The Beach Bum Life

  Santa Marta, Colombia
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Playa Grande

beach bum n. Informal A person with no regular occupation who habitually loafs or idles on beaches.  The lifestyle of a beach bum is usually one of leisure.  Also see photo on the left.

  I'm back in Santa Marta, a popular resort-like city on the Caribbean coast where I taught English four years ago.  Oddly, the city isn't all that photogenic and my photos prove it...I don't have any.  But I really like it here and have adopted a complete beach bum lifestyle. The surrounding scenery, however, is pretty nice once you get out of downtown.  This time around, I've decided to live in the little fishing village of Taganga just outside of Santa Marta.  It's a relatively quiet place with not much going on.  But tourists, both Colombian and foreign, flock here in droves to scuba dive, sun tan, eat, drink

Ariana, Me, and Adriana

and otherwise, be merry.  My daily routine includes a stop at my favorite ice coffee vendor followed by fresh fruit for breakfast or lunch.  The afternoon is spent swimming in the ocean, tanning on the beach, and topped off by a dip in the pool back in the hostel.  That's the day.  Evening usually introduces itself with a few happy hour drinks with other world travelers and a fantastic, fresh seafood dinner.  I've been splashing out a bit lately on the $6 dollar lobster tails in garlic sauce.  It leaves me seriously wondering if I am impacting the population of these creatures. 

Anything is fair game after that. From beach parties, house parties, live music events, or a trip into town, there are lots of options.  And this is probably

Me and the Fish

the most stressful part of my day...deciding where to be and be seen each evening.  And what better way to celebrate my anniversary of sorts.  Five years ago on March 24, I got on a plane to Mexico and started heading south.  Just me and a backpack full of some stuff.  Nothing has been the same ever since. The beach bum life (see definition above) here in Taganga is the perfect place to celebrate breaking free from the reward-less treadmill I still see everyone running on back home.  So cheers, salud, saude, l'chaim, prost, sante, skal, na zdorovia.....whatever language you choose....here's to the good life!