Santa Marta Research Paper

Santa Marta sounds like it is a dream vacation place. There are beaches, malls, exotic animals, and a culture that many people are not familiar with. The reality of this location, is dirt roads, stray animals, and very bad drivers. Santa Marta is on the coast of Colombia, South America. This location is very underdeveloped, meaning they are missing many staples of beautiful place to vacation. Many of the roads are dirt, with potholes all over, and people that pay no attention walking around on them. There are very many stray dogs and cats walking through the city, leading to drivers swerving left and right to avoid hitting them. Many of the taxi drivers do not follow a certain speed limit, causing very reckless driving throughout Santa Marta. The beaches of Santa Marta are inferior. The sand is very rocky, which is not something one would want to walk or lay on, and there is litter throughout the area. On the beaches, panhandlers are covering the area,
There are very high rates of crime throughout Columbia, especially in the small villages surrounding bigger cities. Throughout the years, many people that drug cartels are not an issue anymore. Although the crime ratings from it have gone down, it is still very prominent throughout Colombia, which can be very dangerous for foreigners that are not very well educated. Through the streets and alleys in Santa Marta, there are many gangs that use the dark areas as a “hang out” spot. If you are not careful, you could end up finding yourself in an area that could be potentially be life threatening. Colombia also has high rates of kidnapping, even with the tremendous drop of what they used to be, they are still skyrocketing compared to more developed countries. Because of the dangers, you will always need to travel with a native of that country, because you can easily get caught in the crossfire of a drug