I Was Swimming in the Caribbean

Sunday 16 May
Taganga

So someone had organised what was apparently a fishing trip. Seemed like a good idea. We were all a bit hungover but we went for it anyway. The day started at the large drink shop right on the beachfront. There was a lot of confusion and general faffing. In the heat it was a bit much for me so I sat on the beach until everyone had sorted out whatever it was that they had to sort out. And then we boarded a boat.

We travelled for a short while and headed to another bay around a headland. It was a more or less deserted beach with a collapsing wooden hut and a couple of very hungry looking, mangy, stray dogs. We set up base and did whatever we wanted to. I went for a swim (and snorkel) in the Caribbean Sea for the first time in over a decade and looked at the coral and the fishes. Of course it was no Sharm-el-Sheik but then very few places outside of Egypt are. Still, it was one of the better snorkelling sessions that I’ve had in the last few years. We drank some beer, played more songs on the guitar, did a bit of sun bathing. I chatted to some Canadian girls and commentated on the stray dogs who were sniffing each other’s behinds which they found amusing.

We took the boat back to Taganga shortly before the sun set. I went to withdraw some cash and found my card wasn’t working. I only had a few thousand pesos left (which isn’t much) so I took a taxi to Santa Marta to see if I could get money there. I tried about twenty thousand different cash machines but none of them worked, each time getting more and more desparate. I took the taxi back and he basically took all of my remaining money. However once back I phoned the bank on Skype and found they had blocked my card. Once unblocked I could withdraw money again and everything was back to normal which was a huge relief after the stress of the previous hour or so.

I met up with the guys again on the waterfront and had a few beers before it was time to go to bed.