Although only mentioned fleetingly in the guidebook, the little fishing village of Taganga, about 15 minutes from Santa Marta, was recommended to us twice on our travels to the north. With two days to spare before heading to Cartagena we set off early to find a hostel. This was the first time we'd just pitched up at a place and tried to get in. In truth this is slightly out of both our comfort zones, but the first place we tried was free and by 11am we were set for a relaxing couple of days.
We're not sure that fishing village is the correct label for Taganga. It's full of tourists enjoying the beach, bars and restaurants. It seems to party long into the night here, but they obviously have a little trouble once in a while, otherwise the soldiers who patrolled the town on Saturday night were pointless. They really wouldn't have looked out of place in Kabul and you had to wonder what had happened previously.From Taganga there's a constant stream of boats ferrying people back and forth to the idyllic beaches in the Parque Tayrona. As we'd already done these the proper way, we decided to stay local. We pretty much spent two days on the beach reading our books and swimming in the lovely calm waters. Pelicans can be seen fishing for their lunch around the bay. Whilst not as large as the ones in St. James' Park in London, they were a sight to behold.
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| Unbelievable sunsets. |
Observations:
Dogs - stray dogs have been a feature throughout Colombia. Taganga is no different and we've seen the highest number of sad, emaciated, flee-ridden mutts in all the places we've been to so far.
Street sellers part 2 - Men with guitars. When you get a good one, they can be amazing and you'll gladly part with a few pesos to thank them for their music. Sadly, with the exception of one man and his mate (who were truly excellent), the ones here were petty awful. They murdered song after song whilst ruining a nice peaceful dinner. Obviously we were not forthcoming with cash resulting in the odd insult and lessons on 'how in Colombia it's customary to applaud artists'. If they had in any way performed art, we'd have been the first to clap our hands.
Note: Something we missed from the last blog. As well as Iguanas, we also saw a red squirrel
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