Searching for paradise

Days 12/13/14/ 15

La Tortuga, Taganga > Dreamer hostel, Palomino

Taganga is a small fishing town nestled in a bay on the Carribbean coast. From it's idyllic location, overlooked by the mountains of the Sierra Nevada forest and overlooking the sea, you would imagine that it attracts tourists in their hoards. However, on arrival we were amazed by how un/underdeveloped it is. In reality, the only tourists to visit are either hippy gringos looking for a cheap deal or divers, also looking for a good deal. We were somewhere between the two! 

The roads of the town, if you can call them roads, are broken and crumbled, with only the main road really drivable. The locals were far more, shall I say, acknowledging of us than we had previously experienced. We supposed this is because there's a bigger divide between the locals and tourists here, compared to the fairly upmarket places we seem to have been before. 

The beach front is less paradise with palms, more building site and fishermen, but we stopped at a local resto for some lunch whereby Lizzie was presented with a platter of newly caught fish to choose from. My expectations were not high due to the red plastic seats and staff harassing us to eat at their place, the food was very tasty. The food out here does tend to lack a distinct identity, with us having eaten carbonara, pizza, steak, hamburgers etc. but freshly caught fish is hard to beat!

Our hostel, la tortuga, was very pleasant , with a rooftop bar and well fanned rooms. It seems like any money bought to taganga by the tourist trade goes straight back into the hostels, as it, and many others, were under construction. 

Our first full day in taganga was spent relaxing on the rooftop space as, somehow unsurprisingly, the rain had followed us here. And rain it did, real wet, tropical rain! We were told that it only rains on a handful of days a year here, so although we were cooped up feeling slightly bitter, the locals and their kids were loving it, standing outside with their buckets trying to catch as much as possible. Eventually it did stop and we spent the rest of the day booking a very reasonably priced dive (~£40 for two) for tomorrow, Lizzie and I being PADI trained, and Bean due to snorkel. We also went on the characteristic treasure hunt for a cash point, as taganga's sole one let us down!

We woke up bright and early for our dive, around 7, and headed across to our club of choice, oceano (there was a huge selection, with prices ranging from very cheap to cheap, we opted for quite cheap). They kitted us up and we were out on the boat in no time. Our first stop was one of the islands off the coast of Tyrona (nearby national park, another future destination). Lizzie and I, not having dived for sometime, were a little alarmed when we were asked to set up our tanks, neither of us remembering a thing. Luckily I was wedged between our guide, Javier, and another English diving instructor so I got the appropriate help. Lizzie was left unprepared until just before we jumped in the water, but finally they sorted her out and we were ready to go. Being underwater, I felt much more at home than I had I above surface, it all came back fairly quickly. The visibility was ok, certainly better than the dive in Scotland I once subjected myself to, and the water was a nice luke warm. The Carribbean waters were home to some beautiful fish; parrot, angel, puffer, eel and loads of unnamed but ethereally wafting things. We stopped for lunch in a secluded cabin up the mountainside and watched the blokes' testosterone fuelled battle to jump from the highest rocks. 

On our dive trip

Dive 2 was a little less serene for me as before our descent, the guide briefly mentioned a current, the unknown of which put me on edge. Once underwater I realised the current required a fair bit of kicking which meant that my air was decreasing more rapidly than usual, and once I fell below what i thought was the recommended air capacity, I was panicking a bit, as a frantic communication with Lizzie told me I had much less air. I told the instructor who was super calm and we made it to the top in good time, thank god!!

Taganga is a 'quiet by day, party by night' kind of place and so after the most delicious chicken curry baguette (my opinion only!) we headed out to find Bean's cousin, who of all places, had just moved into a house in Taganga! Travelling with a group of Argentinian hippies, and having died her hair pink, Rosie was the picture of a student enjoying her year out! She quickly directed us away from 'sensation' the local club, and took us to a bar called 'la garaje bar', a haven for locals and gringos alike, with a live band and dancing for all. We were very happy to have had this insider tip, and to have avoided the sleazy sensation, so we had a great night. All in all a brill day!

The next day was a travel day, and with soaring temperatures and minimal sleep, we grumbled our way to Palomino. Quite what awaited us there, bar a deserted beach, we were unsure as we chose to wing it and did a place on arrival. We discovered that palomino is pretty much just a one road town, and after my diva-like refusal to stay in the first hostel we found (cockroaches and wee all over the only toilet I could find, which was in someone's private room), we stopped for some lunch to recuperate. Moods were not improved when a particularly hungry bean's food-order was forgotten at this same hostel. Despairingly, we finally opted to stay at the marginally out of our budget dreamer hostel, which we had found a card for. As our taxi took us up a dirt track, I was not expecting great things, especially as we weren't even sure they'd have space for three, but as the palm trees parted, so an oasis was revealed, with a pool surrounded by people drinking cocktails and the sound of the sea not far away. Luckily, they had plenty of room for us, a whole dorm infact, and the room was £2 cheaper than we had expected! The sea, it turned out, was also 1 minute away, and with deserted sandy beach stretching in all directions (well, two) we really felt like we'd very accidentally, and jammily, stumbled across paradise. It did not take us long to decide to stay for another night, before our imminent trip to the further deserted beaches of tayrona national park!

I've got a bit behind with blog but will catch up in the next. *SPOILER* we're still in dreamer hostel. haha