23 - Cartagena, Santa Marta, Taganga

Just a couple days after my mom left me to return to the US I was joined by another traveling companion. I went to elementary school and high school with Lily Lotfy, but we didn´t talk much then, and we didn´t communicate at all since we graduated high school. But through the powers of facebook we were joined together in Colombia for a magical week of exploration.
We started out together in Cartagena enjoying the beaches and the beautiful old city.

Mmmmmm cotton candy.



Here I am posing in front of a sculpture by one of Colombia´s most famous artists, Fernando Botero. I spared you the nudity.

After a few days in Cartagena we took a 5 hour bus ride up the coast to Santa Marta (see the northern part of the country).

The area around Santa Marta is really cool because it´s just ocean, mountains, and valleys. In each valley there´s a small or big city depending on the size of the valley. My mom´s friend Laura´s daughter Carolina and her husband Alex were both in Santa Marta visiting Alex´s family. The two of them were really nice and gave Lily and me a tour of the surrounding valleys and the sites to see.


Alex and Carolina also took us out for a cebiche dinner. Colombian cebiche is a mix of different seafoods covered in a ketchup/mayonaise sauce and served with some crackers. I had a shrimp cebiche. I was curious to know how many shrimp were in my cebiche, so I counted as I ate. I don´t know if I would have eaten all of it because the idea of eating all that ketchup/mayo sauce kind of grossed me out, but my curiosity won over me and I ate away. By the end the total count was 45 shrimp. Wow! After eating the whole thing I took a deep/exhausted/slightly disgusted breathe, and said ¨Tengo 45 camarones en el estómago¨(I have 45 shrimp in my stomach).

Lily and I stayed in Santa Marta for a couple days and then took a taxi over two mountains to get to the town of Taganga.
Taganga is a beautiful hippie town known for cheap scuba diving and nice beaches.

I took advantage of the cheap scuba diving and immediately signed up for a four day, 8 dive, open water certification course. Before starting my course I thought I knew exactly what diving would be like. I´ve snorkled all over and dove down deep. I´ve seen the pictures and watched the documentaries. I knew scuba diving. Or so I thought. But going under and seeing and hearing and feeling everything was a completely new experience. As my PADI open water diver manual puts it, ¨Nothing on earth matches the sensations you experience- the thrill of being underwater, the freedom of ´weightlessness´and unique sights and sounds¨. It really was a thrill.


Here I am on the dive boat getting ready for a dive.

I saw some really cool things, but the highlight for me was seeing a school of cuttlefish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ujRgSRYE9A
Cuttlefish aren´t fish at all, but mollusks like octopus and squid. Cuttlefish are sometimes known as the chameleons of the sea because of their ability to quickly change colors. They do this to camouflage and to communicate to other cuttlefish. It was amazing seeing a school of cuttlefish in front of my eyes all changing their colors in unison. Incredible!

As part of my diving course we had the opportunity to stay in a hut near our dive sites for one night. I stayed there with 5 other people from my course. The 6 of us consisted of an American (me), an Aussie, 2 Canadians, an Englishman, and a Scotsman. Quite the compilation of accents.


Here´s a picture of the hut we stayed in.

This was my bed for the night.


When I woke up in the morning I rolled over, grabbed my camera, and snapped this photo. Not a bad wake up.

There were also cliffs to jump off of into the water. Now that was fun stuff.

So my whole scuba diving experience was great. I just passed my written exam today, so now I can officially join the rest of my friends and family as a certified diver (Kendra, Dan, Mike, Kara, and White Mike... did I miss anyone?)


Throughout my time in Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Taganga I´ve seen some incredible sunsets. Take a look.













Well Taganga has been great so far, but the adventure isn´t over. In a couple of days I´m going to make like Indiana Jones to Ciudad Perdida (the Lost City). Hope you enjoyed this entry and more to come when I return from the Lost City (assuming I don´t get lost on the way back... hahaha).

P.S. Special thanks to Carolina and Alex for taking such good care of me, and to Lily for being a great travel buddy. Can´t wait to see you in Buenos Aires.