Wrapping up Santa Marta

Santa Marta

The city of Santa Marta is a busy dry coastal port city that offers tourists and cargo ships alike a place to set anchor for a while. On the right day with the right mood, a person might see the bustling city as beautiful, the postcards all make it seem so, but at this time of year it seems more like a backwater place of refuge than the pride of the Magdelena Department. 

Yesterday I spent some time in the center trying to find something photogenic and after a few attempts gave up and left. 

I had asked the driver to take me to the cathedral which is fairly plain and could use an uplift on the outside.  It was Sunday so there was a mass in session, but there were tourists taking photos as well. 

After that I walked down Plaza Bolivar, where there were many folks hanging out in the shade of the trees.  The statue of Bolivar (the libertador)  was pretty impressive but I preferred the slightly awkward statues of the local Tairona people, that were placed on the sidewalk entries to the beach. 

Colombia seems to have a complex relationship with their indiegnous populations, some of which still live "traditionally."  I see a lot of people with tattoos that depict Lakota Warriors and statues of Tribes from North America, meanwhile indigenous of Colombia seem to live in the poorest areas, and I have heard many are treated with disdain.  I am not sure what government policies are relating to the varius cultures. 

After walking up and down the beach and taking some selfies, I decided that it was not too late in the day to go to the local national park for a trek. 

I walked quickly through the markets (more later) and caught a buseta (more later) to the entry to the park. I began my walk not at the walking trails but at the road 4 km from the walking paths because no one bothered to explain I could take a bus for a dollar.

This has been a repeated issue in Colombia for me. Either a person gives me innaccurate information (prices, times and locations) or they don't explain something at all.  Its a really aggrevating situation for someone who is on their own.  

Luckily the Colombians have also been incredibly friendly and helpful, so both going into the park and heading out I was picked up by passing motorcyclists (who may have worked for the park) and they gave me thrilling (read terrifying) rides through the bumpy streets with no protection. 

The park is lush and vibrant in comparison to the surrounding areas. The tropical trees, vines, bushes kind of all melt together into living green. The trees are all very tall and wind and twist through the forest. I was surprised how few flowering plants there were, very little fruits, not many other colors besides green stood out and yet it felt very alive. 

The park is home to billions of little lizards that run when you get close. I don't have a single picture because there were so quick, but I heard and saw hundreds along the path. The lizards all look the same in their body type, but come in a variety of colors to fit into the fallen leaves and rocks and bushes. My favorite ones were bright blue and green.  I also saw wild turkeys, a bunch of small birds and monkeys that a passing guide called Titis. The monkeys were my favorite obviously. 

The paths of Parque Tayrona wind through the forest and end at various beaches and camps. Some of the beaches you can swim at others are off limits due to currents. The closes beach I could make it to was one of the off limits ones, but I didn't mind because I needed to leave the park and get back to the hostel before the park closed.  

The beach was beautiful, small waves crashing onto soft whiteish sand. It looked exactly like your image of a caribbean beach, palm trees behind and all.  After recovering from my long walk and the heat of the day I set back to the entrance picking up some trash on the way.

I have talked to other visitors who described a feeling of calm, a feeling of comfort in the park, and I have to say it was quite the spiritual experience. 

I have been going through so many changes in my life these last few weeks/months and it all kind of came out in the park in a lovely way. I was very moved and very grateful to be alone and have the time to process in such  a beautiful living place. 

Markets

In all the guide books they always suggest going to and enjoying public markets, however they can be one of the most shocking places to an american traveler. The guidebooks also always hav a warning about pickpockets. 

A public market can take many different forms. While in college I compared the Bazaars of Turkey to the modern shopping mall and the truth is the same basic layout applies. I have seen markets that only sell one type of goods (for instance flowers), and also markets that have every product under the sun. Of course the varied ones are more fun. 

The market of Santa Marta had a lot of clothes and shoes for sale, but also electronics, fruits and veg, and even thankfully small meat and fish section(I remind you this is an open air market in 90 degree weather). 

There are many ways to enjoy a public market, you can commit to it, walk slowly, check out each stall, look for the best goods and the best prices, haggle with the vendors etc. This method will make a large market take the whole day and probably it is best to speak the language or have company if you take this approach. When I take my time like that it is easy to get overwhelmed. 

My method is similar to how I walk through the mall, fast window shopping. 

My eyes are constantly scanning the goods but not focusing on anything in particular, I keep my hands in my pockets so no one tries anything. I weave through the other customers and ignore the calls from the vendors of sales and such. In the Muslim world they always said "my friend, my friend..." followed by either their pitch or an offer for tea. Here it is too hot, many will just stretch out their arms product in hand and wave it in my face till I say no thanks. 

I usually don't feel volunerable in these types of markets but it is easy to get lost if they stretch through several streets (as the Santa Marta one did). I only take pictures when there isn't a crowd around and dont stop unless I am interested in something specific and then I make sure that I look around first. If someone bumps into you -you have two options, you can check your pocket/purse or you can move and then check them... I would suggest the latter, because often people work in teams. The first alarms you -you check your pockets and the second person knows where the valuable goods are. Also if you do have a bag, purse, wallet, phone you always keep that stuff in front of you. 

Anyway, the market of Santa Marta was actually the highlight of my trip to the center of the city, the high energy, chaos and sheer amount of sensory stimulation was great in comparison to the dry surroundings. 

Busetas

The lovely thing about a buseta is that it doesnt leave until it is full, and even then will continue to fill up until it is more than full. The bus I took out to the park had all of its seats full, several boxes and bags of goods (from the market) including a dishwasher... and backpackers bags who were staying in the park. The aisle was full of people standing.  Every 2-5 minutes we would stop and let more people on or off. I am not sure how they figure out the prices for shorter trips but it was 3 dollars for the trip to the park. On the way back I saw a man demand to pay less money because his trip was shorter, I worried about the fight escalating because there really wasn't anywhere for the other passengers to go if it came to blows.  The buseta has two operators, one guy who stands in the door letting people on and off and collecting money, the other the driver who tries to pay attention when people want to get off.  You are sweating when you get on and have other peoples sweat on you when you get off its sort of an exchange program ; )

 I am not sure what the cut between the two operators would be, but I calculated that if it were an even split the drive back would be about 45$ each (not including maintenance and gas). Seems like a good living assuming you dont get punched for charging someone too much. The bus can make quite a few trips back and forth throughout the day so it could be arguably about 25-30 $ an hour. 

The Hostel

I have been staying at The Dreamer Hostel on the outskirts of Santa Marta. The hostel is really well run and creates an atmosphere of ease and relaxation for a price that is subtly hidden. They put everything on a tab. Its not that it is intentionally misleading, they aren't trying to screw people over, but the prices are just a touch higher than going to the grocery store down the street.  You pay for the ease of not having to worry or decide. You can go on day trips they have set up, you can get transportation to your next hostel -door to door service. You can buy breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks. You can chill at the pool or watch movies. You have no reason to leave, and if you do leave for a few days feel free to leave your heavy bags because they'll have a bed available when you get back. 

The hostel really is a dream. I meant to be here for 2 days and have spent 4 (and today). Partially because of the ease, partially because I took advantage of the neighboring attractions (Minca and the park). I imagine there are others who stay for weeks or months. In fact I know there are because I have met some, and many of the staff members started as guests. 

The room I have been staying in is the cheapest room and everyone knows it is the worst, but everyone has stayed there at least one night... It doesnt have air conditioning, just a couple of fans, so people are usually exhausted or dead drunk when they enter to go to sleep. 

The social atmosphere around here varies, there are people here on business who want to chill by the pool after a day of meetings. There are families on vacation. Couples on their honeymoon. Loads of backpackers from all over the world intent on using the spot as a jump off point for adventure... or a safe place to return to when they are intoxicated.

The local surroundings:

The Park is probably the second biggest attraction in the area. Many people go for days at a time and check out the different beaches. Because it is only accessible by foot or horse, its hard to stay indefinitely. Most folks run out of money or return for supplies. 

THe first destination in the area is a small town and beach with diving schools and a party atmosphere called Taganga. I didn't go because all the people from the hostel who went would get back at 5-6 in the morning after a heavy night of drug use. 

Minca is another destination, a small town in the jungle hills nearby. I went on a day trip but didn't really get to see the town. Instead the trip focused on a local coffee plantation and a waterfall/pool in the area. 

The coffee farm was really cool. It was built in the late 1800s by an English Family but is now owned by a German family. They try to be sustainable and offer fair wages to their workers. I had seen coffee being grown before, but never the process of how it was made. 

Here are some pictures of the machinery.

I was especially impressed by their efforts to be eco-friendly. The processing is completely run on hydroelectric from a local stream that passes through the property. The waste pulp is composted and returned to the soil. 

Lastly there are some ruins in the area called Ciudad Perdida. The trip to see them takes 5 days of hiking, usually in brutal weather but the ruins are said to be amazing. The trip costs about $300. 

Alright so that is my 4.5 days in Santa Marta. I am off to Cartagena this afternoon. I will likely be there for a few days and then head to Medellin. 

In case you were worried I wasn't taking enough selfies

Mike looking crazy on the bus

Mike in villa de leyva square

Mike with country view 

Mike. Barichara?

Mike barichara

Mike I need to shower and there is no shower -face

Mike I haven't eaten and I'm about to eat pasta -face

Pictures of barichara

The town church

My hostel And the view 

Church at night

Barichara streets

Interior of the church 

The town from the hill 

Te view from the hill

Pictures villa de leyva

Shops of villa de leyva

The public square at night

The hitch nearing night time

Monastery? At night

Public square during the day- it's massive 

The church during the day

Spanish style inner courtyard 

Streets of villa de leyva 

The streets literally 

Countryside outside if villa de leyva

Interior of the church, there was a great choir singing 

Thoughts while Traveling

The last few days I have had a lot of time to think, and while it is disgustingly hot and hard to concentrate right now I figured it'd be a good time to share.

I think I will try to break this into sections and then kind of bring it around. Through discussing the various pieces you may get an understanding of what I have seen and been doing the last few days. 

The Exception to the Rule

I have now traveled through several different departments (like states) as well as a few of the different geographic regions. Colombia is known for its biodiversity and I have seen a great deal of birds, bugs and plants that I have never seen before. But because I am a history and geography teacher I'd like to speak for a few minutes about the human-land interaction.

In researching this trip I read a great deal about how the South American peoples had developed a system of human land interaction that was different from everywhere else in the world. In many ways this has worked against them in the history books because people didn't know how to talk about the exception to the rule. "The rule" is that major population centers always develop on large sources of water... usually a navigable river. Mesopotamian cultures have the Tirgis and Euphrates. In India it was the Indus and later the Ganges. In Egypt and Kush the Nile or course. In China the Yellow River and the Yangtzi.  Other cultures and civilizations operated directly on the ocean: Greek and Phoenician ships traded and colonized.  Still others uses small rivers and large lakes or underground water supplies... the Maya and the triple alliance.   If you consider all of the biggest cities in the world they are usully on a river or a natural harbor in the ocean...

Colombia's biggest city is Bogota with a population of 8-10 million. It is on a high plateau that is a valley between the mountains on the east and west.  There is a river, but it is small, and the moutain springs do provide trickles of water, but i do mean trickles (at this point in the season).  The water is treated and drinkable (unlike much of South America), but it is astonishing to have a city this big without a major river.   This is the exception to the rule, and South America is full of cities like this. 

I've been talking to people about this though no one seems to notice until I bring it up. How does a city with 9 million people deal with waste? Get enough fresh water not only for drinking and sanitation, but for industrial use? for agricuture?   

On my journey north, I stopped in two small mountain towns that were also not directly on rivers.

Colonial Towns

Villa de Leyva was founded in 1572 (that is before there were English Colonies in the Americas). It is a small beautiful town in the mountains. The streets are made of stones that have their flattest side up (but it still very uneven), the gaps are filled in by sand, cement and dog/horse manure. It has an extremely large public square in the traditional Spanish style with a church on one side and bars, shops, restaurants on the other sides.  The people gather in the square at night and talk, or listen to music, or eat icecream or watch the dogs be dogs. 

The town has some museums, but they are hardly worth seeing, the thing to see and experience is the town itself. To sit and watch the clouds hover over the mountains that surround the town. Or to take hikes in the parks near by.  

It is now a thriving tourist destination but historically it was always a retreat for the well to do. A place of beauty for spanish lords to relax or politick. 

Barichara is another Colonial town in a different region, made with different color bricks and perhaps not as posh. Its a small town that is on the rise, but still beholden to the smalltown realities. I stayed at a hostel that looked like a beautiful villa on the outside but was rather rustic on the interior. The unfinished bathroom allowed for views of the surrounding hills as did the balconies and though a bit like camping in the city.. the views were surely worth it. Barichara has less tourist amenities, they are still working on getting wifi, but there are plenty of Internet cafes. The town has few restaurants but has a tremendous amount of artist shops with beautiful products. and like Villa de Leyva if you stop by at the right time you can see the artists or craftspeople making the products... it has a real authentic feel.

One of the issues with heading off to a small town is that you tend to not have access to other travelers. So in the case of these small towns, I got to see these beautiful sites, but had very few people to share the experience with.

Spanish

My Spanish is abysmal, its worse than it has been in the past and because I am trying to balance learning about a lot of different things, it has been difficult to put in a concerted effort to learn... and I am trying, I am trying to learn and to speak more. I've spent a lot of time listening to conversations and the radio, and reading signs, but it is still very difficult to communicate. I am thinking I better buy some spanish books or something to help the process along, because the tools I have with me all require internet which I don't have on long bus rides or in small towns or when I am out and about...

Bus Travel

I basically spent the majority of the last two days on buses. The trip to Villa de Leyva was beautiful but cramped and required several hours on winding roads through the forested and grassy hills. 

To get to Barichara I had to backtrack to a town called Tunja then go to a town called San Gil (pronounced San Hil) then on to Barichara.Yesterday to get to Santa Marta I woke up early took  5 am bus that stopped at San Gil, then went to Bucaramanga (3.5 hours) then took a 9:30 bus that was supposed to take 9-11 hours (the book says 9, I was estimating 11) but actually got in at 10:30, and besides the normal delays of traffic, construction and random stops to let people on and off... we dealt with a protest about 45 minutes from Santa Marta which took the form of some locals barricading themselves and the road in order to negotiate for access to electricity. This delayed us for about 1.5 hours or so. 

The Land

I wish I could describe the land in a better way. In Bogota I was struck by the idea that the local mountains were still forested. I don't know if this is due to protections for the local envrionment or because the wood isnt good for building but its strange to have such prominent vegitation so close to a major city. 

The land near Villa de Leyva was similar, but extraordinarily beautiful in the patchwork of colors of the grasses, brush and trees. It wasn't tropical looking but rather like a very green version of Black hills or Wyoming. The valleys were full of little farms that people worked collectively on, potato farms cut into the hills, they were also growing onions and corn and what seemed like root veggies. The cows looked fat, there were sometimes sheep and horses. 

On the way to Barichara I noticed the landscape changing, the humidty rising the tropical plants, the palms etc. The soil looked red and orange rather than dark or dusty as it had before.

The people were growing fruit, tons of corn, plants that looked lush and green... then we headed into the hills and mountains (Barichara is higher up) but everything still looked vibrant and green. The people used the red clay to make fantastic red pottery and bricks for their houses. 

As we came down from the mountains into the plains, the wetlands, the plains, the wetlands... I sort of felt a feeling of dismissal for the towns in the hot low country. I imagine the Spanish did too, and the tropical plants, though vibrant probably gave them the same sense of danger that they do for me. 

The wetlands are being restored (My seatmate on the bus was helping recreate the natural biodiversity), but it was clear the fields had been drained to create pastures for cows. The cows looked thinner (more like african cows with the humps). The small towns had no reference points, 1 story high buildings in a grid pattern with trees that had been planted for shade from the brutal heat. Each street looked exactly alike and it made me uneasy just to look at them.

The pastures of course dried up in some places so it looks like a desert, not inviting, hot, humid and yet dusty.

The Economy and Class

When I was staying in Bogota I was told to not go to the south part of town where it is poorer and more dangerous for travelers and wealthy locals.   The areas I saw looked prosperous, people looked healthy, educated, fond of consumerism. While traveling out of town I saw lots of new construction projects ( a sign of a growing economy), I saw new construction equipment, new buses and cars. Later  I saw greenhouses and farm equipment and irrigation. There were many homeless people but in a city that big I'd expect that.

As I was heading towards the colonial cities I started seeing more communal farming which makes sense in the hills with tough labor intensive crops. But in Villa de Leyva I saw a lot of high end products, the buildings all looked kept up, there were newer areas  of the town that looked fancy and beautful. 

Leading into Barichara I started seeing signs of economic issues, but not out of the ordinary. Farm buildings falling apart (as they do in Minnesota too), some unfinished buildings (perhaps just because of the heat).  

The nightlife in Barichara was a little uncomfortable for me. Similar to Villa de Leyva the people came out to the public squares, the stoops on the streets etc... but there seemed to be a lot more drinking to the point of oblivion than casual drinking. Drinking like people were trying to forget their problems and it was much more ubiquitous. Perhaps the sign of a deeper despair? or maybe just something to do in a  town with very little entertainment. 

In the lowlands I saw a tremendous amount of what looked to me like rural poverty. I don't want to judge or assume and so I asked the guy on the bus I was talking to.  I am not exactly sure my assumption is right but I will try to describe it.

 On the side of the major highway (1 lane each way) there are buildings. They are approximately 10 feet by 10 feet, all 1-2 rooms. You can tell how many rooms because the buildings are not finished. Many of them have 3 walls or partial roofs. They have no glass in the windows. The roofs are made of corrugated metal, the walls are either made of cement blocks or that same metal. This is a common adaptation to hot climates so on this alone I wouldn't presume necessarily that the people are poor. 

Next to many of these houses are piles of garbage, spare parts, etc. (not untypical in the US)  But here is where I started to wonder... behind these houses are fields, pastures for cows and horses. The fences are immaculate and kept up. They have barbed wire in rows across the posts of wood or in some cases metal.  

In my head I think of the spanish system of the encomienda. 

An encomienda was similar to a fief, a granting of land to a lord. THe land came with the local resources including the people.  They were not slaves, they were the peasants the serfs.  They were under the jurisdiction of the lord in that area. 

At the beginning of the industrial revoluton in England the peasants were kicked off the land because new farming techniques and technology had made them economically useless and dependent. THey were kicked off the land and fences were put up to keep them off. THey went to the city and found jobs in factories. Similarly in the Spanish colonial lands the peasants were kicked off the land, this lead to revolutions in many places but the class system was restablished and the landowners kept their lands, while the poor were sent to the city (8-9 million in Bogota).  In my head I see the workers, the people who build the fences, look after the horses and cows... and then are asked to leave the property at the end of the day to go live in their shelters. Raise families without fresh water or plumbing, protest for electricity from the government occasionally shutting down highways or joing armed revolutionaries. They live on the side of the highway in view of everyone. But they don't own the cows or the horses or the land. They reside there, sometimes move what little they have, take jobs where they can. Hope their children have better options in the future. 

There are many rules in place and I dont know them, but they separate and create distinctions between the people. I am accidentally falling into some, but my skin and foreigness give me an out. I am seen as smart even though I cant speak the language and people think its odd that I would take the bus...

These kinds of things make me wonder where I will feel comfortable teaching and make me question my values -consdering they sometimes conflict with my feeling of security.  I feel like I am ruling places out like Bogota which is too big, and Santa Marta which is too hot, and the wetlands and Barichara which are "too underdeveloped" for me. Its strange to openly recognize your own class issues.