TIME TO CHILL IN TAGANGA

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After a slow start Darragh, Sharyn and I made it to the bus station and onto a bus that was apparantly going directly to Santa Marta, about 4 hours north of Cartagena. It didn't take long for all of us to get comfortable and enjoy the chance to do nothing for 4 hours on the bus. Only a couple of hours later though we pull into a large town and were told bluntly to get off the bus and change to another smaller one......yes just another instance where they tell gringos whatever they want to hear. Again after a bus ride that took longer than expected we arrived in the bustling town of Santa Marta. Santa Marta is a large industrial port town with not a lot of interest for us so we jumped straight into a taxi and drove 15 minutes around the coast to a small fishing town called Taganga. By this stage all of us were ready to just find a hostel and relax......we did have a few in mind but had to rely on the taxi driver to find them for us. The only one that I didn't really want to stay at was a place that had been nicked named Casa de Dengue because we had heard rumours of people getting dengue fever there because of the amount of mosquitos in the hostel grounds. I was pushing for everywhere but here as I am the one who would get bitten in the group but unfortunately the taxi driver didn't know any of our other choices. Luckily on the way to Casa de Dengue we found one of our other choices the Bayview Hostel. It was the perfect place for us to stop as it had only been open for about a month so the place was very clean and new and actually had some space to spread out and relax which we had been missing in our last few hostels. The owner Santiago the owner spoke english so that made things easier for me and his girlfriend Syrah was extremely friendly and would do anything for you. All that was on the cards for that night was to get food and a few beers and chill on the balcony. In the process of doing that we met a few people who would be in our world for a number of weeks to come. Firstly I met Susan, an 50 something American artesan women, who at first glance was quite loud but seemed interesting enough to talk to.....I did find out soon enough that she wasn't too aware of much else but herself. We also met Shannon (USA), Jazz (Aussie Dive Master), Osheen (Irish), Anya (Osheen's sister) and Serena (their friend) amongst a whole range of others. So that night I ended up going out and leaving Darragh and Sharyn behind in the hostel......well even though we felt like the weekend had just finished for us it was actually Saturday and the biggest night in town. We headed off to a great little bar that was actually in the backyard of a local lady, called El Garaje. It was one of the best places I had been in Colombia with a large drinking area, much like a beer garden, outside with trees all around and a dance floor in the middle. There I met more people and had a great night with complete strangers as everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming. The quiet night with a few drinks turned into seeing the sunrise the next morning. Taganga was one of those places that you could always get a drink, there was few 24 hour shops around, so many people would leave the bar and congregate at random places. For us that night was an apartment where some of the people I had met that night either lived or were just staying in temporarily. As the sun rose I made the decision to sneak off to bed because for days we had not had sunshine and the morning was beautiful so I didn't want to waste the whole day sleeping or feeling hungover, I wanted to see some of Taganga, a decision that I was thankful for after. That weekend was a long weekend in Colombia so when Sharyn and I made it down to the beach it was rammed with people swimming, hanging on the beach, eating and drinking. I was hoping to have a swim but was put off by the colour of the water and also the amount of plastic floating around. After walking around to one end of the beach and sitting on the rocks to watch everyone and take it in I managed to work up enough confidence for a quick swim. Quick it was as there was all sorts floating by me and just grossing me out way too much and I couldn't work out how these people could or would put up with it. That is one major thing that I noticed about Taganga was the amount of rubbish everywhere and it was quite an ugly place close up. Along with everyone down on the water throwing rubbish on the ground willy nilly, it was the wet season so once it rain that water would wash down through the town taking all the discarded rubbish with it. There seems to be absolutely no education on how bad littering is and what effect it has on the ocean and the animals in it. What really puzzled me was that people just didn't seem to see or mind the rubbish and just lived with it all around them. There was massive problems in Santa Marta with a terrible sewage system and problems once it rained and knowing all this information also stopped me from swimming in the water daily. Apparantly now there is some movement and realisation that the pollution needs to be cleaned up, some education needs to be put in place, the sewage system needs to be replaced and the environment needs to be more of a priority. Unfortunately there is one Environmental Scientist in the whole of the country and he is always flat out busy trying to get things turned around. Also in a country like Colombia where a majority of people live hand to mouth there are priorities on other things like health, education and also the military. I am hoping though that soon people will realise that as tourism increases than they will need to look after these places to keep the tourist coming. Along with all the rubbish Taganga is full of manky looking dogs, possibly the worst on the continent, and it was just terrible to see then wandering around. Poor dogs with scabs and cuts all over them, exzema, skinny as rakes and no one caring for them.......I wished that they would just be put down rather than left to die in the hot sun. After wandering around town for a while and drinking some lovely freshly squeezed juices we headed back to the hostel to stop for the night. The next day I had booked on to do some diving so I wanted to get a reasonably early night so I could be up early and enjoying being on the boat. We left early the next day and I had been told that we were going to dive in a place that was rarely dived, so naturally I was interested in that. As it turned out we dived in the area that they always dive but I didn't know any different. I was loving being back out on the water and playing with dive gear and it was instantly making me think that I could do another season as an instructor......this is the danger as in these instances it is great fun and I forget all the cold dives and crap students in between. The dives were good and as I was diving only with Jazz my guide it was pretty relaxed and easy. The visability was down because it had been raining but I did manage to see quite a few things that I had never seen before, so in my book that is a good dive. I didn't have very high expectations for the dives so was pleasantly suprised but with being spoilt diving in Australia it was always going to have to be amazing to blow my mind. It was fun though to get out from the town and away from most of the rubbish and see some of the coast line. After getting back from the dive we headed into Santa Marta to go to the supermarket. Again we were pretty overwhelmed with the bright lights and the choices but eventually made it out and back to Taganga to enjoy a healthy dinner and an early night watching DVD's. The next day was lazy as we had decided to stay an extra day in Taganga before heading out to a nearby National Park because Sharyn's eye was still not fully recovered. Reading books, drinking juices, sleeping and listening to Susan whinge all day was about it. That day we ran into our friends Blake and Lindsay, the Aussie boys we had met in Cartagena, so we headed up to their hut half way up the hill for sunset drinks. After a few Cuba Libres and a great sunset over Taganga and the bay, we headed back down for a fish dinner in town where the boys extended their culinary experience by eating all the fish's eyes. By that stage my last few days were catching up with me and I was ready to hit the sack so I could wake up early the next morning to get on the road to the nearby national park where the best beaches in Colombia were meant to be. I had been waiting for this day for many months and I couldn't wait to be sitting on a beautiful tropical beach.......ahhhhhhh yeah!

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Photos

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Diving around Taganga......taking time out for some lunch

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The busy and dirty town beach

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The bay at sunset

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Looking down to Taganga

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Cactus on top of the hill

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Sunset on the main beach

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The bay again at sunset.....it generally looked better at this time when you couldn't see all the rubbish

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Diving around Taganga

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Shannon, Me and Sharyn

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Taganga looking down from the opposite hill

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Boats in the bay at Taganga