I woke up in Barranquilla. The hotel I found was nice. I stayed up a bit late working, and didn’t really get to sleep in. When i got up, I made my way downstairs to the restaurant, was handed a menu, and the only word I recognized was “egg”. I asked the waiter what he recommended, and he brought it to me: 2 scrambled eggs with ham, 4 pieces of toast, FRESH pineapple juice and hot chocolate. After eating, he handed me the bill; $6,500.00 PESOS (about $3.40 US .. including tip). I could get use to this!
I decided to wonder the streets a bit. Everywhere you look there are people selling fresh fruit. I got a large cup of sliced watermelon for $1,000 PESOS ($.60). It was delicious! I walked around for a bit, then decided to make my way to Santa Marta. I stopped by a bank on my way back to the hotel, but it was a bit shady. I figured it’d be better to just have my cab driver take me somewhere.
I had 3 stops to make. 1) A bank to get more cash. 2) Post Office: To ship my paraglider. 3) Bus terminal. I looked up each one on google translate, wrote them down, packed my stuff, and made my way outside. The hotel office clerk called me cab, and said it would be $20,000 PESOS ($11 USD) for all 3 stops.
First stop was the bank. I withdrew some money, then we went to Serventreiga (post office). My cab driver, who is Mormon and loved that I came from Salt Lake City, came inside to help me ship it. He did all of the communication. After that, he dropped me off at the bus terminal.
I grabbed the first bus I could find to Santa Marta. It ended up being $10,000 PESOS ($5.5 US). I walked around for a bit, PAID to use the bathroom ($700 PESOS), and bought some water/chocolate. On my way out to boarding the bus a cute girl asked if she could have my chocolate bar (she was an employee for the bus company). I handed it over, and we split it!
The bus was pretty small. It took about 2.5 hrs to get from Barranquilla to Santa Marta. Once I got to the bus terminal in Santa Marta, I grabbed a cab to the hostel I had picked out.
This hostel wasn’t as nice as the first one, but also not as expensive. I ended up paying $20,000 PESOS for a single room for the night. It’s quite small, but sufficient; just a single bed, a dresser and a small bathroom.
Knowing it would be getting dark soon, I decided to go find some food. The front desk clerk pointed me in the direction of food, and off I went. I found a place, but they had no menus, and no one spoke English. I was able to tell her to “bring me something good”. She brought me a bowl of stew, followed by a huge plate of chicken, potatoes, salad, rice and noodles. The noodles, potatoes and chicken had a flavor to them I’ve never tasted before. I could only eat 1/2 3/4 of it before I was full. The huge meal, including a cerveza (beer) was $10,000 PESOS ($5.50 US). I’m sure I paid a bit more because I couldn’t speak Spanish!
I came back, took a nap, and went to take a shower. The sink, and the shower aren’t working, so I guess I’ll have to wait on that! I’m still debating if I want to head out tonight or not. We will see.
Dan arrives tomorrow!
