It was a fairly eventful day getting to Colombia on Saturday. There were mega flight delays at Quito because of fog and when we arrived at 9.30am a lot of people had been waiting for a good few hours. The people at Avianca flight desk didn´t seem to worried about checking us in. Suddenly an angry mob of Latinos barged in front of the desk, demanding to be allowed on our flight (they´d been at the airport since 4am!). I could see their point, but we also wanted to get to our destination. Luckily we´d started talking to a lovely Colombian lady and she helped us to sneak past and check in.
Arriving in Bogota we had 30 mins to get through passport control and onto our connecting flight. I managed to grab an Avianca lady and she rushed us past the queue and straight to the desk (our new friend and her son were with us too). We then had to get a bus to another terminal and then run to the gate...which we found out was the wrong one. So we then ran again and got onto the flight just after 3pm (flight was meant to leave at 3!).
We arrived in Santa Marta at the time we had meant to and began to relax. Our luggage appeared quickly (Paula was amazed) and Ingrid helped us to get a taxi and even changed some money for us!
We arrived in Taganga to not the most salubrious looking hostel. We were greeted by a slightly deaf old man who showed us our room. We explained that we wanted a twin not a double (he didn´t seem to understand the difference!) but he kindly changed some sheets for us on the very tiny twin beds. (The old man turned out to be quite sweet, but it was not what we were wanting or hoping for.)
As quickly as we could we ran away to find an alternative for our return visit to Taganga...Paula was not overly optimistic, but I pointed out we´d had a guardian angel watching over us and our luck seemed to be pretty good. The first hostel we walked into had a room and we took it!
Later we had pasta overlooking the sea and it was beautiful - I´m looking forward to my return on Saturday, when I will find out all about Paula´s trek to the lost city.
On Sunday I moseyed on to Santa Marta. On arriving at the hostel I met an English and an Aussie guy who had blatantly been up all night. They were pretty funny and in a lot of ways pretty familiar. Although that being said I wasn´t over keen on sharing a dorm with them, so I asked the guy at the desk if I could change and got moved to an empty dorm - phew! After ripping the piss for a while with the guys I went exploring and to sort out boring things like cash and transport to Cartagena. Rest of the day panned out fine, all got sorted and an extremely early night was taken.
Monday - transport was uneventful apart from being a little late and I got to Cartagena in slightly over 4 hours. I was delivered to my hostel anbd shown my room. Again I´m sharing with guys but there is another girly too. The guys are Spanish and seem to think quite a lot of themselves - boring!
Felt a little weird and alone yesterday but that was soon remedied with a wander around the old town; viewing the sunset sitting in the ramparts; and the purchase of a new red dress! Shopping always helps me settle into somewhere new! Also managed to talk to Mum and Dad which was cool.
Last night I met up with Paula´s friend Melanie who is lovely and we had a thoroughly good time getting to know each other over a couple of mojitos. We´re cathing up again tonight for dinner.
Today I´ve been ambling and had many people trying to sell me stuff - they all seem to think I´m a rich person from a cruise ship!? It´s entertaining for trying out my Spanish though!
Ok, more exploring and possible shopping to be done!
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