The wonderfully bizarre, Taganga

The town of Taganga is one that grows on you the longer you stay, and its also one of those places that many people get stuck in, but its not something to complain about. Its much smaller than the big cities of Santa Marta and Cartagena, with the advantage of a half decent beach. The place is flooded with hippies that sit on the street outside the supermarket making jewellery and playing music. The people of Taganga are amazing, an eclectic friendly, quirky bunch who are constantly eager to thankyou and welcome you for coming to Colombia.

Me and Sass checked into the strange Casa Blanca which is right on the beach, and at first seemed ok, but wore a little thin after a while, with a hostel door that didn´t close, no ventillation and the creepest nightguard I´ve come across yet. He was in the list of Taganga freak all-stars what continuously grows by the day. Often leaving people locked out and leering on the girls of the hostel. The worst story I heard was that he crawled into the bed of a girl I met staying there and began to spoon her as she slept...

The first night at Casa Blanca was yet another accidental big one... Sass went to meet her beautiful and lovely Argentinian man Octavio, while I stayed drinking on the terrace with Aussie Matt, Tim and Naomi. Matt and Tim had come to Taganga to do the Lost City Trek but had been putting the date back by the day, and were still there over a week later when I left. They gave me a lowdown on some of their favourite characters of Taganga, each with their own specially designated nicknames. ´Black Dog´ was a South American Albino child of about 1 or 2 years of age who´s father, ´Papa Dog´ was a miget with a rather creepy voice box who sang and played the harmonica to tourists for money, whos wife was ´Mama Dog´an overweight women. I didn´t believe such an unusual family existed, until I saw them with my own eyes together on the beach. Oh, and Mama Dog has a habit of slapping Papa Dog around a bit. How Black Dog was concieved does not bare to think about...

We all stayed up all night, which was broken up with night swims in the sea and finally the sunrise.

The next two days were fairly chilled, sunbathing, swimming, eating and getting to know the locals would pretty much sum it up. Then came Bethany, and the English sisters Lou and Steph and we inquired into starting Diving school and working our way and becoming PADI certified open water divers.