When you visit Santa Marta, will you be looking for 100% Colombian souvenirs to take back home with you? Probably! And even better if those souvenirs have a huge dose of history and culture mixed in.
What products can you buy that will remind you of the sunny beaches, cool mountain breezes, and the good times you had in and near Santa Marta? Here are a few of our favorites.
Mochila bags
You’ll see people using them all over Colombia. Mochila bags.
Traditionally used by both men and women, these bags are made to hang from your shoulder or across your body, and are handwoven by indigenous groups.
The art of making mochilas is passed down from generation to generation, and the girls begin to learn when they’re quite young. An authentic mochila can be costly, since a bag can take a month to weave.
The variety of designs woven into the bag represent animals such as the frog, scorpion, or rattlesnake, or even intangible ideas that are important to the tribe.
Bags made by the Wayuu in La Guajira (about 250 km east of Santa Marta) are brightly colored, while the mochilas from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta are a combination of beige and brown earthy tones. They are readily available in markets all over Colombia.
Sombrero vueltiao
This hat, now a national symbol in Colombia, is generally made from caña flecha, a type of cane.
These labor-intensive hats begin with cane leaves that are painstakingly cut into thick strips that are processed, dried, then cut into thinner strips that may be dyed.
Then the weaving starts. The strips are woven in pairs of fibers that will indicate the quality of the finished product: 7, 9, 11 all the way up to 27 pairs. Designs of animals or religious objects from the Zenú indigenous tribe are woven into the hat.
Once the work of men (now women have joined in), the finest hats can take up to a month to make and cost hundreds of dollars.
Colombian coffee
High-quality coffee is grown in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta from 900 to about 1600 meters (3,000 to over 5,000 feet) above sea level.
Below the snow-capped mountains, almost 14,000 coffee growers in this region use mainly organic approaches to growing coffee. In the shade of avocado, walnut or fruit trees, small coffee plantations are normally a family affair, and the business is often passed down from generation to generation.
Take some 100% Colombian coffee home with you! Or learn about coffee in Colombia on one of our Colombian Coffee Workshops in Santa Marta – an excellent way to prepare for a coffee farm tour.
Candies and sweets
Candies and sweets in Colombia are often made from local fruits. Grapefruit, coconut, papaya, tamarind are all turned into sweet delicacies at the hands of local cooks.
And don’t miss trying chocolate made from cacao grown close by in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
