Playa Blanca

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Well we officially found our beach paradise or at least about as close as you can get.

We loaded up early in the morning on a small boat (about 30 passengers) in the Cartagena harbour and headed out for Playa Blanca. The ride was pretty interesting. We had a good pace going until the captain suddenly shut the boat down about a half kilometre off the coast and yelled something in Spanish to the guy at the back of the boat. Through a series of hand gestures we realized that the propellor on one of the motors was hooped. We limped along for a bit until a passing boat gave us a new prop. While the guys were working on it the Colombian Coast Guard showed up to see what was going on. Despite all the excitement, they finally got the thing fixed and we were back on our way to the beach.

Arriving at Playa Blanca was a bit overwhelming as there were loads of vendors and people all over the beach. This is a popular day trip for people coming from Cartagena and there are a couple big boats that bring tons of vacationing Colombians to the beach for a few hours of sun and fun.

We grabbed our bags and headed straight for the north end of the beach where it was much quieter. We stopped at a little place nestled under the shade of a couple trees and booked into our accommodation for the visit. For $20 CAD we had a simple little hut with a queen size bed and mosquito net located literally 25 feet from the ocean. We could live here forever if we had enough english books to read.

Once our hut was settled we went straight for the water. As we swam and lounged we watched as all the day trippers left if their boats and the touts and salesmen went home and the beach settled into a most peaceful state. We sat on the beach and ate shrimp and fish while watching the sun set over the horizon and then played cards by candle light listening to the waves crash onto shore. It really truly was paradise.

Alas after two nights it was time to leave as we had run out of books to read and the grime of many layers of sea water, bug spray and sunscreen was taking over. We booked onto the big ferry to take us back to Cartagena. This took forever as you would expect and by the time we reached the city there was no availability at the hostel we prefer so we spent a night in the party area of town just outside the old centre. While this place was perfectly fine we booked back into the other place to catch up with our friends for one more night before heading up the coast for Tagenga and Tayrona National Park.

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Photos

Playa Blanca
Our little hut above the bar.

Playa Blanca
Pina Colada in a coconut. A friendly gentleman with a wheelbarrow full of rum, coconuts and ice was selling these on the beach.

Playa Blanca
We have the beach to ourselves. Bliss.

Playa Blanca
Paradise. Time to break out the bottle of rum and deck of playing cards.

Playa Blanca
The morning view from our beach hut.

Playa Blanca
Our spot was one of the best on the beach thanks to a few of these trees for shade and rocks in the water ensuring that no swimmers interrupted our view.

Playa Blanca
This lucky little beach pup was getting morsels of fried fish under the dinner table.

Playa Blanca
The beach after all the day boats land.

Cartagena
Back in Cartagena in dire need of a shower. I did wash my hair with a bar of soap in the ocean while we were at the beach but that apparently didn't work.