Taganga

---

So after a long and gruelling journey over the border from Venezuela which included paying numurous officials off and queing for long periods in the raging heat we finally arrived in Taganga. Taganga is a little fishing village around 5 Km outside the town of Santa Marta. It is very popular for diving and just chilling out on the Carribean. We were particularly excited as it was our first trip to the carribean on our travels.
On arrival at Taganga we sought out somewhere to stay. We went with a palce called Casa Blanca which is literally on the waters edge. It was beatuiful with a hammock outside our room overlooking the bay but the price matched the beauty. With the price so high the following day we set out for somewhere else to stay and noticed a sign in a womens garden saying that she had camping so we popped her a visit. Her backgarden could barely fit the tent but the price she quoted us was almost free so we took it. She also had a black dog called Nena (baby) which was actually a more purply colour. This was due to some dye that she painted tthe dog with. SHe said the dog needed it for medicine but we still think the women was just a bit nuts!!On the first night at our camp we decided that we would take on our advanced open water diving course. This would last for 3 days and include 7 dives and would also cost half the price of doing it back home.
The first day we started with a Wreck Dive at 27meters in depth. Was pretty crazy considering we hadn´t done a dive on over a year and had never been to 27 meters before. But it really is like cycling a bike, you dont forget. We got the hang of it straight away with no problems. Unfortunately the wreck they have has very bad visability and we could only see about 2 meters in front of ourselves and needed a tourch even though it was in the day time. The folling dive in the afternoon was better and was just a fun dive around some of the coral reef.
On day two we had to do some proper diving for the course and began with our instructor Lily bringing us down to 35meters for our deep dive. At the bottom we sat down and she made us do some tests to make sure we were thinking straight with the pressure. First of all we had to write our names backwards, the only mistake I made was writing an N instead of an M. Then I had to do long multiplication which I hadnt done since school but passed but flying colours!! Lily then took out a piece of fruit. DUe to the lack of light at that depth everything takes on a different colour or loses it colour. So I thought I was eating a rather large plum but it turned out to be a tomato, was good fun.
We also met a guy called Ash fro Burmingham in the UK. He was quite an interesting guy and is big in philosolphical things. We spent the rest of the day with him and heading into Santa Marta for a look around before coming back and going for dinner in a locals house.
On day three we had three dives to complete. The first of these was our peak performance buoyancy test which included swimming through a square hoop in four directions, facing the ground, facing the surface and facing each side. All without touching the hoop. then we had to sit in the Budha position and float in the water without touching the ground or going up to high. Then second dive was our navigation dive. For this we needed a compass and first had to swim straight and then back to Lily, The we had to swim in a square folled by a triangle, this is when you had to do the maths under the water. We passed all this with flying colours. Our third dive of the day was a night dive, our first first ever night dive. This was amazing and we saw many really cool creatures.
Afterwards we went for a few drinks on the sea front before heading back for our last night in the tent. The next morning we packed up the ten and decided to stay one more night in Taganga in a hostel. We ended up staying in Moramar Hostel and finally meeting the first Irish person on our travels. We met a guy named Ronan from Castlebar who has been here for nine months travelling. we had a few drinks with Ronan and also went out for dinner. This was the day of our 2 year anniversary so I bought Anne a nice little necklace from one of the local handmade jellewery makers.
The next morning we checked out of our hostel and made our way for Cartagena which is by far the most beautiful city we have been to although we have only been here for one night. We met an American couple from Oregan (think thats how you spell it) last night and had a fair few beers in the plaza (street to hang out on). We went around the old town this morning with them and think we are going to try Salsa tonight in a local bar so wish me luck. I will give a proper blog about Cartagena in a few days.

---