BEING LATE IN TAGANGA

Since we wanted to visit the Tayrona National Park and hike to Ciudad Perdida we chose Taganga as a base because it's close to both.

Taganga is a small village on the carribean coast. It used to be a fishing village but now there are also a lot of hostels and backpackers. We got there directly from Bogota after a very short stop in Santa Marta and didn't like the town much at the beginning. The bay looked very nice but the beach itself wasn't that great and the village not very clean. A lot of streets were just rocks and trash. But we stayed in a very nice hostel Casa de Felipe up on the hill. The hostel had a very nice, green garden with hammocks and comfy chairs. It was the perfect place to hang out and relax. And it was warm and sunny as well.

For some reason I didn't pack any shorts but definitely needed some for the hike. There was a small store sewing swimsuits and I asked if they could sew shorts for me. The problem was that I needed them within 24 hours (as always, I do everything last minute) and they didn't have fabric for the shorts. But everyone here is very friendly and the husband of the owner drove to Santa Marta (Saturday night at 6pm) to buy the fabric so that I would get my shorts. They told me to come back the next day at 3pm. I did not take 3pm as a sharp appointment. When I walked down to the store around 3.45 pm it was closed. I walked back there at 6 pm but the store was still closed and I decided to walk to town to try to find some shorts in the little stores at the beach. On the way there some people on the street waved at us and called "Hello Claudia". First I was surprised that someone would greet me with my name but than I realized it were the people from the tailor's shop. They were waiting for me at 3pm. Since it was Sunday they wanted to go to the beach in the afternoon and closed the store. They even took the shorts with them to the beach hoping they would see me there. It's unbelievable but I managed to be late in South America. Am I really German??

In the end Taganga become kind of a 'home' and we stayed much longer then expected. People were very friendly and it was nice being greeted by people while walking through town. Since we always went to the same stores and cafes people 'knew' us. It was also great because Antonio and Carlos from the Ciudad Perdida hike live in Taganga and we could always walk by their house for a chat or beer with them. (It was great meeting you guys. Gracias por todo!)