Decision made... spend 2 weeks on the beach in Taganga:
We finished our last blog entry undecided with what we would do for our final 3 weeks in South America. We had many ideas in the works. Go to Angel Falls in Venezuela, leave for Costa Rica early, take a boat to Panama and even flying home a bit early was not out of the question. What we eventually decided to do was... Nothing! We stayed in Taganga at the lovely Casa Holanda and relaxed.
Why we loved our stay in Taganga:
During our stay there we really felt at home. The town was very small, so it was easy to get to know the area and see the same people daily. Usually we would either go to the beach which was just steps from our hostel or take the local mini bus into town. Actually we felt very at ease with navigating around the area. Our friends Andy and Andrea, who we met in Cartagena, were also staying at a near by hostel. Haning out with them was really cool, and we got together often for drinks or dinners. As time went on, Andrew became a tad bit restless with lying on the beach... so he decided to enroll in Spanish lessons. So every morning for 2 1/2 hours he went to school. His Spanish was always pretty good, but the extra lessons really took it to the next level.
The staff at our hostel were also really great! We became quite close to a young waiter named Luis Carlos. He was a really nice kid, but there was one problem... he couldn't speak any English. So we had to use our broken Spanish and a lot of sign language. One evening Luis Carlos, Andrew and I went to town to watch him play soccer. Let me tell you, the players in Colombia are tough cookies. Some of them played in bare feet without uttering one complaint about pain.
On our last night in Taganga we took Luis out for some drinks... we polished off a bottle of Aquarediente (which is a local liquor that tasted like watered down zambuca) Little Luis Carlos who was barely pushing 100lbs, was totally smashed and insisted in yelling in English that everyone was a Face Dick (instead of Dick Face, which was taught to him by other tourists). We found this very funny as Luis can hardly speak English.
After the other staff from our hostel got off work, we all went to a local club and hung out for the rest of the evening. The cool thing about that particular club was that there was a mixture of foreigners and locals there. Of course all the locals were dancing up a storm... as salsa is a talent that all Latin people seem to be born with. At the end of the night we all said our goodbyes, and as always it was time for Andrew and I to move on to another city. I think I even saw a few tears from Luis Carlos, as he had grown particularly fond of Andrew. It's always hard to leave a place, but especially a place where we have met such nice genuine people. Andrew and I will always have fond memories of Taganga.
Click on picture below to see the album in Picasa.
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| Taganga, Colombia pt. 2 |
~Nicola
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