woke up to a sunny sky, which quickly became cloudy, but thankfully not rainy. we enjoyed our last breakfast at the Hotel Monterrey and bid Cartagena a fond farewell.
our itinerary said we were going to be picked up at the hotel, and then have a shared transfer service to Santa Marta. we took that to mean we were going to be in a shared van or bus for the 4 hour ride. au contraire, mon frère, that would have been a delightful way to go.

we were picked up and made our to the main highway and headed toward Santa Marta. we thought, maybe there weren’t other passengers at that time and we had a private transfer.  wrong. two hours in we stopped off in Barriquilla and changed from our comfy car to a not so comfy van. ah, ok, so now comes the shared part of the trip. well we did share,  but not with other people…..we were in a courier van. we spent the next hour driving around Barriquilla picking up packages, including a sealed cooler from a hospital. we didn’t ask. we then stopped again, left the goods in the van, changed cars again and FINALLY headed out of town to Santa Marta.

the next 2 hours of the drive was along the coast, and parts of it were very pretty.  there were also a variety of terrains within 10 minutes of each other. one minute you were looking at lush tropical scenery and then next thing you realize, you’re in a dry rocky desert environment. it reminded me of driving to the top of Haleakalā on Maui.

in Santa Marta we are staying at La Casa del Farol, seemingly in the heart of town. it’s a super cute old mansion with 12 rooms and a rooftop pool. we are staying in the Paris Suite, and i’m ready to move in.  it’s spacious, has good water pressure and although on the street, isn’t very noisy.

after what seemed like a full day of travel (and yes i did send an email to the travel coordinator about the “transfer”), it was nice to land in such a great place. we dropped off laundry at wash & fold (it is really hot & humid), had lunch at Ouzo, and finished the afternoon with happy hour at the pool.

dinner was at a place recommended by Lonely Planet called Radio Burger.  it’s located at Carrera 1 #23-99, which was home to the first radio station in Santa Marta.  the decor features a lot of cool old radios and station gear, which is fun, but the burger wasn’t that great.  the potato wedges on the other hand, yum.