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Our first taste of Colombia was 6 hours sat in a freezing cold Bogota airport staying dry from the rain outside whilst we waited for our onward flight to Santa Marta. The highlights being lunch and our first first taste of Latin American football commentary as Roma completed their comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League with the cry of “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL” being met with cheers of delight from the crowds who had gathered round the TV each time a goal went in!
The waiting around was made all the more painstaking in the knowledge that Charlie, Josie, Bruce and Kelly who had flown out to meet us were no doubt enjoying a cerveza or two in the sun on the Caribbean coast! Fluff was due to arrive the morning after us and I was really looking forward to having some beers and catching up with mates from back home!
After a quiet first day we headed to Taganga which was a 15 minute taxi ride away and organised a boat trip with a guy called Bruno. After stocking up on the essentials, tins of beer mainly, he took us to the next beach where we stopped for some lunch
which consisted of fish, rice, plantain and salad before heading out again to do some fishing and snorkelling. The fishing lesson I’d had in New Zealand didn’t help as I came up empty handed but the others caught enough for us to have a feast that evening as we were able to hand our catch over to one of the restaurants at the beach who cooked it all up for us. Unfortunately Charlie was struck down with a dodgy belly overnight which meant he didn’t have the best of times the next couple of days but the rest of us headed to Palomino to go tubing down the Rio Palomino. The trip started off with us all being taking up a hill on the back of a motorbike and a twenty minute walk whilst carrying a large inner tube that would be our vessel to travel down the river in. We didn’t really know what to expect but it turned out to be a very peaceful and relaxing way to spend a few hours as we took in the scenery and spotted different species of birds along the way. As we floated towards the end of the river we passed
some families who were swimming in the river to cool off and the kids swam out to us to check us out and see where we were from.
Bruce and Kelly unfortunately had to leave us after Santa Marta but the rest of us checked out of the hotel and made the 40 minute taxi ride up to Minca in the green Sierra Nevada mountains. I say 40 minutes but by the time we had to stop half way up the hill because our taxis engine was overheating it was probably closer to an hour and a half. We stayed at a place called Casa Colibri Hostel and the highlight was Fluff’s room which was basically a balcony with a bed complete with mosquito net and a big curtain to pull over the front of the balcony to block the sun out in the morning. It was perfect for having a few beers and watch the sunset go down over coast of Santa Marta in the distance. Minca was a great little place and we enjoyed a 45 minute walk up to the Marinka waterfall where you could swim and chill out on some large hammocks before walking another
couple of hours further up the mountain to a hostel called Casa Elemento where we had some lunch and rested on some more large hammocks before heading back down again the same day.
From Minca we headed back to Palomino to spend the last few days together on the beach. The waves were strong so you couldn’t really swim in the sea but jumping through the waves and watching the surfers come out in the afternoon was good fun! Palomino was a small town with very little in the way of infrastructure. There was a couple of tracks from the main road to the beach and the electricity for a number of places including our hostel was provided by a generator both of which were affected by the heavy afternoon rain we experienced most days! Not having any WiFi or any other way to get in touch with each other meant for some interesting torch lit walks along the muddy road hoping that we would bump into the other three along the way as they walked up from their hotel on the beach. One of the days we spent in Tayrona Park which was an hour away on the
bus. From the entrance we made the hot and sweaty 45 minute walk to La Piscina beach where we spent the afternoon swimming and snorkelling. Charlie spotted a turtle as we were swimming back with the snorkels and we followed him for a bit before letting the girls have a go. On the walk to and from the beach we would regularly come across large armies of leaf cutter ants marching across the path carrying bits of leaf on their backs. We tried to follow where they were going to and coming from but the procession went on further than we were able to see! We were also lucky enough to see a group of maybe five or six monkeys swinging above our heads jumping from tree to tree as we made our way back to the bus, and the wildlife didn’t stop there as Fluff had the pleasure of sitting next to a man on the bus home with a chicken on his lap!
Our last meal together was at a place called Restaurante Palomino, which had been recommended to us as the place to go to for good local food and we weren’t disappointed. The waitress didn’t
speak a word of English and there wasn’t a menu to point at but with our bad Spanish and her patience we ended up with a feast of soup, chicken, steak, rice, salad and plantain. It was also the cheapest meal we’d had since being here and it was nice to have something a bit more traditional than the other Western menus found in the other restaurants around the more touristy area. Saying goodbye to the others after one last beer was a bit sad but it had been great to see them and it was nice to have them around for the start of our South American journey. From Palomino we are off in search of The Lost City which is a four day trek which is something we’ve both been looking forward to doing since we’ve left home.
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