Despite the heat, Cartagena was an amazing place. The buildings of the old city were nicely terraced. Flowers hung from each, complemented by the many different colours and architectural facades. It was truly beautiful.
Cartagena Streets
Cartagena colonial square
Just chilling out on the city walls
Hunting around for things to do, I stumbled across the possibility of a boat ride over to Panama via a group of Islands by the name of the San Blas Islands. All reports are that they are the absolute definition of the Caribbean. How could I pass up the opportunity to island hop for 5 days on a sail boat if this was the case! Though the trip is a little expensive, I made the decision to do it as a little gift to myself for my 30th birthday which is coming around. But prior to embarking on this adventure, I had a few other things to do beforehand. One of these things was to visit the local mud volcano!
The mud volcano was a 30m high mound that was filled with pure, silky soft mud. Together a large group of us made the excursion and indulged in some massages coupled with a few mudslinging capers. The locals were a little less than impressed to say the least. But we were having a ball! The best part of the whole experience I would have to say was how you would float ontop of the mud. With just the slightest push you could be manoeuvred around the place like a plane in a hanger.
Soon my sights moved on from Cartagena and on to the little dive town of Taganga. Arriving in town, I had a one track mind, scuba diving. Looking around at what was on offer, I took the opportunity to negotiate a cheap price to complete my advanced scuba certification. The best bit of the deal was that I would begin immediately the next day. Saweet!
Yay, sunsets
The first day was pretty uneventful actually. I met my instructor, a local by the name of Dessie and we just dove. The clarity and diversity of what I saw was pretty ordinary compared to what I was used to. It was actually the second day though where things picked up. After pressing for an underwater camera, they gave me one and I was off photographing everything! I love underwater photography as it gives me the opportunity to explore and share with others what you find.
Lovely seascape.
Having a bit of air to spare, Dessie and I took to lying on the sandy bottom at 20m having a bubble ring blowing contest. He won......but he has had practice!
Winning bubble
My final day was pretty good as well. I scored a free dive which was sweet. On the boat this day was 3 new Open Water scuba students. As a part of their assessment, each had to swim 200m in open water to prove their abilities. We were all seriously worried for this one Irish girl who we thought was going to really drown. Scuba is another thing Irish people shouldn´t be allowed to do...... She made it though, barely.
After my first dive we had a 1.5hour interval as we waited for the three others to complete their assessment. On the beach, both Dessie and I looked at each other and said “kip?”. It was a consensus. So with a rock acting like a pillow each, we pushed up to the shady part of the foreshore and slept snoring with our mouths open. Awesome! My Caribbean dream was actually happening.
The next day I took the opportunity to make a trip to Tyrona National Park with an American Girl, Toni, I had been on and off travelling with all the way from Medellin. Tyrona was a bunch of secluded beaches nestled amongst the rainforest to the west of Taganga. What a mission it was to get there too! Three busses, a two hour trek through the jungle, few! But when we were there.....
Accommodation was via hammocks which surprisingly worked out well for a guy of my height. The area was beautiful, but after a spot of exploring, rock climbing, swimming and lizard fishing we realised we had pretty much done everything we wanted to in only two days. So back to Taganga it was. On our return trek Toni picked up a lizard that I had been messing with and it jumped on her dashing into her backpack. We still haven´t found it! And we are now back in Taganga!
It is now two more days and I will be 30. I don´t really understand if there are implications to that but eh, so what. I think i am going to get a big cake and eat it until I am comatose. Awesome!
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