I've featured a couple of Colombian lighthouses before, but not a lot of them, so this post returns to northern South America. The lighthouse this week is picturesquely situated on a prominent rock off the coast named Isla del Morro, adjacent to the city of Santa Marta, so this lighthouse can also be found as the "Santa Marta lighthouse". But Isla del Morro is where it's at.
A bit of history; Santa Marta is the first Spanish settlement in Colombia. It's up (east) on the Caribbean Sea coast from Cartagena and Barranquilla. There's a nice beach nearby called the Playa Blanca, looking like a much smaller version of the Rio de Janeiro beaches.
So, about the lighthouse:
"1971 (station established 1870). Active; focal plane 82 m (269 ft); three white flashes every 15 s. 23 m (75 ft) hexagonal tower on a 2-story square base; the lighthouse is built of cement blocks with a frame of reinforced concrete. Lighthouse painted gray with white trim; the lantern has red and white vertical striping." (Excerpted from the Lighthouse Directory.)
Apparently the red and white striping was a recent paint job, because you can see a picture without that the color scheme below, too.
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