A tropical Christmas

To wake up on Christmas morning with three fans whirring in your room and sunshine bursting through the balcony window was something of a rarity and a treat. Stepping out onto the balcony, avoiding nudging the sleeping person in the hammock, I looked across the tiny fishing town of Taganga and realised Christmas was going to be different this year. As well as the already searing heat, the beach was full of tourists, mostly Colombians from the big cities, but a fair number of gringoes too, the Caribbean sea looked as flat as a snooker table and the salsa music was already pumping though many sound systems across the town. People wandered around with freshly squeezed exotic juices, excited children played on shiny new bikes and skateboards along the promenade and everyone seemed even more friendly than normal. Christmas looked like it was going to be fun in Colombia. It was - the party we had that night ended with about ten of us jumping in the swimming pool, fully clothed, at seven am.

I arrived in Taganga from Medellin a few days before Christmas, on one of the most agreeable 15 hour bus journeys yet. After a couple of hours listening to my Ipod I fell asleep and awoke 13 hours later to the sound of the Caribbean tide. I explored Taganga and found it to be full of people I had met along the way up through the continent. It seemed, like me, most people were determined to end up here for the Xmas and NY period. Although Taganga is bustling with tourists, it is still pretty quiet, compared to the ugly sprawl of Santa Marta just down the road. The beach here isnt the greatest in the world, but there are several dotted along the coast, and for a couple of thousand pesos you can hire a motorboat taxi to take you to a different one. You can lie on the beach for ten minutes, and should you choose, you can be furnished with a couple of beers, water, hippie jewellery, incense, ice creams, a massage, seafood cocktails and fruit juices without having to move a muscle (except hand to wallet, of course) due to the constant procession of beach vendors. There is even the ´beach cleaner guy' who will walk up to you, pick up the nearest bit of rubbish, ask you for a tip for his services, and, when you refuse, he'll wander off and drop the bit of litter back onto the beach.

The food is pretty great here too - if you like seafood you have hit the jackpot. I got my wish of lobster on Christmas Day, and I wasn't disappointed. Me and friends Stuart and Adele were offered a choice of three still wriggling fish to pick for lunch... we went for a very nearly dead barracuda rather than a gasping red snapper. Can food be any fresher?

As well as having Stuart and Adele here (who arrived just after Xmas) I have also had the company of Aussie mates Rob, Tristan and Tom, who I have been travelling with since Peru, a lovely couple called Ollie and Lucy (I had met Ollie in La Paz in Bolivia in September) and Irish couple Mike and Sinead. I had met them on my second day travelling, in Buenos Aires, and keep bumping into them in various places northwards. Only the other week in Bogota did we realise we had almost identical round-the-world itineraries, including little quirks such as both of us having three day stopovers in Hong Kong between Bali and Bangkok. Thankfully they are brilliant fun and great compamy, otherwise I would have to avoid eye contact with them all over the world, hiding behind Inca ruins and Buddhist temples just so I wouldnt have to do a stop-and-chat.

So Taganga has been all about sleeping in gently swaying hammocks, seafood, lying on the beach, floating in the sea, and drinking rum. Stuart, Adele and I did go on an overnight trip to Tayrona National Park, only an hour from Santa Marta, which is basically jungle trails leading to a number of beaches and campsites. It was of particular interest to me as I had read a great travel novel before I left called 'The Gringo Trail' which went some way to make me decide on South America. The travellers in this book end up staying at a beach in Tayrona called Arrecifes for months. This was the beach we ended up staying the night at, and it is as spectacular as I had imagined. The tide is fearsome, away from the beach are enormous coconut trees, ferns and palms, which give way to impenetrable jungle. We were hoping for hammocks or a tent, but the campsite was full. We ended up staying in a small building which the campsite workers slept in, but they gave it up so we could sleep there. Sounds very generous indeed of them, but they were well paid for their troubles! However, I awoke to realise I had been savaged by mosquitoes, and spent a uncomfortable day trying and failing not to itch the many hundreds of bites I had received. For a day or so I looked like a leper even Jesus wouldn't touch with a bargepole. Stuart, being a keen birdwatcher, went for a jungle stroll and came back feeling pleased with himself. He had seen iguanas, monkeys, tarantulas and all manner of birds. Barely a moment goes by in England when Stuart won't say, in whispered reverence, "If you look over there right now you will see a common sandpiper". It is boring enough hearing this in Surrey, but his enthusiasm goes supernova in tropical countries. Even so, yesterday, he still said "Look over there -a common sandpiper". "But Stuart, don't you get those in England?" I asked. "Yeah," he said breathlessly. "But they migrate over here during the English winter". Needless to say, I was awestruck. Now beginning to regret inviting him to Colombia. However, I appear to be stuck with him for a week or so more. We leave from Cartagena on Saturday, before I return to Taganga to do the ´Lost City´trek in the jungle, before heading down to Medellin for my work placement on the 19th. Both he and his soporific avian observations will return to London on the 9th January.

New Year's Eve was great too, spent on the beach with a bottle of rum and lots of friends. 2008 has been quite some year, but with eight months of travelling left, 2009 should be even better!

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