Caribbean Blue

After the Amazon, I had no choice but to fly in order to connect with the rest of Colombia. I decided to fly directly to the northern Caribbean coastal city of Santa Marta where I would start volunteering. I will talk more about my volunteering in the next post, but now I will enlighten you on Santa Marta and its surrounding area. Santa Marta is popular for Colombian tourism. Its surrounding area contains pristine beaches including Parque Nacional Tayrona. Santa Marta the city is the oldest in South America. All that being said, the truth is the city of Santa Marta (not without charm) is a dump. The residents of Santa Marta live in a dirty, crime-ridden city that has largely been untouched by the wealth of tourism in the area. My first night in Santa Marta was an interesting one. I was shut in when all the streets turned into an impression of Venice as garbage and raw sewage washed away into the sea. These types of floods are not usual for Santa Marta, but this year has had so much rain that when the rain comes off the over soaked Sierra Nevada, the city of Bolivar becomes a flood plain.

While I was in Santa Marta for quite a long time, the majority of that time was spent volunteering so I really only got a small amount of time to see the area. I did have the chance to go to the famous Parque Nacional Tayrona. The beaches are paradise. The park earns its reputation from being as beautiful as you could imagine the Caribbean could be.

Note the crab in the last photo.