Life's a Beach
16 January 2016
World ARC fleet has now arrived to join us in Santa Marta. It's the usual mix of nationalities. Brits and Swiss who live in USA. French who live in Spain. Spaniards that live in France etc....
Friendly lot but most can't get who we are. The interlopers. Only here for a couple of weeks.
Beach trip and BBQ today. 40 minutes on dirt tracks to large bay where we were welcomed with cold beer at 10am. Oh well, had to be five o'clock somewhere! The bay seems to be where the locals hang out at weekends although we had exclusive use of our section of the beach. Us and the wealthy of Santa Marta who powered round in their big stink boats. That way they avoid driving through the Favellas where the impoverished live in their one room brick shacks. Seems you don't have to go far to leave the fancy waterfront behind before hitting what is reality for the majority.
We've hardly scratched the surface of Colombia but so far it's an interesting mix of the haves and have nots. Although it does seem to be weighted more to the have nots.
The Have Nots scoot around on 100cc motor cycles dicing with death through the chaotic traffic. The Haves cruise in air conditioned Toyotas.
The Haves enjoy the nice restaurants. The Have Nots break dance outside for a few
dollars.
Same the world over I guess.
Tomorrow we go on a charity visit to a local school. (although we don't like to talk about it).