White Sand, Coconuts, Rum and Pirates

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Trip Start Aug 26, 2005 Previous
Entry Trip End May 26, 2008 Next
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  Playa Blanca, Colombia
Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The most spectacular beach on the Colombian Caribbean coast

-------Playa Blanca-------

Palm trees line the shores, the water is crystal clear, coral reefs just offshore are home to millions of brightly colored fishes and the sun is always shining.

I spent 5 nights on the Island, with Brother Stu and 8 other travelers - a few Germans, a Norwegian and an American and 2 Colombians.
We got into a daily routine which went a little something like this:
Wake with the sun (nobody had any idea of the time cos we threw our watches away)
Swim in the Caribbean sea, then eat breakfast - fruit salad and scrambled eggs
then we swim,
read,
swim,
sun bake,
take the boat out and catch some fish for lunch/dinner
swim,
drink coconut juice out of a freshly opened coconut
sleep
go snorkeling
drink more coconut juice
swim
swim swim
lunch - massive grilled fish with salad, coconut rice, and fried bananas
get a massage - 30 minutes for 5 bucks!
sleep
swim
drink coco loco - a coconut filled with rum
beer
beer
swim
sun bake
Another coco loco
sit and drink and watch the sunset
more sunset - its amazing
It also lasts for an hour
the sun is now set and we drink another beer
then another coco loco
dinner time - fish, coconut rice, bananas and salad - just like we had for lunch
everyone gathers and the rum comes out, with more coconuts,
the singing and dancing begin and the nighttime madness take over
The coconut Olympics begin with the coco loco shot, then the coco toss, followed by the coco treasure hunt, coco bowling, the amazing coco loco tower of death, then its hide the coconut and finally, the coconut sacrifice, where we toss all the coconuts to the ocean
We drink a few more beers or coco loco's
and then, just before bed, we take a late night / early morning swim (we have no idea of the time -it may be 10pm, it may be 3am, we don't know, nor do we care)
The plankton are unreal, lighting you up like a spotlight is shining on you. They were everywhere - just like in the movie the beach. I played the role of Leonardo.
we crash in hammocks and mattresses on the sand and thats the day.
repeat 5 times and thats all we did!

I'm back in cartagena now, looking for a boat to Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba... anyone got any idea feel free to let me know, cos this is proving difficult.


I returned to Cartagena for a few days and some buddies from Australia turned up.
Brother Stu and I decided to take them back to the Island...
So after 3 days in cartagena, we returned to the island, where we spent 2 more nights in paradise, doing, just as we did before, swim, snorkel, read, sun bake, chill out! and drink coco loco's and eat fish.

------------------------------------------------------------ -------
Heres an email i wrote about the island..

So I'm on the Caribbean coast in a place called Santa Marta. The Caribbean coast - Awesome hey. I haven't seen any Pirates yet, nor have I found any lost treasure, and the talking parrots are non existent. In all honesty, its fairly filthy and nothing like you would imagine.

Stu met me in Bogota, the capitol of Colombia and just stumbled into the hostel. It was a complete fluke we met, but the good times followed. We saw some great places through Colombia, salt cathedrals, dinosaurs, water parks, museums and cable cars. We partied hard at night and were complete tourists through the day. Using every second possible cos we only had 3 weeks together. After 14 months apart, it was amazing to spend some time traveling together.

But the real thing we were anxious about was getting to the Caribbean coast. We had images of white sand and palm trees, crystal clear, warm water - paradise basically.
We arrived to Cartagena, a fortified city on the Caribbean coast and ran from the hostel, 4 blocks to the paradise beaches... and what did we see. Skanky brown water, frothy waves, brown beaches and filth lining the shores. Rubbish was everywhere. We were in stitches, this isn't the Caribbean, this is worse than Curly lagoon!
We took some hilarious photos of the first glimpse of the Caribbean sea and were generally amused and completely disappointed at the state of it.

Not surprising really.. the huge city of Cartagena is just like any other south American city. Filthy and polluted. We knew the white sand and palm trees we had visioned were out there somewhere and after hunting around we found out where it was. It was called Plays Blanca - paradise. A 45 minute boat ride from the scummy beaches of Cartagena.

We got on the next boat and knew soon we would be swimming in the Caribbean sea.
It was a quick ride with the 150HP motor and before we could say ´raise the anchor and set sail me´heartys´ we were landing on a white sandy beach lined with palm trees and straw huts!

PARADISE
We barely got our bags off the boat and into our hut before the shirts were off and we were running into the crystal clear turquoise waters.

It was everything you would imagine paradise to be! Just spectacular. The water was super warm, maybe around the mid 20´s, coral reefs were just offshore. There were fishes everywhere, and the sand was as white as you would want it. The sun was always shining and there was nothing to do but sit and take it all in.

We stayed on the island for 5 days, loving every second of it. We slept in a cabana owned by a mad German who was very entertaining. Initially we tried to sleep in hammocks but with sun burnt backs and sand everywhere - it was like sleeping on sandpaper and when I woke after the first night, my face was in the sand and i had simply rolled out of the hammock onto the soft white sand.

We made a decision to take off our watches, and it worked a treat. We would get up with the sun, at 5ish, crawl 10 metres across the white sand to the warm clear waters. Swim out to sea and look back on the amazing palm tree lined beach. Then we ate fruit salad and swam and read and slept and snorkeled and swam and walked around the sandy beach. Then it was time for lunch. for 4 Aussie bucks, we ate grilled fish - caught a few hours earlier, with coconut rice, fried bananas and salad. Washed down with a freshly opened green coconut. The juice inside was magic! Fresh and sweet and coconuty and deliciously refreshing.

After lunch we would get a massage for a few bucks, and rest and swim and read and just chill out.

The sun got low and we drank coco loco's.. its a coconut, full of coconut juice and topped up with white rum. Absolutely stunning! We had a few more coco loco's and the sun put on a show unlike anything Ive ever seen!
All the colors you could imagine, we would sit each day in awe just saying.. wow every minute as the clouds changed color and we were breathless. The sunsets, apart from being the most colorful i have ever seen, they were also the longest... it seemed like it would never end. we sat in the water and watched the sun dip below the horizon and clap when it was all over.

It never got cold, and i don't think i had anything on but my boardies for 5 days. Even for sleeping, we just pull up a bit of sand and crash.

After the sunset, we swam some more and then got dinner... yep... fish again, just like lunch. Washed down with some local Colombian beer for 70 cents a pop!

At night, after a day of drinking coconuts, we had around 12 coconut shells about and played the coco loco Olympics. They were great fun and started with the coco loco shot put, then the coco throw, then we moved onto the coco bowling, where we almost ruined a few delicately planted saplings and got roused at by the locals. The it was time for the coco loco tower of death, where we balanced as many cocos as possible on top of each other. This was our favorite. Later, we played the great coco loco treasure hunt, where the coconuts were buried in the sand and we unsuccessfully tried to find them all. With a few coconuts remaining, we played the ´pickup as many coco loco's as you can´ Stu killed this one and we didn't bother competing with him. Then we had coco flags, just like the iron men and finally, at the mad Germans request - he was sick of us littering his beach with coconuts, the final event was - ´throw all the fuck1ng coconuts to the fuck1ng sea and get them out of my sight you damn Australians´ We tossed the coconuts away and sat down to enjoy a few more beers before crashing on the sand and waking up early the next morning to do it all over again!

what a life

It was like this for 5 days then we returned to the mainland, where we found Mitch and his girlfriend. Then we decided to take them to a great place on the Caribbean called ´Plays Blanca´hahah we headed back to the island, where we had 3 more days of bliss.

We returned to cartagena and Stu took his flight to Bogota, then the USA- Bye bye Stu. it was tops.

So now, Ive moved north east and I'm in Santa Marta.

I'm looking for a boat to take me through the Caribbean. Not looking too good at this stage. I need to get to Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico over the Caribbean sea but i cant find anyone to take me. Looks like i may be stuck in cartagena for a while while i try and find a ride. Ill be spending the next few weeks or however long it takes, moping around the docks and port, begging everyone for a job on a yacht or something to get me through the Caribbean sea on my search for lost treasure.
I hope you all enjoy the story and give me an email if you have a few spare minutes, its good to hear from everyone when I'm so far away here. Any if anyone wants, to just drop in like Stu did... its good fun!

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2 More days on the island and we were back to cartagena. Once again, looking for a boat to the Caribbean islands.... anyone got an idea, cos I'm stuck here....??????????????

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