Santa Marta, Colombia

After our hike to Ciudad Perdida, we stayed a few extra days in the city of Santa Marta, which is the capital of the Department of Magdalena. It must be admitted here that we were really tired after the hike and needed to rest. The only problem was that our wet, sweaty clothes smelled anything but violet 😉. The hotel did have a laundry service, but nothing we could use as it was closed over the weekend when we were there. Instead, we had to try to dry the clothes in the hotel room as best we could and in order not to get remarks from the hotel staff about poor hygiene or anything else unpleasant, the "do not disturb" sign had to be on the door handle for the rest of the stay...

Actually, Santa Marta is perhaps best known for the Tayrona National Park and the many beautiful beaches in the park facing the Caribbean Sea. After all, we see the sea and many beautiful beaches during our sail, so we prioritized the trek and opted out of the beaches this time. The unique thing about the Santa Marta area is precisely that it is surrounded by the high mountains Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta where the highest peak is at 5,775 m above sea level. Because the mountain range is so close to the sea, powerful air currents are also formed which contribute to causing it changeable weather with strong winds, currents and a lot of thunderstorms that can make it difficult for sailors who have to pass the coast. Something we also got to experience when we sailed past 😊

Unlike Barranquilla, Santa Marta is more tourist friendly with a wide range of cafes and restaurants. There is also an industrial port here where, among other things, coal is to be reloaded and shipped onward. An important export product for Colombia - besides coffee. In the guest harbor in the same area, many sailors choose to stay for a while, on their way to or from Panama. At the harbor there is also a public beach that many families visit during their free time. When we were there, we also saw many bathers. Unfortunately, the coal industry with various open pits poses a problem for the inhabitants and the environment where coal dust is spread over large areas.

There is archaeological evidence that the area has been periodically inhabited as early as 4,000 BC. However, the groups that are best known are those that are known to have become more settled around 200 AD. The archaeologists call the first settlement period the Nahuange period which consisted of a few settlements scattered over large areas. It was followed by, among others, the Tairona period around 900 AD. and consisted of several different population groups/kingdoms. The population lived mainly on fishing and agriculture and they had relatively fixed settlements. The Spanish who came here in the early 16th century soon came into conflict with the peoples who lived here. The fighting continued for about 100 years until the last remnants of the indigenous population that remained fled higher up in the mountains where the Spanish were reluctant to go.

The city of Santa Marta itself is said to have been founded by the Spanish in 1525 and is considered one of the oldest cities in Latin America. It has had great strategic importance during the colonial period due to its geographical location. As in the Caribbean islands, the slave trade was also carried out here. In the historic part of the city there is a gold museum that describes the city's history and the different peoples who live in and around the city. Here we were able to learn more about both the Nahuange and the Tayrona people; Kogui, Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kankuamo which still remain today and we recognized much of what we learned during the hike. In the museum, several archaeological objects from the various peoples are kept and you get an insight into the complicated process of making the gold objects that the Tayrona smiths mastered. In addition, the museum depicts the immigrant population after the colonial era, which also consists of different groups and cultures originating from Spain and Africa (with the slave trade). The museum itself is located in one of the city's oldest buildings, "Casa de la Aduana", which roughly means customs house in Spanish. The house was of great importance during the colonial period and the national hero Simón Bolívar, also called "the liberator", is also said to have lived his last days here. If we understood it correctly, the museum, like other cultural and historical centers in the country, is funded and run by the Central Bank of Colombia (Banco de la República). We thought that both the exhibitions and the museum building itself were well worth the visit, as was the old part of town.

On the bus home, towards Barranquilla, we passed one of Colombia's poorest towns, Puebloviejo (roughly the old town/people). The population here lives mainly on fishing. An industry that pays less today due to environmental problems. The town is located on a small strip of land between the Caribbean Sea and a gigantic wetland "Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta". The strip of land connects Barranquilla with Santa Marta. The wetland is over 4,000 square kilometers in size and forms its own archipelago of brackish water and is also a nature reserve, unique in the region with a large variety of plants and animals. Among other things, caimans (alligators) live here! In Pueblojo there is an annual festival dedicated to the caiman with a peculiar history behind it. From the bus window we could also see smaller villages where the houses stood on stilts in the swamp. The only way to get between the houses seemed to be via boat.

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