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I hope everyone is safe and healthy. And to take your minds off the terrible pandemic we are all facing, here is the next episode of Tio Sam’s Colombian travels.
This episode describes my trip from Mompox to Santa Marta. And what a trip it was!
I had hoped to go to Santa Marta via Valledupa, a city my guide book described as “a great place to chill out”, but after many calls by the hotel staff, they said there was no transportation to Valledupar tomorrow. So I went to another hotel, where the manager in charge made a phone call and success: tomorrow at 9:30, 3 hour ride, in front of the Hotel Las Heliconias
It is now 9:45, and the manager here said something about terrorists in Colombia - not sure if that means my bus has been canceled. To be continued...
11 AM: maybe a bus today, for sure one tomorrow. The wait continues...
12 PM: After driving around on the back of the hotel manager’s motorcycle to various transportation agencies, it was concluded that there was no bus today, but one tomorrow at 4 AM “seguro”. So I took a room at the hotel (very clean, with A/C).
Tomorrow, 6 AM: No sign yet of the 4 AM bus to Valledupar. Why am I not surprised? The excuse (again): terrorists. I think my next course of action is to first get to Magangué (3 hours: bus & ferry). I’ll let the hotel manager, who yesterday assured me of my 4 AM bus, deal with it.
7 AM: He found me a guy on a motorcycle to ride me to Magangué.
Right now I am stopped with my motorcycle driver at a roadside tienda for a coffee. I’m not allowed to pay for anything.
A river crossing:
...with a fellow passenger and his pet bird...
... up the river bank with my backpack on the motorcycle..
Mompox to Santa Marta up river bank.MOV..and a second river crossing past a terrorist camp, (I asked if we could visit - he thought it was a bad idea). Then along the river...
Mompox to Santa Marta on motorcycle.MOV...to Magangué, with many other motorcycles leading the way.
Clearly a motorcycle is the only way to get here. I tipped my driver and bought a minibus ride to Barranquilla.
12:30 PM: 3 1/2 hours later, and a switch to a different minivan, we are ready to go, all ten of us. At least the air conditioner works. I have a terrible seat, and there’s a lot of road construction going on.
As we approached Barranquilla the road filled with pedestrians and traffic headed to a pre-Carnaval event (the Carnaval officially begins in another week).
5:00 PM: Bus arrives in Barranquilla. Another passenger (who also wants to go to Santa Marta) and I share a Tuk Tuk to the bus station and book a 6 PM Brasilia luxury bus to Santa Marta.
8:00 PM. Arrived at the Santa Marta bus terminal, after a luxurious 2 hour Brasilia bus, complete with snacks and individual movies. Grabbed a taxi for the 4 km ride to the hostel, checked into a dorm room (only dorm rooms here), had a sandwich and beer, and decided I liked the place very much. And that is how I went from Mompox to Santa Marta, after a day’s delay, with one motorcycle, two river crossings, two minivans, one Tuk Tuk, one luxury bus, and a taxi, in only 13 hours!
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