This summer I chose not to do any major traveling, instead staying home to try to improve Spanish and save a little coin. However, I got a bit desperate to get out of the country and Solanyel mentioned Taganga, Colombia as an option as it's a short drive away. Taganga is a little fishing village tucked in a bay just north of Santa Marta and is now widely recognized as the diving epicenter of the country. I was sold.
After a bit of planning, Sol and I grabbed a nice Air B&B and spent some time soaking up the sun and playing in the water. Our transportation was over land with hired drivers on each side of the Venezuela-Colombia border. Understandably (and sometimes annoyingly) these drivers would try to maximize their commutes by driving anyone and anything for an extra few pesos as long as there was space available.
Soon after crossing the border into Colombia, the driver pulled off to a side road in Maicao to pick up a parcel to bring back to Santa Marta. After accepting the handoff, he put small box in the front seat on the floor. I looked over to see what it was and this little guy popped his head out. I immediately asked to hold him and Sol and I proceeded to take turns cuddling for the next 3 hours.
My heart was full after playing with this 7-week old pup. He had that "new puppy" smell and was as clean and sweet as can be.
As we drove through Santa Marta en route to Taganga, we pulled off the road to hand off little Chester to his new owner. I got out and walked up to the young man on the motorbike who was taking the puppy and calmly but firmly wrapped my hands around his neck. I lifted him gently off the ground and whispered in his ear that I would bury him alive if anything were to happen this sweet little puppy.
And so we were off to Taganga to check into our spot and enjoy the week!
Our loft had an outside kitchen with some hamacas and a great view.
We fell into a nice routine. Good coffee and arepas in the morning followed by a day out on the water, a nap in the mid-afternoon heat, then a relaxing dinner after sunset.
The first two days were to mainly get a feel for the area, so we rented some kayaks and took a self-guided tour. I told Sol that we should venture out of the bay and into the choppy waters of the Atlantic ocean. She loved that idea.
There were about four beaches dotting the edges of the bay, so we were able to pick out a favorite.
I like Sol a lot. She is a trooper and has the energy and courage to do fun stuff with me. Diving is no exception and she did great as she trained and earned her open water diving certificate a few days later.
One great thing about Sony Dive Center was they offered to take photos of us during our dives.
I struggled to get good color adjustment on these (for both my GoPro and the videos and photos they shared). Because red-orange-yellow are the first colors to be refracted away as one descends in the water, it becomes difficult to get real "true color" photos.
That being said, Taganga was a great place to dive. We dove mostly around Isla de la Aguja (Needle Island) and it had some the largest and most beautiful coral I've ever seen.
And I know my diving videos are are shaky and not well edited, but I've grown to enjoy making them. Sorry the color isn't perfect.
I was bummed out when my camera died on me for two of the five days. I had some good footage that was lost. In the video you can see this big sea cucumber that just pooped. I thought it was hilarious. There are also some cool squid I recorded, then lost.
At the end of the day Sol and I would sit back and enjoy the sunset before ordering whatever plate of delicious seafood the local restaurants were offering.
All in all, it was a great trip with fun diving, great food, and even better scenery. I'm lucky to have a partner that is so sweet, lovely, thoughtful, caring, and patient. That being said, if you were to ask me if I'd trade an hour with her for 15 more minutes with Chester, I'd say ask me later when she's not around.
