2nd March Cartegana – Santa Marta 160 miles

We le3ave Carteghana today and as usual struggle with the traffic and then rain, even before we leave the city traffic. Into a garage/bus station where lots of local bikers have stopped to shelter, I don my waterproofs and Martin chooses not to as he will get just as wet with them on as it is still hot. The temperature dropped from 35 to 25 in a very short time and the rain came but not too heavy and not for4 long so perhaps Martin has called this one. We continue through black skies and the odd downpour but nothing substantial, lots of roadwork’s though, no doubt replacing the roads that were damaged in the storms since November.
We arrive in Barranquilla which is where the carnival is this weekend and not for the first time get sucked into the city and miss the road through, having asked about 4 policemen and a couple of drivers we find the bridge we are looking for. It should also be said that the directions we were given conflicted with each other, so even the police are not sure of the way out.
A quick stop for a drink and I remove the surplus to requirement waterproofs, phew.
The road now is on a thin strip of land with the Caribbean Sea to our left and a lagoon to the right and it is miles long. Memories here of Pategonia as a really strong wind is blowing off the sea causing us to use quite a bit of the road as we pass trees and large shrubs which momentarily masked the wind only for it to come back with vengeance a few seconds later. At the end of this strip of land is a bridge taking us to the other side of the lagoon.
On now to Santa Marta and we stop in a gas station that also has a cash machine to get some cash and take stock of where we are. A chap who had filled up pulled over and spoke to us, when he realised we did not speak enough Spanish he phoned a friend who spoke English and said we must be careful here, I though he meant the whole area but he was talking about where we were right now. The guy on the phone gave us directions and then after handing the phone back I spoke to him again and the man who had pulled over found a motorcyclist who was going to near where we wanted to go and would show us the way just give him the equivalent of 1.50 in Sterling, so we got to our Hostal. Unfortunately they only had 1 room left with a double bed, OK well try elsewhere. Well about 5 or 6 later e find one and it will do for the night butn not a lot longer.