Caribbean coast, Colombia

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The last week or so of my time in South America was spent on the Caribbean coast of Colombia in Santa Marta, Taganga and Cartagena. I have included all three in a single blog as I got lazy towards the end of the trip and I didn't do too much on any one day. It could have been a result of the warm and humid climate that makes you constantly sweat; or simply the fact that I had travelled the entire length of the continent in under three months. This last fact would not impress the travel snobs who believe you should spend months on end in every country to 'get to know the people'. Personally, I get too restless for that.

My first Caribbean port of call was Santa Marta, which is literally a port. Andy (an Australian guy who I had been travelling with since Salento) and I took a nightmare overnight bus from Tunja, just north of Bogota, to Santa Marta; consuming as much rum as we could buy to try to get through the journey. I slept only about two and a half hours despite changing position about a dozen times and I ended up watching most of the "25 years of resistance" propaganda video that was on tv.

Santa Marta is no paradise with people lying around its streets and a strong smell of urine in the humid air. Our hostel, Miramar, was as unkempt as Lonely Planet said it is; however it has a certain charm about it and it is a nice place to sit about in the shade. Santa Marta might not be great during the day; however the difference at night is, well, night and day. In the evening the seafront fills with bars where you can sit and drink outside in the warm breeze. By midnight, the streets around the university are filled with young people having fun in the many great bars and nightclubs on offer. Despite our lack of sleep, and earlier lack of enthusiasm, Andy and I had a pretty good night out on Calle 16, which is the main street for nightclubs.

The next day we decided to proceed to Taganga because Santa Marta was hardly the idyllic Caribbean location we were expecting. Andy had been told about Taganga by an Isreali he had met earlier on his travels and we were expecting something good. It wasn't exactly the image I had had in my head, but it was a nice place and I ended up spending about four days taking it easy there.

Taganga is a great place to take it easy. It is a little fishing village just over the hill from Santa Marta and with a bay flanked by red, dusty hills that protrude into the sea. It has a real Caribbean feel with a beach lined with little restaurants and bars with thatched roofs and big loudspeakers blaring out afrocaribbean rhythms. Like Hotel Miramar in Santa Marta, it is a refuge for weed-smoking, dreadlocked, bongo-drum-playing hippies from Colombia and many of its Latin American neighbours.

For us, it was definitely a case of 'when in Rome...'; hence I don't have many activities to report on. Andy met an Australian girl on the beach on our first day and we moved from our expensive hotel to her much-cheaper hostel on our second night. We continued to meet new people, and people we knew from Salento, as Taganga is so small. There are only two internet cafes, one real bar, one small beach and one nightclub; so it is easy to meet people. We also became well-acquainted with the local hippies and so there was quite a nice big community.

After a few merry days as a beach bum, I bid farewell to Andy and the rest and headed on a four-hour journey to Cartagena. In truth, my goodbye to Andy was very brief since he hadn't gone to bed until about eight in the morning after a massive night out/beach party we had; and he just mumbled "I'll get in touch through Facebook", turned over and went back to sleep. I had gone to bed around half five since I knew I had to travel, so I managed to get on my way about midday.

Cartagena was a place I imagined would be great; however it wasn't. To start with the positives: the weather is nice with warm sunshine and a refreshing breeze, and the architecture in the old parts of town is magnificent. This, combined with some old forts and the walls built in the seventeenth century, make walking around the town a potentially enjoyable experience. What really spoils the city though is its people. They are spoilt by the city's reputation and beauty and they know that the "gringos" will still come, regardless of how they behave.

To walk around is to be constantly harrassed by aggresive street vendors, tricksters, beggars and thieves. As most people are "afrocolombiano", a white "gringo" sticks out like a sore thumb; and therefore there is nowhere to hide. You will be accosted everywhere you go. To eat in any restaurant in the old town is to be ripped-off with food priced litterally ten times that in Getsemani, which is the neighbouring area. Apart from a few noble exceptions, drink prices at night are nothing short of extortion. The nightlife is poor too as the "nightclubs" are vacant bars full of prostitutes and nothing like Santa Marta. Jimbo (an American from my hostel) and I tried for over three hours to find a decent nightspot in the city, but to no avail.

Nearby Getsemani is slightly better than the "historic centre" and it is the location of Casa Vienna, the decent hostel I stayed in. The restaurants and bars there cater mainly for locals and therefore you get higher quality and lower prices; even if they are pretty basic. You are also only likely to be approached by drug dealers there; and they are fairly discreet and unaggressive so you don't have any problems from them. Unlike some of the street vendors, they don't swear at you when you say no.

On my last day in Cartagena (and indeed South America), the QE2 docked in the port as part of her 104-day round-the-world swansong before she becomes a tacky floating hotel in Dubai. 1800 passengers came ashore for their 12 hours in Cartagena, including an English guy in my hostel's parents. These 1800 people, combined with around 4000 from another cruise liner meant that nearly 6000 "gringos" landed in a single day. This weekly influx of rich cruise ship passengers explains a whole lot about why the locals see a huge dollar sign above the head of every "gringo" and why they make no effort to provide any sort of value for money. Just like the Galapagos Islands, they have it too easy because they know that people will always come.

Despite my dislike for Cartagena, there is one great reason to go there: Las Islas de Rosario. They are islands that sit some two hours or so on a ferry from Cartagena. My particular trip there was a bit pricey and it involved a touristy visit to an aquarium to watch dolphins do tricks etc; however the islands are magnificent. I didn't have my camera with me that day since I didn't think I would have anywhere to store it, but the islands are easy to describe. Think of an archetypal Caribbean island with white sand, palm trees, clear blue skies and little huts with thatched roofs; and this is Las Islas de Rosario. It was just a shame I only had time for a couple of hours there. You can travel out there independently and spend a few nights sleeping on a hammock; and I would definitely do that if I was ever back in Colombia.

I think I will return to Colombia some time. Cartagena aside, their marketing slogan "the only risk is wanting to stay" is pretty accurate and I could happily have stayed there longer. I have left there, however, and I am now back in Europe. I am passing a few days in Spain's wonderful capital, Madrid. The last four months have been awesome and, dear reader, I hope I have managed to convey a bit of that in these blogs. This is the last one - thanks for reading.

For photos of Taganga and Cartagena, please look at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31968&l=4454d&id=603086503

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Comments

[Eva]

it ain't over yet!!
hi gary! i have enjoyed reading your blogs (although i haven't actually been able to read all of them) and i am sad that your journey is coming to an end. knowing you, it probably won't be long until you are on the road again, looking for new adventures. what are your plans now that you're heading back to the uk? any jobs on the go? i'm over in melbourne working, so if you're ever in the neighbourhood....... ;) if not, i'm sure i'll see you back in europe when i return at the end of the year. take care, stay safe and happy! x eva