The Caribbean Coast – Colombia

Taganga

Our next stop would be the small beach town Taganga on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. To get there we flew from Medellín to Santa Marta and took a short taxi ride from Santa Marta airport. The flight was only 1 hour and cost £40 each, which was a much better option than the 16-hour bus journey. The main reason for visiting Taganga was for Liv to get her scuba diving qualification. Taganga has some of the best diving in South America and is one of the cheapest places in the world to get your PADI qualification (Professional Association of Diving Instructors). After lots of research Liv decided to use Oceano Scuba Dive Centre for the course and was not disappointed. Liv did the initial 3-day open water qualification and enjoyed it so signed up for another 2 days in order to get her advanced qualification. Over the 5 days Liv was lucky enough to have one on one scuba lessons with her instructor Tony a 22-year-old American from Atlanta Georgia, who had recently moved to Colombia to learn Spanish. Over the 5 days Liv did 11 dives, learning how to equalise while ascending or descending under the water, skills such as removing her googles and air tank and safely putting them back on again, fish identification, buoyancy and weight distribution and much more. She dived in the mornings and spent the afternoon doing the online course which involved an exam at the end. For Liv’s advance course she did a boat wreck dive and went diving at night. The night dive seemed a little scary, but she enjoyed walking out of the moonlit sea with her wetsuit on and tank on her back onto the busy Saturday night beach, a real bond girl moment! Now that Liv is qualified, she plans to do more diving in other places we visit, such as the Philippines.

Sadly, Rory has an ongoing problem with his sinuses so couldn’t dive but he had a fun week planning the rest of our trip and drinking cocktails. We were staying at a great hostel called Casa Felipe and was the same place Rory stayed when he was last here in 2015. It was great to be back on the coast and each day we had lunch overlooking the bay eating fresh fish.

Minca

Minca is a small town in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, slightly inland from Santa Marta / Taganga. Like us, most travellers don’t stay in the town but in the mountains surrounding the town which offer great views, nice walks and total isolation. We stayed at a beautiful place called Finca Carpe Diem, which is owned by a Dutch family. To get there we got a taxi to a small town called Bonda and the from there a moto-taxi up a very bumpy track to the hostel. The hostel setting was really impressive, right in the forest and set over different tiers up a steep hill. On each tier there was different rooms, cocktails bars and it had three swimming pools. The views from the swimming pools were amazing! We had planned to do a couple of hikes and visit some waterfalls, but Liv was pretty tired after all her diving so for the two days we were there we just relaxed by the swimming pools and in the numerous hammocks. As it’s so isolated, they have a restaurant onsite which served tasty meals and drinks. They also organised activities such as waterfall hikes, beekeeping and visits to a local cocoa farm.

Bohemia Beach

After Minca we headed back to the Caribbean coast to stay in the impressive Bohemia Beach hostel. This place is next to the famous Tyrona National Park which was sadly closed over the time we were on the Caribbean coastline. So instead of visiting the national park we decided to stay in one of the options nearby. From the main road you get a moto-taxi through the jungle, down a sandy track and onto the beach to our cool eco boutique hostel. The rooms, bars and restaurants are all made of wood and are amongst the palm trees, and all lead onto the beach. It was so nice to hear the waves from our bed in the morning! Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great and was quite cloudy, but we still enjoyed being back on the coast and staying somewhere right on the beach. The setting was really nice, so we were happy to catch up on life admin, blog writing and trip planning whilst surrounded by palm trees and the Caribbean Sea. The also served some yummy cocktails and we made the most of 5pm happy hour!

Santa Marta

On 16th February we caught a bus to Santa Marta which was kindly flagged down for us by the moto-taxi guys who picked us up from Bohemia Beach. We stayed at a great little hostel called Mr Baboon which was in the historical centre and was surrounded by some really nice bars and restaurants. Our friend Mike had kindly booked us a table at a really popular restaurant called Guasimo. Our meal there was incredible. The dishes were a combination of traditional Colombian and world flavours and were presented beautifully. It was a little slice of luxury before we headed to our next stop which would be Barranquilla Carnival.

Barranquilla

We arrived in Barranquilla pumped for a weekend of partying at carnival. The carnival is the second largest in South America. After checking into our hotel, we got an Uber to a party shop where Liv excitedly chose out a flower head band and a garish neon top! Next stop was a bar on the river where we meet up with a group of Mike’s friends, one of which we had met in Bogota and multiple others who had joined the group. There was about 12 of us and we had a really fun night, moving around the city, dancing at lots of different street parties while drinking ‘Aguardiente’ an aniseed flavoured drink made from sugar cane often called ‘fire water’, similar to Sambuca. Its normal for people to squirt foam in the air and throw flour everywhere. Safe to say we had a lot of fun. The next day feeling a little ropy we headed into town to see the parade. Unfortunately, we were there for less than an hour and Rory got pick pocketed while moving through a packed crowd. They manged to unzip his pockets and got a little bit of cash. Sadly, although we were aware something like this could happen, it did put us off being in such a busy place and we didn’t feel like joining the party any longer. The next morning, we headed to Cartagena and were pleased to be on the move again.

Cartagena

Cartagena is a port city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. By the sea is the walled old town, founded in the 16th century, with impressive Church filled squares, cobblestone streets and colourful colonial wooden balconied buildings. The city has a tropical climate, with palm trees and exotic plants everywhere. The city is also the jumping off point to Isla de Barú, and the Islas del Rosario, known for their coral reefs and white sand.

We loved our time in Cartagena, wondering the beautiful streets, mooching around the boutique fashion stores and eating yummy ice creams. The range of restaurants in Cartagena is very impressive and we had some excellent sushi and ceviche. For most of our time we stayed in República Hostel in the old town, which had a fun vibe, a nice swimming pool and really good private dorm beds. Liv was very happy as she saw her first ever Sloth in a tree in a park on the edge of the old town. As expected, it didn’t move much but it was still cool to see.

For 2 nights we left the city and headed to Baru Island (an hour and half drive) where we stayed in a very rustic hut right on the beach which had amazing views of the pure white sand and the crystal-clear water. One evening we got a short boat ride to a place where we swam with plankton. The plankton glowed in the dark and when you moved your body it lit up and looked like a glow stick had exploded in the water. It was really impressive, and we really enjoyed the experience. We drunk plenty of Pina Colas and ate lots of fresh Mojarra fish which is local to the area and is a delicious white, light, flaky fish.

Back in Cartagena, our final stop in Colombia we got ready for our sailing trip which was due to leave the port on 25th February heading to Panama. We booked this months ago via Blue Sailing and it would be a 5-night trip to Panama via the San Blas islands which we were so excited to see. We will let you know how the trip went in our next blog!