As we sailed into Santa Marta I recognized the headland.  In 1970 we spent a week here during spring break with Suzi’s parents, sister and friends of Suzi’s folks.   I also remembered the cactus came down to the water’s edge.  As we turned into the port the picturesque headland was replaced by a coal dock.  The coal was piled in front of the cactus. Pipes with spray heads sprinkled the pile with water to keep down the coal dust.

As we sailed into Santa Marta I recognized the headland.  In 1970 we spent a week here during spring break with Suzi’s parents, sister and friends of Suzi’s folks.   I also remembered the cactus came down to the water’s edge.  As we turned into the port the picturesque headland was replaced by a coal dock.  The coal was piled in front of the cactus. Pipes with spray heads sprinkled the pile with water to keep down the coal dust.

Both Suzi and I had coal in our families.  One grandfather for each of us delivered coal in the winter and ice in the summer.  My grandfather would pick a child, grandchild or great grandchild to receive a lump of coal each Christmas that he carved into an animal with his pen knife. He then lacquered the animal to keep down the coal dust so our mothers would not be too upset.  I still have a bear that I “earned” one year.  It was so long ago that I don’t actually remember getting it and certainly do not know what I did to “earn” it, but it is sitting with my childhood stuff. My Aunt Janice left me her coal kitty when she passed. 

We watched the coal pile at breakfast and then went out on our Cumbia tour.  When we next looked at the coal depot the pile was abut half as large.  Apparently, a collier had come and gone with a load.  On the tour Victoria, our guide, told us that coal was one of the three legs that Santa Marta’s economy stood on.

We spent a good part of the late afternoon watching the process.  Big tractor trailers with hind covered loads pulled up to the depot.  They drove into an enclosure and onto a flat platform that would rise and tip the truck, tractor up, and dump the coal.  While the coal was pouring out hoses kept the dust down with a fine spray.  Then the platform lowered, and the truck drove off.  I saw platforms like this on Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis tilting grain trucks to pour grain that came in form the elevators all across Minnesota to fill the trains that would carry them to mills.

After the coal was tipped out onto conveyers and piled. Large earth movers, perhaps better call them coal movers, pile up the coal.  When a ship came in the coal rode a conveyor to the loading dock.

Carbosan operates the port.  It is a subsidiary of a Dutch firm.  The port can load 33metric tons an hour onto a ship.  Carbosan is making a big investment in coal in Columbia.  Right now all the coal arrives by truck but they are planning to build a 16 kilometer railroad extension to the port to allow rail to replace the trucks.  Next year they plan a dock extension to allow larger ships that can transit the new Panama Canal locks to load at Santa Marta.  Carbosan investors are planning to spend roughly $170 million on port expansion and improvements.

I was curious as to why this big investment in coal.  There are two reasons, according to industry press I read.  Colombian Coal exports to the EU almost doubled in 2022 and then again in 2023 because of the disruption of natural gas supplies due to the Ukrainian war and the decommissioning Nuclear plants.  Some of that tapered off in 2024 but the EU is still the biggest single customer for the Santa Marta port.  Long term the port is looking to increase shipments to China, Korea and Japan using the new locks on the Panama Canal.  So, at least investors in the Netherlands believe that there is a future in coal.  

We watched the process with fascination until the captain sounded the horn. We backed out and swung around so our balcony was no longer facing the coal terminal but Santa Marta town and sailed west into the sunset toward Central America.

Both Suzi and I had coal in our families.  One grandfather for each of us delivered coal in the winter and ice in the summer.  My grandfather would pick a child, grandchild or great grandchild to receive a lump of coal each Christmas that he carved into an animal with his pen knife. He then lacquered the animal to keep down the coal dust so our mothers would not be too upset.  I still have a bear that I “earned” one year.  It was so long ago that I don’t actually remember getting it and certainly do not know what I did to “earn” it, but it is sitting with my childhood stuff. My Aunt Janice left me her coal kitty when she passed. 

We watched the coal pile at breakfast and then went out on our Cumbia tour.  When we next looked at the coal depot the pile was abut half as large.  Apparently, a collier had come and gone with a load.  On the tour Victoria, our guide, told us that coal was one of the three legs that Santa Marta’s economy stood on.

We spent a good part of the late afternoon watching the process.  Big tractor trailers with hind covered loads pulled up to the depot.  They drove into an enclosure and onto a flat platform that would rise and tip the truck, tractor up, and dump the coal.  While the coal was pouring out hoses kept the dust down with a fine spray.  Then the platform lowered, and the truck drove off.  I saw platforms like this on Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis tilting grain trucks to pour grain that came in form the elevators all across Minnesota to fill the trains that would carry them to mills.

After the coal was tipped out onto conveyers and piled. Large earth movers, perhaps better call them coal movers, pile up the coal.  When a ship came in the coal rode a conveyor to the loading dock.

Carbosan operates the port.  It is a subsidiary of a Dutch firm.  The port can load 33metric tons an hour onto a ship.  Carbosan is making a big investment in coal in Columbia.  Right now all the coal arrives by truck but they are planning to build a 16 kilometer railroad extension to the port to allow rail to replace the trucks.  Next year they plan a dock extension to allow larger ships that can transit the new Panama Canal locks to load at Santa Marta.  Carbosan investors are planning to spend roughly $170 million on port expansion and improvements.

I was curious as to why this big investment in coal.  There are two reasons, according to industry press I read.  Colombian Coal exports to the EU almost doubled in 2022 and then again in 2023 because of the disruption of natural gas supplies due to the Ukrainian war and the decommissioning Nuclear plants.  Some of that tapered off in 2024 but the EU is still the biggest single customer for the Santa Marta port.  Long term the port is looking to increase shipments to China, Korea and Japan using the new locks on the Panama Canal.  So, at least investors in the Netherlands believe that there is a future in coal.  

We watched the process with fascination until the captain sounded the horn. We backed out and swung around so our balcony was no longer facing the coal terminal but Santa Marta town and sailed west into the sunset toward Central America.