Art and Science in Celrà and Arrecife: Santa Marta

There are three towns close together along the Caribbean coast, from the west, Cartagena de Indias where I went last year, Baranquilla and Santa Marta. I went to Santa Marta because I was interested in the history of the place as well as wanting to enjoy the beaches.
The hotel was superb, 4 star but I felt like an honoured guest, I didn't see any other residents. It was a little way back from the sea front where there is a rather dubious looking beach. By that I mean that I don't think the sea was very clean and there were dark streaks on the beach. But the area around Plaza de Simón Bolivar (who else?) was full of life and, this being Colombia, vibrating with loud music. Each day, I took a bus (or if I was feeling lazy) a taxi to Taganga which is the nearest beach to the town. There are many other beaches further away but I was just interested in swimming, so this was fine for me.
The centre of the town comprises a grid of streets which cross each other with absolutely no indication of who has the right of way. And being built-up, the junctions are totally blind. The solution, beep your horn as you approach the junction. The taxi taking me back to the airport did this at great speed, at times cars appeared at the side, only to stop just short of the junction. I was fully expecting a collision, it was crazy.
And, because this beeping goes on through the night, the hotel kindly found me a room at the back of the building.
I visited two sites of interest. One was the house of Simón Bolivar, el Libertador of the south American countries in the early 19th Century. The other was the House of Aduana next to Plaza Simón Bolivar where he died. I don't have room here to describe the history of the countries around Colombia when they became independent from Spain but it makes for a very interesting story. They can thank Napoleon because his invading Spain in the early 18th Century caused instability in Madrid which in turn led to the freedom of Colombia, Venezuela, Panama (which was part of Colombia at one stage), Peru and Ecuador. Well.. it wasn't quite as simple as that, you will have to look it up online!
The hotel had a jacuzzi on the 5th floor and I used to go there with a beer before having lunch. Very hedonistic!

In the House of Aduana, there was an exhibition about the indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada and I bought two mochillas made by the indians, for me and Nini.

There isn't much more to tell you about Santa Marta, I went swimming, I visited a couple of nice restaurants. And then I came back to Pereira on 14th. Being St Valentine's Day, I exchanged heart emojis with one or two of my girl friends!