06.26.03
Travel to Santa Marta
Thursday June 26 – Bogotá and Santa Marta
This morning we got up early and got to the airport so we could catch a plane to the beautiful tropical city of Santa Marta. Nicolas was enchanted with the ways bags disappeared into the insides of the airport. There were beauty queens traveling to who knows where from Bogotá so the airport was full of tall thin women dressed in the most odd and interesting costumes. Oddly enough it seemed as if there were drag queens everywhere with the sequins, the outrageous shoes and clothes and the huge amounts of makeup.
We got to Santa Marta around mid-day and the heat hit me immediately. It is so different being among the palm trees and tropical breezes of Santa Marta than the thin air of Bogotá. It took a while to settle in so there was not a lot of relaxing to be had, but the setup is quite nice. Casa Del Mar is an impressive building. Our fourth floor balcony has a great view of woods, beach and the Atlantic. Off the front of the building is a very nice pool, then some stalls for cleaning sandy feet and then a good expanse of private roped off beach before the public beach and the sea. The private beach part has little open huts where one can either take a plastic chair or hang a hammock. The beachfront has very soft waves, just perfect for Nicolas to play in. The building is the last one on a tourist beach called El Rodadero. The house is quite far from all the other buildings making it nicely private.