SOUTHAMERICA From Colombia, joined Dec 2003, 2475 posts, RR: 22 Posted (5 years 4 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 877 times:
Greetings,
Here goes another trip report for you guys, I hope it is well recieved.
TRIP BACKGROUND
Mid-year vacations started and we didn't want to lose time staying home. My parents were kind of tired of work and wanted to spend some time out of the city (Medellin).
Since our dear president Mr. Alvaro Uribe is in charge of the country, people has recovered a lot of confidence and trust, and everybody is now traveling by road (in case you didn't know, kidnap and other illegal actions have decreased in almost 50%, and the minor bandit groups are now weakened to such point that terrorism has gone down to almost none); so we didn't want to stay back and decided to travel in our car.
On June 20th we set off in our Honda Civic towards Santa Marta, one of the most popular leisure destinations within Colombia together with Cartagena and San Andrés; and after about 10 hours of non-stop traveling, we were there, under a 100°F sun and delighted with the smell of the sea and with the warmth of the breeze.
Lifestyle in the northern part of our country is totally different from life in the interior highlands. People is a lot more relaxed, and time seems to stay still, to the point that you forget what day it is. Although our plans were not all that exciting (mainly beach, pool and shopping) the change of enviornment itself makes you feel a lot better.
Santa Marta is a charming city. I've visited there before, but never found it so amusing as this time. Hospitality, nightlife and commerce are just three things that make this town one of the most enchanted zones in the Colombian Caribbean coast.
(Here are some pictures of Santa Marta, both in day and night. Click on the link)
Between the heat, the sun and the beach we spent there 12 magnificent days, time in which we visited several touristic places, including the well-known city of Barranquilla, which is 1 hour drive from Santa Marta.
(General view of Barranquilla. City of more that one million habitants)
(Norther Barranquilla. Beautiful mansions you find there)
(Cute girl from Barranquilla)
(View of a nearby beach in Santa Marta)
After all this, it was time to go. My parents had bought me a ticket home on Avianca because they were going to stay a couple of days more, and return on the car.
THE TRIP
That day (Friday July 2nd) I woke up at 7:00, as always, because the first rays of light entered through the window, and sleeping with them on the face was not an easy task. Anyway, I enjoy waking up early on vacations because your deam seems to last forever.
My mom was already up and cooking in the kitchen. I was not so hungry that morning so I decided to take a fast bowl of good ol' Frosted Flakes and orange juice, while my mother prepared breakfast for dad and herself.
After breakfast I decided to prepare the clothes I was going to wear for my flight, which were chosen wisely in order to survive both Santa Marta's burining heat and Medellin's cool temperature. I had to be kind of careful because my flight was to depart at noon, and Santa Marta's airport has no air conditioned whatsoever, so I had to support a couple of hours in pure heat; hence very fresh clothing was needed.
I ended selecting a T-shirt with cargo pants and a pair of confortable sneakers. I then proceded to pack my bag (which was a big one) and leave out only the things I was to use just before leaving the hut (tooth brush, gel, deodorant).
I took a fresh shower with freezing cold water (that constrasted perfectly with the heat outside) and got all ready for leaving. I did notice something that may seem a little stupid, but it was kind of logical nonetheless: putting my hair right with the gel was taking more time that it does in Medellin, maybe it's due to the humidity in the air... dunno.
At about 9:15, I dropped down to say goodbye to the other cabin where the rest of the family was staying. It took me while, and then I got back to mine, where my dad was ready to drive me to the airport.
I said goodbye to my mom and got in the car.
The drive to the airport takes no longer than 10 minutes. We were listening some 80s music (Roxette) while we drove down passing by all the luxurious resorts in the Santa Marta coastline. I noticed that there was not a cloud in the sky, so I though that our Fokker would have no problem making its one-hour way down to Medellin.
Boy it was hot outside, and it wasn't even 10 a.m. ! The road that goes to the airport passes like 200 ft away from the rwy 18 threshold. You can eventually stop there and enjoy the planes taking off if your lucky and that's the active runway, but the sun will kick you away sooner or later.
The landmark was beautiful in the airport. Try to imagine it. The small terminal building with only two gates and airbridges and runway 36/18. To the east and very close you can see the 16000 ft high mountains of the Santa Marta range, and to the west, like 20 ft away almost reaching the airport the most beautiful beach and sea you can imagine.
(Here's an overview of the airport in an extremely cloudy day, rare in Santa Marta)
We arrived to the airport at about 10:00 in the morning and the small building was packed with people, as two flights were departing almost at the same time: an Avianca MD-83 bound for BOG and my F-50 bound for MDE. Now you can imagine the size of the airport that with less than 200 was about to blow up.
Avianca has 4 active counters in Santa Marta. So, after a rather quick line, I made my way to one of them, where I was greeted by this brunette elderly woman with the typical annoying coast accent. She was nice and polite though. In a breeze I had my boarding pass in my hand, and decided to go upstairs to the second floor, where theres a balcony from which part of the runway and apron can be seen.
There were no commercial aircraft at that hour. Only a small Cessna parked in one of the corners of the apron.
My flight was scheduled to depart at 11:45, so I had more than one hour to spare. I first bought myself a bottle of water which seemed kind of expensive, and then can of the newest Coke Vanilla, which I hadn't tried before. It was good, but sort of sweet. I'd stick with the classic Coke anytime.
At 10:50, and on schedule, the Avianca MD-83 inbound from BOG arrived. You could see the spectacular visual approach to runway 36. By that time, one of the two gates was almost completely full, and this flight was supposed to depart at 11:20 back home.
At 11:00 I decided to go through security, so I said goodbye to my dad, and wished him a good trip.
Security was really easy to pass. First there was a female agent standing in the entrance of the gate zone (which was separated from the rest of the terminal by a glass wall) who checked if your boarding pass name and ID name matched. Then there was the metal detector through which I got through with no problem at all, while your hand luggage went through the X-ray machine. And finally another agent check you manually to see if you didn't have anything strange.
In front of me there was foreign visitor (german I think) who was traveling alone, and barefooted. The security agent inmediately made him go back and put on some shoes, that apparently had ready downstairs. It was a strange thing that caught my attention.
Anyway, once I got to my gate (number 1 I think) the flight for BOG was already boarding and my plane still wasn't there. At 11:15 or so, almost on schedule, the Fokker 50 landed in terrafirma on runway 36, which was the active for landings that day. The plane stopped in a second and taxiied smoothly to the gate. The flight was also arriving from my hometown MDE.
In no time the MD-83 was ready for departure, pushed back ontime and taxiied slowly to runway 18. Take-offs were that day to the south.
And while that happened, at exactly 11:30, we were called for boarding.
Date: Friday, July 2nd 2004
Airline: Sam (LCC branch which operates with the same livery on behalf of Avianca)
Flight: MM8461
Schedule Departure Time: 11:45
Actual Departure Time: 11:50
Actual Off-Runway Time: 12:00
Scheduled Arrival Time: 13:20
Actual Arrival Time: 13:15
Actual On-Runway Time: 13:10
Total Time In The Air: 1 hour and 10 minutes
Once the gate agent called for boarding, everybody literally ran to the gate. The agent began processing the boarding passes, and the passengers began to walk down some stairs to the apron. When I got to the apron you could really feel all that noon heat concentrated on the asphalt. We made our way to the airplane which was a few meters away.
On the entrance there was one of the flight attentands with that typical look that women from Medellin have, giving everybody a warm welcome. I inmediately walked down to my seat as I discovered an aircraft in excellent shape. Congrats to Avianca on that.
I sat on my seat, which I thought was confortable enough for this short flight. The best thing of all was that I got a window seat next to the wheel and under the wing, so it was a good treat. I started taking a quick look at the latest edition of Euforia magazine, which I found to be not so amusing this time.
In no time at all boarding came to an end, they close the door, and started to turn on the engines. While that the crew gave the security indications manually (obviously), and in 2 minutes we were taxiing to the active runway for departures, which, as said before, was 18.
While we taxiied, an elderly woman that was seating in the seat by me started to talk to me. She was very polite, but was that type of ladies that you don't know how to make her stop talking. She made my flight pass by in a second though, telling me all the details of her life and how she had lived in million cities all over Colombia.
Anyway, the plane made its way up to the threshold, made a 180° turn, and spooled up the engines. Boy I was impressed how smooth those Fokkers are. I flew on one before from Medellin to Bucaramanga, but didn't recall how confortable they were. I'd had prefer an MD-83 all the way, but the Fokker was just fine.
Rotation was smooth in front of the terminal, and the little bird slowly started to build up speed and began climbing to FL250.
The flight was uneventful really. It was very nice day, although towards the interior of the country more isolated clouds began to appear.
We eventually flew over the norther plains about 20 minutes, and the entered the highlands of the interior that would lead us after to Medellin's International Airport.
The inflight service, which was offered half-hour after departure, consisted on a beverage service (I chose a national apple-flavored coke) and a bag of peanuts, that came on a little silver bag that had the Avianca butterfly printed on it.
We eventually started our decent into Medellin - Jose Maria Cordova International Airport, and we encountered a few zones of light turbulence.
The plane flew downwind for a runway 36 approach. The gear lowering process was always nice to watch. We made our way over the countryside and touched down smoothly on the runway at 13:10. Taxxing was short to our assigned gate: number 9.
At that time, there was an Avianca MD-83 in gate 10 getting ready to depart for BOG. There was an additional Fokker 50 that had just arrived from Cartagena I think.
(There is a good amount of photos of Medellin in the database if you care to look. Look for Colombian and Rionegro (Medellin)).
We got of the plane and the same f/a that was greeting everybody onboard was now saying goodbye to all the passengers.
Baggage claim was fast as this was a small plane, and outside was my aunt waiting for me.
A pleasnt trip and a great experience with Avianca as always.
Please, it's really nice to see what people think of this type of things. If you have any comments, doubts, questions or need more calrification on a certain aspect, just write and I'll be happy to answer.
Thanks for taking the time to read such a long story, and I hope you liked it.
Summa767 From United Kingdom (England), joined Mar 2004, 1515 posts, RR: 7 Reply 1, posted (5 years 4 months 6 days 21 hours ago) and read 683 times:
Thank you very much for this report! I thoroughly enjoyed the detail.
I am glad that you had a good mid- year break in Santa Marta.
I actually did a SMR-MDE back in 1990. Also on SAM, but then it was on a 727. Which was great. Not so on the way there, which was by bus. Too bad this is not a bus trip forum though, as it was a scary experience.
So it is over 14 years since I have been to SMR, and I see it has not changed! Still small, and still hot!
Let's hope that with increasing tourism, albeit internal for the moment, the terminal can be upgraded.
Santa Marta is great, and its potential magnificent. The Tayrona park at the foot of the mighty Sierra Nevada is just fantastic, and the beaches just gorgeous.
Glad all went well with AV/SAM. I've always had nice trips with them.
SOUTHAMERICA From Colombia, joined Dec 2003, 2475 posts, RR: 22 Reply 2, posted (5 years 4 months 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 671 times:
Summa767,
First of all, thanks for your kind reply, for taking the time to read the report, and for enjoying it !.
Actually did a SMR-MDE back in 1990. Also on SAM, but then it was on a 727. Which was great. Not so on the way there, which was by bus. Too bad this is not a bus trip forum though, as it was a scary experience.
Let me tell you that the trip by car was almost totally uneventful, although this country has absolutely stunning landscapes, which I did enjoy a lot. I must admit that we felt really really safe because every 5 miles there was a military toll in case anything out of the ordinary happened, so the sentation of protection was there all the way. Kudos to the government on that !. I must agree that some parts of the road are very creepy, mostly because they are very close to one of the deepest abyss in Colombia.
So it is over 14 years since I have been to SMR, and I see it has not changed! Still small, and still hot!
It was a rather long time since you visited. But things, as you say, have not changed much. There are a few more luxurious hotels though, but not on the well-known "Rodadero" bay, but more to the south, like in the airport zone. But referring to the airport specifically, nothing has change in the general layout. The traffic has obviously changed a lot as you can imagine.
Let's hope that with increasing tourism, albeit internal for the moment, the terminal can be upgraded.
That I see very difficult, specially because the airport isn't even international I think. Anyway, even though very small, the terminal and runway can accomodate perfectly the traffic that the city receives, that consists basically on 3 Avianca MD83, 2 AeroRepublica MD83, 1 Sam F50 and private aircraft.
Santa Marta is great, and its potential magnificent. The Tayrona park at the foot of the mighty Sierra Nevada is just fantastic, and the beaches just gorgeous.
Totally agreed. I didn't go to the Tayrona park though because we needed several vaccinations that we didn't have.
Sponsor Message: 
From Colombia, joined Dec 2003, 2475 posts, 
.gif){kind=small}
From United Kingdom (England), joined Mar 2004, 1515 posts, 
Sponsor Message: 
Printer friendly format
