bonnie & clyde

leaving medellin isn't easy, but necessary... we have beaches to visit! the bus to cartagena would normally have to take 12 hours, ours took a steady 23 hours... we were stuck once again in the mountains, this time an accident prevented us from continuing. hell but colombia! we arrived in cartagena late enough to have to take a taxi into town and search for a hostel, which is a tad bit more expensive than elsewhere, but worthed though, cartagena is one hell of a beautiful city, where romance seems to have found its foothold. it isn't hard for her to find lovers made with this heat, it is actually steaming hot at the carribean! we met up with david and antonio again. next day we took a boat to playa blanca and islas rosario. it is a highly recommended trip but you need to pass an almost obligatory struggle to get a good price for a boat to go one day and back the other, which we planned to do. the boat takes you on a tour to an aquarium on one of the islands, which isn't all that famcy, and gives you the chance to go snorkelling with a guide, which is way too expensive as you can snorkel easily at playa blanca and see almost as much. playa blanca was heaven, without further ado... pearly white beaches and turquoise coloured water. we slept in a tent at Tony's place, a good guy, without a voice though, but friendly as any colombian. the next day we slipped back onto a ferry taking us back to cartagena, and slept one more night in our hostel in getsemani. after this we took a bus to santa marta, which took longer, once again, than expected, but hey, we get used! santa marta is not really worth stopping in, better to head straight to taganga, which is literraly 10 minutes away in cab. taganga should be paradise as described by everybody, and in a way it is, but it has a kind of deserted marginal feel to it, and it's packed with rastas, selfmade necklace hangabouts and israelis, but that doesn't mean it's not fun, we stayed 5 days here. anke took the opportunity to take e PADI's open water diving course for 3 days, she enjoyed it to pieces and has her certificate now. i myself did not join because of earproblems going under. sad but true. the people guiding her were very generous and helpful. we are heading towards parque tayrona tomorrow, we were said to take the bus at mercado in anta marta, which will drop us off at the main entrance, from where we will go on foot to cabo san juan, a mighty beutiful beach, maybe the most beautiful of all, but also the most touristy. anyway, every beach in tayrona is heaven. see you later.