‎February ‎13, ‎2011

On the road this morning to Santa Marta as we have heard that the best beaches are there. Minor chore of gettign out of town as the GPS routing is stupid with this newest map update, but at least it shows the streets of towns. About half way into our trip, we pass this cafe with the roof shaped as a sombrero. I'm looking at the roof line and Michael says, "did you see the 3 Vstroms parked out front"? We turned around, went in and met the riders from Barranquilla who paid for our drinks and invited us to follow then on their ride. We happily agreed as our destination was close at hand and we had lots of time to get there. They showed us some wonderful countryside and after about 1.5 hours we arrived in Barranquilla, they escorted us to their town's mall where the "Mac" store is and help talk for us translating. We find out that the tech works tomorrow and Mary calls a friend for an address to a local hotel. After reaching the hotel, which wanted more than it was worth and no internet, we decided to go to Santa Marta as originally planned. Arrived at dusk, the directions and posted by Google for this hostel send us into some barrio not even close to the hostel. We have coordinates for another and arrive to find it does not have parking. We drive down to the beach row and find a hotel that has lost its former glory, but its dark by now and we need to get off the street. Hot, fan has one speed (high) and cleanliness was questionable when we saw mouse droppings on the bed.