Santa Marta

[ridgeview lab lover]

Has anyone been to Santa Marta and if so what did you do? Is there anything at the pier? We are on the Pearl in April doing a Panama Canal repo.

[grandmaR]

Have you gotten back? How was it? [We expect to be there in Nov]

[Wanderbug]

I will be in Santa Marta early December on the Enchantment of the Seas. None of the excursions offered through RCCL look interesting to me so I would like to know if it is easy and safe to make my own arrangements at the pier.

[justinr77]

We will also be going on that cruise in Dec. I'm a little concirned about both ports in Colombia. That is part of the reason I want to go on this cruise but I've heard such horrible stories on crime and kidnappings in Colombia. Does anyone know how safe these ports are? Santa Marta and Cartagena. Im sure we will plan on doing a tour with the ship but after its over I'm not sure if I'll feel safe enough to walk around on my own. Last thing I want is to be kidnapped in Colombia and held for randsom.:eek: What does anyone know about the safety here in these ports? Are taking cabs safe also? Thanks for the info.......:D

[pilotdane]

We were in Cartagena in mid-October and loved it. You will still stand out as a rich tourist so the usual precautions apply, but while on our tour safety never came to mind. I would not hesitate to go back to Colombia.

 

While I did not expect to see pick-up trucks with machine guns mounted in back (Somalia), I did expect to see soldiers or police at most tourist spots carrying long weapons (rifles) for our protection. I was surprised to see that the police mostly carried battons. Their presence was visible but they were in no way threatening and did not indicate a dangerous element. Basically I am very glad that I had the opportunity to visit Cartagena. I love old walled cities and forts.

[lacruiser]

justin and wander, are you sailing on the 12/7 Enchantment sailing? If so, we'll be joining you. I'm glad to find others on it -- our meet n mingle thread consists of about 3 people so far, and I was beginning to think we might be the only US folks aboard. (Not that that wouldn't be interesting...:D)

 

There's a thread on here with a post by "banditoo", who describes walking off the ship and arranging his (or her) own tour with an English-speaking taxi driver which turned out to be very successful. We haven't been in Colombia before, and don't really want to do a ship's excursion, so I think we might go this route. Based on the reading I've been doing, on this board and other resources, I think safety isn't an issue as long as you use the basic, common sense guidelines you'd use in any large city.

 

If you turn up any great info, though, please share it!

 

Nancy D

[grandmaR]

My BIL who has been to Columbia warned us against doing anything outside the main tourist area - he felt there was a great danger of kidnapping.