Heading North to the Coast

I had some reservations about taking another overnight bus trip. Santa Marta is about 1000km north of Bogotá on Colombia's Atlantic (Caribbean) coast. This equates to a 16-17 hour trip, and so the earliest departure from Bogotá is 3pm. But, one does here stories of rebel army road blocks, where they go through all the vehicles and take anything of value, including you. However, I have not heard of this happening for some time. The fact is that this is a main, well traveled highway (all two lanes of it), and all of the principal highways in Colombia appear to be well protected by the Colombian army and highway police.

I opted for a 5pm departure with a national bus company called Brasilia, who seemed to have half decent looking buses and a good reputation. Though, I still have yet to see the levels of comfort (if one can use that word to describe bus travel) and service that I experienced in Argentina. Anyway, for those who are interested, the one-way far was CO$90,000 (about US$40).

I can now relate, with some experience, that any overland trip starting from Bogotá involves constantly winding roads, which descend, then rise and then descend again. Until at some point between the capital and the coast the mountain range peters out. As far as I can tell, Colombia has no large highways of four lanes or more (except those in and around cities) thanks to its topography. Colombian roads are also well known for their resemblance to the surface of the moon. The vast majority of vehicles on the roads are trucks, with, perhaps on in ten being a car. So when you add poor two lane winding roads into the equation you get never ending line of slow moving trucks. This, of course, leads to some very imprudent passing by private vehicles or smaller trucks. On a tight bend we passed a two-axle truck lying on its side, and next to it a man talking on a cell phone - presumably the driver. Bad judgment? Mechanical failure?

You pass an infinite number of of shacks along these mountain roads. Interestingly most have either set up ramshackle looking mechanics shops and/or truck stops where one can wash their vehicle. This would seem to make sense given the number of trucks and the grand age of some of them - they need all the help they can get chugging up and down these hills!

I drifted in and out of consciousness, but finally awoke properly at 7am the next morning. We had gone from the slow winding road of the lush highlands to the flat, straight road of the dry savannas of northern Colombia. The change was dramatic. We passed through a number of poor looking towns where the principal form of public transport was the bicycle rickshaw. Something I did not expect to see in South America. But, I am not in a region that could be considered more Caribbean than South American.

I am not sure what I expected Santa Marta to be like, but to this point it had been built up as the premier Colombian beach destination - Colombia's piece of the Caribbean. Santa Marta is the capital of the Department of Magdalena and it is he country's the northern most decent sized city (about 300,000). My first impression was that it had seen better days. My chosen accommodation appeared to be in a slightly unsavory part of town. But, I soon realised that most of town could be called unsavory.

A spot of diving, el Parque Tayrona and the beaches to come...