June 30-July 4 - Taganga, Colombia

Beach in Taganga

After the trek 4 of us decided to grab some groceries and head straight to another town about 30 minutes away from Santa Marta called Taganga. It was suppose to be a cute little beach town with pretty beaches. When we got there it was evening. We checked into a hostel that was suppose to have a really good chef at the restaurant there, ditched our stuff and made banana splits for dinner. We met up with two of the girls from the boat that didn't come with us on the trek and had a few drinks and went out.
The next day we were all nursing hangovers. We hung around the hostel and met up with two other guys from the boat (there was now 8 of us again). We had a really good filet mignon that night at the restaurant to celebrate Canada day and went to bed early.

View from Tayrona Park

We were getting ready to leave for another town the next morning when one of the girls checked out the scuba diving and found a really good deal which involved scuba diving in the afternoon and staying in a nearby national park called Tayrona Park in a little hut on the cliffs. We all decided to do it. Although everyone else was certified, one of the other girls and myself were not as it was our first time diving. We went off to another location for the first dive with an instructor who showed us how to use the equipment and the basics of diving. We went down for a short 30 minute dive with him and saw a bunch of different fish, corals and eels. After that we met back up with our group and all went down together for a second dive which was deeper but we didn't see as much. It was an awesome experience and makes me want to go get certified but unfortunately I don't have the time or the money to do so right now.
After the dives we headed back to the house where the guy living there cooked us dinner and we had a few drinks. I slept outside in a hammock overlooking the ocean on a cliff. So great!
In the morning we walked about 30 minutes to a nearby beach and spent a couple of hours there. We headed back in the afternoon and caught a boat back to Taganga. We then grabbed a couple of taxis back to Santa Marta to the bus station where we took an overnight bus to the next town, San Gil.