Santa Marta continued ....

The last blog entry was all about The Lost City, and ignored the delights of Santa Marta itself:  It should not be overlooked, Santa Marta has endless , a fascinating combination of high sophistication and rustic Latin American charm.

 

A city where you can buy nets of satsuma from street vendors for 1000 pésos, that's about 30p in UK money.

 

Or mangos - cut up and ready to eat.

The pavements are crowded with vendors - you could buy almost anything along the main streets, and have a complete meal as well.

One of the indoor markets - these are a selection of the Mochillas, the traditional bags used by the Indiginous population to carry their Cocoa leaves and other possessions.

The traditional bags, made from wool and plant fibres are the muted colours - the bright ones are made of cotton.  I now have a blue one.  

The street art is in a class of it's own

This is a painting of one of the main Piazzas in the town, The Parque de los Novios - the artist's name and phone number are painted onto the scene, in case you want a mural of your own.

Unfortunately despite the beauty and charm of much of the city, the drainage left something to be desired and because the port is a major coal exporter the yachts, and everything else, was always covered with a thick layer of black grit and dust.  In the backstreets, rubbish was certainly an issue.

 

The streets themselves were kept clean by a continuous army of road sweepers, and rubbish was regularly collected from the bins but sadly clearing of any other areas doesn't seem to feature.

 

The absolutely splendid Santa Marta Marina - no rubbish in sight!  

 

The marina being used as a backdrop for wedding photos - plus the not unusual sight of two people perched on a bicycle.

 

The town beach - fully appointed with sunshade cubes, chairs, tables and of course an endless supply of vendors should you be hungry, thirsty or just fancy a new hat, necklace, pair of sunglasses, t-shirt ...

One of the highlights of the town was the Musée del Oro which gave much of the history of the Ciudad Perdida and also housed several of the gold and ceramic artefacts found at the site.  A must see destination, especially for any one who plans to visit the Lost City itself.  Apart from that, the town was a labyrinth of little streets and one in particular was restaurant alley - great atmosphere and huge choice of very reasonably priced restaurants.

 

And where else could you possibly expect to find a uniformed supermarket employee push your shopping back to your boat for the price of a cup of coffee?

Next stop:  Cartagena, 110Nm down the coast