably warm waters, played in the surf, kept a curious eye on our neighbours(a large ColOmbian family), ate a fish lunch, had a cerveza, etc.etc. Nothing too exciting to report, thank The Lord, and off we go back to our hostel where we made a great supper to see Yves off to the airport and for us an early bedtime as another bus trip ahead of us tomorrow…….and you never know what that will bring. We’re still missing you Yves!

……..was another interesting bus trip. We got up early to catch a taxi for the half hour drive to the bus station because we wanted to catch the 8am bus. No showers no coffee, no breakfast…..just head out and grab a coffee and breakfast at the bus station while we were waiting……or so we thought! We got there about 7:20am just in time to be rushed to catch the 7am bus to Santa Marta! When will we ever learn? So off we go….no coffee,no bathroom break or breakfast………just “get on the bus, forget about us”………..and life goes on! The bus ride was uneventful and al most five hours later we arrived just an hour late. Quick taxi to the hostel where we were thrilled to find a pretty neat hostel Full of young folks who thought their parents were coming to visit……..and the coffee was free flowing in small little plastic cups but it still tasted good. While we were waiting for our rooms to be ready the coffee turned to beer…….don’t quite know how that happened but everyone was happy and that’s all that mattered. We checked in and then went for a walk to the Bolivar museum(pictures below) and then into town. On the way in we noticed that the streets were often lined with yellow jerseys and the closer we got to the centre we realized that ColOmbia was playing Bolivia and the noise, especially when ColOmbia scored was deafening,and they scored often. Once they won all hell broke loose in terms of noise level……….and every goal or near-goal could be heard for miles. Shortly after the game was over, and ColOmbia won, a Motorcade of hundreds of motorcycles roared through the streets with too many people on the bikes, no helmets,people stretched out dangerously hanging off and once Dawn and I saw the kids holding on we almost called social services but quickly realized the ‘policia’ were on board………and winning was what really mattered. It took a little while but we did find a little Spanish restaurant away from the noise where we had a good supper and discussed their passion for their sport, soccer/football whatever it is called! This reminded us of ColOmbia’s loss in the World Cup many years ago because one of their players accidentally scored into their own net. As tragic as this was for ColOmbia, the real tragedy was when the team returned home and the player who accidentally scored into his own net was shot. Gotta go as Internet is cutting out…….be in touch in a couple of days.