Cartagena, Santa Marta and diving in Taganga

Cartagena Part 1

Cartagena

We had only arranged to stay for 2 and a half days in Cartagena because we had planned to head up to Taganga to dive for a few days. Our time in Cartagena was soon reduced down to 2 days because our flight out of Bucaramanga had been delayed due to fog. When we finally arrived, we went straight out for some drinks and food, then made plans for the next day to go to a beach called Playa Blanca on neighbouring island, Baru.

Cartagena

Baru wasn’t always actually an island, but then a shipping canal was built to transport goods through the city, splitting it off from the mainland. It is a lot easier to get to than it used to be because a couple of years’ ago a bridge was opened which spans the canal.

We took a shuttle bus from a hostel called Mamallena costing 48,000 pesos each and we left at 8.30am, planning to stay overnight on the beach. We had heard that the beach was beautiful and to fully appreciate it, it was best to stay the night once the beach sellers and day-trippers had left.

About an hour after leaving Cartagena and after we’d been stopped and bag-searched by the police, we arrived.

Playa Blanca

We had to fight through the crowds on the beach to get to a small boat where we were being taken to a hostel on a quieter part of the beach. We didn’t just take the first place we were offered, but we shopped around and then we did actually go back to it because it was the cheapest option, costing 60,000 pesos including return boat trips to the bus. A couple of girls arrived later who were staying in the cabaña next to ours and they paid 84,000 without the boats, but they had reserved online, so in this case it doesn’t pay to book ahead.

Playa Blanca

We were a bit disappointed with the beach. There was quite a lot of rubbish washing up from the sea, and further down the beach there was a lot of dead coral. The worst thing for us was the constant smell of petrol from the incessant jet skis which wasn't pleasant. I am sure that it was a great beach before it was discovered by tourists. Our cabaña was basic - which we expected, as was the shared toilet, which had a bucket next to it to flush it. I actually don’t mind this side of island life but Baby D wasn’t impressed. 

Back in Cartagena and we were on the free walking tour. There are two city walking tours offered daily by Free Tour Cartagena; one at 10am and the other at 4pm.

Palenquera mural

The tour covers some of the history of Cartagena, including the Spanish conquest, the slave trade in the city which contributed to Cartagena’s growth, and the Palenqueras, who are the black ladies selling fruit, dressed in bright traditional dresses.

Palenquera

The Palenqueras come from San Basilio de Palenque, a village outside of Cartagena, established by runaway African slaves. We learned about the door knockers dotted around the city which indicated who lived in the building. A lion door knocker would represent leaders, such as high ranking army officers or politicians; fish meant fishermen, mermaids and seahorses were for sailors.

Awful bus ride

Santa Marta and Taganga

In the morning we had a long bus ride to Colombia’s oldest city, Santa Marta, north of Cartagena. We spent the afternoon walking round town the city, then got ready for our 2 day advanced diving course in Taganga, a fishing village about 5km from Santa Marta.

Cathedral in Santa Marta

Taganga has a bad reputation, and is apparently very dangerous at night. It was definitely a bit run-down and seemingly neglected and dirty, but we were told this was because of recent storms causing landslides.

Taganga

Otherwise it was quite a nice little place and the locals were friendly, but we didn’t stay there at night, instead opting to bus it back to Santa Marta, so we’re not sure what it would be like after dark. We didn’t see a great deal of this part of Colombia above sea level, but Santa Marta was a lovely city and we were told that the nearby town of Minca, a mountain town for nature lovers, and the Tayrona National Park were worth visiting.

Santa Marta

We did our PADI Advanced diving course with Octopus Dive Center in Taganga, and our instructor was an Italian guy called Simon. We had to do 5 dives to attain Advanced certification – the navigational dive and the deep dive (30m) were mandatory, then we had a choice of three others. We opted to do peak buoyancy, drift dive and a night dive.

On day 1 we did the deep dive and the drift dive. For the deep dive we had to check for narcosis, which is where the increased nitrogen can cause divers to act drunk or get ill, and do stupid things like remove their breathing regulator. We had to show that we were aware of any changes to ourselves and play a game of noughts and crosses. We also had to identify a piece of fruit/veg because the change in depth causes colours to fade quite drastically. David guessed it was a peach and I correctly guessed it was a tomato – reds fade the worst.  

Practising buoyancy

 The drift dive was next and at first, we couldn’t find a current so we resurfaced. Swimming a bit further along, we descended again and got caught in quite a strong current – stronger than expected so it was a good way to learn about currents and how to cope with them – by swimming diagonally and if possible, moving close to the reef or deeper, where the current is weaker.

Sealife

We hung around Taganga for a few hours to wait for the night dive and once it was dark we were off. The water by then was like pea soup; we could hardly see a thing which is quite scary and it was a bit disappointing because we’d wanted to do a night dive for ages.

Under the sea

We saw big crabs, lobsters and I saw an octopus which made my day. We also finally got to experience the phosphorescent plankton properly, so we could see bright flashes in the water when we moved the water. The night dive didn’t last long because the visibility was poor, but it’s made us want to do another one soon to experience it properly.

This fish followed us like a dog

The next morning and we were up and ready for our last two dives; the peak buoyancy, where we had to show off our ability to control our buoyancy in different situations, including floating upside down when looking at sea life, and being able to safely pass through narrow places like caves without damaging the coral. We also removed our gear so that we could carry it through small spaces to reduce the likelihood of smashing it against anything. The first thing we spotted was an octopus and this was amazing because it was both of our first proper, full-on sighting and we love them! They’re so weird and cool.

Our octopus

The final dive was the navigational dive where we had to show that we could use a compass effectively and find our way using ‘landmarks’. The last 2 dives especially were amazing fun and Simon our instructor was great. And that was that, we were certified Advanced divers, able to dive up to 30m.

Taganga

Cartagena Part 2

We took the 4 hour bus ride back to Cartagena where we had one more day to enjoy this picturesque city before heading off to Medellin.

Modern Art Museum

We visited the Museum of Modern Art (8000 peso entry), a great little place to spend an hour checking out local artwork. We went to ChocoMuseo, the chocolate museum which took about 15 minutes to go round, but it had a cute café and shop in it. We bought some of the salted chocolate which we returned because all the salt was at the bottom and I had to spit it out. It was awful. They swapped it for the almond one instead once we had told them how bad the salt one was. Awkward but it wasn’t cheap so we couldn’t let it go!

Goodbye Cartagena - my favourite city in Colombia so far.


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