We were up around 05:00, and it didn’t take long to pack.  Despite hanging several shirts during our time here, some of Justin’s shirts were still damp.  He wondered where/when/how they might dry out.  We checked out at 05:50, and were on our way right after that.  It was a Sunday morning, and it was nice to see the city actually empty for once.  Sadly, we were leaving now.  Luisa told us that all the beaches are public in Cartagena, despite the efforts of some restaurants and hotels to frustrate that around their places of business.  We quickly got out of Cartagena and entered La Boquilla (just beyond the airport), a nice new suburb that is rapidly growing and has better hospitals and newer infrastructure.

On the drive there was very little traffic, except for a good amount of bicyclists.  One of our guides (maybe Danna?) had told us that there are a lot of really good cyclists from Colombia, owing to the mountainous terrain and altitude training that is possible in Colombia.  Several of the bicyclists had cars with them, either A) to provide protection from other traffic, or B) to bring them back when they were done with their ride.  After just over an hour, we were in Barranquilla, one of the largest cities in Colombia, but seemingly not very touristic.  We saw a giant sign welcoming us to the city, and an “window to the world” statue at a large roundabout.  We also drove along the malecón (boardwalk) that is quite popular, and we saw a bunch of people out and about.  Everything else was rather industrial looking.

At the eastern edge of town we went over a bridge (and the Magdalena River) to the neighboring town of Palermo.  In Palermo we briefly stopped at a gas station to get snacks, use the facilities, and fill up the vehicle.  [We got the impression that Palermo has the cheapest gas around due to its proximity relative to the port of Barranquilla.]  Luisa had kindly already got us some snacks (potato chips and coke zero), so we spent the break hanging out with some really sweet stray pups.  We wanted to pet them, but recognized that there might be some stuff on them that we wouldn’t want on our hands.  We told Luisa - who was looking for a second pup - to take one of them when she came back this way after dropping us off.

Luisa told us the one spot we needed to worry about traffic was in Cienaga, just east of Barranquilla.  There is a narrow sliver of land separating the Caribbean from an inland swamp (Cienaga), and one lane in either direction.  If there’s an accident or a slow vehicle, there’s nowhere else to go.  Fortunately we had no issues, and were making really good time.  In front of us we could see the giant pyramidal shape of the snow peak of Santa Marta, Pico Cristóbal Colón.  It is quite unusual, if not uniquely specific to this location, for a snowy mountain to be seen from the tropical coastline.  The only other places we could think of people sunbathing on a tropical beach to see snow on a mountain above them would be on Tenerife and the Big Island of Hawaii.  [Maybe we have a type.]  The giant mountain in such close proximity to the coast creates a unique ecosystem, which we’d be seeing over the next couple of days.

The day before, one of Luisa’s colleagues had taken 6 hours to get to Santa Marta from Cartagena - it took us just over 3.  We arrived at our hotel (The AC Marriott) around 09:15, way before we could check in.  We just dropped our bags and looked for something to do.  Justin had an epiphany - we had seen something about an Arsenal match a couple days prior, but we realized we’d be in the car when the match was on.  But since we arrived so early, the match was still on.  So Justin looked for a futból pub, and sure enough there was one open right near our hotel.  

We walked over to Tarjeta Roja, and there were maybe 3 other guests there, plus the waitress and the owner.  The owner seemed by all accounts to be an American expat.  We shared loaded fries with chili, cheese, onions, and cilantro.  After the match ended, the owner put on some music using his turntables.  Crystal commented that this guy could watch whatever he wanted on TV, and play whatever music he wanted on the stereo, and he could actually get paid for it (assuming there were guests).  Basically, the bar was a giant living room, with paying guests coming and going.  We hoped he was living his best life.

From there we walked to Plaza de Novios, which we'd seen was a "top site" in Santa Marta, but at least this morning it was a bit underwhelming.  Our next stop was the malecón, which we walked up and down.  Several of our Baselang teachers recommended Santa Marta for the beaches.  The beaches did seem nice, but we have nice beaches right near our house in Puerto, so going somewhere for a beach isn’t likely going to be of much interest to us.  Eventually we got pretty warm, and so we went back to the hotel for some AC (no pun intended).

At 13:00 we met our guide for the afternoon, David, who was full of energy, and very enthusiastic about making sure we were engaged for the tour.  El Tigre was our driver today.  The first stop was Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, a Colonial residence where the owner (or maybe the owner’s son) was tasked with caring for a very sick Simon Bolívar in exchange for paying off a debt that the father had amassed.  Bolívar was sick with tuberculosis, and eventually passed away on the property.  The living (dying?) quarters have been memorialized, and we saw the room he was staying in, plus several other rooms full of historical artifacts.  

There were also multiple statues (one of which looked very different when viewed from the left, the center, and the right), some very nice landscaping, and an adjoining botanic garden.  We saw several iguanas and vultures, plus a black ibis.  As David explained everything to us, he would ask us questions about what we thought something meant, or why something was done, or the significance of X, and Crystal got about 80% of these correct, which really impressed David (and Justin).

Our next stop was at the statue of Carlos Valderrama, a famous Colombian footballer.  David asked if we knew who he was, and Justin said he was on the 1994 team and was famous for his hair - now it was his turn to impress David.  The “hair” on the statue was apparently done by hand, which must have taken forever for whomever crafted the statue.  Then we went to a viewpoint in Taganga, at the north end of town, which has a separate bay and beaches from the part of town we were staying in.  This area was much steeper and rockier, and we just viewed the area from the viewpoint.

Finally we stopped off in Old Town and walked around for a bit.  We saw the “oldest” church in South America, Catedral Basílica de Santa Marta.  The use of “oldest” is a bit of a misnomer, since it has burned down several times and it finally moved locations to be further from the coastline.  The town was much more lively than it had been when we’d walked around at 10:00.  We got back to the hotel around 16:00 or thereabouts, checked in, and chilled out.  Then Justin went to the gym for 30 minutes, as we’d been sitting around a good chunk of the day.

While Justin was in the gym, Crystal looked at a couple of options for dinner, and we decided on Belo, which we’d actually walked past this afternoon with David.  We walked down the malecón (which was now packed) at sunset, then turned inland to have dinner.  It was about 18:30 when we were seated, and we were the only two people in the restaurant.  The bartender actually had her earbuds in, waiting for things to pick up, we guess.  Justin got a dish with beef and fettuccine and roasted tomato sauce, and Crystal got a dish with beef and hummus.  Both  were quite good.  On the way back from dinner we picked up some Ron Medellin 3, to drink with the Coke Zero that Luisa kindly got for us for snacking in the vehicle.  We enjoyed combinados and 2 episodes of White Lotus, which we could cast from our phones to the hotel TV.  After finishing the episodes (and putting our jaws back where they normally are) we went straight to sleep.