Diving in Taganga

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We got back to Santa Marta and made our way to Taganga, approx 10mins out of town. Taganga was once a quaint, picturesque fishing village which has become over run by Scuba Diving Centres and rowdy tourists. It looks like it has lost a lot of its charm but it is one of the cheapest places in South America to do diving but other than that there is little else to do.

We came here, as Tony was starting his PADI qualification so at last he could come diving and not be left behind. He did his course with Aquantis Dive School and started with 3 hours of theory at 7pm after our trek through the national park. This would then be followed by 3 days of training.

The dive school was brilliant and Tony was like a big kid after his first open water dive. I don’t think he realised just how great it would be. He was like a duck to water and picked it all up very easily, which was a relief as it can be very difficult for some. So after 3 days of training and study he was an Open Water PADI diver.

This meant that on the next day we were both able to go for our first open water dive together. We did 2 in the morning and saw shrimp, lobster, angel fish and plenty of eels. Not known for the best diving but it was still very nice and a great introduction for Tony. Next on the list is a big reef shark for him I think!

Perfectly followed, was the Man Utd v Barcelona Champions League Final on at lunch time for us. There were huge crowds watching it and the atmosphere was great, even better when Utd lost.

We had a few too many to drink and knew we wouldn’t last the evening so slept for the rest of the afternoon to feel very refreshed for our last big night out in South America. Taganga is great for a night out, perfect last big night out in South America.
After half an hour sleep we got up at 8am and took a taxi to the airport, we flew Santa Marta to Bogota. We saw a small bit of Bogota when here before and from many other people we had met who had been here, really didn’t rate it. We only had the one night there but the airport is so far from anywhere to stay that it would have cost us about £50 just for a taxi and hostel, to then only leave the next morning, so in true backpacker style, we got our luggage, found a row of seats in the departure lounge in view of the runway and made ourselves comfortable for the next 22 hours.

Morning couldn’t come quick enough and as a reward for saving all that money, we had our breakfast in an airport restaurant called Crepes & Waffles. These are all over the country and any visitor to Columbia must include this in their itinerary. Amazing. Filled up on Waffles, we boarded the plane to Leticia where we would be leaving Columbia and heading full circle back to Brazil.

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