Lazy beach days

Before we head in to Tayrona National Park we had a couple of nights in a tented lodge down the coast near Guachaca. 

This part of the coast gets big surfing waves, great fun to watch but not swim in. The beach was really quiet, able to amble down deserted stretches without a hawker in sight. Frederico who runs our place says every year more places get built. This place will be way more developed in a few years time, it’s gorgeous. 

We had some lovely fresh pancakes for breakfast and seafood one night. Then we were treated to an insane burnt red sunset over the river that fed into the sea. Ridiculous, makes me think of Apocalypse now. It blew me away!

Taganga gone

After staying in a future gem we spent a couple of nights in a past gem. Friends in Oaxaca recommended Taganga to us. They went there ten years ago. We booked it into our itinerary before reading the extract in Lonely Planet about how Taganga is an example of a lovely little fishing village that got super popular in the noughties but got over developed and is now a bit rubbish! Oops. We got there on the Sunday of a national bank holiday weekend. It was rammed with local people drinking and enjoying the sun. As we checked in a fight broke out outside the hotel. The guy in the hotel looked worried and told us to stay back away from the entrance. I looked out and could see a policeman holding a gun up at someone! We did end up having a nice evening out even with the super loud music. 

The next day everything was a lot calmer as people headed home, it was actually quite nice really. We headed to nearby Playa Sinto that was only accessible by boat. We had wanted to go to Playa Cristal in Tayrona National Park but the sea was too choppy that day. It was fun and peaceful and we could see some cool colourful fish in the clear water. We also enjoyed the obligatory amazing sunsets. 

The next day we headed across to the other side of Tayrona NP enjoying the view across the bay.

Inca Minca

We taxi’d over to Minca and spent a lovely few days in Sol de Minca Ecolodge, high up in the mountains. We really chilled here, spending time catching up on Olive’s yellow diary, playing with some of the toys and musical instruments, doing yoga in the room below our bedroom and generally enjoying the stunning views (including from the outdoor toilets!) 

We ate all our food in the Ecolodge. It was all vegetarian and organic with most grown on site. Bedtime was the best bit - it was so noisy but with the sound of nature, loads of crickets and bird call, apart from one night when there was a party for a few hours somewhere across the valley! There were supposedly night monkeys but we never saw them! 

On our last day we walked into town and looked round the shops and drank tasty coffee. Minca is our favourite place since Oaxaca - it doesn’t seem to have been properly discovered yet and we wish we had spent longer there.

Santa Marta, a quieter version of Cartagena

We took a five hour minibus to Santa Marta, basically a less touristy version of Cartagena with a small promenade, a handful of restaurants on the seafront and beautiful sunsets. 

Santa Marta is South America’s oldest European founded town. I really like Santa Marta, with its much drier air, even though we are in a particularly dingy room this time - again with no window! 

We went to the slightly more rubbish aquarium, the one without dolphins. But it was fun, especially the feeding bit. Olive got to feed the sting rays and pelican, and stroke a turtle and unbelievably a shark! 

Next time we are in Santa Marta we will be flying on to Peru. Next stop for now - Minca...

Cartagena Part 2

Having returned to Cartagena like celebrities(!) we returned to Soy Local hotel with a window this time, fancy! 

Everyday in Cartagena Olive asks when we will take a horse drawn cart round the centre. I’m not overly keen on animals having to do stuff like this, but we ended up doing it anyway with a friendly chap called Archimedes, great name. 

We also went inside the massive 350 year old fort, San Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, branded the biggest and most impressive fort built by the Spanish. It was massive! Olive loved the cannons. 

One evening we took in another restaurant in the World’s top 50 - Celele, with some crazy concoctions, yummy. 

On our last day we walked round the main sights of the historic centre, the Cathedral, San Pedro church and Bolívar Square with its colonial buildings. 

Later at sunset we walked round the entire city wall, eating tasty snacks as we went. I like Cartagena. 

Beach time

We spent a couple of nights on Playa Blanca beach an hour or so out of Cartagena. We stayed in a beach hut right on the beach. 

We had a welcoming committee:

There were not many tourists but lots of hawkers offering you something every five minutes (ice cream, drinks, massages, jewellery, dominoes, sunglasses, the list goes on). Most of the tourists were there for the day so around sunset lots of people went off on boats and the place was dead. 

So nice, there were only a few places to eat so we took it easy, gorged on lobster and enjoyed the absolute peace with the gorgeous sound of water and bird call during the night (with the odd dog bark!). It was lovely. We all got sunburnt even though we tried so hard not to. 

We could see fish in the lovely turquoise water and we treated ourselves to a night time boat trip to then jump into a lagoon and swim with plankton lighting us up, very cool. Olive was super brave and just leapt in in the pitch black. The journey back to Cartagena was a surprise as well. The planned return bus journey got upgraded to a speedboat, nice!

Mud bath!

We took a day trip to a tiny volcano full of mud which, obviously, you can bathe in. 

I think it is impossible to drown in it and bubbles of gas gurgled up as you sit in it. It felt very strange moving in it. 

It’s meant to be great for your skin and there are lots of people on hand to help you get in, take photos with your phone and even wash you after in a nearby lake (they even took my trunks off so I could have a proper wash while they cleaned my trunks! Really going the extra mile!) It was ridiculous and great fun. Olive loved it. 

Cartagena, Colombia

We have a few weeks in Colombia, staying in the north bit near the sea. First stop, Cartagena. We kicked off with a two day ticket on the the city tour bus. So we got to see the historic centre, Getsemani and Bocagrande and get our bearings. 

We are staying in the Centro Historic which is super touristy, with loads of Americans. The area is surrounded by a stone wall and the buildings look cool. 

We are treated to some amazing sunsets. 

The area is really busy and a bit pricey! But we have had some amazing Colombian coffee (Epoca and Libertario) and tasted lots of different international cuisine, although it doesn’t really feel like we are seeing much traditional Colombian life! Although it was quite random seeing sloths in the local park!