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Published: July 14th 2008
Video Playlist: 1:
SCUBA 2322 secs
I haven´t worn shoes in days.
I´ve walked in the rain in flip flops.
Ran for the bus in flip flops.
Sat on the beach in flip flops.
I even danced salsa in flip flops til I kicked them off and just danced barefoot.
In fact, I only wore shoes once after I had been invited to a typical dinner in the nearby city of Santa Marta. I found myself well dressed (for a backpacker) with an uncomfortable feeling of boxed-in toes only to get to the house and realize the hostess was wearing: Flipflops.
Urg.
I´d come to Taganga for what I thought would be a day or two, but here I am 17(!) days later still wearing the uber comfy slippers from Brasil that were the exact WRONG choice for hiking Colombian Jungle.
It seems my schedule is a bit flubbed, but no matter. As Bas said, I am ¨´Getting the taste of it¨. And as I have come out with a life experience or two, I am well happy with my choices. In fact, my bliss is ephemeral, yet palpably strong. It is hard to walk without smiling. It´s tough
Geared up.
I also have a 43 minute video under water...But i think i will have to wait a while before i can get that up...to sit on a boat without smiling and frigging impossible to come up from a SCUBA dive without a laconic grin of gentle bliss.
It seems that Taganga is the sort of place where you can find some well needed rest. It´s the sort of place a travel tense city boy can learn to unwind a bit. To slow down a bit. To relax a bit. In all, I found out how people could come to the beach for weeks on end and not go stir crazy. I can see how people would try to take a Beach spouse home in a misguided attempt to capture their bliss, though in the end I am sure they would just end up confused with a wife who missed the sun, surf and ease of the beach. Bliss can´t be trapped.
After Ciudad Perdida I´d meant to leave the next day for Barranquilla, but was convinced by cheap prices and a Lioness of a Scuba instructor to try for my PADI certification. I didn´t know what to expect, but after the videos, I´d thought we´d be dunked in a few feet of water while we got our bearings on the equipment.
Gangs all here
Bas tried out scuba even though he was worried his ears wouldnt takthe pressure...He did fine and liked it too! I´d forgotten I was in the easy going Carribean.
30 mintues after we started the first dive normal breathable air was 50 feet above my head. I´d been so enamored with the sensation of three dimensional movement that I was unaware. It´s like floating. Peaceful and Bouyant. Buffeted by pressures both deadly and beautiful, I was caught in gentle currents like riding winds of water.
I thought of my Mama and was saddened by an urge to call her to tell her of the experience, but had to settle for a prayer sent upwards while submerged. I saw her in the fluidity of the ocean and realized that she no longer needed clumsy apparatus to experience the freedom of the elements.
Still I wished I could have taken her in life.
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Kim J.
non-member comment
Uh Oh!
You? Slow down a bit? On the beach? Not going stir crazy? In the ocean? Scuba diving? Buoyant weightlessness? You are talking my language...Welcome to my world!!! You are beginning to understand how I can spend weeks on the beach and say I did absolutely nothing but actually experience amazing things all day long. Tanganga sounds positively blissful! I may have said this before but after a week in Ghana I mean it more than ever...wish I was there!!!!!! My final question is...Honey...are you gonna come home?!?!? You better! Much love, Kim J.