Santa Marta
Santa Marta, a coastal city on the Colombia Caribbean Sea, lays claim to being the oldest surviving colonial town in Colombia. It was Rodrigo de Bastidas who planted a Spanish flag here in 1525, deliberately choosing a site at the foot of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to serve as a convenient base for the reputedly incalculable gold treasures of the Tayronas.
Santa Marta is a reasonable small city with a population
of approximately 410.000 inhabitants. Santa Marta is a poor, but interesting city and has many
beautiful beaches. It's a great place to study Spanish.
The native inhabitants were the Indian Tayronas which populated the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta long before the Spaniards came. They lived of fishing, extraction of the marine salt and the exchange of products with other towns. The Tayronas are divided into Aruhacos, Koguis and Wiwas.
The 3 most popular things to do while in Santa Marta are:
• Visit National Park Tayrona with it´s gorgeous beaches
• The adventurous 6 day trek to The Lost City
• Get a Scuba diving licence or do some fun dives
Taganga
Taganga is a beautiful horseshoe-shaped bay and ancestral fishing village just north of Santa Marta.
Surrounded by mountains, natural views, beaches, deserts, marine fauna as well as deep and tranquil water that constitutes one of the most important scuba diving locations on the Colombian Caribbean Sea with about 2.000 inhabitants and a conservative culture which has impeded its overdevelopment.
Taganga is a great place to study Spanish. It’s a very authentic and relaxing fishing village, with beautiful beaches, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia.
It’s located 10 minutes by minibus from Santa Marta. Taganga welcomes many tourists every year, but still remains unspoiled. A must see for every traveler in Colombia!
