While planning the trip to Colombia I read many mixed reviews on Santa Marta. Hector and I spent one night before the tour there and three nights after. Let me tell you what I thought about Santa Marta.
We arrived in the morning and took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Make sure you research local transportation prices (especially if you do not speak the local language) before leaving because both the taxi drivers and the bus driver tried to rip us off. The taxi drivers tried to charge us 10x what the price should have been and the bus driver tried to charge us what the taxi should have cost.
Let me start by saying that I don’t speak Spanish but Hector does. I did do my research before leaving for Colombia and knew what the taxi and the bus should have cost us. While we were outside trying to figure out the taxis Hector was translating for me but not saying anything in Spanish. I think they all assumed neither of us spoke the language (they were right about me lol). Since I knew they were trying to overcharge us I told Hector that we should walk away. That would give us time to think about what we should do.
As we were doing so the ‘head taxi driver’ (I guess you would call him that) walked over and asked if we need a taxi. At this point Hector spoke to him in Spanish and said we needed one to Santa Marta. The look on all the other taxi drivers faces was utter surprise. One of them apparently said “oh crap he speaks Spanish” and they all walked away very quickly! Needless to say we got a taxi for the right price and happily set off for Santa Marta.
Both of the, there were only two, times I was scared in Colombia were in taxis and it was only because the taxi drivers were on their phones, playing music, trying to show us videos, trying to take videos, and also trying to watch videos too! One time was on a motor cycle taxi and the other in a car taxi. At one point in the car taxi we were on a winding road which made it even scarier!
After getting to the hotel we set out to explore and also find some food. We ended up at a restaurant close to the beach and both had shrimp and rice! I remember it being very good but I was going on very little sleep the past two days. After that we took a nap and packed for the next day. We had been traveling for close to 30 hours and I didn’t really have the energy to do much else!
After the trek we had three nights booked at the Colour Hotel. To be honest that was too much time in Santa Marta. Sadly, we found there was not a lot to do there. I think one full day and one night would have been plenty. Apart from the Gold Museum (which takes less than an hour to see) and walking around the markets we just relaxed. And I recovered from sun poisoning.
After three days in Santa Marta we headed towards the Tayrona National Park area. This is where we should have flipped our schedule. The taxi ride back to Tayrona took just over an hour. It is on the way back from the Trek and Magic Tours would have dropped us off in that area had we booked something there. We should have booked a hotel there for three nights and then a hotel for one night in Santa Marta. That way, Magic Tours could have dropped us in Tayrona and after three nights we could have taken a taxi back to Santa Marta. After one night in Santa Marta we would have just needed a taxi to the hotel. Instead we had to pay a taxi to take us to Tayrona and then also to the airport (past Santa Marta) which made it more expensive. Hindsight!
Since we only had one night (we thought) in the National park we left Santa Marta bright and early. We wanted to have the whole day on the beach. About an hour into the hour and 15 minute journey I realized I had my days mixed up….the hotel I had booked was for the next night…and it also happens to be the beginning of March (the park is closed in February) when many of the hotels are very booked up including ours!
Check back to see what we ending up doing…
