We had to go back to Santa Marta to withdraw money. Over there we've met 2 friends who came all the way from Medellin to party with us on my birthday week end in El Rio Hostel, 3 days later ..
Time to go back to Santa Marta with the collectivo, a 3 hour drive in a small blue bus, who dropped us in the mercado central. Perfect location for us because we decided to stay in a different hostel called Cacao Hostel, really nice, confortable rooms with AC from 8pm to 8am, a swimming pool, bar and free breakfast, everything for a really affordable price (between 27 000 to 40 000 pesos depending on the period).On the Caribbean coast,
Santa Marta is one of the main attraction, despite Cartagena, because it is located next to Tayrona Park, and is the gateway to Minca, the Lost City trek (4days) and the last big city before making your way towards La Guajira Desert. I personnalité did not like Santa Marta that much because there is not much to do inside the city itself, the points of interests are located around it.
Basically we just chilled by the swimming pool and plan our next days, booked our flights and organize the rest/ end of our trip. We cooked, went to te restaurant, bars, play football and enjoyed the beach. Arlo showed us a really nice beach in Taganga's area and located near by the crowded playa grande.
Really easy to get there: from Santa Marta, take a collectivo at the mercado public towards Taganga. Once in Taganga, walked down along the beach to the hills. There is a small path which will lead you to the hidden Playa Grande. If you are lazy walking, you can always take a boat from Taganga beach for 8 000 pesos.
Once there you can either stay in Playa Grande, or continue your way on the other end of the beach, take another small path which will lead you to a small beach exempted of tourists. Only local fishermen, a restaurant and the owner who rent you snorkel gears for 5 000 pesos. It is a great spot to snorkel so it is definitely worth it.
We also assisted to a really strange way of fishing: there is a giant net in the water with a guy swimming in it. I've asked the fisherman what was the guy doing there. He told me that he was paying attention to the fish which entering inside the net, and once they were enough he was screaming. With this alarm, his friends of the shore starting pulling the fish net with the fish stuck in it. There were 20 pulling the big ropes. It was a really interesting day.
