Santa Marta Day 319 03/08/2015

As overnight journeys go the bus last night was probably the best we've had so far on our travels. The road was certainly very windy but we managed to stay in our seats for the full journey and even got a few hours sleep. We'd read that it gets extremely cold on the bus and we were certainly glad that we packed our duvets in our hand luggage, crazy at it might seem as we headed towards the Caribbean. We stopped at lots of places on route to pick up/drop off passengers and had the usual array of street sellers join the bus. We arrived in Santa Marta just after 0730 and felt the heat as soon as the driver opened the door. A short taxi ride and we arrived at Casa Amani, a lovely retreat in the middle of what seems to be quite a hectic city (even at 0730), and somewhere that we thought would be a good place to stay both after the bus and when we return from our jungle trek. After a cup of Colombian coffee to help wake us up we headed out to book our trek to Cuidad Perdida (Lost City) before finding a lovely cafe for breakfast (and more coffee!). Back at the b&b we were lucky in that our room was ready and we were able to shower and change. Neither of us have seen the Caribbean Sea before so we walked down to the front to take in the view. The bay is quite pretty although squashed between two ports, and there's a good view of El Morro, a small rocky island offshore. We needed to stock up on a few provisions so from here walked into the main shopping area. The streets were chaos made even more unbearable by the heat. Luckily it didn't take us long and, after stopping on route for refreshments, we were soon back enjoying the tranquility of the b&b. We ventured out again mid afternoon for a snack and more coffee and then took advantage of the very small pool at the b&b to cool off. In the evening we went to Ouzo, a Greek/Italian restaurant and had a wonderful meal washed down with a bottle of red, sat outside in the evening warmth. Back at the b&b we looked forward to a good nights sleep in our air conditioned, quiet room with a huge comfy bed. It couldn't be more different to our last few nights in San Gil!