We awake this morning to the sound of heavy rain, well we
thought it was but then realised that it was the sound of the fan spinning
around. It was actually a beautiful day
again, not a cloud in the sky and it was bloody hot! We walk into the main area
of town and have some breakfast. We both
order pancakes with fruit. We are really
enjoying this breakfast, it has been a favourite of both Ann and mine since we
ordered it in Banos, Ecuador. After breakfast we walk back to the hostel and
get all our gear ready to head to Playa Grande, a beach which is on the
neighbouring bay to Taganga, a 30 minute walk away. 30 minute walk in this heat? Yeah right, we
are on holiday, we arn’t going to put ourselves through that, we will take the
easy option and jump on a boat for a 5 minute ride around the bay. Cost of the boat is COP$6,000 (about NZ$4.50)
each for a return trip. Great scenic
trip too. As we round the bay and get
our first glimpse of Playa Grande, we can see that it is a far superior beach
to Taganga, we are pretty happy we experienced the Taganga beach for a couple
of hours yesterday afternoon so we can appreciate this beach more. This beach is clean, the water is clearer and
surprisingly warmer and the beach is surprisingly underutilised, maybe because
there is no road access, or maybe because there is no electricity on the beach
and in the palm thatched restaurants and people don’t want to leave
‘civilisation? I’m not too sure but I wern’t complaining. !
There were still a few people on the beach and street vendors trying to
sell their goods and services, including massages, but overall this beach was
very relaxing. The hills surrounding the
bay were also very nice, they reminded me of the Marlborough Sounds quite a
bit, although the dwellings on the hills were alot different. When we got off the boat we pretty much got
straight in the water, it was bliss! As we were sitting in the shallow water
close to shore Ann was harassed for a few minutes from the masseuse as he was
trying to get her to have a massage with him.
The only English he could speak was “where are you from”, “My massage
oil will make you more black, like me” and “you different colour”. He finally got the hint that Ann wasn’t
interested, it was too relaxing in the water!
Overall we spent about 5 hours at this beach, I estimate I
was in the water for about 4 of those 5 hours.
The water was calm, crystal clear and warm – perfect waterskiing
conditions! When the fifth hour ticked
over (about 4pm) we were forced to leave the beach as our return boat trip was
ready to leave, it was a fantastic day of sun, beach and relaxation.
On our return to Taganga, we head back to the
hostel for a shower, we were covered in sand.
We then went back to the main street and decided to have an early
dinner. We both got a set menu (Ann got
fish, I got chicken) and a cocktail each – we had too since we were on the
Caribbean Coast! After dinner we walked back to the hostel via the local market
to pick up a couple of beers, we hadn’t tried a type of beer called Club
Colombia since we were here and were running out of time to do it, so we
obliged and bought it, took it back to the hostel, drank them as we played a
bit of ping pong, and then called it a night.
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