On Saturday I went to the downtown and to the beach of Santa Marta to understand where I was. The town is small, dirty and smelly but it has its character, and there is a lot music of salsa and vallenato everywhere: in the streets, supermarkets and buses. Just like in Venezuela - I immediately feel happy when I hear music full of the positive energy. For the first time in my trip I saw some foreigners, there are many of them actually, mainly English people. I haven't seen them in four months!!
I have to say I have been hassled here as never ever before in my trip. Men talk to me in the streets, whistle and hiss at me. But I feel safe and I smile at them when they do it (so they stop hassling me, it always works). Santa Marta is a very safe town, the only thing I was warned about are "rats" - people on motorbikes who suddenly approach you and steal your bag. However I would advise them not to approach me because I might get angry...
In the evening we went out to a salsa club called Comodoro: C&C, their friends, two girls I contacted via the Couch Surfing website and I. Again - it was me and 30 local people, how lucky I am to have this chance to be with the local people all the time. I had to practice my Spanish a lot of course, and in fact, I slowly start gaining confidence with the language. The girls I contacted via the Couch Surfing website, Cynthia and Rocio, came with a friend, Jose', who was very happy to dance with me all the time. He was very nice and beautiful but unfortunately his dancing skills were far from what I would like them to be. Actually, I could not find a single man dancing as well as my dance partners in London. I was a little bit disappointed but then the magic of being in Colombia let me forget about it and I enjoyed myself dancing to the disco music (which they put on later - I couldn't believe I was able to enjoy this music!!). In the picture with Claudia. It was her 31st birthday we celebrated in Comodoro.