New Year’s Eve in Santa Marta

New Year’s Eve in Santa Marta

Santa Marta, Colombia, South America

Today was an excellent day! We got a good night’s sleep and went out for a good breakfast at the buffet restaurant. After breakfast we went straight down to the beach and claimed a spot for us all to sit in the shade. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing by the beach and going for a swim. The water isn’t as clear as it was in Baru, but it is just as warm and feels great. The main difference is that the waves here in Santa Marta are much stronger, but that just makes it more fun to be in the water.

We didn’t even go back up to the restaurant for lunch. Instead we would just stay on the beach and got to the little snack bar where we could get pizza, burgers and hot dogs. It was a perfect way to spend the day. We came back to the room to get ready around 6pm because dinner was booked for 8:30pm and the girls take forever to get ready. It was good though because it gave me time to just chill, iron my clothes, and get ready for what’s to come tonight.

We had dinner at the Italian restaurant, Mama Mia’s, at 8:30pm and everyone looked fantastic. I got to wear my guayabera that my mom was nice enough to ship down to Melissa just in time for Christmas, so that worked out perfectly. Juan and I matched, as did most of the men that night who were all in our white guayaberas. We had a phenomenal dinner at the restaurant, accompanied with many glasses of wine, and then headed down to the beach. We’d left a card on the table that says Reserved (Melissa’s idea), but we’re not sure that anyone was really going to respect that. I was very surprised to see that when we got down there our table was still empty. It was prime position right in front of the big TV screens that would be showing the band and everyone dancing all night.

All eight of us sat at the table until midnight drinking whiskey after whiskey. This wasn’t a good whiskey either. It was a brand called Gold Drinks. That says it all really. They were only worried about getting the color right, not much else. It worked very well at getting us drunk though. Melissa even had me up dancing before the clock struck midnight, so it was the beginning of a very fun night. When the clock struck midnight, we all hugged and wished each other a Happy New Year while eating our twelve grapes. This is a Colombian tradition where they eat twelve grapes and make a wish, one for each month. I also had a pocket full of lentils for some reason. I guess it was another tradition, but I’m not sure about that one.

I’ll leave the rest of the night’s shenanigans for tomorrow’s blog, so Happy New Year everyone!!

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