25 Days of Summer: The Caribbean Coast Part II

The mud volcano we visited (as mentioned in the previous post)

We're the mud blobs on the bottom right. The mud is supposed to have healing properties and is combined with a massage (against your will) and a complete wash down in the lagoon, including clothes removal (also against your will).

After feeling robbed of a southern hemisphere summer in Patagonia we decided when we were in northwest Argentina that we were going to make time towards the end of our trip for some beach time in the Caribbean, as a holiday from our cycling holiday. We have been looking forward to it ever since, some might say it has been the dream of white sand and clear water that has got us though some of those Andean mountain passes. The prospect of a wardrobe change was also appealing, our polar fleece pants have already had a lifetime of wear and we were sick of wearing our jackets and gloves.

Cartegena was hard to leave, but the lure of the beaches was too strong.

After an event-filled week in Cartegena we headed west towards Venezuela to the town of Tangagna, a famous backpacker hangout. After not booking any accommodation in advance we ended up in a super expensive luxury suite complete with its own kitchen, flat screen tv and killer sea views. It was awesome and was our first ever encounter with a mosquito net, which we didn't cope with well. In order to tuck it into the mattress one person was always trapped outside the bed, Bens feet hung off the end of the bed anyway so it came untucked in the night, and even when we did manage to get it secured correctly we then couldn't then get out. The highlight of Tanganga for Anna was getting a custom-made bikini made within 24 hours. We also splurged and brought beach towels to help us blend in more with other tourists and look less like pasty-white cycling freaks.

Our campsite in Tayrona, scene of numerous mosquito bites.
If only mosquitos sucked fat instead of blood...

The hiking trail into the park. Pretty tricky in jandals, actually, and sweaty too.

We spent 4 nights camping in a National Park on the coast where you can only access the campsites by an hour hike through the jungle. One of our special treats was to not have the bikes with us, we left them in the hostal in Cartegena so we were really making do with heavily overloaded daypacks. The 'bus' that took us to the start of the hike managed to squeeze 14 people into a minivan with no aircon. Amazingly on this bus we ran into some people we had hung out with in Boliva, proving its a very small world.

Typical beach in the park, this one was about 5 minutes from the beach we camped on.

Yep, it was a tough life hanging out here. We spent much time thinking of people in NZ and how much they were enjoying their winter. (not)

Ben on the way to our favourite beach, an hours walk from camp. The stylish beach bag was a $1 purchase from a Peruvian market for groceries a few months back.

There was nothing to do there apart from laze on the beach and go swimming, hiking through the jungle to different beaches. Ben brought a snorkel set which he put to good use on the coral reefs just of the beach. We learnt from our earlier beach experience and brought in buckets of sunscreen, insect repellant and stayed away from the beaches and potential crab zones at night. Despite this we saw heaps of giant crabs, monkeys in the jungle and lots of interesting tropical fish. A satisfying food highlight of the park was a small bakery that produced chocolate filled buns for 2000 pesos (just over 2 NZ dollars) which we ate for lunch every day. Some days we walked all the way back from the futherest beach over challenging boulders just to eat one. In other snack news there was vendors walking up and down the beach like in Playa Blanca selling fresh tropical fruit juice, coconut ice cream and other tasty morsels. You could also stay in hammocks here in a big shed lined with mosquito nets. People who took this option reported that it was miserable and the one guy who had a good night's sleep woke up with what was either a nasty rash or hundreds of mosquito bites.

The best lunch ever: $1 chocolate buns straight out of the oven. We visited for lunch 4 days in a row.

Our favourite beach. Those are our footprints.

We came out and spent the rest of our time hanging out in Tanganga, where two amazing sandwich shops, affordable internet and a hostel room with cable tv entertained us when we were sick of the beach. Not that out stay was all sandwiches and episodes of "Bones": whilst undertaking a pleasant 20 minute hike over to a neighbouring beach one day we became victims of crime when we were robbed at knifepoint. Thankfully the criminals picked the poorest tourists in town and only made off with $25NZ and Bens broken watch and we remained unscathed. When we were walking back to town we ran into a police officer on patrol who started down the track after them and we were able to identify the offenders from photos at the police station minutes later. The police were surprisingly high tech, being able to pixt the pictures to the police on the track to help identification.

But this was hardly the only drama to befall us in Tanganga, as Anna also managed to get sick again, involving multiple days in bed and another hospital trip for IV fluids. There was rumours of Dengue fever but due to our lousy espanol (especially medical terms) meant that we'll probably never know. Ben thought Anna had "Man Flu" and refused to take her to the hospital until after he had finished his steak.

We also heard of another traveller drowning on a popular hike not far away which sounded terrible for all concerned so things really could have been worse for us.

Cost cutting resulted in some less-than-roomy hotel rooms.

But despite of these setbacks we're still happily continuing, Anna is better, Ben brought a cheap new watch to we didn't have to tell the time by the position of the sun and all is well. We spent a couple of days in Santa Marta before heading back to Cartegena to rescue the bikes and prepare for a 20 hour bus ride to Bogota and our flight to the USA. The bikes had turned into rustballs in our time away but apart from that everything was safe and sound and in one piece, we tidied them up as best as we could be bothered and headed back to our favourite Australian cafe just down the road for sausage rolls and a healthy dose of air conditioning.