Taganga

Taganga is a small seaside village near Santa Marta in northern Colombia. If you worship at the altar of the Lonely Planet guide, chances are you won’t end up there. Their review of Taganga is laughably awful (do yourself a favour and read it here).

My personal review of Taganga is of course influenced heavily by the fact I was violently mugged there. Also we’ve just received news that our friend who is still there was mugged at gunpoint last night. So my advice to travellers would be not to bother with Taganga. There are far nicer, safer places.

But let’s look at some visuals anyway:

It looks ok from the top of the hill.

To quote Cher Horowitz from the classic movie Clueless, Taganga is a ‘full-on Monet’.

‘From far away, it’s OK, but up close, it’s a big old mess.’

PREACH Cher.

Taganga is not far from a beautiful beach called Playa Cristal on the edge of the Tayrona National Park. Definitely worth the trip.

Playa Cristal

Speaking of the trip, we flew over huge waves in a tiny dinghy, bottoms banging unforgivingly on the fibreglass seats below us and landing with a thud. We were drenched.

But we ended up here:

The snorkelling here is superior.

We were joined in Taganga by Niki, a friend from Kalgoorlie. You’ll see her in lots of upcoming posts. Welcome Niki.

These were the last photos I saved from my GoPro before it was stolen. *SOBS*

Pretty awesome sunset back in Taganga that night:

A few more Taganga photos:

Minca

After Taganga we headed for the hills to a place called Minca. We didn’t book ahead and there was a big traffic jam so the cab let us out early and we had to wander around with all our luggage to find a place. We found a hostel with an adorable puppy out the front so immediately checked in. Turned out the place had no wifi, no running water and no air con. Oh well!

We cooled off here:

Then the next day we got moto taxis up to here:

After one night in Minca we headed back to Taganga for Australia Day and that’s when I was mugged.

Moving on!

Palomino

From Taganga we headed along the coast to tiny Palomino. A cute little place with a beautiful river and mountains. And of course a lovely beach:

With palm trees overhead:

And delicious passion fruit juice to be had:

And excellent company:

We stayed at the Tiki Hut Hostel, it was pretty awesome:

The next day we hired inflatable tubes and floated down the river for two hours until we got to the sea. To get to the river you have to take a moto taxi, and you have to ride like this:

Except if you’re a man apparently?! The guys had to hold their tubes.

We took a bag of beers and floated leisurely down the river. I didn’t take a camera but I got this screen shot from Niki’s GoPro:

This was a long post with lots of photos. In conclusion: don’t go to Taganga, go to Playa Cristal, go to Minca if you don’t mind mosquitos and definitely go to Palomino and float down the river!