sudamerica 2009: the end of colombia, caribbean, padi certified
14th-may-2009 - posted by dtra
since my last post, i spent a day in medellin (pablo escobar's old haunt), wasn't the weekend so not really worth staying too long, and since then, i've been partying and chilling out in the caribbean for the past two weeks, i won't deny that. which isn't to say that i have neglected photo taking duties, it just means i haven't done a lot, other than spend time at the beach, in hammocks, swimming pools, bean bags, and eating good food. as i said, i think we arrived in medellin on a monday or something, and weren't willing to wait for the weekend, so spent one night there, and headed for the caribbean coast for some sun. went to cartagena first, the most romantic city in south america, on the colombian caribbean coast.
spent a day there not doing too much, checked out the old town at night, it really is quite pretty, too bad i didn't get a chance to see it in broad daylight, nor anything else in cartagena really. the beaches in cartagena really aren't all that, so we headed to playa blanca for a night, very nice, cheap too, slept in hammocks, and swam in waters reminiscent of tulum (though not as good, bit stony), nice. spent one more night in cartagena, before heading to covenas further down the caribbean coast to the west of cartagena. i don't think anyone ever planned to go there, but we were travelling with a few kiwis with connections, and they got a week of accommodation in some condo apartment style thing, and so we just hung out there drinking every night for a few days, nice place. they had a low basketball ring (about nine feet), that i could dunk, a swimming pool, and also a tennis court, we also played a lot of cards. oh, what fun we had. didn't even go to the beach there, it was really shallow, but the swimming pool was nice.
then moved onto taganga, a fishing village near santa marta further east of cartagena, and i've been here since, so a bit more than a week, it's a very nice little town, with some really nice food, though i don't normally do food reviews, the filet mignon at casa de felipe is so nice, and the mango curry fish at madame taganga's is delicious (and filling). che luis also does great juices, and food at low prices. anyway, i've done a few things while i've been here, not completely slacking off. went and did a scuba diving course, officially it's called padi open water diver, basically, it means that i can dive to depths of up to 18m without supervision now (though i won't take it that seriously, cos i don't really want to buy all the equipment). did it with aquantis and they were great, and though i have nothing to compare it to, the diving was awesome. saw lots of fish, coral, plant life, some squid, a sea horse, now i have to work out other places to do it. one of the best experiences i've had for sure, just need a camera case so i can get some pictures down there.
went to tayrona national park after finishing my dives, and did a hike through the jungle and stayed in hammocks there as well (much less comfortable than playa blanca, very windy at night). that was nice though, and now here we are, i've got a flight back to arequipa tomorrow, so the plan is to acclimatise for a couple days, then climb el misti, then make my way to bolivia, and further south back to buenos aires for my last four weeks. i can almost say good bye to the ridiculous mosquitoes here, i must have a hundred bites or something.
transport and accommodation
transport was mostly by the company bolivariano or something like that, absolutely freezing on the bus, they pump the ac full blast. the shorter bus rides up on the caribbean coast have just been on local buses, so nothing of note there.
stayed at the pit stop in medellin, nice set up, and they have a regulation height basketball ring, that was the first time i shot a ball since november, i still got it, haha. stayed at the north star hostel in cartagena, pretty cramped and warm (some dorms have ac), but beds were pretty uncomfortable, very thin mattresses. some hammock place in playa blanca for $7 000 colombian pesos a night. covenas was an condo obviously, worked out pretty well for us, eight of us on seven mattresses, nice, of course it was free. taganga, first stayed at hostel moramar ($15 000 a night, but rooms at the front have cockroaches), i thought it was ok, had some nice hammocks, it's right next door to the bayview hostel, where i've been since. it's a bit more happening, and has a really good swimming pool, though doesn't have so many hammocks, but does have massive bean bags (my bed had bed bugs though, i think).
picture of the beach area at cabo san juan del guia in tayrona national park.
#33 dtra (david tran)
Last edited at 0:57 28th-jun-2009
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