The Coast

So Matt let everyone know about la cuidad perdida which was an awesome and challenging trip. The rest of the time on the coast was almost completely lazy.

Like Matt mentioned we started the lost city trek from Taganga. Its a cute tourist town next to the larger, more boisterous Santa Marta that we frequented to get money (no
ATMs in Taganga) and ran errands (we call them scavenger hunts). The hostel we stayed at was Oso Perezoso (Lazy Bear) that had the cutest dog named Lola and a crochety old bird called Roberto who like to sit on a beam above the common area and take aim on people´s heads. The room included a breakfast of the most amazing fruit with ginger granola, crepe or french toast or scrambled eggs. This was probably the best breakfast we have had on this trip. There was a beautiful beach that was about a 20 minute walk around a hill. We finally started to get some good food here as well. There was a little place called cafe bonsai, owned by a Danish guy, that had awesome lemonade and sandwiches with garlic and curry sauces.

The next beach we hit was Tayrona national park. Upon embarking on this trip we believed it to be a short hour hike into the park and onto the beach. We joined two Canadians on this trip who brought their tent and sleeping bags. The hostel caretaker warned them against it and laughed at them. We started the hike in mud which was not a good sign. But we did see a monkey and grasshopper the size of my hand. There were these taunting signs the whole way saying the percentage of the hike we had accomplished. The hike turned into a 3 hour hike through a lot of mud in the blazing heat in middle of the day.
We finally arrived and the beach was beautiful with giant coconut trees and a surprising amount of people trying to crack coconuts open with their bare hands, rocks and sticks. One woman succeeded and shared her earnings with the rest of us on the beach. We stayed just one night and took the boat back which was quite a nice 45- minute ride back with a great view of the nearly uninhabited coast.

Our next stop was Cartagena de Indias, a lively coastal town with a fortress built around it to keep pirates out in the 17th century. It was quite hot there so we spend each mid-day napping in the hostel. We went to a mud volcano that was an interesting experience. The volcano is very small and three men are in the volcano helping people in and forcing massages upon you. The mud is so dense even when people attempted to sink deeper they bounced back up. After being sufficiently covered in mud for 15 minutes they help you out and sent you to the pond to wash off. There are very aggresive woman trying to take your top off and wash you down. We all somehow managed to get past them fully clothed and muddy to wash ourselves off.

Playa Blanca was our final stop on the coast. We took a one-day tour with many elderly Colombians from Cartagena to Rosario then to Playa Blanca. This is the best beach we have been to. The sand was white and the ocean we crystal clear. We got ourselves hammocks on the beach and hung around reading books and soaking up the sun (wearing sunscreen of course). There were many women trying to give massages and men selling jewelry who were very insistant. I ended up getting a massage just to get Anita to leave me alone. I must say it was a very nice massage. Matt woke up at 530am the next morning and I at 6am because of the rooster, the heat and the bright sun. We took a nice stroll along the beach with 2 dogs following behind trying to play and biting at Matts shorts. That is when we found the dead bloated rat on the shore who followed us back to our spot on the beach. Though our find took a little away from the paradise we were in, it provided a little amusement as well.