Santa Marta Trippin

[LastLion]

Thought I would start a minin report on Santa Marta since there is practically zero information on hte place. We arrived in santa marta less than 16 hours after I arrived in cali. With little sleep and 3 days of travel. I am ready for Something fun!
We arrived at the Decameron hotel early in the morning. Too early to actually get our room. Me & my girl walked the ground, nice place, big swimming pool for adults and another for kids, a beach in the front where there are different activities happening all day. They really have a lot going on here, especially if you are a joiner! It is an all inclusive hotel, which never sounded appealing to me before but since I am the independant like to be spontaneous and go guy. · restaraunts a couple of small bars and it is all free in the hotel. (btw there are 2 Decamerons here, the other one is much smaller and near rodadero, which is kinda like Santa Monica beach in California)

Well, I couldn´t hang around the hotel waiting for my room for more than 20 minutes when I decided it was time to go into Santa Marta central and their beach boradwalk. So we grabbed a taxi and off we went.

All though the beaches are not as pristine as Californias or florida they were much better than I had heard. Darker sand the water was not pristines clean but I am still breathing. The boardwalk in Santa Marta central is about 1/2mile long or more, street vendors bikinis, restaraunts you name it. Also it is very close to the port in which big ships import and export good into colombia. Some would consider it an eyesore, I would not since I have a love for boats, bikinis, the beach and the ocean, depends on the day but not exactly in that order.

So we did our first recon mission, walked around getting o know the area, we went into the central mercados, about 6 blocks in from the beach. Streets are loaded with people and street vendors, my kinda place , I love the hustle and bustle of the street the energy always gets me going, I love the action of the city or the tranquility of the country, the in between, I am indifferent too, i.e. suburbs don nothing for me.
Anyways, after that we decided to look for a good margarita, boy was that difficult. We wnet back to the beach and hoit a couple of restaraunt and bars and there was nothing to brag about in the margarita department. WHAT NO PATRON!! .

Ok back to the hotel to check in and grab dinner. Our room was ok, nothing fancy, but a great view of the beach. the grounds of the hotel wind through plam trees and around the 3 restaraaunts and bars and down to the beach from our room you can see it all. Dinner was great actualy all the food was good, the drinks were free, but again no Patron. and of course the beer was average.

I will continue more later or tommorrow, I am off to class again, I will return to the Cali thread when I finish up with my week in Santa Marta thread. I hope these trip reports will be beneficial to you all. As the ones I read before over the past year have helped my soo much in my many trip to LAM this year. Hasta manana!

Peace!

[ikesupreame]

LL, great report, now we know what to buy at the duty free. I can't wait for the next post.

[DCNUPE/Eddie]

LL - Thanks for filling in on Santa Marta. My brother-in-law lives in cinaga a few miles away....very familar with SM. You should see it during Easter week.

[LastLion]

Thanks Caprice, When we got back to the hotel the night we arrived we bought a little tour on a chiva bus to playa crystalinne which is about 2 hours away. It is on the coast of Tayronna Park. BTW, I am not usually a tour bus guy either, but a day at the beach in tayronna and a drive thru the park was just what the doctor ordered. Tayrona Park is famous for the "lost city¨" an very old indigenous area, but it is a 6 day round trip to get their and back. I was a little bummed because I did not know that, but I might make it again some day just for that.

This whole area Santa Marta and Tayrona Park which is south east of sant marta is where the first Spaniards came and raped pilaged stole and pretty much eliminated the local indgineous people. Stole there gold and some really terrible things.

So off on the Chiva bus! The costanas are different in that there is much more african blood in them, although I did not see many full blooded africanos, there was a nice mix. The tour guide was this great. Funny and I could understand most of what he said all though the costanos speak pretty fast.

Apparently, when you enter Tayronna Park, people of colombia enter at a much lower cost, and we had already paid for the trip. But foreigners need to pay more. So as we approached the entrance to the park, the guide trained me in how to be a Paisa ( a person of the medellin area). It was pretty funny, because I am of irish & english heritage and even with my california tan, it was not gonna fly. Anyways he bought the guy at the gate a coca cola and off we went. It is a beautiful park. Huge open space area.

So after about an hour of travel we arrived at this huge bay. it had all these little inlet bays inside it. Specatacular!! From there we drove down to a beach and hopped on a little boat and headed around the bay to playa crystaline. The people of this area realy call Playa Crystaline , Playa de Muerte !! For obvious reasons the Spanish raped this area.

Anyways great day the water was crystal clear the sand was white, and there were about 100 tourists soaking up the sun and enjoying the beach. I would not recommend it for serious snorklers or divers, but it had a nice reef area and their were a fair amount of fish there.

Quick story, There are these 2 big black ladies walking around with fruit baskets and candies on their head, very carribeanish! This one gal came up to us to offer some sweets, and see knew I was a gringo obviously, she had a very friendly context. She started speaking all this **** in spanish like I didn´t understand her, she was telling me that I need this fruit of the black lady to make my penis stronger and sex better and that I was her man, she could take care of me! Remember we are sitting on the beach hanging with some people from Bogota & medellin and a really conservative couple from LIMA, Peru well my girl was looking at me and so was everyone else.
Suddenly I stood up and declared her my woman , all in spanish . tu eres mi vida, mi cielo, mi mujer de mi suenas. Deme toda de tuyas! It was hilarious she and everyone else started laughing hysterically! She was totally surprised! Ever since than My girl has been telling her friends and family that I have another novia. I big black woman in Santa Marta!

We returned to the hotel at 6. We took a shower and went off to Rodadero, now rodadero is a much more rich area than santa marta central.
Rodadero is like Santa Monica beach and Santa Marta central boardwalk is like venice. FOr me I can hang in both areas. But Rodadero ismuch more expensive and I found a great restaraunt bar Called "Latinos". Sits across the street from the beach and they made decent margaritas , THANK GOD!!! The boardwalk here was cleaner and less people asking you for ****. The police take good care of this area, because this is where many rich colombianos come. By the way, I only saw to white foreigners this whole time. I couple of lame as germans picking up on chicks in Santa Martta, the were the ERKELS of the whole place with their damn kahakis , black sock and plaid shorts. I did meet many people from spain, italy and they were all quite nice.

I will continue more later. Oh by the way bikinis everywhere. mmmmmmmmmmmm ! Nice round beautiful butts, dark, light, all shapes and sizes..

I was having a hard time looking straight ahead. Had to wear my ray bans in those days at the beach!

[LastLion]

Well, I will try to finish up this portion in Santa marta. I am not sure if I told you also that the staff in general did a great job. we usually hung out on the beach during the days and my girl loves to tan. Again, a must have is sunglasses or a neck brace whatever you your pleasure be.

I will tell you this. >There are plenty of fat Colombianos and colombianas. Most of the people seem to come from Bogota, in my eyes they were not as friendly as the Calenos in genereal.

Now for some reason everywhere we ended up at this hotel or in its restaraunt there was this one Calena, who had one of the best butts I have ever seen, and piercing eyes. I am pretty sure her and her friend were looking for a rich hombre, but not sure.

2 nights before we left the hotel put on this dance show of all the Americas. i.e miami, los angelos, puerto rico, cuba colombia, brasil. THey were great it was a dance troop from Cartegenan, I remember sitting their thinking I bet CUBAFRO AND RAY would love this. Why because all these girls had hard bodies with a pompass to die for and they could shake it like no other

In the evenings we would dance in lobby where they always had a guy singing solistas, meaning he had the background music playing and he would play keyboard and sing. THis calena, not mine with the nice butt, was always right in front of me shakin it like there was no tommorrow.

I got lots of dancing practice in. All in all it was fairly relaxxing, we partied quite a bit and on the last night we found the discotec in the hotel. everyday we passed by it, but I never noticed anything happening. that last night I saw a couple of people pop out of it, it is under the hotel and there is a side way in, when they popped out I could here the music.

So I grabbed the hand of my girl and we charged it, opened the door it was not that big of a place but and the ceiling were 7´6 at best it was a sweat pit. We went in, I grabbed a Ron & Coke, ron medellin being a famous drink in Colombia as is Aguardiente, but that aguardiente is nasty. Well my girl told me it tastes different in each city. I still am not sure how it can get much better. It is a shot type drink.

We danced in their for like 4 hours, I lost about 50 lbs, but only needed to lose 20.. hahahah! It was a blast. The night went on way to long, and the next morning was rough trying to get our asses up and to the airport, we made it! Had a little problem in the airport, because I did not have my ticket. I figured it was not important because they must have a fricken computer.

Well it didn´t matter, they were not gonna give ma another ticket, they told me I had to buy one than try to get my money back later. I was like WTF .. Anyways I fought with them up until about 15 minutes before I our plane left and gave in an bought a ticket. Aerorepublic, remember your ticket! It was bull **** and when I have time I will try to get my money back.

Well, I can get over things fat, by the time we landed in >Bogota I was good again, we stopped in Bogota on the way back to Cali. Just a stopover.

By the way my choice of reading materials on this trip is A book named, "Chasing Che"! it is about a man who follows the motorcycle route of Che, on a motorbike, when he was a young medical student. Great book! I recommend it and for me it has helped put a good context on my trip and how the people here really struggle just to survive and how they have a completely different perspective on the world and politics.

Peace!!!

[STM]

I went to Rodedaro a couple times, but I think LastLion did the right thing and stayed at the Decameron, he actually saw more of Santa Marta then I did.
Where is the actual city of Santa Marta?

[Cubafro]

Thanks LL for thinking about me when you saw that butt...You know what I`m sure will die for those butts bro.... [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Thanks for the update and for sure you`re enjoying your trip...

CUBA [img]smile.gif[/img]

[LastLion]

STM, it is all Santa marta, interestingly enough! Rodadero is the nicest part of it. The whole are is just all spread out, with little bays along the coast where different barrios have been formed!

Cubafro, how could I not think of you with damn avatar of yours

[Zorro]

LastLion, I have a question about dress code for this trip. As you know, I'll be making it, too. When I'm in sweltering climates like Barranquilla, I'll wear shorts (no, they're not plaid). But in most places around Colombia I don't normally wear shorts. What's the dress code for this trip? What did you wear around Decameron when you weren't at the pool or on the beach? And what did you wear when you went to other places in Santa Marta or to Tayrona?
Z

[LastLion]

Shorts and flip flops are fine during the day, I did get more dressed up at night, although a couple of nights it was still just shorts and I nice shirt. If you go into the town, definitely dress up at night, jeans, nice shoes, nice shirt, no tuxedos necessarry. I blended in fine. Most people are there on holiday and they are sun worshippers! Just like some of us!