Departure at 11am, without haste, to reach Santa Marta. It is about 4 hours away by bus from Cartagena. Obviously something had to happen on the journey 😂.
From the beginning. We reach the station and buy our tickets. The first bus leaves in 5 min, what luck we have!!! ( poor deluded 😅). The first two hours pass quietly ( apart from the killer air-conditioning, at least I don’t have it stuck in my neck!!), between small lakes, palm groves, cows on the road, spectacular landscapes (beautiful Colombia 😍!!!).
We reach the first stop and it starts pouring. Time to pee and off we go, everything seems to be going smoothly, until we hear a noise coming from under the bus. A few minutes later we are at the roadside waiting for the driver to change the punctured wheel 😅. In the middle of nowhere, with humidity approaching 90%, under the 2pm sun, what more could you ask for! 😂
To tell the truth the driver didn’t seem very experienced, in fact after a few minutes of being on the road he refers again saying that he doesn’t trust and prefers to wait for another bus to arrive. Fortunately a bus from the same company passes by and stops, this driver seems to be a bit more knowledgeable and fixes something in the back so that we start again. In the meantime the journey has been extended by another 2 hours 😆.
We arrive in Santa Marta in the late afternoon. Check-in at the hostel (very nice, but with the usual damn air-conditioning 😩) and walk along the seafront. Time for them to offer us all the drugs they can and it’s time for dinner. Even here in the centre the evening is filled with prostitutes, but much less than in Cartagena. No fiesta, I already feel the symptoms of bronchopolmopeste due to the infamous air-conditioning! 😵