Its 12.30 am at the moment and Im sitting in Lima airport (Peru).... (in Starbucks :P) .... yes yes Iv left Colombia behind :( Iv a 5 hour wait till my conecting flight, Im so tired but I dont fancy a kip on the floor right now, maybe later. Sooo I guess Il catch up on this instead...... (Oh Iv also got a bit of a crisp stuck under the letter M on my keyboard and its stiff, so if were missing a few M's along the way you know why!)
Right, so I left you all last just as I was leaving Cartagena to head to Taganga. Ohhh Taganga, what can I say, IT IS WILD!!!! Also along the coast, 6 hours north of Cartagena, Taganga is the place for the gringos to party on the Carbibean coast. Taganga also conviently rhymes with ganja as Katie pointed out to me one day when during a skype all I could do was grunt at her and Roisin haha!!! Anyway Im sure you get the gist of what kind of vibe the place has, its pretty damn cool.
Im usually very organised and I have my hostel booked in advance before I go anywhere but this time I decided to be MAD and just 'rock up' (my new ozzie phrase) and see where I ended up. This turned out to be a brill move as I got a spot in the most coveted hostel in Taganga - Casa Felipe. Its pretty massive, has a great social scene and the best part was that the cook was an ex Michelin star chef, sorted!
I arrived on Tue 12/7 and took it pretty handy. The weather took a turn for the worst so the rain meant no beach but lots of beer.
13/7 Booooo raining again!!! Huge thunder storms, its pretty cool but when you are in a beach town it gets a bit old. During a gap in the rain I went exploring the town and I wasnt that ipressed by what I saw. Basically its a kip and the only thing it has going for it is the beach, which frankly wasnt even that great. Back to the hostel for more beer and hanging out where I got chatting to Michelle an ozzie and Lilly a girl from England. They had been discussing going to the national park, Park Tayrona the following day if the weather wasnt bad so I got on the bandwagon and said I break in my hiking boots and go with them.
14/7 Possibly my earliest start since Iv been away, 8am ha!!!
Park Tayrona is one of Colombias best know national parks. Its located along the coast and the attraction is the amazing hike through mango forest and across beaches. You can walk for about 3 hours in total with different stops along the way where you can stay the night if you wish. We decided to do the full 3 hour hike to the last stop, Cabo.
 |
| The amazing walk to Cabo |
THANK GOD the weather had cleared up and the sun had come out! The trail was muddy but it would have been ten times worse and miserable if it had of been raining. My boots got well and truly broken in but when we arrived at Cabo we discovered that the mud and sweat (and the 45 min accidental de tour we took through mango swamp) was all worth it.
Cabo beach is beautiful. After being at San Blas we all now that Im now very hard to please when it comes to beaches but this was niiiiiiice. Cabo basically has three beaches, a very small one, a medium size one that would be the most popular and then a larger one that requires a ten min walk to get to.
 |
| Cabo |
Accomidation here is tents or hammocks... and there are two places where you can sleep. The frst is in a shack beside the tents, the second is on top of a tall raised stone island just beside the beach. As you can imagine everyone wants the 'on top' hammocks as they are know. Unfortunatly the first night we got there these were gone so we opted for the lower ones. After our long walk it was amazing to jump in the sea and cool down. Lunch was home made frm supplies we brought with us. Tuna in a can is now my bessie! The rest of the day was spent lazing on the beach, swimming and reading... Im not going to say home many books I managed to polish off while I was here because Il get slagged!!
At night everyone staying there goes to the small eating area, gets food, plays cards and has a few beers. Its not a mad party place, its very chilled and mellow and its usually an early night for most pople.
15/7
Ah hammock sleeping.... not the most comfortable thing in the world but it was a first for me so I enjoyed it! We had a visitor during the night, a random donkey decided to pay us a visit and stuck his head in a few of the hammocks, it was gas. You could just hear him walking around and everyone was like what the fuck is that!!!! GAS!
Up early and we ran to the reservations to put our names down for the high hammocks for our second and last night. Brekie was again home made, mammy Michelle had boiled some eggs so we got stuck into them. Basically a very chilled out day again but one in which we learnt a valuable lesson.... DO NOT SIT UNDER COCONUT TREES! Lying there chatting away and next thing THUMP a coconut lands right beside Michelles head. Neadless to saw we pushed our towles down towards the water a bit.
At lunch we found out we had got a spot in the high hammocks so we moved our stuff over..... it was amazing. You have to cross a river/stream to get there and basically hike up to the top where there is a circle of hammocks and a fantastic view. More beach, more swimming, more cards, reading and eating and it was bed time
 |
The high tower |
.
16/7Oh lord was last night COLD!!! I was well wrapped up but it was freezing up there. Still it was pretty cool. We were up early again, that tends to happen when you sleep outside and sunrise is your alarm clock!! We decided to head off straight away to try and avoid walking during the hottest part of the day. The walk back was just as muddy as the one there but enjoyable. We made it back to Casa Filipe in Taganga for around 3ish which was good going. I woud defo recommend to anyone who goes to Taganga to do the park, it was a great few days.
That evening I planned my next move (which would be to Medellin the following day) and had filet mignon with a blue cheese sauce for dinner cooked by the Michelin chef
...... sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure Im not dreaming.
No comments:
Post a Comment