Taganga, Colombia

After Cartegena we decided that it was only right that we continue our time on the beach and head to another sunshine destination? Our chosen location? Taganga, Colombia. A four hour drive later and we arrived into this gorgeous little beach town not knowing exactly what to expect. Despite the fact that it is more or less just a tiny one street town, it was buzzing with activity and after quickly checking into our hostel we decided to do some exploring and grab a bite to eat. The streets were filled with people and it was not hard to figure out that the place was not only an attraction for international tourists, but moreso for Colombians themselves, especially those from the nearby city, Santa Marta.

Famished from our journey we grabbed a table at one of the local beach restaurants and waited for our waiter to bring over a menu. Our waiter did arrive, however menus for the most part in this town...(and many others it seems) do not exist. After very quickly rattling off a number of options for us we agreed on pescado and a cerveza as it sounded simple enough. After leaving the table with a smile the guy returned with a HUGE tray filled with dozens of freshly caught raw fish for us to chose from. Everything from a 60cm salmon to smaller trouts, tunas, etc. We each pointed to our chosen catch of the day and waited with baited breath (k, terrible pun..oh Lydia) for our lunch to arrive. And what an incredible meal it was, melt in your mouth whole fish (eyes and all which we have gotten quite used to), rice, veggies and plantane...a typical Central and South American meal!

That was just the beginning of what had to be some of the best meals we have had so far this trip. As a massive fruit lover, I especially liked the many fruit stands that could be found on every corner of the tiny little beach road (like Starbucks in Vancouver) ready to make any combination of fruit drink you can imagine. The best part was when I realized that they also made the biggest, juiciest, fruit salad I have ever seen. With at least 20 types of fruit (some of which I didn´t even know existed) and topped off with fresh yogurt and granola. All for a grand total of $2.50. This quickly became our breakfast destination of choice for our stay. By the end of our four days in Taganga we had frequented our favorite stand so often (averaging 3 times a day at least) that the girls got to know us and would often give us any leftover juice from the blender or extra large portions whenever we visited. I was truly in fruit heaven.

Being a diving town we of course had to tie in a few scuba dives during our stay. We found a great little company called Octupus Divers who´s team we took to immediately. Having never had the chance to do a wreck dive in the past (they typically are in very deep water where you need your advanced divers certificate, which we NOW have) we immediately signed up for the next mornings excursion at 6:30am. This was the first wreck we had encountered since Roatan (which we couldn´t do) so we were giddy with anticipation.

The dive was 40 meters deep which is about 15 meters deeper than we had experienced before, and I for one was a little bit nervous as I anticipated the depth. It can effect people differently (i.e. - may cause vertigo or lightheadedness) so I let my imagination run wild at the thought of the dark abandoned ship I was about to explore. Well, fortunately for us the dive itself was easy with no noticable side effects. The wreck itself was a huge two level freighter and a great experience all around.

Why stop at one when you can do three !!!....so we ended up doing two more dives that day. They were awesome drift dives with a plethora of fish, lobsters, crabs and corral. An excellent day with lots of new additions to our logbooks.

The last couple of days basically consisted of beach and nap time...yes, life is very hard for the Vargos.

Here are some snaps of our time in Taganga...


If you can´t see them properly than click on the link here - Taganga

A little God moment for you!

Doug and I had ideally wanted to head to Venezuela the day following our dives, however after our kind hotel owner made a few calls on our behalf, we discoverd to our chagrin that all the buses were sold out. He did however discover that there were 3 seats left on one of the buses that was leaving two days later but we had to go to the neearby town of Santa Marta in person to book them. We quickly hopped a collectivo (local van) and made our way to the bus terminal which was as it turns out, over an hour away. We walked in at 5pm on the dot, only to find that the company we were hoping to book with closed at 5:00pm !!! We checked with the two other companies that do the route and found out that they had no available seats until the 20th of January!! (5 days later). Feeling very frustrated at the thought of being stuck for another 5 days, we roamed the terminal aimlessly wondering what on earth we were meant to do. Doug was a bit ahead of me when I saw a young guy begin to move in on us from the side.

"Oh great!" I thought to myself, "Another taxi driver/tour company/ hotel owner trying to solicit our business!!"

"Señor, señor" he called to Doug, who turned and noticeably braced himself for such an attack...

"Usted Doug?" (pronouncing it correctly which is a miracle in itself as Doug has become quite accustomed to responding to ´Duck´).

"Quieren dos bolletos a Venezuela con nuestra compania, si?" (you would like two tickets to Venezuela with our company, yes?)

It turns out that our lovely hotel manager had noticed us leave and had called the company ahead of time to have them look out for us. With that, our new amigo re-opened the agency and sold us the very last two tickets leaving Colombia for Venezuela...and they happened to be together.

We left that terminal in awe and with a little prayer of thanks.