SLEEPY TOWN OF TAGANGA

WEATHER: Hot and 34C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Doing nothing

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Its bloody hot and feeling dodgy in the morning

WORD OF THE DAY:  Chillax

FREE DAY!! 

After yesterday’s nightmare drive it was a blessing to have nothing, nada, sweet FA on today.  I have to say this section of the trip is has been tough and it is a shame that some people are starting their South American holiday with this section and then continuing onto other tours through some of the other South American countries.  The upside is that all those drive days through Ecuador, Argentina and Chile that they have ahead of them will be a walk in the park.  Luck has also not been with us on this section either since leaving Caracas.  We had just had a bad run and listing them:

First truck day of the tour was 17 hours with Easter traffic and a 2 hour delay with a car accident

We didn’t get to see lightning at Lightning Lake

We lost one of the 2 drivers on our way to Los Llanos for an hour losing time for wildlife watching

We were pulled up by traffic police for a blown backlight leaving Merida.  No fine

We didn’t see any Anacondas

Rosita got bogged for 5 hours in the mud trying to leave Los Llanos

We had to change a leaking tyre pulled up by the traffic police just before the Venezuelan border

It took us 8 hours to travel 200km from Cucuta to Bucaramanga

The last 6 truck days we have arrived after dark

Rosita’s electrics blew 3 days ago, so no fridge, lights or recharging facilities

Multiple traffic jams from Bucaramanga to Taganga- we dint move for 1.20 hours at one point

At 7pm at night Rosita blew 2 airbags and it took Gray an hour to change them on the side of the road

Getting to Santa Marta Rosita was not permitted to travel the last 15 minutes to Taganga due to her size

Mark had to order 8 taxis at midnight to take us the last distance………..

And we still have 16 days of tour to go…….  Seriously we haven’t had this many problems in 130 days and in the last 10 days all that has happened.  Unlucky would be an understatement that is for sure.

Taganga is nestled in like an armpit along the coastal Sierra Nevada Mountains and is a cheap 20-minute taxi ride away from Santa Marta.  When you first catch a glimpse of the Spanish-style houses that trickle down towards the fishing-boat-dotted bay, you can’t help but get caught up in its beauty. However, once you hit ground level the mini-oasis becomes tainted by the reality of a real fisherman’s income. The oceanfront cobblestone streets are limited and the white-sand beaches and crystal-blue Caribbean water is pretty much non-existent. It’s a true fisherman’s village that has developed into a nice sanctuary for bead-necklace-selling hippies. It’s cool, raw and perfect for a day or two.  So with all that truck talk behind us, we had a free day in this sleepy little town during the day and fires up at night time.  The beach was just a 10 minute walk from the hostel, but you could catch a boat Grande Beach where apparently the beaches were a lot nicer than in the town, and this was the plan we were going to stick with for the day.  But firstly we had to have some breakfast.  Blue Heather said that Lonely Planet recommended a small café called Bonsai Café so after a small sleep in till 9am we all headed down to get some breakfast.  Well Café Bonsai was a little slice of heaven.  They bake all their bread on site, all 10 different varieties and they had the most amazing coffee (apparently as I don’t drink it) and I ordered a tomato, cheese and onion bagel and a banana shake and it was delicious.  Some of the gals had a few of the fresh muffins and the tea drinkers there boost of proper English tea.  Everyone was a happy camper and as we paid they told us about their dinner tonight of a BBQ meal and salad, so we booked for a table of 7 with promises we would be back tonight.  At this point I was starting to feel a little nauseous.  It just come on suddenly and with the heat and the humidity I am not sure what bought it on but thought maybe my body was going into Coke withdrawals as this was my 3^rd day with no soft drink.  Either way there was no way I could make a boat trip to the other beach so Sharon and I decided to go back to the hostel where I had a toilet handy if needed and Sharon had some travel arrangement to sort out.

A few days ago Sharon, New Heather and I were talking and I mentioned that I would love to have gone to the Isle of Skye in Scotland and the idea has grown over the last few days with Sharon getting dates and prices and we have sat down and looked at our travel dates and we have decided to book on the 10 day Haggis Compass Buster from Edinburgh on the 22^nd August.  Talk about adding something spontaneous to my itinerary.  It will just delay my trip to Ethiopia by 10 days, which I am sure Zeme won’t mind and only having just seen him till the 6^th August after the long absences we have had to do the last 2 times, 10 days is a walk in the park.  So I have now added in Scotland to my World Odyssey, with still plans to visit Belarus and Moldova on my way, I think that will be a great way to complete my journey.  I used this time to also book my flights to Darwin and Melbourne.  I was trying to match my Darwin dates with my Dad and stepmother so that we could attend my nephews christening but I can’t travel in late July, so unfortunately I have to miss the christening but I will still be able to meet my nephew and sister-in-law for the first time while I am there.  I also plan to visit mum’s grave-it has been too long since I have been to see her and then a few squash and school friends I am going to be a busy bee for those 3 days.  I also worked out time and cost wise to fly straight from Darwin to Melbourne to see my Contiki gals (I’m a thinker) so I will have 3 nights in Darwin and then fly to have 3 nights in Melbourne.  I really need to see my Nan in Newcastle as well, but I will need to work on dates to fit in some more flights.  With my god-daughter’s birthday, an African Reunion and Zeme’s visit at the end of July, I am going to be constantly on the go when I get home.  Which I am fine with as I want to see as many people as I can.  One can never have too many lunch and dinner dates and I HAVE to throw in a race day and a Caxton night out with the gals, I’ll be exhausted, but happy that I did see everyone and made the most of my time back home.

I ended up sitting under the shade of the trees at the hostel where they had tables and chairs and I did some hard copy diary updating and they also had an one of those above ground blow up pools, so I decided to sit in that with my book for a few hours and I was still able to get some sun in the afternoon.  Gray bought a chicken and some potatoes for lunch, so I was able to have a leg and some of them to eat, which I think also helped my dodgy tummy recover.  I did relent and had a bottle of Coke later in the afternoon and I did improve as the day got on.  I’m not sure what happened but I felt okay by the time we were ready to head to dinner. 

If it was at all possible, dinner was better than breakfast.  On the menu was a choice of BBQ pork, chicken or fish and they were all served with French or creamy potato salad and a fresh salad with passionfruit dressing.  I got the pork and you could watch them BBQ the meat as it was set up out the front of the café.  Their happy hour ran from 6pm-9pma and the cocktail of the day was called Fidel Castro which was a rum based drink with vanilla, lemon and ginger ale and it was amazing.  That is definitely a drink that I would want to make when I get home and considering I’m not rum or ginger ale drinker, that’s how good this was!  Looking around the table there were a lot of sunburned bodies from their trip to the beach and myself included.  We will all be looking tanned and relaxed in a few days, hopefully. 

So my relaxing day in Taganga was just that.  Everyone is looking a lot happier after just one day off the truck.  Spirits are sunburned but high and a lot of the guys stayed on after dinner to make the most of the staggered happy hours at all the bars and I am guessing there will be a lot of hangovers to match the sunburn tomorrow morning.  I’m not sure how many of them are going to make the day trip to the National Park tomorrow that leaves at 7am, this will be interesting!