Walking tour of Santa Marta

As soon as I woke up, I went for a swim.  I enjoyed a very quick 40 lengths (it wasn’t a large pool!) before my shower.

Breakfast was very good this morning.  Mark chose the American option (fresh fruit, juice, pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs) and I had the house breakfast (fresh fruit, juice, arepas with cheese, sausage, and scrambled egg).  There was unlimited coffee, which made a nice change.

After breakfast, we discovered that Mark and Chris also wanted to come into town this morning (they were not joining the walking tour), so we booked 2 Ubers.  We went with Shonagh to the meeting point outside the Gold Museum in central Santa Marta.  We arrived a few minutes early, so we had the chance to look at some beautiful hand-made bags for sale close by.  Each bag takes 10 days to make.  I was sorely tempted, but it’s only day 3 of the trip, and I don’t need a bag!!

At 10am on the dot, we met with our guide, Javier.  We were joined by an Italian couple, an Austrian girl, and two others, so we were 10 in total.  Javier proved to be an excellent guide.  His English was impeccable.  He clearly loved his home city and was keen to share his knowledge about its history and culture.  It turned out to be much more than a standard walking tour with frequent stops for food and drink samples.

We began with a short visit inside the Gold Museum, which is housed in the impressively renovated Casa de la Aduana (Customs House) which features in the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel No One Writes to the Colonel.  Many of the exhibits were very similar to those we saw in the museum in Bogota, but Javier added to our knowledge with his fascinating stories of the pre-colonial civilisations who lived in the area.Read more