A stopover in Bogota and then up north to Santa Marta

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Yes, that's right.. Just a stopover.
I'm not kidding,we really are fed up with the big cities, and Bogota is one!
Don't get me wrong, for what we saw (besides the heavy traffic) it's a beautiful one.
Actually, we had to stop there not only just to say we had been there but also to pick up a shipment with snus.
Anyways, We went to the "Museo de Oro", which is quite nice. A lot of gold I can tell you!
From here we took a night-bus up to Santa Marta, which is on the Caribbean coast. It was said to take around 18 hours, but took 20++.
Always some roadwork going on.
It's a real shocker; stepping out of a bus that almost has frost on the windows because of an incomprehensible need to keep the air-con on full blast (!?!?) and the feeling of your eyelashes curl due to the heat that strikes against you.
But finally warm climate - we've landed!
Speaking of, it is an airline that has cheap tickets from Bogota to Santa Marta: aires.com.co
Sometimes they're even cheaper than the bus!

Back to the issue..
So, Santa Marta what a lovely place.
The actual town itself is a huge party scene for backpackers, and a great place to meet other both locals and foreigners.
For us, it was more one special local we wanted to meet - lovely Katrym.
This is actually Thomas' friend from last time he was here, but she also became mine 😊
She invited us over to her place one night, and we ended up leaving the scene at 5 a.m.
To much Aguardiente and rum!
Besides this, we had some really quiet weeks in Taganga.
This is actually where we lived during our stay in Santa Marta.
Taganga is a very small fishing village, with nothing else to do than dive or lie on the beach.
It's said to be one of the cheapest places in the world to dive.
But, in need for some rest we ended up doing absolutely nothing!
Just lying in the hammocks, reading, listening to music, sunbathing, bathing and drinking LOADS of smoothies!!

A word of advise, always keep your copy of the passport on you.
We got flagged down by the police one night, and they were actually a little aggressive towards me because I had forgotten it at the hostel.
One of them also said to me "if we find you dead, how are we gonna know who you are!?" Didn't like the sound of that, and so I told him!
But, everything was forgotten when they saw Thomas' big camera and got him to take a picture for them to see.
During our stay in Santa Marta we didn't just lie in the hammocks, we also did the "Ciudad Perdida" trek which was awesome!

More of this to come..

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Photos

The best smoothie ever
Recipe;
Mango
Maracuja
naranja
...mixed in water..

Thomas' old diving school
They must have upgraded their security procedures since the last time!
considering that they still hold courses

Ceviche, ceviche, cheeeviche!!
these people are good salesmen

Hammock time!
We spent almost one week lying in these..
Shame, but oh so lovely

Afternoon showers
Every afternoon the rain poured down in Taganga.
The cause is high temperature and the Sierra Nevadas you can see a bit of in the background

The Liberator
Simon Bolivar's home and death place is now a museum. we were also told that the current president Santos likes to spend time here when visiting Santa Marta