This is the final leg of my first contract on board Silver Sea. Take a look at our itinerary! This is the Christmas repositioning cruise where we will traverse the Panama Canal.
December 20th, 2012 was our final embarkation day in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. After two days at sea, we found ourselves in Colombia at the port of Santa Marta. Truly, it's nothing more than a cargo port. Sometimes, six star luxury doesn't have an effect on the land you arrive in, but no matter. After a quick shuttle ride, I was at the beach.
And it was a pretty long beach.
December 23, 2012
Santa Marta, Colombia
I walked all the way along the beach and then all the way down the pier and found many of the local boys doing what they do best.
The kid can climb.
<Splash!>
By now, I had reached the end of the pier and had my fill of kids jumping into the water, so I went back the way I came.
We're Colombia. Our statues can beat up your statues.
Colombian Biker Gang?
I decided to take a chance and walk away from the beach and see if anything could be found. I was really glad that I did this because the pay off ended up being pretty big. It was a completely difference scene. Suddenly, I found myself on the busiest street I had been on in my entire past six months.
And I found these things: Arepas. "The arepa is a flat, round, unleavened patty made of maizemeal or flour
which can be grilled, baked, boiled, fried, steamed, etc. The
characteristics vary by color, flavor, size, and the food with which it
may be stuffed, depending on the region. Arepa is a native sort
of bread made of ground maize (or flour), water, and salt which is fried
into a thick bread. It can be topped or filled with meat, eggs,
tomatoes, salad, cheese, shrimp, or fish depending on the meal.
Breakfast egg or cheese are the most common arepa fillings. There are
several recipes for fillings."
Thank you Wikipedia.
Arepas
I'm still kicking myself for not trying them. I think I had just eaten on the ship. Oh well, "Next time," I said. And you know what happened? The next time I came back here on my next contract on the Silver Spirit, I had IPM. So, the next time that I say, "Next time," I'm doing it.
More Arepas
Here's a video of the busy market streets.
Oh, and Mario is really big right now in Santa Marta, Colombia.
It's so...1985.
I wish I could come back in two years when they get The Legend of Zelda.
Foghorn Leghorn finally gets to represent something.
When I was finally done experiencing the market street, I cut back towards the direction of the ship.
Found another church. Let's see what's inside.
Vacation Bible School?
Found another Catholic Jesus in a box.
Santa Marta is not a tourist town. Not in the least. You know what it is? At best it's a cargo port that happens to be the nearest available port to those who have been sailing from Florida for two days. This has it's pluses and minuses. The obvious minus is that it doesn't have everything you'd expect from a port like good restaurants, amazing tours, and free wifi. But the cool thing about it is that you get to see how the regular people normally live. And that's kind of cool in it's own way.
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