In the morning, me and Ben parted ways as he
opted to move on while I was seduced into spending a few more days in
Taganga and Santa Marta. I passed the day reading, chatting to other
travellers and exploring parts of Taganga that I hadn't yet seen and,
ofcourse, trying some more of the delicious fresh fruit smoothies –
my personal favourite has become the mango milkshake which I will
have to try (and inevitably fail) to recreate when I return to the
UK.
The next day, prompted by a lack of water in my
hostel and a lack of electricity in the whole of Taganga (quite a
common occurrence), I jumped on a bus back to Santa Marta and found a
hostel in the centre. Since I'd had quite a lot of beach time in the
last couple of days I was struck by a craving for culture and so
headed to the monument and botanical gardens where Simon Bolivar
died. As well as the usual historical fare there was also quite a
sizeable exhibition of modern art and one of the rooms even had a
live pianist bashing out competent renditions of Chopin's Ballades
and Scherzos. It was a real treat to hear music I knew and loved in
such a tranquil setting (I resisted the urge to ask to have a go).
After listening to the pianist for a while I accidentally fumbled my
way into a small library and, after browsing a few to books to save
face in front of the steely-eyed librarian, I headed back to my
hostel with culture coming out of my ears.
 |
| The room where Bolivar died (the bed is tiny!) |
In the evening I had a couple of beers in a bar
while chatting to 2 guys who lived in Santa Marta. It was good force
myself to get back into speaking spanish (especially when in a
slightly inebriated state) and we discussed everything from social
problems in Colombia (one of the guys worked with disadvantaged
teenagers) to the perils of growing old and still being single (both
of them were in the their early 30's and were going through a bit of
a crisis). Naturally Colombian women got a mention too.
The next two days I spent feeling a bit under the
weather so used the opportunity to try and catch up with folks back
home as well as have a few wanders around the nice parts of Santa
Marta and sample the seafood cocktails served up along the beach
front. I also realised that the two weeks I had left to get to Cuzco
in Peru (from where I was starting the Inca Trail trek to Machu Pichu
which I'd already booked) really wasn't a lot of time to cover such a
massive distance. After mulling over whether to take one flight which
would take around 9 hours or around 7 buses which would take around 5
days (but be about $300 cheaper) I opted for the buses. With that
decided it was time to stop lounging around Santa Marta and hit the
road. Next stop – Cartagena.
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