Sun City Santa Marta

After a long drive, with very expensive toll fees, we arrived in Santa Marta early evening. Santa Marta is one of the favorite vacation spots for Columbians. The city was much larger then I expected and it was very busy. It actually reminded me a lot of Asia. There were stalls and carts crowding the sidewalk and people mulling around everywhere. We went to a Chinese ...

... on the Skelligs Rock for the night. <br><br>We all said it was the worst night we ever put down but that didn't take away from the place and all agreed it was our favourite part of the trip so far.<br><br>Conclusion<br><br>We really enjoyed our time in Taganga &amp; Tayrona and would highly recommend both. The fresh juices in Taganga were something to behold. <br>We have also found ourselves speaking a lot more Irish....<br><br>Next is San Gil....<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>

Santa Marta is not a city of many attractions. It is however the first place we dip our toes into the Caribbean sea. But our reason for stopping here is to arrange a trek to Ciudad Perdida, the lost city. Built around 800AD, it was abandoned and completely covered by the jungle until its ´discovery´in the 1970s when tomb raiders started finding the gold buried under what used to be the funeral huts. Getting to the city and back is a 6 day hike (unless ...

... tako da se moze plivati. Prepredobro nesto. A i nije bilo prevruce tako da se moglo i izlezavati na plazi. A voda je pretopla tako da si mogao<br>biti u moru i po par sati. <br><br><br>Irci su se napijali svaku vecer pa sam im se pridruzila drugu vecer :D Vratili smo se za Tagangu brodom koji smo platili 20 dolara (preskupo, ali traje manje od sat vremena, za razliku od hodanja i voznje taksijem drugim putem). <br>

... they would never cut these down in a national park. Minutes into breakfast, we heard a machete cracking at the trees and the trees falling. By the time we were finished with breakfast, we had an impressive view of the water. <br><br>I'll back up. Booking the Eco-Habs hotel was very difficult. No emails returned and initially no one spoke English on the phone. I emailed our hotel in Cartagena to have them book the hotel for us and they told us that we would get an email ...

... would congregate. Hammocks were $20mil pesos each per night. At one of these places, Cabo de San Juan, there was a restaurant. The prices were just over double what you would normally expect to pay elsewhere.<br><br>We all had a swim. There were some nice waves breaking for Jody and Niamh to play in, and the bay was sheltered by huge boulders which they pleaded to dive from. Of course we refused, there were rocks below the surface too. Before long we had ...

... after bashing us around for a couple of minutes, worked its way up and away from bay front for about 10 blocks until we arrived at our hostel, La Divanga. The hostel was great. It had a refreshing pool which sat in the centre. The pool at a 2 metre deep section that was good for diving. Around the outside were the rooms, a common TV room, the reception, a kitchen and outdoor eating area. Above the reception and kitchen was an upstairs open air bar area and more bedrooms, one ...

... by a persistent and hungry cat and several dogs. Sleeping in Playa Brava was so indulgent because this time we had proper shelter and were so exhausted that the second I fell into my hammock, I was out. <br>The following morning we splashed around in the water and then headed on another 2.5 hour hike up a mountain, once again in the middle of the day. We eventually arrived back at Taganga where we took long awaited showers, really long awaited!

... backhanded tours to tourists hoping not to get caught. So for him the army was terrible news, for us it meant we were safe. And oh how many moral arguments you can have with yourself about even paying this guy to show you his little ´factory´, but at the end of the day we had to see for ourselves where this stuff comes from, and oh what a shock.<br><br>We were lead along a lonely path by a river to an abandoned ...

Santa Marta is another large Colombian city, and along with Cartagena they are the top tourist spots for Colombians. They're both by the sea and both hotter than hell. Santa Marta is also the staging post for getting into the Tayrona National Park and Ciudad Perdida, the 'The Lost City', a 7 day round trip jungle hike. <br><br>Truthfully, we were heading to Santa Marta to find a party, because Cartagena was ...