The Dirt Cricket Abides

Sorry for the slow blog postings but I am making sure to keep my journal as current as possible so I may do as I am today and enter about 4-5 entries at once.

After the first few days in Taganga my travel companions started to express a little displeasure with the scene…having recently been in SE Asia they were living with higher expectations of how their beaches should be in terms of looks and creature comforts. Even more so I think Christie may be having a hard time with the fact that English doesn’t cut the cheese here as there has been a growing and palpable sense of frustration in her general being. I am not sure what the problem is because traveling 3^rd world countries is just not going to ever be peaches and cream.

It is interesting as I speak to other travelers to realize here, more than anywhere else, you need to have some ability with the native language–Spanish. I personally have loved every second so far–except the bed bug bites around my ankles from one night of sleepless hell.

One story I love is that we did spend one day hiking along beaches to try and find something a bit more secluded for a little beach time. We happened along a nice cove that was not exactly secluded but still a good deal of distance from the main beach. Anyhow after a few hours there what the hell do we see but an ice cream man swimming with his ice cream cart across the darn bay…check out this pic knowing he had to swim at least 700-1,000 yds to make at most 20 bucks.

Back to the story, after my friends had enough with Taganga we decided that 3 days at idyllic unspoiled Caribbean beaches might soften the edges and give us what we need. It was a disappointment to leave, as I was hoping to get my dive certifications and spend a few weeks at the beach in Colombia and had been literally day dreaming of this for months…in fact I wanted to spend much more time at the beach than they had…oh well. This is the point when friends I had made along the way told me ‘that traveling with others is really hard and a questionable idea to begin with’…hmm I wonder. After about an hour in a busseta (think what we would consider a shuttle bus) we arrive at Parque Tyrona and had about an hour hike through the jungle to the beach. It was hot & humid but a very easy hike nonetheless. I did get the sense we were going somewhere special as numerous burros (donkeys) and mini horses were passing us loaded with everything form propane tanks to eggs. This did result in a persistent stench of manure…but hey I’m in the coastal jungle of Colombia this is fucking cool…who really cares (right?). Well we arrive at the beach after a bit and whoa it is a bit inspiring. Outside of the uber cheesy Colombian girl making her boyfriend take pictures of her in sexy poses (she wasn’t even that hot) it was perfect!

Greg and I looked like two idiots snapping away with our huge cameras but I did not give one shit b/c this is the only time in my life I was going to see this. The entire surroundings were unspoiled Caribbean beaches with palm forests coming right to the shoreline. This beauty continued on for the next 1.5 hours as we hiked westward deeper and deeper into the national park. At least 80% of that time was on the beach as opposed to a trail. Finally we arrive at the final destination of Cabo San Juan and it was a bit startling. There were quite a few people in tents and the main palapa had about 35 hammocks to rent and we may have gotten the last three.

So at this point we now get into the mode of beach time, reading and sleeping. Socializing with other travelers, eating wild coconuts off the ground, playing soccer with one of the local boys, and I even found some gorgeous people at the nude beach that I had to snap a shot of…you click here to see them. (work safe so go aheadClick here) I put a nice dent in the Che Gueverra book that has been an anchor in my pack and basically was “tranquillo” the entire time. Life is good. Greg and I did a short side hike to an ancient pre-colombian ruin on our last day in the park that actually is being freed form the jungle to this very day. There is an indigenous family living at the site and it appears they are conscripted to clear the jungle and maintain the trails. It was a bit odd as they were vehemently opposed to us taking any pictures of them.

Next stop Cartegena! Hopefully the Dirt Cricket can find zeee Joan Wilder.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 11:30 am and is filed under Colombia, South America, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.