December 2016: For our New Year’s holiday, we decided to head up to the northeast part of Colombia. This area is called La Guajira and it is the driest part of Colombia. The Sierra Nevada mountains cause a rain shadow and in the last four years, this area has had less than 5inches of rain. It is an arid semi-desert and there is a group of indigenous people called the Wayuu that are able to squeak out a living by goat herding and weaving bags from local fibers. There is a small amount of tourism because it is the northernmost point in South America and the wind is great for kiteboarding. Not to mention, the ocean views are incredible and the beaches are untouched and untamed.
Again, we decided to do a road trip to get there. It is about 16hours from Medellin to the coast so we divided it up into 2 days, staying overnight in a small town called Aguachica.
Our first destination was Santa Marta, a smaller city on the coast where people go when they don’t want the crowds of Cartagena. Santa Marta is actually still located in the department of Magdalena, not La Guajira. It is a pretty touristy little city so there are a lot of accommodation and restaurant options. Santa Marta sits within a bay, not on the open ocean so the beaches in town are not anything special. I’ve been told that the beaches up or down the coast outside of the city are nicer.
After 2 days of driving, we arrived at the place we booked, Masaya Hostel. I chose this place because it is right in the heart of town and it offered 2 pools. I am pretty sure very few people who stay here arrive by car. Parking and unloading our bags was pretty difficult since it was a very busy street. Nevertheless, we managed to unload and lug our bags up to our room. Since it is a hostel, we had a “group” room with 4 beds. The kids loved that each bed had its own light, outlets, and curtain. And, of course, they had to have the top bunks!
Overall, the hostel was a great place to stay, but I don’t think they have kids very often. There was a small pool on the first floor in the center courtyard. It was inviting for the kids and they enjoyed getting wet in the hot temperatures but they were asked by the staff not to splash in the pool.
There was another pool on the roof which was really the size of a hot tub and was not interesting enough for the kids to get in. The roof was really where all the action was. There were nice lounge areas, a pool table, the bar, the restaurant where we ate the included breakfast, and a great view out over the surrounding buildings.
The afternoon that we arrived, the first thing the kids wanted to do was see the ocean, so we walked the 4 blocks to the beach to check it out. There were quite a few locals swimming but the water was somewhat dirty appearing so the kids decided to just put their feet in. We then walked around the historic area admiring the old architecture and we wandered through the Museo d’Oro ( Gold museum) which was really interesting (and air conditioned). It was really hot in Santa Marta!
My favorite part of Santa Marta was the terrific restaurants that the tourism has allowed to flourish. There is a great little walking street (Carrera 3) that runs parallel to the ocean and there are a number of good restaurants on this street. Our first meal was at a little place called Lulo. It is a great place for any meal with delicious wraps, vegetarian options and mouth watering smoothies. They have some nice outdoor seating where you can watch the world go by. As I waited to use the single bathroom in the back, I watched the chefs make everything from scratch.
For dinner, we went down the same street and found La Muzzeria. The kids chose this place because it served pizza and they knew that for the next week, we would be eating mostly traditional Colombian food. The atmosphere was a lot of fun and the food was decent. The next day, we had lunch at a great little French place, Bienvenue Crepes. And, of course, we had crepes. And they were delicious!
Santa Marta was a great stopover point and I would have loved to stay longer and try out some more great restaurants, but on day two we headed out to our next fabulous spot; Hotel Finca Barlovento.
Leave a Reply