El Pibe

Tue 25 May
Taganga – Bogotá

We were leaving Taganga today and I wanted to get a picture overlooking the bay, so the first thing I did was to walk up the road to Santa Marta and take a snap. Heading back into town I met the guys and joined them for breakfast. While I was sitting there every now and then there would be a loud noise as something hard hit the ground beside me. They were large, dark brown, peach-stone-sized things. After a while I wondered where they were coming from so stood up to look. Turns out there was a massive lizard – at least a metre long – that was on a branch above the restaurant that was slowly and quietly having a poo from way up there. Luckily none of them hit me!

Anyway Joe, Craig and I were heading to Bogotá but the bus was in the evening and we had a lot of time to kill. So what better way to do that than head into Santa Marta and find the statue of Carlos Valderama, the still-living Colombian international footballer who has a crazy dyed-blonde mop-afro haircut? Nothing is better than that, and that’s a scientific FACT!

We found it and took pictures and then spent ages trying to find somewhere to eat that wasn’t a complete dump. After that we headed back into Taganga to pack and say our goodbyes. We all hugged and said goodbye. Apparently Lambadour was crying – I didn’t notice and it was probably just as well as it would have set me off as well. We took a taxi and set off for Santa Marta bus station. It was an emotional moment.

At the station we bought a bus ticket for about a third of the price that we were expecting, which was nice. Apparently it’s usually cheaper to fly, but not for us. No idea why that happened. Once on our way I fell asleep fairly quickly as usual on these journeys.