I love getting stuck in Taganga Colombia!

After Med I left the girls behind and headed off to the bus station at 6am after about 2 hrs of sleep. I found a bus and settled in for my 15hr drive up to the coast. The drive was mostly uneventful, but beautiful and we got in just after a brilliant sunset over the Caribbean sea. Cart is possibly the most beautiful town I have been in yet, at least the old city. The old part of town is built in a circular area on one point of coast line and is exquisite. It was built by the Spanish as a fort town and is still surrounded by a big stone wall with cannons pointed out to sea. the architecture is old colonial and it feel so romantic just walking through the streets. The part of town I was staying in was a short 5 min walk to the old town and itself had lots of old colonial architecture as well but was much seeder and had a lot of life to it. It was a bit funny getting into town, it was hot as hell which I didn't realize before I exited the bus because they air condition the hell out of the buses here, you might be sweating buckets out side but in the bus you need a sleeping bag. Anyway I arrived into town around 8 or 9, after dark and found a bus that took me down town but got a little lost once I was there and had to wander the streets for a bit asking people directions before I found the hostel. It is funny down here streets are most often not named or labeled at all but in Cart they had different names than were on the map making it extra confusing. I dropped my stuff of jumped into a cold shower (the only type around here) then went out to explore the town. The town had a real Caribbean feel to it, lots of life especially people crowed out on the street and in the plazas, loud salsa music, hot as hell. It was great. I got some food then finally hit the sack. The next day I was up pretty early and went to explore the old town, just lazily walking up this street and down that one only stopping to buy a fruit shake (I cant go a day without one). I really cannot get over the Passion fruit down here I will miss it more than anything else I think. Anyway as the day progressed it got hotter and hotter. It was so hot you just sweat and sweat sitting still. I went to explore a big stone fort that over looked the old town and you could see the whole area from up there. After that I found an air conditioned Internet cafe and just fucked around on the computer so I could be cold. I thought about going to a movie so I could sit some where air conditioned but the only movie playing in the new part of town was dubbed over. So I contented myself with getting some lunch and taking a long walk on the beach. The new part of town looks just like what I think Miami would look like, lots of high rise condos overlooking a long beach dotted with umbrellas. As the sun set I wandered back over to the new city and sat up on the stone wall until it started to down pour. After that I headed back to the hostel drenched through which wasn't a bad thing because it cooled me off a bit. The next morning I headed back to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Santa Marta which was about 4 hrs away. From the Santa Marta terminal I caught a collectivo into town and tried to book the lost city trek for the next day (it is this 6 day trek in a near by town to a lost city) Anyway I couldn't start a trek for another couple of days so I caught another collectivo to Taganga a fishing town about 15min outside of Santa Marta. It is super cute and relaxed. I found myself a room of my own (I thought I would treat myself ) booked a scuba diving course for the next day and ate some freshly caught fish down on the beach. Delicious. Then at the local Internet cafe I was writing a friend i met on the Salt flats and it turned out he was in the same Internet cafe so we hung out for the rest of the day, he was staying at a hostel up on a hill so we chilled in hammocks that over looked the harbor until the sun set then we had some more fish and some very delicious pina coladas. The next morning I was up early and went down to my diving company. I was doing the PADI open water course which was 4 days long. It turned out I was doing it with this Swedish girl I met earlier in Colombia, such a coincidence but really they are not that rare when you travel. We watched the video in the morning and did the test dive then I went back into Santa Marta to go to the bank and do some shopping. The next day up early and did my first two real open water dives. I cannot describe how awesome diving is I love it completely, I have seen so many things and this is not even the best place to go diving. We saw all sorts of fish including barracuda, moray eels, flounders, sea horses, puffer fish, flying fish which are crazy looking when they fly over the water next to the boat and a million other things. That afternoon I just relaxed, moved hostels and watched tv. I really like the hostel I am in, it has a great view and a ton of hammocks and lots of good people. There is also this baguette place in town that makes the best sandwiches I have ever had, I eat there every night, the owners know me. The next day we went diving again then just chilled out and had some drinks, the dutch girls I was traveling with before met up with me and we had a good night. The next day was my last day of diving and brought another trip to Santa Marta. They have manikins in stores here with the craziest biggest boobs they look soo silly, but so many women have fake breasts I guess it suits. The next day i head out with a dutch girl i met in taganga named marlios and bj and Australian i met before. We went out to tayrona a big national park about an hour from Santa Marta. After taking a bus to the entrance and going through drug security we had to buy a ticket then catch a truck cab into the park about twenty minutes then from there we had to walk for about an hour into the beach (and we were caring all of our water because in the park everything costs a ton of money) but it was worth it. It turns out the park is actually owned by a french dude that all the big parks are privately owned in Colombia. The park is like a paradise; beautiful beach palm trees the Caribbean ocean. It was unbelievable. We rented hammocks for the night and just chilled out drank some of the rum i brought and had a great time. Although we became something of a spectacle to some of the Colombian teenagers who were there, they all wanted pictures with us and all wanted pictures of my tattoos. The next morning after getting eaten my mosquitoes we decided to walk town all of the beaches. We really took our time stopping to swim at every beach along the way. We even had one all to ourselves that looked like a movie set with perfect palm trees and a ship wreak off shore. We finally reached the final beach swam and then i headed back, packed up my stuff and headed out of the park. I caught a bus back to Santa Marta and then back to taganga with enough time to grab some drinks with friends and relax. That brings us up to today, today i started my advanced open water course and now i am just chilling at the hostel; it is really really hot and i am drinking lots of water and keeping to the shade and in my hammock: its a good life.