Santa Marta - the Colombian's paradise?

After a short flight, we arrived from Medellin to Santa Marta. From here, our 'vacation from vacation' was supposed to begin. After strolling around the city for a bit, we went to Taganga beach. This was recommended to us since the beach in Santa Marta itself is not that great.

Well, even the beach in Taganga was not what you would expect from the Caribbean. It was a thin layer of sand - or dirt, as Tom called it - that was called a beach. Many plastic chairs were placed in the shade here, so you could protect yourself from the heat.

The best part here was definitely the water, which had the perfect temperature (not too cold when you go in, but still refreshing ;D)

In the evening, we watched a parade through the city, as the Fiesta del Mar was taking place, a kind of city festival, and the dance clubs on the kilometer-long parade showed what they could do. Impressive, especially when 5-year-old dwarves were participating.

At the main square, there were many food stalls where you could get good cocktails for only 2€ and the food was also very tasty.

Cotton candy ;D

The next day, we took a tour to the Tayrona National Park, which is said to have the most beautiful beaches on the Colombian mainland. But to get there, you had to hike for 2 hours through the rainforest.

That was also quite nice, although I imagined the beach to be a bit better, after all, we are in the Caribbean now. But the water was clear and the weather was quite nice, so you can't complain too much :P

Since we had a not-so-great hostel for the first two days - only guys walking around topless all the time, only a small fan that didn't cool the room at all... - we moved to a nicer accommodation in the evening.

In the evening, we were possibly almost attacked?! We're not quite sure if the guy was just drunk, but suddenly someone was hanging over Tom's back... but when two more guys came over who saw it, he went away. It was all a bit strange, but nothing happened :P

Since Santa Marta was recommended to us by so many Colombians as a holiday and bathing destination, the holiday experience left something to be desired, at least in terms of swimming, but otherwise Santa Marta was pretty and worth visiting for two or three days, especially with the national park - but maybe without a tour ;)

Next stop: Cartagena, Colombia