colombia: Santa Marta, Taganga, Parque Tayrona

Taganga, a fishing village on the Carabbean coast

After Cartagena it was a relief to get away from the aggressive sellers. Santa Marta is a town of 300,000. It’s north of Cartagena and still on the Caribbean coast but it’s hotter, much hotter and it is much calmer and friendlier than Cartagena. It has a nice pedestrian walkway by the beach. We didn’t spend much time there because we really wanted to get to much smaller places and to see some of Colombia’s nature. So from the road along the beach we flagged down a colectivo (usually a volkswagon van that can squeeze in up to 16 if necessary) to Taganga, a small fishing village. If you happen to sit at the front, behind the bus driver and on the isle side, you become responsible for taking people’s money and returning change; Lenny got the honour to do that twice. You see, when you get in you go sit down right away, because as soon as your feet are inside the driver moves right on, so it’s easy to lose balance. Once you’re seated, you pass on your money to the person in front. The drive to Taganga was beautiful, it is only 30 minutes away from Santa Marta and the bus ride was 800 pesos, which is 40 cents Canadian. Taganga was great. It’s a small fishing village, really laid back and not yet developed for tourism. The roads were all dirt and rock with chickens and harmless dogs running around, and goats grazing. (The species of dogs in Colombia is more varied than the dogs in Guatemala.) There are quite a few fresh fruit juice stands on the main road by the beach. My favourite one was run by a woman who called both Lenny and I “mi amor”. So when I asked a question, she would reply with “Si, mi amor.”

Fruit stand in Taganga

In Taganga we did some snorkelling and saw some neat stuff as there was a coral reef at another beach (Playa Grande) a half hour walk away. We hired a guide, Chico, who was going to teach us some breathing exercises that would enable us to last longer under water. Well, it was interesting because he didn’t teach us anything! Dealing with people is sometimes weird in Colombia. They say yes when they should say no. We had told him he needed to speak slowly and he seemed to fully comprehend this the day before, but on the day we met for snorkelling he was speaking to us like we were Spanish. In fact many people are speaking to us as we were natives–gets to be quite frustrating. I’m now getting into forming puzzled expressions or just going “aha” for an easy way out. Taganga was great for relaxing and laying in a hammock.

Playa Grande in Taganga, where we snorkelled

After Taganga we went to Parque Tayrona, which is along the Caribbean coast. After you enter the park, you walk along spectacular beaches. We then headed inland within the park to El Pueblito, an uninhabited indigenous village except for one family which is what the government allows. There are indigenous people elsewhere in the park. We went on this trek with a guide. His name was Eduardo and unfortunately our experience with him was a bit frustrating. He constantly tried to prove to us that a guide was necessary, so whenever we arrived at a fork on the path he would say “Which way would you go now?” Then he would also ask the Canadian price of some of our possessions. His stories about his experiences seemed quite exaggerated at times. By the way, he spoke English as he lived in Montreal and the states. And he’s a Hare Krishna. We could tell that at the end he expected a nice tip, so when he didn’t get it right away he started apologizing, “…if he had done something wrong”. There’s more that could be said about him, but I’ll leave some for the slide show in Vancouver.

El Pueblito, an uninhabited indigenous village (except for one family)

Indigenous person at left, Eduardo, our guide at right

Arecifes beach in Parque Tayrona

Cabo San Juan beach in Parque Tayrona

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