Caribbean sun in Cartagena, Santa Marta and Taganga

Arriving to Cartagena centre from the bus terminal took ages in the pouring rain that turned streets into rivers and the bus dropped me off at the opposite side of the city I was heading towards, but for some reason I liked this city from the start. Maybe it was the pretty narrow streets, maybe Erik's raincoat that made me look like Hunchback of Rotterdam, but kept both me and my two backpacks dry.

I headed towards the cheapest Lonely Planet accomodation option, but asked around on the way like I usually do. By the time I got to Hotel Holiday I couldn't be bothered to return to the hostel cheapest dorm bed (13000cop, 6€) though and stayed in dorm for three sharing only with one girl for 15000 cop (6,5€). A cold shower could not have felt any sweeter after carrying my backpack for over an hour in the 70% humidity and nearly 30c heat.

I was soon joined by an american called Andrew just starting his year long around-the-world journey and who ended up keeping me company for my whole time in Cartagena and Taganga. A total bitch, but hey, you got to help the newbies out (ha, ha – I knew you couldn't keep away! ;D)

We had lunch in the town's only(?) vegetarian restaurant, walked around the beautiful streets of the old town and met a monkey in the public park on our way to the hotel. When we told a girl working at a near-by tourist office about the monkey, she said that unfortunately the park was really badly kept, like wild monkeys would be a terrible pest to have around!

When we went back to the same park on the following days we also met two iguanas and about half a dozen other monkeys. Without the prostitutes and thug looking characters strolling around our park in the evenings it might just have been the coolest park ever.

My old Erasmus friend Toby from London had reached Cartagena on his whole continent long electric car race just in time to go for dinner and an overpriced drink with us. Although other, non-touristy and cheaper, options are not easy to find, they do exist even in the old town which me and Andrew went trough pretty much street by street searching for them during our three days there.

The plan was to visit the mud volcano (you read right) El Totumo on Thursday, but after getting wrong information about how to get there, a sweaty bus ride from the wrong market place to the right bus terminal and realising that the little money we took with us being warned off about getting robbed on the way there wasn't going to be enough even for the bus ride there, let alone for the food for the whole day.

So we went back to the city and ended up finding “our private” sandy beach right next to the old town walls before sharing a bottle of rum and making friends with the very few other travellers staying in our hotel.

The slight hangover on Friday morning was cured by another dip on “our beach” which gave energy for a whole day of walking around the city in exhausting heat that made me take about cold five showers per day and still feel like a sweaty pig for about 23 hours each day.

On Saturday it was time to head towards the scuba diving mecca of Taganga supposedly four hour bus ride away from Cartegena. I haggled the bus tickets to Santa Marta down to 20000 cop (8,5€) and was pleased with myself for about three and a half hours when we arrived to Barraquilla, situated only half way to our destination, and were told we'd have to pay 10000cop (4€) more for the rest of the journey. I explained, wanted to contact company's office, then added a few exclamation marks to my expressions, took my backpack starting to walk away and finally told the guy asking us to pay more to fuck off. And all of the sudden we got seats on the bus without paying another peso for it! Don't fuck with a bitchy Finn, I'd say.

When we finally got to Santa Marta nearly three hours later, we missed the bus terminal and had to take a taxi to Taganga (7000cop, 3€) and to the only hotel the driver was familiar with, La Casa de Felipe. After getting a big laugh as a reply to their offer of a double room for 70000cop (30€), they said they might have dorm beds for 20000cop (8,5€). I decided to ask a smaller hotel, Casa de Maria, next door before deciding and we got a nice and completely empty dorm there for 10000cop (4€) each.

The beautiful little village of Taganga was a disappointment because even though it was pretty it could not have been any more touristy: pizza places, hotels, diving schools and bars one after another. Our escape to Santa Marta next day to find cheaper sun screen and bug repellent – both very much needed in these parts – turned into a long boring trip to the bus terminal since the bus driver decided to be an ass and not to let me know when we reached the centre, perhaps because I had only asked him three times on the way.

Back in Taganga the walk from the dirty and overcrowded main beach to the second one didn't make things much better, but offered beautiful views over what one day was a quiet little shore and must have seemed like a paradise to the ones who first set their eyes on it, and that still looked picturesque from a right distance.

After a dip in the warm water we walked back to find an affordable diving course for the next day and to have some super cheap (1000cop, 0,5€) and delicious portions of chicken for dinner.

Yeah, chicken is not really a vegetable even though many here don't consider it meat either. I'm definitely not planning to abandon vegetarianism for good, but I've noticed I can't stand being hungry either. So during the rest of my journey I will eat meat, preferably fish or chicken, when nothing else at least half-decent is available on my budjet range.

My one month try period was a success in a way that I didn't miss meat at any point and don't see it a necessary part of my daily diet in the future, but circumstances seem to bit too tough to continue being as strict as I have been right now.

The reason why I wanted to come to Taganga was to go scuba diving for the first time in my life and on Monday it was time to do the minicourse including two dives in the open water (at Vida Marina 120000cop, 52€). I had always imagined diving in the Caribbean to be something wonderful, peaceful and colourful, but after my first dive, or perhaps more accurately my first attempt to dive, I was ready to give the whole thing a pass. Getting salt water in my eyes, my ears and in my throat wasn't really the idea, but I couldn't get the hang of the right technique for breathing and equalizing my ear pressure and the terrible pain in my ears made me panic under water and start trying to breathe through my nose, which is impossible with the diving mask on. I was dying to dive and see the pretty fishes so I gave it a few tries which all ended up in panic and feeling I was going to die. Good thing tears don't show too much when you're in the sea.

After a lunch break on the beach I decided to give it one more try, this time entering the water from the beach instead jumping right into the depths. The wonderfully professional and nice diving master held my hand the whole way and guided me little by little to only 5 metres' depth – and I learned to equalize the ear pressure and didn't panic! We followed a small coral reef and were surrounded by beautiful fishes and amazing plants in all the colours of the rainbow, and I was happy scuba diving didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth after all.

I was too busy to take pics with our underwater camera, but see here to see what it looked like.

Will I try it again? Maybe if someone else is paying...