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Taganga - Taganga is the most bizarre town we have been to. It is a beautiful, small beach town on the Caribbean coast. As I mentioned in a previous blog, it´s full of hippies and tourists who have decided to stop and stay awhile. And it makes for the greatest people watching. It´s half fishing village, half party town.... and there is a serious divide between the locals (who are poor fishermen and live in shanty-style, run-down homes, have dark leathered skin from the sun, and live on dirt roads) and the white tourists (who have decided to crash there on extended vacation and who seem to party all night and lounge on the beach all day.)
Our first night there the town experienced a black-out. We were chilling in the hammocks outside our hostel room when, all of a sudden, all the power in the entire town went out. And we knew this for certain because our hostel sat up on a hill overlooking the town. After 10 minutes or so, we saw some big red lights come on and heard loud dance music coming from a rooftop patio across the way. Our hostel owners told us it was
a popular bar called El Mirador, so we decided to go check it out. Obviously they had generator power. But the power was back on by the time we got there. At first there weren´t very many people there, but it was only about 10:30 p.m. Eventually more and more people came. It became clear that most of them were on Ecstacy or some other kind of drug that makes people act like morons, because Ryan and I got the greatest reality-show-style voyeurism experience ever. We gave everyone a nickname. Wanna hear about it? Here it goes:
There was Onesie - A pretty American or Canadian girl, wearing a tiny (and I mean TI-NY) gray dress that she was always either pulling up to show more leg or pulling down to hide her bum. It also had a zipper at the top which she kept unzipping as the night went on until the sleeves of the dress hung off her shoulders. She was really into dancing by herself and seemed to know all the guys there.
Then there was Red Tube Top - A tragically skinny girl with a European accent who was wearing a tiny red tube
top and the shortest jean shorts ever that had been cut off just below where the crotch part connects. She liked to pretend to be flying off the balcony, Titanic-style, and really enjoyed dancing alone. When guys tried to dance with her, she appeased them for a few minutes and then ditched them to go fly off on her own. We got to see her panties when she was climbing up on the balcony railing. I was almost afraid she might go toppling over the side and down the hill. Fly, Red Tube Top, fly.
Trainwreck - Trainwreck was a girl with her hair all braided like a 10-year-old girl coming home from a trip to Jamaica. She was a little bit overweight, and not a little bit wasted. Trainwreck was all over the place. At one point she found herself a dude and she went to try to do some sexy dance move on the back of the couch but instead she fell backward over it. In about half a second, the dude was on top of her on the couch and they were making out, hard core. No shame in their game, no sir.
Shirtless Wonder
- He was a guy who showed up at the bar without a shirt on. He remained shirtless all night.
Yoga guy - This guy and Red Tube Top were probably my favorites. Yoga guy also had no shirt on and seemed to be involved in the goings-on of the bar somehow. Perhaps he worked there and this was his night off or something. Anyway, yoga guy had on white MC Hammer-style linen pants, no shirt, and he would randomly appear and do yoga head stands on the tables, and then on the bar. He´d go into position and freeze, eyes closed, upside down for a few minutes each time, then he´d just get up and walk away. So freaking weird.
Armani Exchange - Just some tool with an Armani shirt on. He tried to get up on Onesie and Red Tube Top during the course of the night.
Fire dancer & Co. - Self explanatory... there was a fire dancer there for a short time. He came with a crew.
The Israelis - There was a large group of guys from Israel there. We think they are definitely staying in Taganga on extended vacation as
they seemed to know everyone there. We believe that Armani Exchange and Shirtless Wonder may have been part of the Israeli gang.
English Bartender - I went up to order a beer from the bartender, who was a pretty black girl. I ordered in Spanish, as usual, and she says back to me with a very British accent, ¨Do you speak English? Because I don´t speak Spanish.¨ Hmmm, okay. What country am I in again?
This was easily our best night out so far.
Tayrona National Park - After Taganga, we went to Tayrona National Park. We have mixed feelings about this tropical jungle/beach area. First, we hiked 45 minutes in to the first campsite, which is situated in the jungle, in the most insane humidity. By the time we got to the campsite, I looked like I had just walked out of a Bikram yoga class with all my clothes on. We heard the first campsite was the cheapest one so we decided to stay there. We decided to rent hammocks outdoors under a palm-thatched roof instead of renting a tent (these were really our only options). Our campsite was called Finca Don Pedro (finca means
farm), and it certainly was a little farm-like. The campsite had a family of ducks, mules, horses, a puppy, and host of ants and flies. It was also full of mango trees. The mangos had a terrible habit of falling from the trees with a loud thud and then rotting on the ground, attracting bugs and creating an awful stench. The smell didn´t bother me so much, but Ryan really couldn´t stand it. Because the campsite was a bit inland, we had to walk about 6 minutes to the closest beach. However, the closest beach, called Arrecifes, is un-swimable because of riptides and big, rough waves. So, we had to walk another 20 minutes to get to the next beach, La Piscina, where we could swim. Now, let me be the first to say, these beaches are nothing less than stunning and mesmorizing. (see photos) The water is clear and warm, it´s relatively uncrowded, and the scenery is just amazing. But there is nothing else to do in Tayrona than camp, hike, and go to the beach. So, after two sleepless nights (for me... Ryan slept quite fine for whatever reason) and two days of romping through the jungle and
lounging on the beaches, we decided to take leave of Tayrona and head back to civilization.
I like to fancy myself the outdoorsy type, but I just could not swing more than 2 nights in a hammock in the jungle, with bugs flying around my head, mangos crashing to the earth, and the asthmatic mule whinnying all night long. Not to mention the heat. There was absolutely NO breeze in the jungle. Suffice it to say, we were both pretty uncomfortable and had our first moments of irritation with each other, which was very shortlived.
We got to see some cool critters there though. There are about a billion skinks (bright blue/green lizards) running around, blue and yellow crabs, toucans, and we saw a family of very small monkeys up in the trees during our hike out.
In short, Tayrona is a gorgeous place and we´re glad we went, but it wasn´t always a pleasant or relaxing experience. Plus, it is very expensive to go. Fortunately, we brought all our own food so we could avoid the outrageous prices at the few restaurants in the park... a tip we took from another traveler.
Now we are
in Cartagena, another city of mixed reviews. But more on that later. Buenas noches, amigos.
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Jeremy
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Army of ants?
Is that an Army of ants carrying bits of leaves?!? Crazy!