Santa Marta & Taganga

  Santa Marta, Colombia
Monday, August 18, 2008

2-Universidad del Norte

Back again for another blog! I have been a little slack of late, I meant to post this blog when I got back from Santa Marta at the weekend,but have been horribly ill all week and wasn't really in the mood to write!When I got back from my weekend away I had a bad temperature,vomiting and a nasty pain in my kidneys.But thanks to a weeks worth of strong painkillers and almost no food, I'm back to my normal (if not slightly more svelte) self. I think it was my foray into the local shack - style restaurants for some seafood that did it. All in the name of culture I say!
  Here in Barranquilla things are going well at uni. My students are working well and no longer look at me like deers in the headlights when I start to speak.

This is where all the work is really done!!

I'm slowly but surely gaining more classes as the semester gets underway. Next week I have to give a 15 minute presentation in Spanish to local high school students on why English is such a fabby language.Should be interesting. Managed to get a few photos of the department up,so you have an idea of where I work!

Hostal La Galeria,Santa Marta

So I decided to go to Santa Marta for the weekend,which is a lovely little town further along the coast, and boasts some of Colombia's best beaches. I went with some of the American assistants as well as one of the British Council assistants Steve, who was up visiting the coast from his posting in rural Monteria. We were supposed to be camping in Tayrona National Park but unfortunately the campsite is closed at the moment because there are rare turtles nesting on the beach. So we decided to spend this weekend exploring Santa Marta, and to go to Tayrona when it's drier (it's rainy season at the moment) and when we can stay the whole weekend. I found a cheap,clean hostel on the internet so we were all set. We managed to find one of the many private bus companies which operates here. For a couple of quid extra, the airconditioned minibus comes to pick you up, as well as going round the city to pick up other passengers on the list,then heads off to your destination.Pretty nifty if it wasn't for the brutal 6am start.But at least we got there by 9 o'clock which meant a whole day at the beach.

1-View of the beach at Santa Marta

From the hostel we took a bus to El Rodadero beach,which is ranked among the best in the world, and is absolutely georgous. That Saturday it was full of Colombian families spending the weekend on the coast. The beach was packed with people and in the background tall apartment buildings were dwarfed by the Sierra Nevada mountains which swept down to meet the sea.

View of El Rodadero

From there we took a boat to the famous Playa Blanca, where we enlisted the help of a guy called Henry, who for the grand price of £8 for the day got us a boat there and back, a lovely lunch of local fish and rice and sat all day within sight,waiting for us to signal how many more cold ones we wanted brought to us as we lay soaking up the rays!Now that's good service!Tried some of the famous Coco Locos as well - a cocktail in a coconut!Very tropical!

Me and my Coco Loco

Went for a look round the little market on Rodadero, full of cool jewelry and all sorts of knick knacks.They have these beautiful little bags here,I can't remember their name, but the originals are made by an indigenous tribe in a rural area called La Guijara, which is just west of here.They sell the mass produced factory versions in the markets here, but I'm hoping to go visit the region and get an original myself.My mum will understand.It's all about the originals!
Didn't party too hard that night as we were all really tired!Also found out that the street our hostel is on is right next to "Whore's Alley". And had the misfortune of being propositioned by several big women in some very small revealing clothes!
Then on Sunday we headed over to Taganga, diving central for this part of the Caribbean and hippy backpacker paradise.Most travelers here stay in Taganga as a stop over on their way back from the Lost City trek. Once upon a time it was a quiet little fishing village. Today it's ambience has been a little spoiled by all the tourists who come to dive and trek and all the beach bars that have sprung up along the seafront. But we decided to hike along the cliffs to Playa Grande, where you could hire a deckchair for the day for 80p!I decided to relax here under the shade of a tree for the day,having got my back spectacularly burnt the day before!Steve and Hannah decided to go hiking further along where they found some really beautiful deserted beaches,so will have to explore further next time I'm there!
That night we found this fantastic retro-style bar called La Puerta which played everything from salsa to Michael Jackson!So we danced the night away with the locals and sampled some Cuban rum. According to the locals,I look like I'm from Bogota but I dress like a foreigner. So,judging by the fashion up here on the coast,I'm off to buy a pair of spandex hotpants that are too small for me and a top that's too short and shows off the full potential of the muffin tops. Women here don't have the same hangups as women back home.They let it hang out.They don't care.They still think they're sexy.It's quite refreshing I suppose!And the way to dance is definitely "shake it like a polaroid picture". No-side-to-side-bunched-in-a-group dance moves here!If you are two females dancing by yourselves,you are likely to be grabbed and flung around the dancefloor by one of the many self proclaimed salsa kings.In other words,fantastic fun!!

Showing us the moves

I was a little sad to leave Santa Marta,it actually felt like I was on holiday! And it gave me that sense of traveling again, even if it wasn't that far. I can't wait to go back and see  the national park and hike in the rainforest.

wow,super long blog this time, I promise I'll try not to ramble as much next time!