Arrived in Santa Marta

Somehow with our messing around in Bogota we neglected to get any Columbian money. And when we landed in Santa Marta the ATM was broken. Got a cab driver to drive us to town to a working ATM, then to the hotel. Charged us only $15 – had Mark give him $20. At least the Columbians seem to abide by “unwritten” the Latin American code that most of us abide by that you don’t screw other Latin Americans over!

The hotel (Costa Azul Beach Resort) was reminiscent of Africa in that it took half an hour to check two sets of people in. The receptionist kept multi-tasking – but she was not proficient at it. But the African experience is still reasonably fresh – so no worries for us. The bell boy brought us up to our room (where I quickly understood why the receptionist wanted to know where the other people were – given that our room has six beds and two baths). It does face the sea and it is very nice. No rats in sight (yet).

The so called restaurant was quite funny. We were the only customers and I get the felling that will be the case all week. The store is close so that was our only choice. Food is dirt cheap – better than we cook, if not fancy. A cat came over to beg while we were eating and I fed it. Wish I could have cuddled it but its claws seemed pretty sharp ….. Pool seems gorgeous – will check it out tomorrow. Bummer I left my Warren Buffett bio behind. Got “Confessions of a Shopaholic at the Airport”. Not too long. Seems as if I will rest whether I want to or not. There is free wireless so maybe I can zootoo. Though I have no way of downloading photos to my laptop as the work computer geeks disabled that feature.

Turned in a bit after 8 PM. I see lots of laziness in our future. Hope we get up early enough to make it to the shop! Not sure we can really walk anywhere without getting murdered or kidnapped. And to be honest that African expedition seems to have done away with what little common sense we had … which Anthony maintains was never much.

Tomorrow is another day … we shall see what adventures (or lack thereof) we can muster. Our room is freezing. Maybe I will have one of those "the worse the better" experiences and appreciate the sun manana .....