"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #8 Santa Marta, Colombia January 7, 2017 Saturday Chance of rain & 74 degrees Part #1 Of 2 84 Pictures

You would think 74 degrees sounds comfortable, wouldn't you? Well, add humidity to that and suddenly it is warm and muggy. That's what the weather was this morning as we sailed into the sheltered harbor of Santa Marta, Colombia. The ship was originally scheduled to dock fairly close to the downtown area. But that all changed, and we were moved to the furthest mooring. Appears that a Dole cargo ship had priority over us. It really did not matter all that much, since walking in the working dock area was forbidden anyway. A shuttle bus had to be used to access the port gate, which is right in town and the Historic District. By the way, Colombia has a population of over 45 million people, and the capital is Bogota.

This is either the third or fourth time we have visited this part of the world. We have taken two tours here, and explored on our own once. That was the plan for today. We left the ship about 10:30am, only to find the line was 100 people long. Good thing there were two coaches for the mile-long ride. Seemed to take longer to load the buses as the ride to the gate. It did give us time to visit with one of our buddies, who suggested for all of us to ask for a postcard with the photo of the Amsterdam. Normally, they are already in our room. These can be used in foreign countries to show a taxi driver where you need to go. That is our little hint of the day, since we thought that was a great idea.

Many other guests had beat us there, and were sitting in the shade talking on phones and working on computers. Looks like there was some free WIFI there for a short period. That is, until too many people started using it. Great while it lasts.

We continued on to the dozens of tented souvenir stalls on the beachfront. They were full of vacationers and families with kids, along with all of us. Searching for something to hold the chocolate pillow candies, we found nothing suitable. What we did get were many colorful photos of the beach full of people having fun in the water and in the shade.

Santa Marta has not always looked like it does today. It was founded in 1525 by Spanish conquerer Don Rodrigo de Bastidas. It is the oldest city in Colombia and South America. Maybe even more important is the fact the great liberator, Simon de Bolivar, the revolutionary who led Colombia and other Latin America countries to independence from Spain, lived and died here. You can't go anywhere in this part of South America, and not see monuments with Bolivar's name on it.

The main attractions in the historic district have to be the Santa Marta Cathedral, the oldest church in Colombia. It was completed in 1766 and once held the remains of Bolivar. He has since been taken elsewhere. The other attraction is the Gold Museum with artifacts from the pre-Colombian cultures. It is also one of the few places that is air-conditioned, and has restrooms.

After walking through the middle of town and the local shopping area, we visited both sites. Outside the small museum, we purchased a woven barrel-like purse, to be used to store our pillow chocolates. For some reason, we did not receive the information card with the ship's info and currency exchange. We figured that was another cutback. Since many of the other guests got them, we surmised they ran out. Anyway, the vendor was confused with her asking price, and needed some translation from a local lady to help us make the purchase. Guess it would have been easier to use pesos, but we did not have any. The ship did not sell them. The mix up happened when the vendor wanted $2 bills instead of 4 ones. We did not have $2 bills….have not for many, many years. Finally, with the help of the translator, she kept the $8 and was happy.

Our next purchase was a bag of limes for $2, probably the best deal. Turns out we bought them from the same vendor we had three years ago. He threw in two extras for good luck. Same as three years ago. There were many vendors today, but most all of them were low-key. No pressure to buy from them.

Today we did not see a restaurant that appealed to us, so we went back to the ship and had a room service lunch. Yesterday, we had gotten a letter warning us that the air-conditioning needed maintenance between 10:30am to 2pm. When we got back to the room, we were pleased to find it was cool. Guess nothing had been turned off here. We had salads and split a club sandwich, the only item left over from the old menu. We also remembered that the tuna melt was gone, a popular item for sure.

Worked on photos and gathering info for the report until it was time to go to the sail away. Watching from the aft deck 8, the ship left in the darkness well after 6pm. It was nice to see the city all lit up with flashing lights along the beachfront and hotels.

Dinnertime found only 6 of us present. Four of our buddies had attended a Pinnacle dinner, hosted by their travel hosts. It was nice to be able to get to know our new guests better. The more we talk, the more we all realize that we have shared more than one or two cruises together. Since we were all tired from our first port, none of us was interested in seeing the show Dance Fever. So far, we have not heard any outstanding raves about the acts in the Queen's Lounge.

Really going to appreciate a day at sea tomorrow as we head towards the Panama Canal. The seas were rather choppy all night, with the ship rolling quite a bit. But that may be due to the fact that the speed of the ship was between 8 and 10 knots. Don't believe the stabilizers work too well at that speed.

Bill & Mary Ann

We added another set of hooks on the bathroom door