Though I thoroughly enjoyed Santa Marta’s beaches and historical sights, let’s not pretend that one of my favorite things about my trip to Santa Marta wasn’t the eating part. Food is way up there on my list of reasons to travel, and Santa Marta has lots of great things both to eat and drink.

A few days ago a friend asked me to recommend a good Colombian breakfast and a lot of things immediately came to mind: caldo de costilla, tamal, changua, huevos pericos and hot chocolate, but in the end I suggested calentado and he loved it - now he's on a mission to hunt down the best calentado in town.

Though I normally find statements like the one I'm about to make annoying and overblown, in this case I find it entirely appropriate: if you haven't had arepas, you haven't really tried Colombian food.