Some sad news since my last update, my £7.50 phone has broken. Back to no phone which is much easier.
A few more pictures from Cartagena, followed by Taganga. Taganga is a small fishing village in a bay about half an hour north of Santa Marta, and 4 hours north of Cartagena. Although it is tiny, it has become a popular place for Colombian tourists because of the nice beaches close by, it has a few hostels and bars, and 2 clubs. Backpackers have started going now for a place to party, right on a decent Caribbean beach with warm turquoise water. It won't be long before it is totally overrun with tourists as more people start visiting Colombia I'm sure.
Click the pictures to enlarge.
Cartagena
The new part of Cartagena - Boca Grande - viewed from the old city walls at dusk. This is where the offices and big hotels (Sheraton, Hilton etc) are and all that Americans that stay in them. The only reason to go there really is that is where the city beach is, although it is crap. A dusting of sand over what seems like concrete means lying on the beach without a sun lounger is actually painful, lots of rocks, annoying men selling hats and ice-cream, and fat old woman pouring oil on you trying to give you massages. Best off sticking to the old city...
I stole this from google as mine wasn't as good.
Gibran from Mexico cooking us a proper Mexican meal.
Tucking into the food before heading out.
Piles of second hand shoes for sale. It wouldn't surprise me if they were not even in pairs.
'Thanks for the public toilets'
Chair repairs
The toucan in my hostel. Super noisy and annoying at all times of the day and night.
Fruit vendors
Also stolen from google.
Taganga
Dan's (Aussie) forte is drinking horrible quantities of beer
The next bay over with a better beach. The shacks are cheap restaurants and beach bars. There are about 3 or 4 bays that you can walk to faily easily if you can be bothered, or take a little speedboat for about £1. As it was still the end of the rainy season in Colombia, there was an afternoon storm for about an hour most days in the late afternoon about 5pm. These were thunder and lightning, torrential rain and mega black death clouds. One day when we were taking the boat back around the bay, the storm hit. Lightning struck the path over to the next bay and all the bushes and trees burst into flames despite being green and soaking wet... Scary
If you click on the picture you might be able to make out all the fishermen chilling out in there hammocks in their wooden shack, hiding from the midday heat.
Just like Bournemouth beach.
Pelican chilling out.
Storm brewing.
We were staying in a hostel owned by an Isreali guy. At about 9.30 as we were getting ready to go out, him and his friends start wheeling in a pair of Glastonbury sized speakers, 24 crates of beer, 3 fridges, and DJ equipment. He says 'good news! we are having an afterparty at the hostel! 3am - 8am! tell everyone!'. Brilliant. Our room was about 10 meters from where this party was going to be. I'm all up for a good party, but when the time comes that I need to sleep, I want the choice. It would be like trying to sleep in a nightclub toilets... We checked out of the hostel (at 9.45pm...) and went up the road. As it turns out, we should have saved ourselves the hassle as we ended up at the party until the sun started coming up, after which we went to the beach.
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