Saturday, January 7, 2017

… to Santa Marta, Colombia …

… Colombia’s oldest ciity (South American’s second oldest) and first Spanish settlement, founded in 1525. We’ve been to Santa Marta before, and saw the major sites: the Cathedral, the house where Simon Bolivar died, and the Gold Museum. Santa Marta is not too far from Medellin so we were warned not to wander too far. It’s a bustling port; at the last minute, we were docked in the industrial section of the port, near a Dole banana boat and a coal loading operation. Amazingly, the coal trucks were dumped by raising them to an acute angle, so that although they weren’t dump trucks per se, their contents spilled out over the back end of the trailer. Quite a sight to see!

We wandered the crowded streets of the Historic Center, stopping at the Cathedral of Santa Marta.  It was much hotter than the ship’s estimate of 74 degrees, somewhere in the high 80s. Stores with air-conditioning became very appealing …  Interesting sights were everywhere … some of our favorites follow.

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Resting iguana in the park …. along with electrified pink plastic trees.

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Who’s the monkey? A motorcycle shoe …. or is it a shoe motorcycle?

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In the Cathedral, Bolivar’s tomb … and a lock box for donations to the Saints.

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Street murals … and black sand beaches. Careful where you sit!

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The beach boasts a series of strong women statues. We hit the pool as soon as we got back to the ship.

This is my favorite -  if you look closely on the right hand side, you’ll see two trucks being lifted on ramps; the green truck was going down after being emptied, and the yellow truck going up. Amazing!

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