22 July
Last night we decided to rent a car and go to Santa Marta for a couple of days, because it looks like at the earliest our RVs will be in port sometime Wednesday, with a chance of starting the paperwork on Thursday afternoon. More on that hopefully on 24 July. In the meantime, last night we had reserved a car with Avis and so we arrived at the airport at 8 am to pick it up. Unfortunately, they didn't have a car for us. The Avis guy went next door at the Colombian rental car agency, and a little after 9 we were on our way in an unlimited mileage Toyota HiLux small crew cab diesel pickup truck. The unlimited mileage was a good deal, because Avis was only going to give us about 2/3 of the miles we needed free, after that it was going to be about .50/mile extra. Roger kept an eye on the gas gauge and our 140 mile trip only required 4 gallons of diesel. He thought the gauge was broken, because it never moved off F.
Getting to Santa Marta was easy. The highway is excellent, with about 5 little towns that have to be gone straight through. The road between Cartagena and Barranquilla is all new since five years ago. It is a toll road, with a total toll cost less than $5. Once we got to Santa Marta, we couldn't find the hotel. We had the address, but even with GPS we couldn't put in the right neighborhood, so it took us almost 2 hours to find the place. Plus there were 4 hotels that were owned by Santorini, which further complicated looking it up. It was frustrating because Sandra had all the technology, but we still couldn't find it. Roger accidently drove down the wrong way on a one way street. Then we were sent up another street that was one lane wide only to find it was a dead end. I was mad at myself because I had written down some instructions, but couldn't find them. I finally remembered that it was close to the airport, so we left Santa Marta and headed back towards the airport. We drove down several side streets getting closer to the hotel and ended up stumbling across it. Yea team! Roger definitely needed a beer when we got to the lobby and checked in. He's such a great "conductor".
The hotel is a block from the beach and is a value for it's location. We're in for the night and happy to be here after a rather stressful time looking for it.
Last night we decided to rent a car and go to Santa Marta for a couple of days, because it looks like at the earliest our RVs will be in port sometime Wednesday, with a chance of starting the paperwork on Thursday afternoon. More on that hopefully on 24 July. In the meantime, last night we had reserved a car with Avis and so we arrived at the airport at 8 am to pick it up. Unfortunately, they didn't have a car for us. The Avis guy went next door at the Colombian rental car agency, and a little after 9 we were on our way in an unlimited mileage Toyota HiLux small crew cab diesel pickup truck. The unlimited mileage was a good deal, because Avis was only going to give us about 2/3 of the miles we needed free, after that it was going to be about .50/mile extra. Roger kept an eye on the gas gauge and our 140 mile trip only required 4 gallons of diesel. He thought the gauge was broken, because it never moved off F.
Getting to Santa Marta was easy. The highway is excellent, with about 5 little towns that have to be gone straight through. The road between Cartagena and Barranquilla is all new since five years ago. It is a toll road, with a total toll cost less than $5. Once we got to Santa Marta, we couldn't find the hotel. We had the address, but even with GPS we couldn't put in the right neighborhood, so it took us almost 2 hours to find the place. Plus there were 4 hotels that were owned by Santorini, which further complicated looking it up. It was frustrating because Sandra had all the technology, but we still couldn't find it. Roger accidently drove down the wrong way on a one way street. Then we were sent up another street that was one lane wide only to find it was a dead end. I was mad at myself because I had written down some instructions, but couldn't find them. I finally remembered that it was close to the airport, so we left Santa Marta and headed back towards the airport. We drove down several side streets getting closer to the hotel and ended up stumbling across it. Yea team! Roger definitely needed a beer when we got to the lobby and checked in. He's such a great "conductor".
The hotel is a block from the beach and is a value for it's location. We're in for the night and happy to be here after a rather stressful time looking for it.
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| The beach |
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| The view from one of the hotel's pools. |
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