First glances

Our flights all ran on time, thankfully. Nyquil catered a semblance of sleep on the overnight, for me at least.

Success no. 1: dodging the taxi drivers in the airport and taking the bus into town, although we weren´t sure where to get off. A young, kind faced Colombian man on the bus who was born in Santa Marta offered some genuine help by explaining where the bus would take us and where to get off.

Success no. 2: getting to Taganga by bus isntead of taxi. Passed by a couple shanty barrios on the way. From the hill approaching it you can see huge signs for the hostels and dive shops, and between these in the town are residential houses. Other than fishing, it looks like tourism may be this town´s crutch. There are half a dozen places to dive, a litter of restaurants along the beach, and a hostel on nearly every street. There is not a single supermarket here, or a bank.

Our hostel is beautiful. A laid back but organized backpackers´ hostel. We could lounge around here all day. They serve breakfast, have high speed internet, their own kitchen. Hammocks and lounge tables are all over, and people hang out til about 11 p.m. Hardly anyone speaks English. Our room has a double bed and a single bed as well, its own bathroom and (not hot) shower, and its very own mosquito net so we didnt have to buy our own.

We spent the first day recuperating and eating, and walking around the tiny town, which it looks like you could do in about 15 minutes from one end to the other. I already have some sunburn. Today we´ll hopefully go into Santa Marta for some more provisions and hopefully get in a good walk either there or on those hills along the beach. Which, as a side note, is not as white as it looks in that pic, the sand is actually darker and grittier. We are hopefully going to make it to some of the other beaches.

Ojala, more later!