Day 471 – Minca
Supply run to Santa Marta
Today we woke up thinking about the Spanish classes sign we had seen at Tienda Cafe Minca. We walked to the office for CREA at Mision Gaia, which is in town. The director of Mision Gaia spoke with us and explained the program. The actual classes are located a short walk from town, which we visited.
The school is nice and it’s essentially a small house. The classes will be outside in an open area. This is perfect for enjoying the beautiful view of a distant Santa Marta. It seemed promising, so we signed up for one week with the possibility of extending if we wanted.
View of Santa Marta from CREA
The only problem was our lack of cash since Minca doesn’t have an ATM. There is a store where we could buy cash from, but after months of a transaction-fee free life with ING, it seemed like a waste of money.
Therefore we decided to go back into the larger town of Santa Marta to get more cash. To make the trip more beneficial, we thought to run some other errands there too.
Before leaving, we went to a local shop for some empanadas. The store didn’t have enough change, which led to a 10 minutes wait as the owner kept serving other customers and chatting before finally going to another store to get some change. While waiting, we finished our empanadas.
Santa Marta
We got back to Santa Marta by colectivo. The process was easy but this time they required our passports, which we had on us.
Once we were back in Santa Marta, we dropped off some laundry (it’s cheaper here) and then had some Chinese food for lunch at Long Hang. It was surprisingly filling and cheap.
We purchased some groceries from Rapimercado supermarket before heading back to Minca. We had talked to the other couple staying in our dorm room and decided to have a BBQ together.
We picked up our laundry and with great difficulty walked back to the terminal due to all the groceries and clean clothes. There was a colectivo waiting when we arrived, which left as soon as we got on.
Minca
Back in Minca, we chilled for a bit before preparing for the BBQ. After nightfall, we headed into town to find that all the streets were lit with candles. It looked really nice. We later found out that it’s part of a tradition marking the start of Christmas (we were told this by a tourist so it could be completely wrong).
We purchased some beer and headed back to the hostel for our BBQ. It took a lot longer than we expected to start the fire and cook the food. All the while we had to battle ants that had decided to walk straight through the BBQ site. They were super aggressive and we had so many bites on our exposed feet by the end of the night. However, the fire did keep the mosquitoes away.
In the end, the ant bites were worth it, as we enjoyed the super delicious meal with some cheap local beer. It was also fun to enjoy the night with new friends.
Travelled December 2019
Expenses and Transport
- Colectivo – Minca to Santa Marta Terminal (and vice versa) – 8,000 COP (~$3 AUD) per person departing every 20 minutes until 6pm with Cootransminca