Santa Marta, Columbia

April 15, 2008 Tuesday
Somewhere in the Atlantic – heading to Santa Marta, Columbia
Day at sea…and a lazy day at that. We got up later than normal and after breakfast, Suzi and I were going to go swimming and try out the huge water slide..however, it was windy and our calm seas have turned just a little bit bouncy, so we abandoned that idea and just laid out in the sun. Al chose to sit out on the room balcony.
After lunch all of us went to see the movie “I am legend” with Will Smith. Suzi and I lasted about a third of the movie and left…to icky for us! Besides, I was too afraid the dog in the movie was gonna’ die and I would be upset!!! So we both did what all good, seasoned cruisers do..we took a nap. Hmmmm-I think I am beginning to relax..what a concept for me! I COULD GET USED TO THIS!

Tonight is “formal picture night”….but not for us. We decided to opt out for tonight and will just go to the dining room for dinner. I have to say, compared to Princess, the food on this ship is much, much better. I even had a decent cheeseburger at lunch today! The last one I had on a cruise tasted more like shoe leather.

We dined in the Summer Palisades Dining Room tonight…a large dining room but unlike most cruise ships which usually have tables for 8 or more, this ship has tables for 2, 4, 6 and 8 or more if you request it. I had beef wellington, which was excellent. Al had the orange duck and he said his was very good, not as good as Pat Voss’ duck, but good. And I had a glass of wine with dinner and so far, no repercussions from it!



After dinner we went to the show and tonight it was a comedian. He was in our age group and was very y funny for us…we understood his kind of comedy. After the show Jack and Suzi took a walk around the ship, but Al and I came back to the room – Al’s knees are bothering him tonight. We want him to be ready to see Santa Marta, Columbia tomorrow.
So until then…goodnight.

April 16, 2008 Wednesday

Santa Marta, Columbia

The ship docked this morning around 7:00 in Santa Marta. Not much to see from our stateroom door with the exception of some commercial cargo ships.

After a quick breakfast we were off on our Historical Tour of Santa Marta. After finding the bus and squeezing into the seats (I swear the seats are getting smaller!) we were off. First thing they did was take us up a mountain and over to a tourist resort of El Rodadero—very modern and nice, but we don’t stop, just drive through it. Then we drove through Santa Marta…typical Mexican town I thought…I could have been in San Luis or Nogales. And I observed that the dogs here all seem to the same breed…just different colors…brown, black, tan, gray and dirt! And the country side seems to be littered with, well, lots of litter! Plastic bags hanging off of trees and fences and trash everywhere. Just not clean.

Next stop was the “Museo del Oro Tairona” – the gold museum, which houses not only gold pieces made by the Tayrona culture 1500 BC…yup, before Christ, but ancient pottery and artifacts. Since our tour guide didn’t speak the best English, I tuned him out and wandered by myself for a while. But I did see the gold…wow! Then we walked (taking our lives in our own hands against the traffic) to the Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral in Columbia; and by the way, Santa Marta is the oldest city in Columbia, founded in 1525. But back to the Cathedral….it was build in the Renaissance style and was pretty remarkable. And it was cool inside! A plus for today.




A word about the weather here…it is hot, muggy, humid, hot, etc. However, this is the end of their summer, which temps can get up to 110 and humidity of 99%...er, no thanks. However, winter is just beginning here (May to Nov) and the temps will be in the 80s and the humidity drops to 70%! It was hot and humid here today…Jack, Al and I were soaking wet…Suzi must be cold blooded, she shed not one drop of sweat! I think she is part reptile!

Back to the tour…. After leaving the Cathedral, back on the bus, we discover that the bus driver has no idea where he is going next as he and the tour guide are not from here but from Cartagena, our stop for tomorrow. Apparently there weren’t enough buses or English speaking tour guides here. After getting directions we headed to the small fishing village of Taganga---and for the life of me I don’t know why…again we just drove through it, no explanation, or talk about its importance to the tour. We did stop and at a view point up on the mountain (and by this time Jack, Suzi and I had decided we had done this in Greece as well…but in Greece the bus driver and tour guide were good, this bus driver isn’t the best either) – Jack got out to take a picture, but the rest of us stayed on the bus as there were plenty of vendors to sell us “jewelry” made by hand! No thanks!

Our last stop is at La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino, a beautiful hacienda, where Simon Bolivar, The Liberator spent his last days and died here. Yes, the grounds are beautiful…big banyan tree complete with Iguana’s on them, Myna birds everywhere and beautiful flowers. The grounds even had their own distillery which they made rum from sugar cane.

Also here is the Emerald Museum…very small museum, but with it of course, is a jewelry shop dealing specifically in emeralds. Al and I had decided this morning if we could find a nice emerald ring at a reasonable price we would buy one. I haggled and haggled and finally got the dealer down to a price I could afford for a emerald ring! Thank you Al! He was dealing on a stone, but couldn’t get the dealer down below $220 per karate on a 10 karate stone….nope.

After we left there is was back to the ship…and lunch please. But before we got on board we did buy some Columbian coffee…but not from Juan Valdez. An interesting port, but not one I would visit again.

We had dinner at Cagney’s Steakhouse tonight and it was superb! However, I couldn’t begin to eat it all…I was still full from lunch. Then we went to the show – Showgirl Revue and it was good. After the show we decided to go up to Spinnaker’s Lounge to catch the comedian again…he was really funny. When we got back to the room we found this little bunny on our bed.



Tomorrow is Cartagena and since we have already been there we aren’t taking a tour or getting off the ship