1- everything

2- the old wooden boats that completely cover the ocean

3- how it’s a beatiful beach…surrounded by even more beautiful mountains

4- the little old man with twinkly eyes who sold me my bracelets and when i told him i was colombian he gave me the biggest hug and said “welcome to your country”

5- sunset.

6- scuba diving for the first time. trying not to panic. and then becoming addicted.

taganga is a little hidden gem town right outside of santa marta. i had no idea what to expect when arriving, but as the taxi turned the corners of the mountain side, i was awestruck by it’s beauty. it has a quaint, small town feel…with a complete laid-back, beach bum attitude. it’s also the place were i would like to build a small house on the side of a mountain and live forever. scuba dive during the day, eat fresh fish for lunch, coco limeades for happy hour, and sit on the beach and watch sunset at night. repeat for 365 days and that sounds like a pretty sweet life if you ask me!

la chiva!! this is colombian’s famous bus. they are used as public transport and now are used more as ”party busses” where at night they play loud music, dance rumba, and take shots of aguardiente while going from town to town :-)

coco limeade for kim. coco limeade with vodka  for astrid  :-)

scuba!! 

creepiest picture ever.

and perhaps my favorite part of the day.

1- being told the we would have to hike the last bit up the mountain to Minca…”should only take about 10 minutes” says the bus driver. Or almost 2 hours.

2- that same hike, bus driver leaves. enter huge rainstorm. not a sprinkle….not just rain…but hard pounding storm. no cell phones. and we aren’t supposed to be picked up for 5 hours. enter mudslides. in the end, we all surrendered to mother nature, took of our shoes, and did the entire hike up….barefoot.

3- the 2 italian guys who ran the dreamer hostal and made me the most amazing spaghetti bolognese of my entire life.

4- waking up to my tongue turned black.

5- the look on kim’s face when i showed her my tongue.

6- listening to the other travelers play guitar while just laying under a straw cabana in the dark….very “child of the 70’s”….just needed a volkswagen.

7- the colombian man on the corner who stood outside with his pizza cart, making the dough from scratch, and selling slices for $1.

8- meeting other travelers from all over the world…dutch, french, irish, canadians, austrians, australians, italians…the list goes on. so interesting to hear the different accents, and be able to connect with people from all different backgrounds.

 and now for pictures. the hike up minca in rainstorm and mud…

the dreamer hostal. perfect in every way.

stop it. don’t judge our super clean and organized room. it was vacation for pete’s sake!

i see you judging and i don’t like it. by the way that is the hostal cat, whom i called “gato”

we did a hike in Tayrona, one of colombia’s most famous national parks located on the carribean coast. probably one of the most beautiful parts of the trip. so beautiful in fact that at times, i felt like i was waiting in line for a ride at disneyworld. the beach, the huge rock formations, endless jungle, and hidden trails…all we needed was fake thunder and mist to start spraying at us. :)

and though i look happy in this picture, it was around that time that i wanted to die. death by heat stroke.

a camper was watching the world cup on his small tv….ended up drawing quite the crowd!

the two food items on the right.

1- fruit parfait.

    -layer guava, passion fruit, guana bana, and lots of others.

   – add fruit syrup topping

   - add granola

   – add jello

   – top with cheese

yes it sounds weird, but i can assure you it was nothing short of amazing.

2- fried cheese balls.

perhaps one of the best nights. just laying under the straw hut listening to this guy play guitar. it was even better when kim started to play. could have laid there and listened all night. we sort of did.