Taganga Day 3

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Up early & repeated yesterdays breakfast before diving. I guess we don't care if we're paying for it...Their coffee is really good, so it's worth it. Plus we get a glass of freshly made juice & it's been different each morning, so that's nice.

Today we're diving again with Juan, our DM from yesterday, & one other girl. It's raining this morning & before our first dive we all sat on the boat trying to get ready & just getting drenched from the rain. At least it's not cold & you can't tell it's raining once you're deep enough. It was kind of fun. Our first dive was at Juan's favorite dive spot & it was incredible. There were so many fish & they were sooo big & healthy. We saw the biggest Angelfish we've seen yet. They were Huge! We also had a little Remora (the cleaner fish you see on sharks, rays & turtles) follow us through our entire dive. It was so funny. He would take turns taking nibbles from each of our wetsuits. At one point he followed me for a bit & I stopped to watch him & he went up the length of my body & nibbled on my hand, my bracelet, & then stopped on my mask & took a nibble on my forehead. Too much. I was cracking up underwater (also one of my favorite things to do). Geoff found the tiniest Octopus we've ever seen. It was a Long Armed Octopus & it was incredible. He had to point it out to me & he was right above it & I couldn't see it right in front of my face until one of his little arms moved. So incredible!!! I can't get enough of those guys & I am super impressed with Geoff's abilities to find the best creatures under the sea. Love love love love it!!! We were practically high five-ing when we surfaced. The dive was great. We saw so much life & it was so fun. So glad we dove today to end on a high note like this.

For lunch we shared half a rotiessiere chicken with potatoes for $4. So tasty. Then we caught a bus to Santa Marta to go get some money. We asked a cab driver to take us but he wanted about 5 times as much as the bus. Not worth it. So, we headed into town, over the hill, & eventually found our way to the banks. We had to walk some, through the busy, dusty town of Santa Marta but we made it. We found the banks, all clustered together, & withdrew all kinds of money. Finally, we have money. Yippee! At least that stress is over now. We then did a little shopping for some gifts & such. Then we caught our bus & headed back to Taganga.

We spent the evening working on internet junk & blogs & then headed out to a bar up the road where Juan, our DM, is working. He took some pics today & we are going to download them for us. The bar is at the Turtle Hostel & when we finally found the hostel (hidden back in the residential area of town) we knocked on the door & said we were looking for the bar & found Juan sitting by the front desk. Apparently the bar isn't hopping tonight. The 3 of us headed up to the bar & he turned on the lights & got us some drinks & turned on music & there we were. The bar is awesome. It's an open air roof-top deck overlooking Taganga & the bay. It was beautiful & the temperature at night is so perfect & comfortable. We had a couple drinks with Juan & then Daniel & Sarah showed up. They had a tough time finding the bar also & were about to give up when they saw it. We all had some drinks & then Juan decided to pour us all a shot of tequila, yikes. That was a bit much for us, but we didn't say no. Finally, it was time to head out, we said our goodbyes & stumbled back toward our hostel. We were both quite tipsy. Shots are not a typical part of our evenings that is for sure. After dropping Daniel & Sarah off at thier hostel we continued down to the waterfront in search of a snack. We had a delicious cheeseburger and salchipapas (chopped hotdogs , fries & cheese). All of it was delicious! Back at the hostel we were both promptly asleep after we tried to find something to watch on tv, very unsuccessfully. Sleep was very nice.

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Photos

Outside the dive shop and ready for another dive day.
Aquantis was a great dive outfit!

Our last dive day...
...on this trip anyway.

Buddy Check
Geoff had some trouble with his fin & Kassandra was there to help.

Our friend the Remora.
He followed us for the entire dive. Here he is on Kassandra's tank.

There's the Remora again.
Still with us, now enjoying Geoff's wetsuit.

Roasted chicken and potatos for lunch.
So delicious!