Santa Marta is a lovely town. It is big enough to offer plenty of things to see and do and still small enough to be easy to walk around in. I stayed for 9 days at the very affordable and charming Hotel Nueva Granada ($24). This hotel has 20 rooms that aren't big enough to include children. This was a welcome change. Like many hotels, there is a pool and, usually, it would be crowded with kids splashing and howling with laughter all day long. I like children but sometimes it is nice to have a quieter stay.
Santa Marta marina
I had a few things to take care of while in a bigger city. One thing I've been anxious to do is have a full blood work panel done as well as to check my thyroid hormone levels. This is so much easier and cheaper outside the US. I make sure to do it as often I think I need while traveling. Since I started following the Ketogenic diet 2 months ago I was especially interested to see if there were any changes. I found a very professional lab within walking distance of my hotel. They charged $27, drew the blood right away and I was told to expect results by email the next afternoon. The results arrived as promised and all levels were perfect. This is always a big relief.
Santa Marta city and marina
Funny hotel kitten
Hotel pool
Another thing I wanted to do was get my laundry done. I have so few clothes that I typically hand wash whatever I wore for the day in the shower using shampoo for detergent. It had been a month since my clothes last saw a machine. The hotel had laundry service and I paid $2.50 for a kilo which was much cheaper than anywhere else I had my laundry done. Until this experience, laundry had been one of the most expensive services in Colombia. The last time I had it done I was charged $15 - huge difference.
Having a chat
Recycling truck
Making friends flying the drone
Santa Marta is the 1st real touristic city I have been to since leaving Bogotá. Even Bucaramanga and Valledupar, which are both bigger cities, really only offered tourism for Colombians. Everywhere else, except tiny Palomino which was really only a backpacker's pueblo, there has been no English spoken. The hotel Nueva Granada had people staying from many countries. I met another women who was also traveling solo. Annamarie is German and had taken a freighter ship to Colombia. She is traveling for 10 months without taking an airplane. Santa Marta was her 1st port. We visited many places together. It was a welcome change to have company especially with someone who speaks English.
Street art
Hojuelas vendor
Minca church
Annamarie and I took a bus to the mountain pueblo of Minca. This town is known for hiking as well as being in a coffee growing region. To get the most out of the area it is best to stay for a few days but we only went for the day. It is an easy $2.50 van ride from the mercado publico in el centro Santa Marta and takes less than an hour. On the way up we had wonderful views of Santa Marta and the ocean. We took a hike higher up to visit 2 waterfalls. This was on a road rather than a path and some of it was paved. The road mostly went next to a babbling creek. We were passed by lots of motorbikes taking tourists to see the waterfalls and other attractions higher up into the mountains. The waterfalls were beautiful and both also had swimming holes. If I had known I would have brought a bathing suit. I love these natural swimming places and the water was very clear with lots of blooming flowers growing all around. Walking back down the hill, a truck passed and offered us a ride. That was very thoughtful and sure saved us some time getting back to town.
View from above the falls in Minca
Coffee flowers
Simon Bolivar, liberator of Colombia, in repose
We also went to a big historic complex in Santa Marta called La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino. The bus ride there was highly amusing. I was sitting in the last row behind the rear exit. A guy standing in the stairway kept shooting snot rockets out the open door. An older woman sitting across from him was cleaning papers out of her purse throwing each unwanted piece out the bus door as if it was the most natural thing. Clearly this was not something unusual as no one else paid her any mind. My eyes got very big watching this pair in front of me. Every time we stopped to pick up passengers, or at a light, vendors would board the bus to sell water, trinkets or food. These guys would yell whatever they were selling very loudly over and over until the bus took off again. At La Quinta, there is a museum, monument, hacienda and botanical garden on an estate where Simon Bolivar lived and died. Simon Bolivar is considered the liberator of Colombia. In fact, he was a revolutionary who brought independence to Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Peru from the Spanish around 1830. The 5 countries were called Gran Colombia. The entrance fee for the complex was quite high at 22,000 cop ($7 for foreigners). Considering the history of the place, it was also very run down. Many of the paths were not being maintained and the botanical gardens were in desperate need of attention. We did see quite a few birds which was nice. The paths also had a lot of pictures of possible bird sightings stapled to the trees. It probably took an hour to walk through the whole complex and then we hopped on another, less eventful, bus back to the hotel.
Hacienda of Simon Bolivar
Iguana posing
Updating Youtube at a 5-star hotel restaurant
Wifi has been a huge problem for me all through Colombia but it's has been especially poor since reaching the coast. Often upload speeds are impossibly slow, like dial-up modems used to be. Colombia really needs to invest in their internet. My little 5-7 minute Youtube videos can take 24 hours to upload. It's possible that Colombia has the worst internet of any country I have visited especially for uploading. I had really expected that being in a larger city meant the speed would improve but, no, my hotel wifi was just as slow as the wifi in very small pueblos. Someone told me about a phone app, Speedtest, where, once connected to a wifi network, the app tests the download and upload speeds. This saves a lot of time and wasted meals only ordered because I want to use their wifi. I used the app at many cafes and restaurants. Consistently, the download speeds were acceptable but the upload speeds were next to nothing. Finally, I went to a 5-star hotel restaurant, Don Pepe. I figured there is no way anyone will pay the higher room prices and not be able to get work done. I brought my laptop and my videos uploaded very fast, like normal. This is a technique I'll remember in the future. Of course, not all towns have 5-star hotels with restaurants.
Video about the people who makes things from the money of Venezuela
Worthless Venezuela bolivars made into handbags and wallets
While I was in Santa Marta I also visited the beach communities of Taganga and El Rodedero. Luckily, when I visited Taganga the winds were calm enough that I could fly my drone but the day I went to El Rodedero the winds were so strong walking along the beach was hard. I was completely coated in sand and needed a shower to clean up when I returned to the hotel. Even still, it was very beautiful.
Taganga bay and mountains
Taganga fishing boats
Fishermen ready to go out and work
The other thing that happened while I was in Santa Marta was that I made a very important health discovery. I've written before about how I started intermittent fasting and the Ketogenic diet while on this tour. Kind of a strange thing to do while on tour but that's what happened. People lose lots of weight quickly on Keto, and I do have weight to lose, but my real motivation was to eliminate chronic inflammation. For years and years I have tried to figure out why my feet and ankles so often swell up after eating. I have tried eating vegan, low fat and gluten-free which all offered benefits but the inflammation has continued to be a problem. For the 1st few weeks of doing Keto I had no inflammation and was thrilled. But when I arrived at the coast, the inflammation returned. I was really bummed. Because the inflammation always happens after I eat, I have always assumed it is caused by an allergic reaction to something I'm eating. I couldn't imagine what had changed now that I was at the coast but the inflammation was actually worse than I ever remembered it being. Usually the swelling goes down after a few hours and now it was taking all day and sometimes my ankles were still swollen the next morning. I went to the kitchen staff at the hotel to ask if there was some new ingredient they were cooking with that perhaps is special to the region. They showed me everything they had cooked breakfast with and there was nothing unusual. I was stumped.
El Rodedero beach
Very old pedal boats - pedals are made of wood.
El Rodedero swimming area
But then, I remember that a few days earlier I had arrived at the hotel in Albania completely exhausted after a very difficult day riding in a strong headwind. At the end of the ride I was so nauseous that I thought I was going to throw-up. I spent 3 nights at this very expensive hotel to recover. The last day, it occurred to me that I was low in electrolytes and that was what made me feel so sick. I added more salt and, sure enough, I quickly felt better. With that realization, I added salt to all my meals to make sure I had adequate electrolytes. Remembering back on this, it started to dawn on me that, perhaps, the problem I was having with inflammation was actually edema. I now had too much salt in my system causing water retention. It made sense that the inflammation was happening after every meal because there is always salt in the food which meant I was adding salt to my body which already had too much salt.
Video about my health discovery
and thoughts about Keto with intermittent fasting
Coffee man, Santa Marta
Street orange juicer
At the hotel in Santa Marta, I asked the cooks to make me soft boiled eggs for breakfast and I had salads for my second meal. Sure enough, the inflammation started coming down. I was feeling sheepish and embarrassed that it took me so long to figure out this issue. Edema and water retention is such a common problem. I have always thought of myself as a very healthy eater and couldn't imagine that I would suffer from edema. But, it also occurred to me that even at home, my go-to meal is stir-fry where my favorite seasoning is tamari -which is a gluten-free soy sauce alternative and full of sodium. Apparently, my system is more sensitive to salt than I realized. The good news is I now know the symptoms of too little salt and too much salt. Hopefully, I'll be able to regulate this better going forward. And in the last 10 days since making this discovery, my feet and ankles have been skinny again - woohoo!!
Looking back at Santa Marta from the climb
Finally, I pulled myself away from sweet little Santa Marta making my way to Cienaga. Aside from one good size climb out of Santa Marta into El Rodedero it was a very easy ride along the ocean. I had a strong tailwind too. Everyone I had asked about Cienaga said it was a nothing town but, as so often happens, I discovered it was another sweet town. There were lots of trici pedal-powered taxis which gave it additional charm. I found a fabulous historic boutique hotel for $50. Ciénaga was close enough to Santa Marta and even bigger Baranquilla that there really wasn't much reason for people to stop here. I was surprised to find such a nice hotel. There were a few other guests that were on organized tours who were equally surprised to find this small town as part of their itinerary. For someone like me who has to take whatever the road offers, finding such a quaint and comfortable hotel in a small town is a welcome surprise.
Very nice walkway up the climb out of Santa Marta
On the way down into El Rodedero
I was also very excited when I was invited to go on a bird watching boat tour. This is something I've been wanting to do since arriving in Colombia. Supposedly, Colombia has more birds than any other country in the world. A tour guide came to the hotel and he explained that a van would pick me up with a couple of other hotel guests the following morning and we would spend 4 hours bird-watching by boat and then visit a pueblo where the houses are all on stilts above the water. This sounded fantastic.
Hotel El Ciénaga
Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. The hotel guests got sick and had to cancel. The guide tried to get me on 2 more tours but those fell through as well. Maybe there would be something similar I could find in Barranquilla.
Church and plaza, Ciénaga
Hotel cook with her sweet puppy taking me on a tour of Ciénaga
Beach soccer matches at sunset
Trici taxis of Ciénaga
Again, the next morning another tour guide tried to get something organized but that didn't happen either. Since the tours fell through, there wasn't a reason to stay any longer and I got packed up. It was around 10:30 by the time I left which is quite late for me. I had another surprise when I opened Googlemaps to discover the distance to Barranquilla was 71 kms instead of the 35 I was expecting. The route appeared to be very flat and, so far, going down the coast I've had a good tailwind so I figured I would arrive later than usual but not too late.
Crocodiles feature prominently in Ciénaga
Beautiful views riding out of Ciénaga
The ride was gorgeous. The road was on a thin spit of land between the ocean and a giant lagoon. In between the trucks passing I could hear the waves crashing on the beach. At first there were lots of small, very poor towns that were in the middle of a salt mine. But then I was on a toll road and the land was completely uninhabited. Occasionally, I would see a few people fishing but there was very little going on. Interestingly, I had 4 people stop to ask if needed anything. The 1st man I couldn't understand. The next car was a couple who offered me a to-go container of soup. I was flying my drone at the time and I really need to concentrate when I'm flying. Of course, they couldn't tell what I was doing but I had to stop my video to talk to them. After that a van full of ladies who I met at the hotel recognized me and stopped. I was actually running low on water but all they had was Pedialyte. I took it. And then a group of road workers offered me water from a garrafon. The timing was perfect as I was just about to run out. I continued on in confidence.
Road workers who offered me water
Beautiful bird
Fisherman on a very breezy afternoon
Drone shot of the fabulous scenery
Crossing the bridge into Barranquilla
This spit of land I was riding on was probably 35 miles long and ends at a bridge crossing the Rio Magdalena into Barranquilla. I took the old bridge and watched as a new bridge is being constructed high above. Once I entered Barranquilla I pulled over to find a route to a recommended hotel. While I was looking at the map 2 motorcycle policemen stopped to find out where I was going. I showed them the route and they both said going that way was a bad idea. They said the route goes through an area of Barranquilla so dangerous they won't even go there. Oh, wow! They offered to escort me along a safer route. I explained that I am a very slow cyclist but that didn't worry them.
Police escort helping me fix a flat
I was very happy to have these guys show me the way especially when shortly after we started out I got a rear flat tire. This would not only be the 1st flat of the trip but also the 1st flat on the rear wheel since I had the Rohloff installed about 2 years ago. I think this was my 1st flat in over 2 years. Oh boy! I watched many videos how to change a rear flat with the Rohloff and Jonathan at Rose City Recumbents had showed me how to removed the wheel when it was installed. But this was all a long time ago and now I would have to remember what I had learned. I did remember to put the Rohloff in the 1st gear. Getting the wheel off wasn't too bad especially since I had a policeman helping to lift the rear of the trike. I also quickly found the piece of glass causing the flat. Getting the piece of glass out of the tire was extremely difficult. I tried digging it out with a pair of tweezers I have in my repair kit but I could get to it. Then the policemen used a pair of pliers to fold the tire tightly making the hole with the piece of glass bigger. I still couldn't get to it. Finally, he used a pocket knife and managed to dig it out. Wow did that take a long time. It was as if we were doing a complicated surgery. I patched the puncture and then came time to put the wheel back on. I couldn't figure it out. I hardly ever get flats and it is even rarer that I have a rear flat. I've been touring for 12 years and probably haven't changed more than a 6 rear flats in all these years. I simply couldn't remember how to put the chain back on the cassette. Then 2 more policemen arrived and one of them figured it out. They got an emergency call and took off with sirens blaring before the job was done but I was able to complete the reinstall from where they left it. I was so relieved when I got the Rohloff side piece to snap back on and then was able to click through the gears like normal. The real question was whether the flat tire repair would hold.
Police blocking traffic so I can make a left turn safely
We continue on with another 5 miles to go and the sun was setting. Occasionally, one or 2 more policemen would join us. They all turned on the flashing lights and sometimes their sirens when we went through intersections. At one point there were lots of policemen in the middle of an intersection. I couldn't tell or understand what was happening. As I got closer, I realized they had all been called ahead and were blocking traffic so I could safely make a left turn. This was all for me - oh my, was this incredible. Everyone was getting a huge kick out of the trike and I was crying with laughter. Barranquilla sure knew I had arrived. Eventually, my police escort got me safely to my recommended hotel. The poor guys really had to use the bathroom and so our goodbyes were cut short. This was an amazing experience and one I would never forget.
Hotel El Prado, Barranquilla
A classic old 5-star hotel
The hotel that was recommended turned out to be the most famous in Barranquilla. Hotel El Prado is a grand old historic 5-star. Who recommends a 5-star without a warning? This really is a beautiful place and, since I'm turning 60 in a few days, it felt like the perfect hotel to celebrate and I got myself checked in for 4 nights.
Your adventures are so awesome hope the rest of your ride is excellent!! Sadly I will NEVER get to travel like you but the "let us ride along" is very appreciated! Have a most excellent day! :)
Great story of your travels.
ReplyDeleteYour adventures are so awesome hope the rest of your ride is excellent!! Sadly I will NEVER get to travel like you but the "let us ride along" is very appreciated! Have a most excellent day! :)
ReplyDelete