Teganga, El Mar Caribe

Medellin is tops. The citys lattitude and altitude conspire together to ensure that everyday in Meddelin is beautiful. The reason it is known as the "City of Eternal Spring" is becuase it is never not 72 degrees with a slight prevailing wind. It has all the conveniences that a big city affords and I am fairly sure it would be a great place to live. At this point though outside of Caracas I have been to every major city on the continent and they just don´t do that much for me anymore. On a smog asphyxiating afternoon my thoughts turned to white sand beaches, bendy palm trees and the undulating rhythms of the Carribean. Within an hour I had collected my things and purchased an overnight bus ticket to Santa Marta.


Santa Marta is a port town with teeming streets. Its a bustle of commerce, a place perhaps to get things done. However a 10 minute collectivo ride from downtown Santa Marta will happily deposit you in the tiny fishing village of Taganga. It´s the kind of place you hesitate to tell other people about but truth be told however it is no Club Med. There are no waiters on the beach serving elaborate cocktails with little umbrellas. Santa Marta is rough charm, blue collar paradise. There are no resorts, the hotels are modest places with pastel painted and sun baked facades. Everything is dusty as there is little paved road and the best beach is not the main beach but rather a 10 minute hike around the promonitory to the neighboring bay. The restaurant scene is largely the row of weathered sea food shacks that dot the beach selling the daily catch. The Santa Marta/Taganga area is distinct geologicaly as it is a place where the mountains meet the sea. Where the beach stops the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta begin. At well over 15K feet it is one of the highest coastal ranges on the planet. With its snow capped peaks it certainly makes for a bit of high contrast curiosity. Every night just after the sun sinks to the bottom of the ocean the trade winds begin to blow and take the temperture down a cool five degrees at least. At about this same time the locals fire up their sound systems. Nearly every house in Taganga seems to posses a large bass bin and two gigantic midrange speaker enclosures on their porches. The music booms and bounces everywhere and curiosly it is always good. Sean Kigston´s "Beautiful Girls" has become the leitmotiv of lazy afternoons. Lastly I feel that one can not speak of Taganga without mentioning its people. As in all of Colombia the people are truly some of the nicest. To pass someone on the street or a trail and not say hello is considered rude. The locals are a spirited bunch who seem generaly pleased that you have paid their funky little hamlet a visit.

I am off to Parque Tayrona now which is a remote stretch of jungle and postcard perfect beaches. It is a well protected national reserve where you can rent a hammock for the night and sleep on the beach. It sounds like the ideal place for a part time castaway. I will let you know how it is.

Some pictures of Santa Marta and Taganga can be found HERE