Bye bye Caribbean

We ended up staying 4 nights in Techos Azul on the hill overlooking Taganga. We spent one day at Playa Grande, the big beach in the next bay, and we spent one lovely day at Parque Tayrona (pronounced to the tune of My Sharona). After a couple of bus rides we found ourselves waiting for the lift through the jungle towards the beaches of Tayrona and we met the ace couple, Steffi and Juan, from Frankfurt and Cali, Columbia respectively. Another multilingual, internationally time travelling couple. We took the hour walk through the jungle with them and saw a big bat, a big guinea pig (running very fast) and a timid monkey (who was too shy to take a banana) and then we chilled on at El Piscinita, a beach sheltered by a natural arc of shallow rock about 100m offshore - one of the few beaches where it is safe to swim. I snorkelled and saw some cuttlefish and plenty of fishfish and we enjoyed Steffi and Juan´s charming company. They were newly dating, in the first flushes of lurve, and very sweet and funny with it - we called them trolley dollies even though that doesn´t really reflect their work for the world´s best (not favourite) airline. And we were very envious as they found a cabin to stay at and return to on the beach. And Parque Tayrona is a paradise. Juan has an acoustic bass. I gave him a verbal warning.

Meanwhile we pushed on from Taganga to Cartagena, arguably South America´s prettiest city. Yes, it is very Spanish, lots of lovely narrow streets, buildings dating from the 18th century, thick walls and all that. But we are jaded, and we´ve been to Spain. And we were a bit ill. I think I might have got Juan´s flu. And Anna got some kinda stomach bug. But we did find a lovely new apartment to stay in - with a new kitchen, AC, seperate bedroom, 2 TVs and 2 comfy sofas to make us feel better. We cooked and watched trash TV for 3 days to recover, shopping at our favourite Columbian supermarket, Exito, and now we are ready to head on the night bus to the city of Medellin in central Columbia. And it is bye bye to the Caribbean.

Oh yeah. And more importantly you will be pleased to know that I took on the services of a local Cartagena hairdresser and took it all off. I feel great and I am much less of a threat to passing light aircraft.

Oh yeah. And most importantly we spent a few days emailing various Ecuadorian tour operators about the Galapagos islands. We contacted about 20 in all about the different types of all inclusive cruises that are the bread and butter of a Galapagos trip. You basically select on boat (motor, sail, large, small), guide quality and language, standard (from basic up to super duper first class), sports (diving, snorkelling or none), length (4 to 7 nights), itinerary (some go a long way at sea to the northern island) and cost. We have ended up with 4 nights on the 12 berth sailing boat, Encantada, from 3rd September. It is one step up from basic (so the AC works and we have an English language guide), just for snorkellers, and we are very excited. It is not cheap but based on the discussions we have had with other likeminded wanderers we realised it was a must. Fingers crossed! We now have under two weeks to make it to the Southern Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil for the flight on the morning of 3rd Sept.

Anna and Steffi at one of Parque Tayrona´s glorious beaches

The rocking view from the cosy area at Techos Azul above Taganga