The neighborhood that organized to keep its beach: the story of Playa Salguero and its neighborhood committees

Origins

Before the south of Santa Marta filled up with towers and gated communities, Playa Salguero was something else: a long strip of sand where the sea hit hard, surrounded by coconut palms, fishermen's houses and farms that smelled of coconut and salt. Samarios who grew up around there remember that to get there you had to take the road toward Pozos Colorados and get off where the landscape stopped being city. There were no traffic lights, no shopping centers, none of the congestion we know today.

The beach worked as a pantry and as a backyard. Fishermen went out at dawn with cast nets and beach nets, and at midday families cooked whatever had been caught: snapper, kingfish, mullet. On the coconut farms they made copra and sold coconut water to anyone passing by. That landscape of low houses, zinc roofs and sandy yards is what many residents still defend as the living memory of the neighborhood.

Change came with the real estate boom of recent decades, when the south of the city became the main development hub of Santa Marta. Land that used to be farms went up in value, and with it came residential complexes, hotels and private access points. That is where the tension that defines Playa Salguero to this day was born: how to grow without the beach ceasing to belong to everyone.

Timeline and historical milestones

Playa Salguero

The beach is the heart of the story. Its open sand and strong surf set it apart from the calm of El Rodadero, and for that very reason it was for years the bathing spot for those looking for something less touristy and more neighborhood-like. With the arrival of large developments, the risk that access points would be closed or privatized became real, and that is where the community organized.

Today the beach is still publicly accessible, and that is the achievement residents claim. If you want to move around the area with fresh data, on malokal.com you can check the safe map by neighborhood (Locals vs. Foreigners), live holiday schedules and book directly via WhatsApp; reference prices correspond to November 2026 and may change.

Comité Cívico de Playa Salguero

The civic committee and the Junta de Acción Comunal are the bodies that channel the neighborhood's voice. These organizations, regulated and registered with the Ministry of the Interior, are the legal tool residents have to engage with the Mayor's Office, developers and environmental authorities. In Playa Salguero their role has been key in demanding that beach access points remain open and that development respects public space.

The work is less glamorous than it sounds: meetings, formal petitions, citizen oversight and a lot of patience. But it is the reason anyone can walk down to the sand today without a security guard asking which complex they are going to. If you want to understand the history of the neighborhood, start there: with the people who organized so as not to lose their beach.

Pozos Colorados

Pozos Colorados is the neighboring area that marks the edge of the south's hotel development. Its name appears on maps and in the memory of Samarios as the gateway to the long beach. The area has grown with hotels and complexes, but it keeps stretches of open sand that locals still use on weekends.

For visitors, Pozos Colorados is a good reference point: if you are around there, you are already close to Playa Salguero. It is recommended to check schedules and sea conditions before visiting, because the surf in this stretch can be strong.

Bello Horizonte area

Bello Horizonte is the residential neighborhood that consolidated as Playa Salguero's direct neighbor. A good part of the community that takes part in the committees lives there, and its streets show the contrast between old houses and new buildings. It is an area of everyday life: shops, bakeries, schools and morning traffic.

For anyone who wants to know the neighborhood beyond the beach, walking through Bello Horizonte gives a clear idea of how the south of Santa Marta was transformed over the last two decades. It is not a tourist destination in itself, but it is the real context where the story of the neighborhood committees takes place.

Key figures and events

The story of Playa Salguero does not have a single protagonist, but many. The community leaders who pushed for the creation of the civic committee, the fishermen who kept going out to sea when the landscape changed, and the families who stayed in their lifelong homes while the buildings grew around them. No grand speeches: just everyday grind.

The trades that survive are part of that story. The sand workers who prepare the beach, the coconut vendors who walk the sand with their carts, and the informal watchers who look after bathers' belongings are figures any samario recognizes. Their presence keeps alive the popular character of the beach in the face of pressure from tourism and construction.

A key event was the consolidation of the Junta de Acción Comunal as a formal interlocutor. That step, which sounds bureaucratic, allowed the neighborhood to have legal representation to demand compliance with public space and beach access regulations. Without that structure, residents' complaints would have stayed as street-corner conversations.

Current situation

Today Playa Salguero is a neighborhood in permanent tension between what it was and what it wants to be. The south of Santa Marta keeps growing, and with it the pressure on the beach and access points. The neighborhood committees remain active, watching that new projects do not close public passage or degrade the sand.

For visitors, the recommendation is simple: go down to the beach, spend at local businesses, respect residents' space and do not assume that a closed access point is normal. The beach is public, and that right cost neighborhood organizing. If you live or vacation in Playa Salguero, tell us in the comments what changed on your block over the last ten years.

Deep down, what happened here is similar to what happens in so many coastal areas of Colombia: development arrives and the community decides whether to adapt or organize. In Playa Salguero they chose the latter. And that open beach, with its coconut vendors and strong surf, is proof that it worked.