Santa Marta

Yes Gabi, we have tried fried arepa con huevo, more than once in fact in Josh´s case. Its fried goodness is like a magnet for our little greasy fingers...yummmm.

And on that note, we have made it to Santa Marta, a beautiful beach town north of Cartagena. It was founded by Rodrigo de Batidas in 1525 as a place for him to live while plundering the incalcuable riches of the Tayronas. The Tayronas decided not to fight this fight with one hand behind their back and threw all they had at the Spanish and it proved to be the end of them. By the end of the century they were no more and their gold belonged to Spain. The city was soon overshadowed by Cartagena, but Simon Bolivar died there after bringing independance to six South American countries. Can you name them all? It also houses Latin America´s oldest church which I didn´t find that impressive or old looking.
The city isn´t as old looking as Cartagena, nor as colorful or beautiful, but it does have a kick ass sunset. We spent the afternoon with a new friend from the US of A named Jonathan and ate amazing street food for dinner after we walked the streets with cold beers. The weather here is mercifully less hot than Cartagena and a nice breeze seems to follow us everywhere but out four dollar a night hostel room. Today we are heading to Taganga (dubbed the gringo paradise the blew up to soon) a fishing village 5 k from Santa Marta and then we head to the infamous Parque Tayrona, but only so that Gabi stops bugging us to have fun there!