It’s On My List

We arrived in Santa Marta on January 30, marking my long-awaited first visit to the continent of South America (6 down, 1 to go!) It is a beautiful port, with a sandy beach curving along the waterfront and surrounded by lush green mountains. My photos do not do it justice.

Santa Marta was founded in 1535 and is the oldest city in Colombia that remains today. In our port talk the prior day, Cruise Director Daniel talked about how the pre-Columbian indigenous people used gold in their ceremonies, including a legendary ceremony in which the king would cover himself with gold dust before diving into a sacred lake. When the Spanish arrived in 1499 (having set out from Santo Domingo, DR), they were amazed by the bountiful gold on display, and the legend of El Dorado – the City of Gold was born, further fueling the Spanish conquest of the continent.

I, too, set out in search of Colombian gold, which was somewhat reminiscent of a typical Friday night back in my high school days. (It was the ’70s, what can I say?) It was another hot, humid day. I enjoyed walking along the Malecón – a wide paved area along the beach, but of course walked further than I meant to and had to circle back to get to the gold museum (Museo del Oro Tairona). There is a large gold museum in Borgata, and the one in Santa Marta is a small branch. But it was very nice and had a lot of interesting displays of pre-Columbian artifacts, including, of course, gold. It is housed in the Custom House (Casa de la Aduana) which is where Simón Bolívar lay in state after his death at a nearby villa. There are displays in the upper level about Bolívar’s life and his role in liberating much of South and Central America from the Spanish Empire in the early 19th century.

I then set off to find my favorite Colombia export – coffee! Thanks to Juan Valdez, I always assumed coffee was the country’s #1 export. Actually, petroleum and coal far exceed coffee exports, as does gold! But Juan does all right for himself. He has a nice little shop around the corner from the gold museum, where I was able to utilize enough broken Spanish to order a coffee and cinnamon roll – delicioso!

I then made my way back to the ship. I decided to take a refreshing dip in the pool before showering for dinner. Unfortunately, it was not at all refreshing. I swear the water temperature was 90F. Still, it felt nice to float around for a bit, and the 85F air temperature felt moderately refreshing when I got out.

We now head to Costa Rica in Central America before heading through the Panama Canal and on to the west coast of South America.

Thanks for following!