Half-way through the drive we made a pit stop, where Julia and I made a very small investment in a curious snack...salted mango with squeezed lime juice. This snack included gloves, something we found hilarious, and was pretty good. Towards the second half of the four hour ride a gentleman behind us spoke to us in American English. There began an interesting and lengthy conversation with the American government official. Although he refused to tell us what his role/position in the government was, he did reveal that he was working in Cartagena. We were able to infer that he was involved in a military or drug regulation capacity by the informative answers we were able to trick him into giving. From Florida and of Cuban descent, he said that his "profile" lead him naturally to a spanish speaking country to work for the government. He revealed that soon there will be seven, SEVEN new American military bases opening up in Colombia. Our business relations with Colombia also make the country American´s third biggest trading partner in all of Latin America. On to the good stuff.....Did you know that the industry generates anywhere from 600-700 million a month?!!! In a year that all about quadruples Colombian GDP. It's hard to imagine massive amounts of the substance making it so successfully to North American and Europe but according to our friend, the trafficking methods are increasingly innovative. A recent innovation is the use of ocean camouflaged submarines to bring the substance right into our ports and harbors in California. This country is still, most definitely, the controler of the cocaine market. Where does all this money go you may be wondering. Well, lots of different places, like corrupt government officials in Ecuador and Venezuela (how else did that nut Chavez become a multi-millionaire?), FARC (80% of their funding is from drug cartels), highly influencial Colombian government officials (some can be bought) and stashed away in secret foreign investments. This conversation had the three of us captivated and not before long we were in Santa Marta.
We were basically dropped off in the middle of the city, at night, with our chunky suitcases, carry-ons and an awkward box I've been lugging around with me. With no reservation but a sort of plan we started rolling our suitcases and various other luggage pieces in the direction of a hotel we picked out of our travel guide. We were relieved to find Casa Familiar had a room for us and a was run by a very friendly owner, Fabio. We went on a recommendation from our American gov friend and had dinner at Burukuka, a steak house overlooking the ocean. The view was spectacular. Our taxi ride back had us all screaming as our lead-foot driver passed car after car through the one lane mountain pass into Santa Marta.
We set out early Saturday morning with another memorable taxi driver, this one arranged by our hotel, to the entrance of the park. This driver was special. He had a "renault 12". I don't know anything about the model but it must be older than me!
So there we are in our beat-up, tin can, renault, Colombian music blasting out of the back speakers, putting along at a whopping 30 mile an hour through the mountains. I kid you not, this car could not drive any faster. Thirty minutes in our driver honked at someone, we pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of a small roadside town and someone hopped into our taxi. Our driver continued to honk and say "hola amigo", I'm not exaggerating, like every few minutes. After an hour and a half (what should have been a half hour drive) we arrived at the entrance of the park, dropped off the driver's amigo, picked up a new friend, and drove the last stretch of paved road into the park. After arranging for our driver to return to get us the next day we set out into the veritable jungle.
Niki, what a tease! I hope we get more than this!
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