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| Tayrona National Park, Colombia |
Our second visit to Colombia, the northernmost nation in
South America, brought us to the city of Santa Marta. Usually cruise ships visit Cartagena but
Santa Marta has been trying to attract ships to stop there in recent
years. For every person in the Shore
Excursions department, it was a new port as well.
Colombia had been notorious for its drug cartels, but much
of that is in the past and it is now more of a tourist destination. There had been an indigenous native people
before Columbus arrived in 1499 and the country was named for him. What is today Colombia was part of what the
Spanish called Gran Colombia. However
when the independence from Spain came in1819, Colombia, Venezuela, and others
achieved independence and their own national borders and governments. At that time, Colombia and Panama were called
New Granada and remained that way until the early 20th century when
Panama became independent and authorized the US to buy the French rights to
construct the Panama Canal. Contemporary
Colombia has a land mass of about 945,000 square miles and a population of
approximately 47.5 million. My guide
stated that the Santa Marta area has about 700,000 people. Santa Marta, the oldest city in Colombia and
second oldest in South America was named for the Biblical Martha in 1525 by a
Spanish conquistador. Its economy is
based on trade, fishing, agriculture (bananas, coffee, cocoa) and now, tourism.
The day was quite hot with a 91 degrees forecast, and quite
windy which is typical for this time of year while back in Chicago we notice
that the temperature was to be well below zero Fahrenheit! With the wonderful, snowless December we had
experienced we were delighted to be out of the city and couldn’t complain about
the sunny skies even thought it was too hot!
Barb had decided that it would be best to do no tours here
to give her knee and back some extra time to repair. In fact her first tour won’t be until January
22 in Nuka Hiva, French Polynesia. I elected
to do a tour called “Tayrona Park Adventure” which took us quickly out of Santa
Marta to visit this national park created in 1964 and located along the north
coast of Colombia. I joined our friends
Bob and Nancy Wilson from West Virginia and North Carolina, whom we had met on
the World Cruises of 2012 and 2013. Once
we stepped off the bus, our competent guide, Andras, led us on a walk to see
some of the flora and fauna of the park.
He had told us that he had self-taught himself English and hadn’t learned
it in school. When I had a chance, I
quizzed him on that since his English was quite good and very
understandable. He said English
instruction in his school wasn’t good but he has been working on it since he
was 17; he’s 40 now. He speaks it well,
can read English, but he admitted his written English left much to be desired.
As we walked, he pointed out fire ants marching with purpose
across the pathway. Soon he showed us a
big termite nest in the tree. He
informed us that in a pinch, the termites could be consumed by humans for protein. We told him we hoped that would never be
necessary. We climbed many steps, walked
over the wooden bridge walkways, down the steps and up and down quite
frequently. There were rails most places
but it would not have been a good tour for anyone with mobility issues. Barb made a good decision in not going on
this tour. At one place, we stopped and watched a caiman lounging in the sun on
a rock. The guide kept looking into the
trees and told us to look up and pointed out several monkeys swinging in the
trees. I was more impressed seeing the caiman
as well as the monkeys than I was the ants and termites.
Our walk took us to a beautiful sandy beach which might
otherwise have been busy with people but was closed because of the high winds
and currents. There were signs warning us that hundreds of people had died
there because they didn’t heed the warnings.
The rocky coast and sandy beach with the warm temps and blue sky was a
nice respite from a Chicago winter. We reached a lodge and were invited to sit
at tables as lunch was prepared. We could either sit there or take a short walk
down to another beach to watch the waves crashing on the rocks and sandy
shore. That beach was also closed
because of the winds. Once lunch was
ready, we got in line for our rice, beef, shrimp, and fish as well as cooked
mixed vegetables, a salad, and other items.
After relaxing at lunch, we reboarded our bus for our hour
long ride back to the pier to rejoin the ship.
It was a nice introduction to this part of Colombia. While I did the tour, Barb and our friend
Alice Jackson from Indianapolis took the shuttle bus a short distance to Santa
Marta, did a bit of walking and had a very expensive coke at a small café.
By 4 PM we were on our way to the sparsely populated San
Blas Islands of Panama before our entry to the Panama Canal.
CT
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