A day isn’t much time to get to know a city, even one like Santa Marta, with its compact historic center—but a good guide, and a well-organized local museum can make quite a difference.
We spent a week not quite in Santa Marta, visiting Colombia with a group of friends and staying at a resort outside the town. But an evening visit and dinner, and several hours spent on a walking tour with a guide.
Santa Marta is Colombia’s oldest city; its location on the Caribbean coast, directly opposite all the main islands made it an obvious place to start. Its importance has varied over its nearly 500 years, and it’s facing decisions even now about its future.
A prison, a lighthouse in Santa Marta’s port, and now just picturesque
Our guide, Eduardo Riveira, with the FreeToursNetwork, pointed out aspects of Santa Marta 2025, the city’s project to spruce itself up for its 500th anniversary in 8 years. While some aspects are obvious: rehabilitated buildings, upgraded parks, pedestrianized shopping streets and lots of new construction—there’s a fundamental question on the table. Does the future lie with tourism, or with further development as a port for shipping open-pit coal from the interior?
In either case, a city that’s had some hard times in recent years is busy making itself more attractive. One big boost this year should come from hosting the Bolivarian Games this November. The Games are Olympic-like every-four-years comepetitions among Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama and Chile.
We started our tour at Parque Simon Bolivar. He’s an important figure here not only as the leader of Colombia’s independence from Spain, but because he died and was originally buried in Santa Marta’s Cathedral. Because he stayed for a time in the building that is now the museum, and lay in state there after he died, it’s said to be the only building he entered both alive and dead. More about the museum in another blog.
In the Cathedral, Bolivar has two tombs, both marked with recently-updated (1975) plaques. The first was considered not a grand enough placement, so after ” 8 years, 7 months, 9 days” he was moved to a new spot just in front of the altar. A few years after that, he went home to Caracas, but literally leaving his heart in Santa Marta. No one is sure just where in the building it’s ended up.
Just outside the Cathedral, in a square marked by varying architectural styles (and, while we were there, a demonstration about land rights and national parks), we also found some colorful street food carts.
Street food and street markets are among the things my eyes are always open for (mouth, too), so I noted Santa Marta’s open air markets and carts.
Bananas have a long history here; Santa Marta was one of the principal ports used by United Fruit to ship bananas from the interior to the whole world. The railroad they built for that now hauls coal.
Some of our group took a coconut break…
It’s not only fruit and vegetables on sale, of course, and it’s clear that some areas are more directed at visitors, and others at locals.
There are two main parks in the central historic area, Parque Simon Bolivar, which is on the waterfront and next to the city hall, above and the museum. The museum is the oldest building in Santa Marta; it’s also served as a business, as the customs house, and more.
A few short blocks away is the Parque de los Navios. Officially, its Parque Santander, named for a Bolivar comrade, but the other name reflects its use as a place for lovers, sometimes illicit ones hiding in what used to be much thicker foliage before renovation for Santa Marta 2025. It’s also a place for buskers, including these apparently off-duty mimes.
Along the sides of the park are numbers of restaurants, some outdoors, and the 1928 Palace of Justice, with its beautiful sign.
The restaurants continue down Calle 19, newly-pedestrianized as part of the 2025 plan.
And there, on one of our evening visits, we also found less-formal cuisine irresistible. Further down the street, the restaurants and boutiques give way to a large supermarket with informal street markets in front of it.
As in many other cities, street art has moved from random graffiti to a higher calling, and in the second instance, to advertising for events in Santa Marta’s Carnival.
In Santa Marta, ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ is not just an expression…
Two more street scenes: Above, the Palace of Justice at night, and a street near Parque de los Novios, showing typical buildings and signs of renewal.
