1460-1526

Spanish explorer of what is now Colombia. Working variously with Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475-1519) and Juan de la Cosa (1460?-1510), Bastidas travelled along the South American coast from Trinidad to the isthmus of Panama during the years 1500-1502. He discovered the mouths of the Magdalena River near present-day Baranquilla, Colombia, and in 1525 founded the colony of Santa Marta nearby. Today Santa Marta is Colombia's oldest city.