Playas Hermosas

For starters, theres some older news just below this post, you might want to start with that, not that im trying to tell you how to read this blog.


It should be noted that Cartagena is hot. really hot. hotter than anywhere ive been in a long time. it wouldnt be all that bad but the humitidy adds 10-15 degrees on to what the sun already provides, which usually hovers around 90-95. lovely. that being said, playa blanca was an excellent get-a-way from the city heat. a bit of a mission to get there (we took a local bus that could have come straight from austin powers´ life in 1969, a hand-paddle canoe across a river and then a 25 minute moter-bike ride during which i was convinced of iniment death on half a dosen occasions), but when we arrived we knew it was worth the effort. you can look at my pictures (i just uploaded an album, move your eyes left) but they dont do it justice. it really was white sand, bright blue water, thatched huts over resturants with no running water or electricty. the water was almost two warm, but the wind blew all day and kept us cool. we slept in tents provided for us on the beach, ate fish, coconut and fruit, and did nothing for 3 days. although we were all getting a little stir crazy the last morning before we went back, like "give me a shower right now, i dont even care, i swam in ocean but my hair is a day away from dread, give me a shower!". another couple nights in cartagena and we were off to taganga.

that was an adventure too. got on our bus, which was a piece of poop. most of the seats were broken, it was dirty, the lights didnt work (so we looked a little silly using our headlamps to read on a bus during the day, but hey, the windows were tinted) and the air conditioning would go on and off randomly, making the bus too hot and then too cold. we were asked to change to another bus halfway to our destination, which was empty, and were then asked to change again. the bus we changed to was FULL. were were the last two seats in the back of the bus, with some a-hole in front of hannah making sure his seat was as back as far as it could so he could sleep. then a cockroach is discovered by hannah to be crawing around on the floor, although i can neither confirm nor deny, as i never saw it. not a big deal if your not deathly terrified of bugs (hannah, not me). we started by putting our feet up on our seats as to avoid it crawling up our legs, but after another siting (again by hannah) she had to move to the front to get away from it. okay with me, it just meant i had a bit more room. we finally made, found out our hostel was full, and found another one, which ended up just being some guys house which had 2 rooms, one with 3 bunk beds and one with a double. it was cheap, but there was nobody else staying there. fortunatly we ran into one of our friends from medellin and partied with him and about 20 other brits at the poshest hostel in town.

the last two days have been spent at Parque Nacional Tyrona, which is the colombian-famous national park where everybody goes. you can do the 6 day lost city trek but its quite pricey, and after peru i think ive filled my ruins quota for a few years. so we took the bus out and walked to the coast, which is quite specacular (again see photos, but remember it was nicer in person than what they portray) rainforest coming all the way down to the ocean. one downside i suppose is that we didnt get much sun, which made the beach side of things a bit less exciting, but felt fitting with all the rainforest we were surrounded by. two nights there was enough, and after getting back to taganga i ate a hamburger (something i had been craving for a few days) and we went out with a group of worldly (holland, germany, NZ, US, scottish, british) travellers from our hostel.

i think one more night will be good here, and then i think ill head over to venezuela for a few days and hannah will probably go to cartagena, where i will meet here after the weekend. but planes change, so we´ll see. oh, big news, bought my plane ticket just now. im home the night of july 18, for those of you who are reading and might be effected in some way by my return (apart, of course, from not getting to read this fantastic blog). so ill see you all in 5 weeks or so, and ill try to start posting a little more regularly. buena suerte!