After a realtively quick journey in a minibus with a much needed stop in Barranquilla (Shakira's home town) to change our minibus with one that had air conditioning, of about 4 hours during which time I had the pleasure of being able to watch the majority of the champions league final, we arrived in Taganga a small fishing village tucked into a small break in the mountains on the rugged caribbean coast. This lies around 10 minutes from the nearest city of Santa Marta (about 5 miles to the west) which we drove through to get to Taganga.
On first impressions of the place, I was a little disappointed, it wasnt quite as quiet, quaint and picturesque as I had imagined and again, it certainly wasn't the Caribbean beach resort that one would imagine when picturing such a place.
We were taken by the minibus driver to one of the few hostels we'd heard of Bay View looking out not on the bay but on the biggest dustiest football pitch I'd ever seen where there looked to be some tournament going on with many locals gathered round sitting on the tiered seating nd making a fair amount of noise too. This really made me crave a game, it's one thing apart from the obvious friends and family that I really have missed since I've been away I think footy and driving and perhaps a good roast dinner!umm yum!
On the plus side, it was a friday night and the beach only a 5 minute walk away so after checking into our casita (little house at the back of the hostel) which proved to be a real pain to get to as they would always lock the back door of the hostel so we'd have to walk all the way round the houses to get to it. The 5 of us checked in there although it was only going to be for one night so we didnt make ourselves too comfortable as the welsh guy was leaving the next day to go to find the lost city in the jungle somewhere (in hindsight I wish I had gone myself which I would have done had I had the money to do so) and the two English girls, Sam and Mel had already checked themselves into a dorm room for the following night and Fabian was moving out of the hostel.
Anyway so we decided to make a night of it since we’d been travelling since we woke up and we wanted to see what the night life was like so we decided to check out one of the 2 clubs in this small iittle town so we decided on Mriador since we’d been handed a flyer for it earlier in the day by a couple of English girls who worked there. Although first Fabian and I checked out Garaje bar which we’d also been given fliers for while Mel went to Mirador with a bunch of ladies from our hostel, Dave the Welsh guy went to bed as he had a very early rise and Sam also passed out. Garaje bar was quite a cool little place although there weren’t many people there. After a bit of poorly attempted salsa by myself, we moved onto Mirador, a funky little bar over looking the sea where we danced some more and then for some silly reason decided to go swimming. Really damn silly idea, I forget just to trust people so I go off swimming in the dark, with the constant thought of my shit getting stolen (I had my camera, wallet, phone, and watch in my pockets) and so I was constantly keeping an eye out but surprise surprise on return not only had all my stuff been taken but all my clothes too! I was devastated, this was like the worst thing that had ever happened and I just didn’t know what to do! I totally freaked , there was noone there except some guy picking up bottles off the beach obviously he was the first guy I questioned but on searching him found nothing. Of course if he’d taken anything he would have hidden it or simply left before I came back from the sea. The guy who certainly looked like the type to do this sort of thing went off and came back with my clothes and my wallet and had all my cards, receipts and papers in his hand and just dropped them all down in front of me. This was a huge relief as I now had my cards back at least so I would be able to withdraw my money and not worry about cancelling them all and ordering replacements and then waiting for ages for new ones and obviously it was a relief to have my clothes back and not be walking around in my soaking wet boxer shorts! Obviously I immediately suspected this guy and questioned him but it was obvious I wasn’t getting anymore out of him. I decided just to wait til day break which now wasn’t long away and have another good search in the light when I could see better! Nothing so next I went to the police, useless, pointless wastes of space. Well it was my incompetence but at least they could’ve written me a report!! All they said was come back the next day to report to the chief as he wasn’t in today. I passed most of that day sleeping as obviously hadn’t had any, got some food and just felt generally sorry for myself. The watch was not just valuable in value but also in sentiment as it was a 21st birthday present so I’d had it for 6 years. The camera was an excellent one too and I had often been given compliments about how good it was and obviously about the photos it had taken. I was gutted! There was no way I was getting them back. It was my fault and I felt like a total idiot. I was an idiot full stop. I needed to check out from the bay view as everyone else had either left or changed room so I went to hostel graffiti where Fabian had shared and got a room with him and passed out there for the rest of the day.
On waking early to see the police chief at 8am as told, I was directed to go to Santa Marta and given an address to report it. So that was that, I decided to go to Santa Marta to get a new camera, watch and report the crime to the police. I met Christian, the nice Italian guy we had met in Cartagena by coincidence who told me he was also going to Santa Marta to withdraw money so we jumped in a little minibus for the 10 minute journey to Santa Marta. On arrival I said my goodbyes to Christian and wondered what I was going to do first, whether to see the police straight away or to get the camera and watch. I decided to check out the police station first and yet again another excuse as to why I couldn’t report it as the right person wasn’t there and to come back. I couldn’t be bothered any more to be honest, they spoke no English at all, I needed to report it in English for it to be detailed and accurate enough and I was highly unlikely to get anything back from the insurance as I was totally culpable so I decided to forget it and just go and replace the things I’d lost with poor substitutes as already I was getting sick of not being able to take photos and tell the time! Off I went to a huge carrefour but on the way I found Olimpia, a supermarket which sold electronics. I found my camera but a model down with a terrible zoom comparatively. Anyway I bought it for 369,000 Colombian pesos roughly £100, a fairly respectable price considering my previous one was £380 although was clearly much better. This restored some happiness to my depressed state that at least now I was going to be able to take photos of Tayrona national park where we were planning on going and the rest of the places I was going to such as Venezuela. Next just to buy a cheap watch that did the job of just telling me the time. I headed to carrefour as directed by the guy selling me the camera as their selection was minimal and found the cheapest little digital watch they had which cost 30,000 COP (under a tenner). Now I was happy again, I had the things restored, not back or with the same value, quality or sentiment (my camera was also a birthday gift) but I was able to take pictures and tell the time again. Trying to look on the positive side as I usually try to do, I could say that my old camera didn’t actually work properly probably due to the amount of water and sand I had got in it. It still took extremely good pictures but viewing them proved troublesome at times so now I had one that functioned properly. With regards to my watch, my old one never kept the proper date which was frustrating and also I couldn’t read the time in the dark as it had no light or lumination on the hands so in that sense this watch was better and it had disco light function sad I know but it made me smile and an alarm. The little things that make you smile hey!
So some happiness had been restored and on the way back i went round taking as many photos as i felt necessary (Santa Marta doesn’t have too much to offer with regard to tourist sights although I found a few and it also has a caribbean beach) and took many glances and made sure I told whoever needed to know the time. J
On return to Taganga, again I used my camera as much as possible. We took a trip to playa grande, a short walk across the mountain to another bay along the coastline which was totally deserted apart from us and a woman selling beer from one of the many empty, deserted restaurants facing the beach. It was like a ghost town compared to Taganga. It was so strange, lots of tables and chairs and what appeared to be restaurants but nobody sitting, nobody working, nobody living there in the houses behind just nobody there full stop! For this reason it was quite nice and tranquil, we had the beach to ourselves (it was a little nicer than the beach at Taganga, cleaner water and sand) and no people or noise although it didn’t really live up to it’s name of being big beach as it wasn’t really all that big!
The only trouble was after taking just a few photos on the nice walk across to the place the camera decided to die on me! I thought perhaps it was the battery but after getting back and charging it for a few hours it wouldn’t switch on so yet again I would have to go back to Santa Marta to replace the faulty goods I had bought.
Anyway so this was getting boring enough for me going back and forth and it’s probably getting boring for you reading it too if anyone is actually still reading at this stage, let me just say a big thanks for having enough time to waste reading this load of crap. It’s just something to keep me occupied on the long bus journeys really, it’s not like I’m ever gonna read any of it again! Well I might look at the pictures which is probably all you do. Well if you’re still reading and haven’t got so bored that you’re asleep by now, I’ll tell you that yes I went back and got a replacement camera after a lot of hassle and waiting around and lots of big scary men looking at me like I’d broken the thing and was trying to con them into thniking it was faulty goods and nothing to do with the fact that I’d dropped it in the bath or down the stairs or something. Anyway so to cut a long story short I got back to Taganga again only to find they hadn’t provided the bloody wrist strap grrrrr! Yet another trip was needed but I was going to have to go back there anyway to get to Venezuela so I decided I’d wait til then as it wasn’t that urgent and I could still use it without at Tayrona, I’d just have to be extra careful not to drop the damn thing as I’d have to blag it for real if it happened again! So with my new camera take two and new watch I was in the mood for celebrating and so we decided to go to the beach party on playaca, a beach just 5 minutes drive away towards Santa Marta. This turned out to be great for me as they were playing some fantastic old school drum and bass and jungle through some pretty amazing speakers and on the way up we’d met this American, Colombian guy who was loading up his HumV full of booze to take along and since there were no taxis around, I simply asked is there room for 5 more and he was like sure there is. It turned out he knew the guys running it so he got us all in for free and there were no taxi charges. The guy was a legend! Later in the evening he took myself, Fabian and Christian to a strip bar which although was rather lame, it was a cool road trip and good to cruise round Santa Marta in his Hummer at night.
Later we returned and I danced like a mad man to some old classics and found myself and Fabian at the beach to watch the sunrise. Now we had the problem of getting back but just at that moment Evan (the American Colombian guy) appeared and said lets go. How cool, free lift there, free entry and free lift back and some great tunes!
On the way back, we got chatting to a nice Colombian guy who told us he owned a hostel in Taganga and invited us back there for drinks which we were in no mood to decline! We liked the hostel and the guy (Francisco) so much that we decided we would move to his hostel the very same day as it was empty, was a good location (pretty much right next to the beach) and nice and close to shops and right next door to Sensation (the other bar in town). Later in the day we met up with Helena (the English girl who was a friend of Will’s from uni who had caught up with us since Mancora) by coincidence and we told her which hostel she was in and so she moved in with us too and worked for Francisco so that she could stay for free. Later in the day I made yet another trip to Santa Marta for various reasons and on the way back, two girls sat next to me in the minibus. They were speaking a strange language and so i asked what language it was. I knew it was European but couldnt quite put my finger on where exactly and when they told me it was Swiss German I felt a little embarassed having spent the last 2 months or so with a Swiss German although admittedly I hadn’t heard him speak German too much. Anyway so I told them I was travelling with a Swiss German guy and perhaps they’d like to meet him and they told me that they were planning to come and stay in Taganga so when I showed them our new found hostel, they agreed to move into one of the private rooms. I was doing a great job bringing in custom for Francisco, hopefully he’ll give me a discount on my own rates! 3 new people in his hostel thanks to me!
That evening we had a hostel party to celebrate which was alot of fun and we decided that we would book the boat to go to Tayrona the following day which I was very much looking forward to as I had heard and seen so many good things about it!
Tayrona National Park
Getting up early, Fabian, I, Helena and the 2 Swiss German girls got on the boat to take the hours journey to Tayrona. This was certainly an exciting experience and on the way we saw some amazing flying fish which jumped out the water and glided in the air for quite a while before submerging back into the water which was an amazing sight!
On arrival I could see what all the fuss was about! It really was like a paradise island, yellow sandy beaches, tall palm trees, clear water, beautiful weather and beautiful forested mountains all around! I couldn’t wait to explore!
Having already seen the flying fish, I was really excited to see what else I could find. I was in an adventurous exploratory mood and after deciding that we’d head to the other beach further away from all the tourists, we all split up, the two Swiss girls went their own way, I went my way and Fabian and Helena went theirs. I had no fears that I’d meet them later and I knew that since we only had 24 hours in this tropical paradise that I wanted to see things!
I decided after walking along seeing the beautiful beaches, climbing the large rocks and swimming in the sea a little that it was time to explore the jungle.
So off I went climbing high and getting deeper into the jungle but still sticking to the path.
I saw huge butterflies and ants carrying huge leaves and berries in long lines and large groups always taking care to step over them whenever I saw them slaving away down there. I saw and heard some wonderful birds and then as I walked heard what I thought were birds but they were making too much of a racquet in the trees to be birds but they were slightly off the path into the trees so I decided to go and investigate. To my delight, on further investigation, looking up I saw a whole group of howler monkeys staring down at me with great long tails and white fluffy manes. My instant reaction was quick get the camera and then I was cursing when I remembered the poor quality zoom on this new camera. While fiddling with the silly thing they dispersed all jumping this way and that and disappearing into the distant canopies. I pursued for a little while but I didn’t want to go so far off the path that I would get lost so I stopped and listened. Another one came flying down the branches and I quickly snapped him but the zoom was poor so the picture was terrible. It was certainly an experience though and I couldn’t wait to tell everyone I had seen monkeys for the first time in my life in the wild!
Continuing to walk I noticed the huge abundance of blue crabs of varying sizes. Everytime you got near they would scurry into their holes, some very small, some absolutely huge! I definitely saw the biggest crab I’ve ever seen at one point which gave me a little fright because at first I wondered what it was because it was so big I didn’t think it actually was a crab! Now this may sound revolting but I was in the middle of the jungle and I really needed a number two! So I walked to a place where I hoped noone would see me and dropped the swim shorts and let it all out. I felt like tarzan standing there but naked in the middle of the forest dumping my load on the forest floor and wiping my arse with leaves but I had no choice, it had to be done. As I wiped for a last time, I put the leaves discreetly under a plie and moved some more over them with my foot. To my horror out scurried the smallest but meanest looking scorpion I had ever seen! It was a tiny little black scorpion which could easily have stung me and it quickly ran and scurried under another bunch of leaves. I wanted a photo but there was no way I was touching that thing! They say the smallest ones are the most deadly too!
Continuing to walk through the jungle and eventually coming to the next beach which was absolutely beautiful and completely deserted with a river running across the beach to the sea that I had to cross. There was a beautiful stork in the river gobbling fish like there was no tomorrow which I got some good snaps of.
As I walked, I started to get hungry so I found a suitable looking restaurant just back from the beach. Here already eating I found the Swiss girls and so I joined them for lunch. They told me that they had seen a crocodile on the deserted beach I had just been on! I was like where and they told me just where the river meets the sea! I couldn’t believe it, I had just waded through that river to get to the other side of the beach and hadn’t seen anything! I could’ve been attacked or even killed! I was more annoyed that I hadn’t seen it though and I made it my next mission to go and see if I could find the elusive creature! I then told them about the monkeys I had seen and they agreed if they showed me the crocodile then I’d show them the monkeys so after lunch we set out on our mission. To our huge disappointment, neither the monkeys or the croc (it was actually a caiman they had seen) were anywhere to be seen near their previous sightings and so we just had to face the facts that we might not get to see them but I wasn’t going to give up so easily seeing this caiman!
On the walk back through the jungle, we met up with Fabian and Helena at the beach they had decided to take temporary residence on and told them of our sightings. The Swiss girls had booked themselves into hammocks which I suggested to the other 2 that we did too but they were talking about sleeping on the beach which actually sounded quite exciting so I agreed to go along with that plan too. Luckily we had bought a bottle of aguardientes with us and we drank some shots of it at the beach while deciding where we were going to sleep. I told them about the nice deserted beach (apart from the caimans) that I had found and so we went to check it out.
We agreed that we would sleep there that evening and went to join the girls at the restaurant as they wanted food and I needed a beer. After eating and drinking a good few shots and beers and listening to a talking parrot,
we were all in a jolly mood and by this time it was dark and felt alot later than 8pm or whatever it was although round here it was clear everyone went to bed early so off we went to find our beds for the night.
The deserted beach was quite a bit further down from the restaurant and the tide had come in so it meant crossing the river and the high tide and rough waves that had come up the beach (I remember earlier in the day on this very beach saying now swimming, too dangerous, over 200 people have died here!) in the darkness, not to mention contending with the caimans lurking in the river! I decided it was probably best to get the good little head lamp out kindly left to me by Dad after Machu Piccu (thanks dad if you’re reading you saved us from getting eaten by caimans) as neither of the others had been organised enough to bring a torch. Walking through the pitch darkness everyone simply following the little light coming from the torch, i flashed it in front of me in the direction of the river and to our shock we saw not just one but 2 sets of reflective eyes staring at us from the river we were standing in and they appeared to get getting closer. This was pretty scary that we could see just the caimans eyes and nothing else and to make matters worse, the sand we were standing in was like quicksand, it just sucked your feet in whenever you placed a new footstep so getting away from a snapping caiman was not going to be easy. Eventually we managed to get up onto a sandy ledge and out of the river and back down onto the other side of the beach but it was quite a hairy moment albeit a cool experience! Now we just needed a place to sleep. We found a suitable area of beach, not too close to the sea to get swept away, not too close to the caimans to get eaten and not to close to the beach huts and humankind towards the jungle at the back of the beach. Once we had found the perfect spot we set up camp for the night.
After about 10 minutes of talking the other 2 were out like a light but I was having trouble sleeping. I need to be very comfortable and warm to sleep and this was neither. As the night wore on I became more uncomfortable and more cold and cursed myself for not bringing some warmer clothes as the others had done! You don’t really go to the caribbean expecting to need a fleece but at this moment I could’ve done with one! By about 2am it stated to become dewy which was totally unpleasant and I decided that I was no longer going to use my huge Brasil beach towel as a sheet but more as a blanket and completely wrapped myself in it like a chrysalis in a cocoon. This worked well and kept me warm and dry but as soon as some light appeared since I was in such a light state of sleep I woke. I am extremely glad I did as it was most certainly the most amazing sunrise I’ve ever seen with the most amazing colours and shadows cast by the few clouds in the sky.
I ws just so glad I was catching this moment. A few others had joined us on the beach just to sea the sunrise and it truly was worth it and an extraordinary sight!
That morning I went looking for the caiman again in vain. The damn thing wasn’t to be seen during the day and just the eyes were visible at night! So frustrating!
After a little swimming, and some breakfast, we decided to explore the next further beach but there wasn’t much there other than stronger waves and hotter sand so we turned to head into the jungle only to find the way blocked by another river and on the other side we saw a giant iguana which spotted us and quickly ran behind a rock before we could get out cameras out. We weren’t having much luck snapping the nature in this place! We did however come across an amazing giant sea turtle that was unfortunately dead but it was an amazing sight! I had no idea that they grew so big. Poor thing, I kept thinking that it was still alive as with every movement of tide it's head would move back
and forth and up and down.
After some more exploration seeing some more cool animals, fish and birds and doing some more sunbathing, it was time to leave this paradise. On the boat we saw some dolphins jumping near us which was amazing but the excitment of this quickly faded when one of our engines failed and we were already going slowly due to much choppier water than we had on the way there! After about 2 hours we finally got back to Taganga, wet tired, hungry and glad to be on terra firma once more we headed back to the hostel.
Taganga Part 2
Francsico was there at the hostel. Often hard to read or understand his expressions, I couldn’t quite fathom what he was bumbling in his poor English and then I saw his door! The door was smashed apart, we were robbed he said. They had taken my computer (which ironically I’d left for safety reasons in his room), they took his camera and Fabians camcorder as well as ransacking all our clothes throwning them all over the place. I was in shock I coulndt beleive this had happened to me AGAIN! Someone up there really must have it in for me I thought!! To be fair to Francisco however, he said he’d buy me a new one as it was his responsibility and after 2 days of it not turning up, the police being their usual useless selves (they didn’t even come to look at the crimescene after we’d reported it or write up a report) Francisco being his good self promised we’d go to Santa Marta and buy me a new one. So off we went, he had got his camera back as people new who it had been sold to so he went and bought it back and Fabain got his camcorder back which was at Bayview as one of the staff had managed to grab it off the thief! It was good of francisco to buy me a new one although it was more the photos, music and movies that I was most annoyed about, dor the 2nd time I had lost it all!!
This was the final straw, I’d had just about enough of tagana and it was about time I left. A french guy who was in graffiti hostel and had consequently also moved to La Mucura (Francisco’s hostel) was also heading my way into Venezuela so I agreed that the next day, we would get up early and head there together. Fabian was still undecided so I thought I’d leave him to ponder what he was going to do and if he was going to come he could catch up. It had certianly been a time and place of mixed emotions and although I like certian aspects of the place i relity I couldnt wait to leave although I was raather nervous about going to Venezuela after everything I’d heard, if you never try then you’ll never know hey!
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